My favourite card is Loyal Cathar / Unhallowed Cathar. I just think the card perfectly tells a great story of a man doomed to die and become what he feared most: a mindless zombie. I think it perfectly captures the essence of Innistrad and Dark Ascension, a sense of impending doom and general despair. The flavour text too really gets me as well, especially Thalia's text. It just has this sense of "Everything's going to be OK" vibe even when everything probably won't be OK. So haunting.
Even the card itself I like. Beyond the story of the card, it's a creative mechanical design that gives white an undying-esque effect without giving white undying. The card itself isn't bad either. A 2/2 vigilance for 2 isn't incredible, but it's not unplayable junk. It's a fine card in Pauper white weenie decks, and I've put it to good use my own Pauper Soldiers deck. Heck, I saw the card in pseudo-competitive WB decks last season with Cartel Aristocrat. Not bad. Oh, and the art is solid as well. The guy is rocking a sporting hat, as is custom on Innistrad, and the symbol of Avacyn shows up as well (in his spear).
Last and not least, it's a common. It's hard to believe that one could find so much depth in the NWO era from a common, but there you go.
- Niv-Mizzet is the last dragon
- Szadek is the last vampire
- Sisters were the last gorgons
- Razia was one of the few remaining angels, and IIRC, all angels, including Feather were just duplicates of Razia
In terms of retconning this, it did feel a bit cheap. However, dragons are immensely popular, and apparently people complain loudly if there are no dragons. Also, the Guildpact novel showed that more dragons were possible. As for vampires and gorgons, I guess they wanted some variety in creature types. Gorgons also had a slight overlap in Theros (Keepsake Gorgon, Hythonia the Cruel).
Ah well. RTR block was fun enough, and I think they did a fine job fleshing out the guilds, so I'm willing to give them a pass on these retcons, especially since so few of the MTG community would even notice them.
1) Loyal Cathar
2) Slave of Bolas
3) Blind Obedience
From a gameplay perspective:
1) Lingering Souls
2) Remand
3) Primeval Titan
HM: Doom Blade and Duress.