The illusion ability has echoes of offspring, which probably isnt completely intentional, but still pretty great from a flavor perspective (as well as a deckbuilding perspective if you want to create plenty of ETB abilities or plan on going wide)
Almost every other kind of interaction in Magic encourages you to think in terms of lining up specific threats with effective answers
Zur, Eternal Schemer is certainly no Zur the Enchanter, but it brings a fresh look while maintain the original aspect of the card
But many staple Magic cards that arent on the reserved list are still outside the price point of the average player
While I'm not expecting to flood the board with tokens, I do have 40 creatures, not including my commander
Given that Bismuth Mindrender has Menace, the chances of it dealing combat damage to a player are high, especially if the defending player barely has any creatures to block with