The 3-cost Artifact Ashnod's Altar, which lets you sacrifice a creature to farm mana, is represented by Sir Bedivere's Scales - a device for identifying and condemning witches which was the height of medieval English science (or, at least, more effective than checking for warty noses)
If you havent tried Jeskas Will yet, then give it a go
Starting life as a 3/3 means Baron Helmut Zemo can get pretty intimidating very quickly even without activating Boast, but the Conniving can be strategically done to load your graveyard and activate Boast much quicker
Times have changed and all the information you need is at your fingertips
(Phyrexian white can be paid with either 1 white mana or 2 life.) Mondrak is essentially an Anointed Procession built on to a creature
Meanwhile, Up The Beanstalk was deemed too efficient a card-draw option, and it doesn't help that players don't have to pay 5 mana when they're using the Evoke elementals (at least Fury is gone now)