Dark Ritual Generating 3 mana for the cost of 1 seems innocuous at first, and Dark Ritual is card disadvantage
As a one-drop, the Vinelasher starts dealing damage as quickly as possible, and in multiples, this can be a real pain, especially if you're able to start putting multiple lands into play each turn
Until then, he keeps himself protected with more removal and countermagic than you can shake a stick at
It was banned, and while there were a lot of debates about what cards did and did not deserve their fates this was never one of them
In addition to the 20 Jaya Ballard, Task Mages I grabbed at $0.45 each, I picked up a played Collectors Edition Volcanic Island
Moving away from that immediately creates some confusion, on both a mechanical level and an aesthetic one