There are apparently over 100 Legendary creatures in the MTG Final Fantasy set (Commander players, get ready to do some deck-building) and 55 of them are set to get special borderless character cards with backgrounds that illustrate their first appearances in the series
There arent a lot of artifacts left in the format, but those that are still around might see more play now that Abrade isnt around
The combination of useful upfront from the five life it gives you and the ability to generate advantage over time is actually kind of a nice package, particularly if you can play a single copy (whether maindeck or sideboard) to tutor up with Priest of the Wakening Sun or look for with Commune with Dinosaurs
Sure, Populate was fine in Standard - this article from 2013 is a nice snapshot of the kinds of things I was doing with Voice of Resurgence at the time, and Ryan did a lot of work with the build
There are board wipes and single-target removal spells aplenty, there are Fog effects, and there are solitaire-style combo wins all make combat much more difficult to pull off