Cards that require costs include not only those that affect spell casting like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben or Sphere of Resistance, but also The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale (a land with a long name) which requires maintenance costs for creatures, the artifact version of Mana Breach, and the activation cost version of Suppression Field
I mean, Place of Solitude is a 3 cost location that essentially "freezes" an opposing character in place for as long as the location is around
By the way, both Bears go to the graveyard, Rancor follows them right after that, and then Rancors third ability is a triggered ability
The flexibility of game plans turned out to not be impactful enough to stick to it
You can see how powerful and iconic Konda was way back then, and still rocks today