Its status as one of the lowest mana value cards on the list also means you can get it out early, putting up the barricade and setting up your engine before many players will be able to rival it
For learning about MTG oddities and rarities check out: A note on nomenclature from the creator of this website Over the course of collecting Magic the Gathering misprints I have found there to be a wide range in the words used to describe errors and their perceived names
Cascade had been a powerful deck archetype in Modern for over a decade at that point, with players using three-mana Cascade cards like Violent Outburst and Ardent Plea to cast Living End and Crashing Footfalls for free
It gets better the more freedom you have to cast and attack with your commander, and if you have a good start on ticking up your opponents poison counters
After all, it introduced the Fusion Strike battle style that shook the meta and gave players more creative ways to approach deck building and competitive play
Ive seen people try to make Risk Factor work in EDH a few times before, and in reality it almost never draws you any cards because 4 life can be too insignificant