Back in Alpha, there was a well-known cycle of instants with a casting cost of one and they all gave you three point of something. Healing Salve
is much derided (rightly so) as being very weak, while Giant Growth
still sees some constructed play when legal in Standard, Dark Ritual
is now way too powerful to see its way back into Standard (the effect is now in red, pulled back into sorcery territory and the rate you get is much worse), and Lightning Strike
is a cornerstone of the format in both Modern and Legacy. These were all common. And then there was Ancestral Recall
. One mana, draw three cards. Jury is still out on whether Recall or the iconic Black Lotus
is the most powerful card in the game. Recall was also (rightfully) rare.
Since then drawing spells have been nerfed. Recall just went into every deck that could possibly play it. If a deck couldn’t play it, you were probably doing something wrong. Since then things have become more complicated.