This isnt exactly a new mechanic
Once youve taken control of the board, you want to shift from defense to offense quickly
getting in a hit with an annihilator Eldrazi is game-warping enough that losing the clone a turn or two later doesnt matter
There were some fun build around cards in the set, leading to some potential for creativity (at your own risk)
Typically, we see one-mana cantrips being played very often in Modern, Legacy, Historic, and really any format that has a solid density of them, because they're such good velocity tools for finding lands or action when needed
Only printed once before in the first Modern Horizons , its crept up to $18 in the intervening years and was starting to need a substantial reprint