And since this is the most popular Tarkir Dragonstorm commander from the set's Commander precon decks, it's obviously pulled a ton of copies of Ripples of Undeath out of circulation as people look for upgrades
Cut a lot of the high cmc cards, tossed in a little more interaction, looting, draw
The option to also pay life to get a few extra cards is a huge boon, but just being able to control your draw steps as you go is so good for strategising
Then, when you ping the opponent, as long as Ballista has enough counters to survive, youll gain a life, triggering The Destined White Mage to put another +1/+1 counter on Ballista
It's able to deal well with beatdown or aggro decks thanks to all that lifegain, and can suddenly pull off a win out of nowhere