History Early reprint policy Before the establishment of the Reserved List, Wizards attempted to maintain collector value by using the card's border color to differentiate between original printings and reprints
Wizards finally reverted the card to its printed (and broken) text just prior to its banning in Commander
Plus, you get to play cards without paying their mana cost - omniscience style (once per turn, mind you)
The token type is ideal for this as well
Besides Thoughtseize not being in the format anymore, theres plenty of support for the deck this time too- and getting to drain your opponent for 6-8 life per Merchant is not that uncommon at all
Each one, at least from what we've seen, looks more like something produced by a printer that's run out of coloured ink, instead of a card that's been designed to be in monochrome