The starting life clause is the whole point: This black board wipe gets turned on very easily in Commander once somebodys been smacked around, although it may be too slow to be useful as a speed bump against aggro decks in the early game
The value here isn't earth shattering, but really solid
While it is not easy to kill it is not out of the question at all to get it dead which is often as much of a scoop for them as it is for you when you can't kill it
WotCs R&D always receives questions about when youre going to complete said cycle. As an example, we can cite the 1-mana tutors that tutor for a card and put it on top, like Vampiric Tutor, Worldly Tutor, Enlightened Tutor, and Mystical Tutor, lacking the red one
This is made all the better by the notion being turned on its head somewhat with the Core Set 2021 printing of Village Rites - and its Kaldheim blood eagle art reprint, while featuring a different context, is no less disturbing in its own way