Some would also argue that a good token commander can always get by without the ability to generate tokens if it has a strong enough payoff like Purphoros, God of the Forge, and theres plenty of evidence that aligns with that school of thought
If you're against a Combo deck you'd much rather have a Three Steps Ahead than a Torch the Tower
He'd been trying to take advantage of Master of Cruelties, a card that had captured the imaginations of more than a few readers, and realized that Master of Cruelties doesn't actually need power to reduce an opponent to 1 life (although it's certainly worse against creatures if it doesn't have any), so he could use Heartless Summoning to play Master of Cruelties, since he was planning to make it unblockable with Rogue's Passage anyway
The rest of its abilitiescounters, lifegain, card draw, and reanimationmake it a Swiss Army knife for any 5-color deck
The Pokmon Online TCG is going through and complete boom period at the moment, arguable the biggest and most lasting its ever experienced