We lean on artifacts to shore us up and to flesh out our decks
That creature is then free to block another creature or to not block at all
There are still some doubters, of course, including those that don't rate CGC's credentials as a certified grading company, but that doesn't really matter if the sale is legitimate
This can be used politically to allow you to get away with playing a powerful creature or asking for a favour from an opponent
Going wide is a good plan against decks with a lot of spot removal and not a lot of mass removal, and decks like Mono-Green Aggro dont actually play removal, which can let your synergies work unopposed
18 Lands So if 16 lands is the energetic little brother of 17 lands, I guess that makes 18 lands the stoic, always reliable eldest of the trio