For the first category, cards like Experimental Synthesizer, Doomed Traveler, and Hangarback Walker are all useful candidates, though there are many more options
The goal is to get as many keywords out on the board as possible, play Odric to make a bunch of Blood artifact tokens, and then find fun ways to use them
After doing a thorough research on a solid pile of precons and shuffling through a bunch of chaotic battles, I got answers
We have grown comfortable with the in-between because it doesnt require us to define our decks beyond the extremes
Wizards clearly stated back in 2016 that it has no desire to police proxies, even for in-store play, as long as the events aren't sanctioned and the events are using traditional proxies and not counterfeit cards