This was due to Ryu Kokki being particularly powerful against decks that focused on warriors, a deck type that rose to the top of the meta after the September 2005 Forbidden/Limited List made the more generic Goat Control and Chaos decks of the past year less playable
The first incarnation not to have a single-word name, this one is unfortunately not very good, which fits with a lot of the creatures from that time in Magic
I figured he would be alright, but I found that he did better than that in the aggressive decks he fit into, providing a surprisingly decent threat at 5 mana to alpha strike out of nowhere
Additionally, the ability to prevent non-flyers from blocking for a turn is a sneaky way to swing at someone for lethal damage by taking blockers out of play
Card Kingdom is sold out of those, however, so youll have to buy your copy elsewhere