Even infect with Phyresis
Compared to certain generic mechanics like raid, populate is very restrictive where its good
Our Dire dragon works best in multiplayer when we can use political plays to remove unwanted permanents from your opponents boards with the sly assurance that they might get something cool instead
So, granting a character Ward and Evasive on top of other character abilities like Resist could create a really sticky situation for your opponent
Ive always liked the idea of supplemental set reprints that can come close enough to replicating the effects of cards like Lions Eye Diamond and City of Traitors without stepping on the letter of the Reserved List, though theyd probably have to be coupled with a wink-wink ban on the actual cards or else decks like Eldrazi Stompy would simply run four copies of City of Traitors in addition to four copies of Town of Traitors or whatever
Theres a lot of established heuristics on this subject, and a few points I can toss in to help you construct an optimal mana base for Standard, Modern, Pioneer, or whatever MTG format you prefer