Blood Tokens are artifacts that for one-generic mana, can be tapped and sacrificed to discard a card and then draw one back giving a madness opportunity and extra card advantage for one mana
Etched Slith Etched Slith gets stronger whenever it connects, and each time it does, you can also remove a counter from something else
There are also specific payoffs for drawing your second card and WotC experimented with payoffs for drawing your third card each turn
Monastery Swiftspear Soul-Scar Mage Seal of Fire Lava Dart Mutagenic Growth / Gut Shot Firebrand Archer Thermo-Alchemist Insult / Injury Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh Fireblast Chandra is well worth it in this list likely over the mighty Sulfuric Vortex
We are far from a village or town here
What's really amazing is that this came out when Duelist Magazine was a thing, and we actually do have a fair amount of insight into what were they thinking? And apparently the Homelands designers thought they were writing Lord of the Fucking Rings and had weird visions of a deep strategic game