Poison decks tend to incite a lot of hate from other players since it puts them on a deadline, and removing poison counters is all but impossible outside of a few niche cards
He figured that rarity would be a balancing factor because if you only buy a few packs and get cards through ante and a few trades, how can you get more than one, maybe two of any rare
Jedit Ojanen, Mercenary Strange to see a card that spits out forestwalkers, but I guess Jedit Ojanen, Mercenary pays homage to the other Jedit Ojanens in Magic
A 9/9 trampler isn't anything to scoff at either
Numa can lead a mono-green Elf deck that distributes +1/+1 counters among any number of Elves, and it has partner, so it can team up with Miara, Thorn of the Glade to add black mana, if the player so wishes
I also have to give a shout-out to the flavor text on each version of the card, offering different takes on the way that this spell tends to play out when cast