The Cornwall

Combat Research is an uncommon from Dominaria United.

This is basically an improved Curiosity. It keeps from triggering off of noncombat damage(not that too many creatures can ping nowadays) and also has an upside if the recipient is legendary, of which there were quite a few in United. The buff both protects the creature and makes it a bit easier for it to get in.

Reckless Pyrosurfer is an uncommon from Modern Horizons 3.

This guy's weird, you can use the haste or the landfall on turn two, but not both. Rare that we see anti-synergistic mechanics on a card these days. That said, the card itself is quite good, Battle Cry is very effective in an aggro limited deck. And I do love the image of a dude surfing on lava.

Ryusei, the Falling Star is a rare from Champions of Kamigawa, seen here in its Modern Masters printing.

The cycle of spirit dragons was a highlight of Kamigawa block. Made to be big, splashy, impressive rares which did something cool when they died(this was the beginning of WotC realising that creatures that just showed up to die to removal with no other effect were a bad deal). Ryusei still has that whole "red mass damage not hitting fliers" thing, possibly to help facilitate some kind of dragon typal deck.

Fun fact: Ryusei and Keiga, the blue member of this cycle are the easiest to cast, colour-wise, since red gets big dragons and blue gets big fliers. The green member of the cycle is the hardest, and requires three coloured pips.

I like that they were spirit dragons to differentiate the Eastern-style dragons from the kind normally seen in Magic. I wonder if we'll see that in a China-based setting in the future also. I also like that the word for dragon in Japanese, "Ryu", is even in this guy's name.

Elvish Fury is a common from Tempest, seen here in its Modern Horizons printing.

Well, another Buyback card I don't like, as I have been clear on hating that whole mechanic. This one even gets kinda worse after the first cast, no longer having the surprise value, but adding extra math to be remembered as an on-board trick for the rest of the game. Let the good times roll!

Frantic Inventory is a common from Magic 2021.

This is a sort of card that got seen a lot in Odyssey block: one where it likes to count the number of this card in your graveyard. For reference, this is before the spell goes to the graveyard, so the number bottoms out at 0, not 1.

This seems relatively easy to get to be a cheap instant Divination, though I guess spending 2 mana at some point without really doing anything IS a bit of a cost. That said, a nice "draft all of me" card for limited to get new players into card draw.

The Beamtown Bullies is a rare from some commander thing,

So, Blitz was a keyword from New Capenna, where this card is set, which let you play a creature for cheap with haste, and draw a card when it dies, at the cost of it being sacrificed at the end of turn. This cardobviously tries to play around with this mechanic by getting your creatures back. But instead your opponents get them, and they're goaded, which is a little more complex but does at least have some multiplayer shenanigans which can result.

You can also use it to give creatures with downside to your opponents. In theory, a Jund self-mill or discard deck with a bunch of downside creatures which gives them to your opponents would be pretty neat. Probably not enough in those colours to fill a 99 card deck, but it CAN fit a regular magic deck with 4-ofs, so there's that.

Angelic Field Marshal is a rare from some commander thing.

So, this is a commander product which gets better when you have your commander. Two problems: One: when in commander do you NOT have your commander? It's annoyingly impossible to permanently remove a commander in that format.

Two: This overspecialises the card even more than commander cards are, being nothing but a french vanilla 3/3 flier for 4 outside the format. I know it's being made for commander, but one of the great things about Magic is how its pieces can come together in so many interesting ways. Most commander cards, when not just generically overpowered, tend towards being better in a format with lots of opponents, or lots of mana, or something commandery, without having to name-drop the format. I really don't think these one-format-only mechanics should really exist.

Who's the geist who won't cop out, when there's removal all about?

TRAFT!

You're damn right.

Geist of Saint Traft is a mythic rare from Innistrad, seen here in its Duel Decks: Blessed vs Cursed printing. Looking like he died a great deal YOUNGER in fact.

This is one of the first cards with hexproof after they replaced shroud with it and it showed off a good way to be completely unbalanced and unfun. Unlike the Invisible Stalker, who couldn't be blocked, the Geist was just straight up too good value, being able to pick up an overpowered sword and then just charge in, and on the off chance it was killed somehow, you still eat 4 to the face from a temporary 4/4. And if not, you just kind of lose, since it's doing so much damage. Didn't help that the swords it was paired with got you value for hitting the opponent as well, so the boot was REALLY in if you managed to hit an opponent before their board was ready. Pretty sure it was part of the Caw Blade decks before they decided to go full bird and tutor for their creatures. This guy just goes to show how important interaction is to the game and how many of the overpowered pieces of cardboard they print are only balanced due to kill spells existing.