Pair him with any of the many Commander staples, like Avenger of ZendikarAvenger of Zendikar, and he quickly makes a few of your tokens huge
Marauding Raptor is a great card but not so useful early game as it can automatically destroy Siegehorn Ceratops or Drover of the Mighty
Shorikai, Genesis Engine While cards like The Belligerent and The Indomitable can be your commander as of EOE, Shorikai, Genesis Engine has the distinction of being the first legendary vehicle that could be your commander, at least on its front face (hi, Cosima)
Seven mana still might preclude this from seeing play, but its so good in Commander that $2 is a totally reasonable buy-in to take a flier on Hornet Queen seeing play in Standard
I find the Bracket system highly useful for initiating Rule 0 conversations and getting a better sense of what everybody wants to play, especially considering that EDH deckbuilding sites like Moxfield and Archidekt automatically assign an estimated Bracket based on the cards in your deck