I'm surprised we've not got the Gunblade from Final Fantasy 8, but the Buster Blade being reimagined as an Umezawa's Jitte is still excellent
Intermediate Counter Burn - how it looked a year ish ago after M12 hit 24 Spells Lightening Bolt Burst Lightening Ancestral Visions Spell Pierce Remand Fire / Ice Arc Trail Arcane Denial Counterspell Lat-Nam's Legacy Chandra's Phoenix Vendilion Clique Manic Vandal Sea Gate Oracle Jace, the Mind Sculptor Chandra, the Fireheart Cryptic Command Time Warp Treachery Force of Will Inferno Titan Wurmcoil Engine Consecrated Sphinx Rolling Earthquake 16 Lands Izzet Boilerworks Volcanic Island Steam Vents Scalding Tarn Shivan Reef Cascade Bluffs Faerie Conclave 3 Mountains 6 Islands Counter burn had risen to the best control deck and arguably the best archetype in my cube and then they went and released Innistrad block which is probably the single biggest block in terms of contributing power cards to the archetype
Skyshroud Claim is generally the best since it puts lands into play untapped, but the others have advantages depending on your strategy
Sure, giving your creatures +1/+1 is good, and can certainly help push some bonus damage, but it might not be enough to overcome an established board
Black decks like to make burst-mana and to keep their hands topped up
Honestly, it was one of the last cards I threw in out of some thought that I had a few ways to make a lot of colorless mana but wanted some way to convert that mana into green or black
