You dont have to attend each week or each round
Its great out of the sideboard though, accelerating out whatever big threats you can find
The pre-rotation Standard leaders (Amber/Steel, Amethyst/Sapphire, Amber/Emerald) mostly used Set 9-12 cards and survived the July 17 rotation cleanly
Theyll cast powerful spells, call upon classic summons, and even visit their favorite locations on the back of a Chocobo
You could also use them for showing buffs or debuffs for Lore, Strength, Willpower e.t.c Just be careful to make it obvious what each token means
But then you can launch creature after creature out of your yard like a missile silo all lifelinking, all generating ETB triggers and life-swings through combat You can see why a lot of Standard decks at the time decided to join the Whip crowd instead of beating it