The commander, Eshki, Temurs Roar, rewards you for playing cards with power 4 or greater, the classic Ferocious mechanic
I think she does enough to get into the lower bomb range, especially because even if you dont have a deck with a critical mass of ETB triggers, the addition of shutting down opposing triggers makes it more likely she has a real effect in addition to the statline Her static ability alone does a pretty good job of protecting her, as taking down a walker with a single creature attacking at a time is quite the challenge, but her other abilities are also really good and make it challenging to ever take her down
Wizards brought in pros to help them test Modern Horizons 2, and Brad Nelson put in a lot of work to help Merfolk out with a trio of incredible new cards
The upsides are that you wont shuffle in land cards, and you gain life from this interaction
Even if a player enjoys a lesser-known TCG, if they cant play it anywhere, its probably not worth investing too heavily in