Selfless Savior, Skrelv, Defector Mite, and Mother of Runes are examples of mana-free protection that we can cast before casting our commander (protection from color can also double as evasion!), and we also have cards like Brass Squire which can equip protection for free
Against another blue deck, it often costs just 1 mana to counter a key spell, so its perfect in Izzet Murktide or control lists that try to tempo out their opponent
The difference between "combo decks" is that "synergy decks" don't necessarily need any particular combination of cards to work
Stormbreath Dragon is close to impossible for Abzan Company to remove (watch out for Big Game Hunter builds), making it the perfect finisher once we run out of Forked Bolts
The first ability does not assist the control plan much, but it does allow for use of additional tokens and removal effects down the road