cards like hatred mtg Lagomos, Hand of [205] [Dominaria United] [Foil] – Face to Face Games to Gerrard Demon of Loathing — Game

With a ward effect with a cost of two life, you can be sure your opponents will always be paying life, whether it be through combat or that ward effect

You can pay additional costs such as kicker costs

Sure, Populate was fine in Standard - this article from 2013 is a nice snapshot of the kinds of things I was doing with Voice of Resurgence at the time, and Ryan did a lot of work with the build

Rite of Belzenlock 4 This is five bodies in one card for a mere four mana

Fortunately, they turned out to be a lot of fun to play with, often adding an extra layer to the gameplay as players tried to meet their cards' transformation requirements

Your Burnished Harts will fetch you four lands, your Mindslavers will let you control two different opponents and your Time Sieves will give you two additional turns