Modally, it can basically remove a blocker, protect your guy from a wrath youre about to play, or at instant speed, become a combat trick that also ramps you
It's important to calculate the mean when talking about cards on average, as you only get to go first about half of the time
Using Overdrive Smash, which costs two energy, on repeated turns, doubles the damage from 60 to 120, which can then be increased by a further 50 by playing Cynthia for a total of 170 damage
Instead of banning Vein Ripper, the card that caused the rise of Rakdos Vampires, Wizards of the Coast decided to ban Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord, because the cards existence makes any massive top-end Vampire printed in the future a threat to the Pioneer format