Ojer Taq, Deepest Foundation  ^Flip mentions creature tokens specifically, and therfore doesn't work great with the Map tokens in that format '^^

Also, if playing a land causes an ability to trigger, the opponent gets to respond before you get to play your second land

DemonDragonJ the disconnect you talk about between the game designers and yourself, is because you, as the player, need just to think about your fun, while the game designers have to think about everybody's fun. I've said before that from the arguments you make on this forum, it shows that you only want for your stuff to not "get got" by the restrictions, usually showing your contempt for game balance in relation to powerful effects.

Do you fight your doctor when he tries to prescribe you medicine? Even though he knows that would be best for you? How will you ever learn anything if you don't let people tell you what could be better than the current situation, that shows the closed-mindedness that would make you, probably, not that much of a game designer.

You can load up your command zone by partnering 2 "choose a background" commanders

As for your sidenote, the whole idea of free spells is that the spell will cost you something different than mana. All previous free spells in MH sets required you to exile a card from your hand, and only is able to Pull from Eternity. That never limited their usefulness. Especially because you would need the additional card to be in hand, to actually pay for the spell, which has no bearing on your ability to reimburse the costs.

Every color has playable creatures, though not every deck will want to play creatures to enable a free Cultivate or a free Cancel. I want to see what the other effects are before complaining that black will have an easier time to get their cost refunded, for what possibly could still be a free Alms of the Vein at the cost of a creature.