In the right deck (read: deck with a lot of swamps or swamp-cards), it can excel
Reflect shield allows all damage to be negated with a simple flip of the coin
Earthbend : a way to fight using the actual land itself, the element of substance
A fun gimmick based off of the "Golden Axe or Silver Axe?" story
Decks were sporting "pure burn", essentially: four Lightning Bolt, four Incinerate, four Fireblast, which made it very easy for the red player to deal twenty damage to their opponents, or in today's colloquial, it "increased the reach" of the red player
These "symmetrical" artifacts impact the board equally, but Urza's ability to tap artifacts at instant speed gives you a way to break that symmetry to make sure that you will be the only player at the table actually casting spells