With three toughness and the ability to grow later in the game for essentially no cost, it has a lot to offer for a common no other deck is interested in
Given the randomness of the boosters in each pre-release as well as the the structure of the tournament, Pre-Releases are pretty casual events which make them great for FF fans coming to Magic for the collaboration
When we mixed ruby and amethyst for example, the deck felt much stronger compared to the other combinations
Or do what an increasing number of people do, and build an MTG Commander deck - it's a lot less painful to buy that mythic rare when you only need one copy.
Set Championship events are a step-up in competitive play from regularly weekly events
Notably, this card was reprinted rather recently in a Secret Lair, and that variant is currently the most expensive version of the card by a decent margin