Since Glen Elendra Archmage is a creature, it's also much easier to retrieve from the graveyard than a typical counterspell, with any creature re-animation effect putting it and its threatening counterspell back into play
Dealing one damage to each opponent each time a creature dies, a card is put into a graveyard from a library, or even when a card leaves your graveyard, Syr Konrad is capable of dealing a great deal of damage over the course of the game, triggering his ability off of numerous instances
Since I'll be referring to the decks by name through the rankings, here are the Commander 2016 deck lists for reference
Green's all about destiny and fulfilling your role in the world
Gisa + Geralf Cards Ghoulcaller Gisa Gisa, Glorious Resurrector Gisa, the Hellraiser Geralf, the Fleshwright Geralf, Visionary Stitcher Stitcher Geralf Gisa and Geralf Gisa and Geralf are characters that are steeped in zombie lore
(For the benefit of the rules lawyers: no, its not clear whether that means Strixhaven has a list of banned spells, or that players incur penalties for spellwork warranting nullification.) Anyway, the reason Mage Tower is here in our article about cuties is that it provides an in-universe role for Strixhavens creature tokens
