Wizards of the Coast just couldnt stop creating extremely powerful artifacts during the Urzas block, a fact that led to a complete overhaul to the companys R&D processes
The player skips each instance of the chosen step or phase this turn. This is a good way to make sure that people can either attack or cast spells in most cases, and it doesnt even impact you at all
That double-faced card text is a sign that it was a common in a set full of battles and dual-sided cards that represented compleated citizens of the multiverse
You can pull off those counters for three cards, and if you managed to give it another counter, then you can keep it around (although I think it's better when you kill it)
It allows players to draw tons of cards and deal lots of damage, and on top of that, it's hard to kill, which makes it tough to beat
It also represents the first time that the region of Sinnoh became a permanent addition to the TCGs normal card pool, after the EX series concluded