Laelia, the Blade Reforged Laelia, the Blade Reforged draws so many cards, and you can do a neat trick with Laelia's exile payoff and cascade cardsa little rules quirk makes each card you reveal when cascading (or discovering) a unique event, so Laelia gets a counter for each card you go through
Its very likely that excitement for this cards competitive viability is helping drive this cards value in addition to a general excitement for Gargoyles in general
When looking at any product, it's important to consider what it could have been, but also judge it based on what it is
These cards came in sealed black envelopes and were handed out randomly to guests attending MagicCons (and one outlier, Gen Con)
Instant Color tag templates(None) Force of Will You may pay 1 life and exile a blue card from your hand rather than pay this spell's mana cost
As such, that entire period of the game became known as "Necro Summer," where all Competitive decks were using Necropotence or were specifically designed to counter it