Chain to the Rocks is quite a good removal spell but it isn't good enough to make up for how narrow it is
As anyone that was active on the playgrounds during this time frame can attest, everything from Pocket Monster video games to school supplies were scattered about as far as the eye could see but no products were as prominent as the trading card game
It works with charge counters, +1/+1 counters, planeswalkers, even sagas
Theyre cheap, easy to make, and let you try strategies you might not attempt otherwise
You might snag either cards you dont own or duplicates, but luckily you can trade several duplicates in for some cool cosmetic effects, so they arent wasted
Allosaurus Shepherd provides insurance against counterspells for all of our spells (even cards like Collected Company or Green Suns Zenith) while also giving us an alternate win-con by mounting all our elves onto dinosaurs and mauling our opponent