Decks in these formats used fast mana like rituals and Ancient Tomb to get an early initiative permanent into play and start reaping the card advantage from the beginning of the game
They're not quite the kings of durdle, but they're close
The mana investment was high, but you were essentially getting an army in a can
Its a great way to immediately bring yourself up to speed and Amber & Emerald does so in a way thats slightly friendlier than the other Into the Inklands starter deck
As we often say in Magic , your life total is a resource and ending a game on next to zero life is the same as winning it at 100 but I do believe that casual Commander players are concentrating on the transactional nature of life totals in predominantly one direction
We're slowly but surely seeing a shift in precons adding more and more untapped duals: we've got filter lands like Cascade Bluffs, some reveal lands like Choked Estuary which while not amazing are still better than any tapped dual, and battlelands like Sunken Hollow