how to tell if mtg card is alpha All About Clipped Beta vs. Alpha: A

Desecrate Reality

For Affinity, it was equipment, highlighted by Skullclamp and Cranial Plating (which wasn't itself banned but certainly helped create the insane Affinity decks that led to mass bannings)

The kicker cost looks weird, but bouncing a land can often be advantageous, as it lets you guarantee a landfall trigger for the turn in addition to buffing the spells damage

Painful Truths 2B Sorcery Converge Draw X cards and lose X life, where X is the number of colors of mana spent to cast Painful Truths

Because Tannuk grants Haste, he ends up looking very similar to Henzie

Umezawas Jitte Umezawas Jitte is a fundamentally broken and unfair Magic card