Individually these effects are marginal: but combined they form a card that was so good, many non-red blue base decks started playing red just to get it (plus Flametongue Kavu, to be perfectly fair)
I don't know why you would do that, given how Ravages of War only appeared in Portal Three Kingdoms, making it an extremely rare, expensive card
Your opponent says, "I attack." You say, "Gotcha!" ( I is a homophone of eye ) NO GOOD
On top of that, because its only a 2/2 at a baseline, you wont always be able to attack and get a life buffer if the opponent has any burly creature in the way
Exiling creatures to make 4/4 zombies is already strong, but it gets better when combined with mill engines like Lord Xander, the Collector or Phenax, God of Deception
For collectors seeking top condition, PSA 10 copies are achieving prices of around 125145