Its companion restriction reshaped deckbuilding across formats to the point where its influence eventually led to bans in competitive environments like Modern and Pioneer
Artifact and enchantment interaction, card draw, and in-game politics are all present here, for a relatively low mana cost
White historically struggles with ramp compared to green, making Smothering Tithe a format-defining addition that gives the color competitive mana acceleration while maintaining whites taxing philosophy
We'd yet to reach the wildly impactful 2019-2020 era of design, and as such Snapcaster was one of the most played cards of the time
Weatherlight was also the last set to use banding, a mechanic created in Alpha, because it was deemed too confusing
I also defaulted to Mana rocks over ramps like Rampant Growth (even though I think Ramps are more powerful) because I wanted to be tutor free