Decks that want to play counters are almost always control decks, and control decks would much prefer to gain life rather than cause opponents to lose life, so all things being equal they would have preferred to play with Absorb but there were other considerations that forced most of them down the black road instead
Each then grant an ability to all Golems you control
Lately, there have not been a lot of direct healing cards released
Whenever you cast a creature spell, Animar will get a +1/+1 counter and will discount all creatures by one generic mana for each counter Animar, Soul Of Elements has
One of the best sets to do that with is Outlaws of Thunder Junction There are a number of things that makes Outlaws so great for new players: It has 51 Legendary Creatures across a range of colors and themes, from straightforward builds like The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride (which asks you to saddle with big creatures), to more complex builds like Taii Wakeen, a red and white trickshot deck that draws cards for dealing precise amounts of damage