They serve to give your side of the board tempo by allowing your creatures to attack (removing defenders), giving you more time to set up the board (removing attackers/expensive creatures), and allow for combat tricks (saving your creatures after damage is on the stack
Despark 5/10 The Disdainful Stroke of the removal world
Cards like Aetherworks Marvel are a great payoff, letting you cheat out cards from the top of your library for six energy counters, while Gonti's Aether Heart can grow your count more and give you an extra turn
How many times has the table turned on you, convinced youre the arch enemy
reverses sheets)
You can search by specific card, for example, if we want to look for things to do with Mindslaver or if you're really devilish, you can search by combo type, such as Gain control of all of target player's turns. Highly recommended