Persian's role in these games is often associated with antagonistic characters, most notably as the favored Pokmon of Team Rocket's boss, Giovanni
Altar of Bhaal is quite nice even without the attached Adventure, simply because getting to reanimate a creature from your graveyard during your turn is excellent even outside of Reanimator strategies, assuming youre playing creatures youd want to get back from your graveyard
This created destructive strategies where players could infinitely reuse powerful item cards, heal their Pokmon completely, and eliminate any strategic consequence of aggressive self-milling
Naya also gives Hazezon, Shaper of Sand access to some of the best land removal in the format, including Raze, Decimate, and Cataclysm
The delayed triggered ability that makes you sacrifice the creatures will trigger only once