Cards like The Queen, Commanding Presence and Gaston, Intellectual Powerhouse are about as tricky as things get, but they simply do what they say on the card and get players used to the powerful (at least in my eyes) shift mechanic, which is a cost reduction method
Then you can +1 him to make your dork unblockable and then also draw and discard
Kaalia lets her controller cheat on mana and get those creatures into play as early as Turn 4 (without ramp and with a Haste provider, like Lightning Greaves) and even sooner with mana acceleration, like Sol Ring
Shifting out The Queen, Commanding Presence not only gives you a discount on her ink cost, but also ensures that you'll get the value out of her ability immediately
Ugin's Labyrinth helps smooth out early draws by providing a quick mana boost for powerful early game interaction like Chalice of the Void, which can shut out some strategies altogether