Edric, Spymaster of Trest Edric, Spymaster of Trest leverages blues many unblockable creatures, like Mist-Cloaked Herald and Slither Blade, to slip through your opponents defenses and rip through the deck to chain together extra turn spells, and eventually conclude the game with a Beastmaster Ascension or something
While this will cost you cards from your hand, the extra cards you draw from your Leader effect should be enough to let you pull ahead of your opponent
Back in 2008 we had another tournament staple Green three-drop in Knight of the Reliquary, which I believe is far more "epic" than Deathmist Raptor could ever hope to be
Trample Ward (Whenever this creature becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, counter it unless that player pays .) Creature - Hydra Color tag templates(None) Ochre Jelly Trample This creature enters with X +1/+1 counters on it
It does tend to have less creative interactions, and up until this point you cant ever have split cards and other variants without the half at least being a non-permanent spell
What's even better is that whenever this ability triggers, you place a +1/+1 counter on each plant creature you control