You can play it in lifegain decks in Modern too
CARD IMAGE GALLERY See this powerful set in all of its glory with this card-by-card guide
It was actually downgraded from a rare into a common, which is both a sign of how it is not very playable and how the mechanic has become ubiquitous enough to be at common
You always start the game with your combo piece in hand, and the format has so many threats to cheat in besides the Ripper: Patron of the Vein, Markov Enforcer, and Crossway Troublemakers are just a few of the big vamps that this Rakdos commander puts into play unreasonably early
While Dihada, Binder of Wills feels quite powerful in her own right, I prefer the design space of this card
Foils are hard because of the additional foil layer, an alpha cards because of partly the round corners, and partly because anyone who buys a high end alpha rare for a thousand dollars will test it