Ophidian was played at the kitchen table as a four-of and people would attack each other with agreements to "not block" so they could each draw cards from the other
Outside of cards like Sunfall or Farewell, its hard to deal with this white creature in a clean way
Imagine what Vintage would be like if the moxen cost 1 mana apiece, or Lotus Petal, or Lions Eye Diamond
Vintage kept its restricted list, because some people wanted to play with powerful cards (and also because Type 1.5, aka legacy had started to take root, which, at the time, was just vintage with the restricted list renamed "banned list"), but in standard, you already couldn't play with all your cards, so there really wasn't any good reason to keep a restricted list
Phyrexia: All Will Be One releases February 10 and will be available at your local game store, online through Amazon, and elsewhere Magic is sold
What are the Power Nine in MTG