Why is this a continuous artifact? Those haven't existed in two decades

Why not?

Because they suck. It's confusing extra text for no real gain

Eh, I think that's true here, where the drawback is so minimal, but it is interesting in decks that can tap cards to shut them on or off at will, if the base effect is interesting enough.

I'm sure printing one or two cards with the old text for nostalgia reason is gain enough. Especially if the card itself is easy to understand.

You vastly overestimate the number of people who would find this nostalgic. It's way fewer than the number of people who would be utterly confused by what it means, and assume you can just tap it whenever you want

It could appear in a Masters set or Commander or something, but I doubt it would be seen in standard.

I don't particularly mind it in principle. But here it doesn't seem to be pulling its weight.

Perhaps if it did something different if it was tapped, that would make it more of an interesting piece?

@dude: I think you underestimate the impact that a single throwback card can have for the people who like it in a set of some 300 other cards.

But I'll concede that the ability shouldn't be on a common. True enough.

I play an Urza deck, so that is why I want a couple cards like this to exist.