Iizuka the Ruthless Iizuka the Ruthless can give your other samurai double strike and has bushido 2 itself
Its also deceptively difficult to grok
Etali, Primal Conqueror also scales better when your opponents play higher power decks, because the chance of flipping into a big threat with their decks is much higher with higher power decks
The second knock is that Alena relies on either a steady flow of creature token generation, or a big turn with a flurry of cards for which some of your best cards are Ball Lightning, Bonecrusher Giant has more power than mana cost, and Cosmic Larva has a real drawback
While some split cards let you cast one or both sides in the same turn, there are split cards with an aftermath mechanic where you cast one side, wait for the card to hit the graveyard, then cast the aftermath portion
If a spell with tiered is copied, the effect that creates the copy may allow you to choose new targets