When 70% of instants and sorceries in my cube are 1 or 2 mana and the average CMC of such cards is about 2.5 (realistically a lot lower as so many of the high cost cards have delve or pitch and alternate costs) you start to appreciate how good four mana and higher spells must be
You ignore these targeting requirements if the gifts aren't promised for those spells
Finally, once three counters have been stacked up, it gains +3/+0, making it into a viable attacker that still gets to eat cards from graveyards when it attacks
Trample lets it run over smaller blockers
The first Magic cards were printed exclusively in English, but current sets are also printed in Traditional Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, and Spanish
Ray of Command's flavor text was so well liked that when Visions had a similar stumper with Magma Mine, they decided on a similar solution with the explosive "BOOM!" It was off to the races from there