For the entirety of my Magic-playing career, I had to content myself with stories from older players about the halcyon days of massive stacks of countermagic in Psychatog mirrors, Fact or Fiction as the unbeatable bait spell in combo decks, and how it (alongside Flametongue Kavu) defined a generation of value-oriented Magic
Compare it with Astrologian's Planisphere: If you kill the creature wielding the Planisphere, the creature's +1/+1 counters go pooff! But if you kill the creature wielding the Scythe, the Scythe keeps its soul counters and buffs the next creature you re-equip it to
In grindy matchups, it provides extra redundancy by sacrificing to tutor for Superior Spider-Man
As with many cards, I love playing it, but I hated having it played against me, and in mill mirrors, my opponents always seem to draw all their Drowned Secrets immediately while mine get milled away
This simple design is far less glamorous than the Brilliant Stars version, but the simplistic background works equally well
In the example with Coram, ramp is somewhat important because getting Coram out early is important and the curve is high