To put it in perspective: if you combined the total graded populations of every card ranked second through fifth on this list, the sum would still not match this single Pikachu
Part of a cycle that features the almost-as-broken Gaea's Cradle and somehow the hilariously unbroken Shivan Gorge, Tolarian Academy taps to make a mana for each artifact you control, which led to decks that would dump their entire hand of cheap artifacts, make a ton of mana by tapping and maybe untapping Tolarian Academy, and then use big card-draw spells like Windfall and Stroke of Genius to refill before eventually milling the opponent out with Stroke of Genius, potentially all on Turn 1
On top of that, the sorcery speed nature of his ability means that we have to over-commit to his search ability compared to the more reactive nature of Elvish Reclaimers ability
Theres no colored icon to check
I'm not trying to support some delusional "golden age of Magic " that clearly never existed
For a card as nice and striking as this one, thats honestly a pretty good deal
