Sacrifice a Food: Until end of turn, target creature you control assigns combat damage equal to its toughness rather than its power
There were other card options, and they went out of their way to pick lower power alternatives
Enough of the quality life gain is artifact based and so mages off all colour can usually find an appropriate card or two so as to sure up their agro match ups
Fire / Ice 8 Just top quality versatile filler
Phyrexian Crusader has infect and first strike and proc red and proc white, while the Phyrexian Hydra just needs trample to be a house and, finally, Reaper of Sheoldred fits like it was made for this deck, simply because it does the infect thing and it also has a poison counter tax effect for attacking opponents and as a 2/5 body it can take a bit of damage and then grin as it dishes out some poison counters for you to proliferate
This story-driven angle makes the cards artwork particularly cool , significantly raising its collectible appeal