It remains popular today because of its great flexibility
Many don't know, but when Magic started, each player exiled the top of their deck and whoever won the match, would get the cards that were exiled to themselves
The second ability will -3 to place a trio of +1/+1 counters onto up to three dorks that will also get vigilance for the turn, which is great in multiplayer so you can swing and keep the defenses
Not every deck has to include the Prized Amalgam package, but not only is this combo fun, it's also very difficult to answer once it gets rolling
This is because if youre in Blue-White in Foundations , you dont really have to go out of your way to end up in a deck with a bunch of fliers
Wizards Retort fills out the trio of conditional counterspells we can choose between, but it requires you play Merfolk Trickster in order to have enough Wizards to enable it and Im unwilling to do that presently