It was arguably the most impactful legendary creature in multiplayer and casual after Akroma was printed, and dominated casual play, as well it's various tag team partners
This way, at least players know what they could get going in
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben slows your development, but youll eventually draw lands and play around it unless youre playing Storm
Genesis Wave wants to be in decks with high cmc permanents: for example, you can add this to a sweet Spellslinger deck with Riku of two Reflections and cheat out some big things like Swarm Intelligence
[VII] By some, the fad was referred to as "Pokmania", [VIII] including journalists of Time [33] and USA Today
You would be silly to take it out of its frame as the slightest scratch would drop its value, but we can only imagine what these feel like in the hand