As a standalone board wipe in Standard, Ultima might be a lot better than it looks
I ask Ethan Fleischer how all that experience informed how the team approached this set
It does help you survive damage, and it was probably annoying back in the day, but the downside of losing your life when it dies is just too much
It needed to be something you "solved." Cases are essentially a task of the detective, and to capture the feel, we wanted you, the player, to have to achieve something
We normally expect MTG sets to at least make it into shops before we start to feel their impact on Magic the Gathering's secondary market
Commander players love this sort of effect everything on Halo Fountain is not only upside, but the activation costs (untapping creatures you control) is also upside in most cases