Trust me when I say free is the best possible cost for a counterspell life is so much easier when you can safely spend all your mana to advance your position
The hit all copies effect is rarely of relevance in the cube and doesn't feel like card advantage even when hitting multiple tokens
Many of these decks held up the opponent with counterspells or creature bouncing until that one combo could be played
Final Fantasy 8 includes an optional boss battle against a massive version of the lil guys called Jumbo Cactuar, a kaiju fight against a towering, sassy succulent who counters attacks with a devastating ranged attack called 10,000 Needles
Here are a few mechanical examples of why the gameplay is so good: Madness rewards you for discarding cards, and Blood tokens enable discarding cards
Magda decks will want to include low mana-value dwarves to help fuel this commanders ability, as well as some high-powered dragons or artifacts to search for