Parting Thoughts isnt efficient at any one thing you want to do, but it has enough options to be worth a deck slot
These factors do still apply to modern Pokmon cards, just on a smaller scale (look up the price of an Umbreon VMAX, for example)
Then, of course, you'll get a couple other goodies, like a spindown life counter to keep track of your life total
Your opponent does get a lot more control over what they sacrifice (usually)
At a CMC of 4, Bloodbraid Elf allowed Jund to cascade into basically any card in its deck
Despite having almost zero working knowledge of The Lord of the Rings, Im already on board for Magic: The Gatherings big crossover set, Tales of Middle-earth