A Knocked Out Pokmon is sent to the discard pile, along with any cards attached to it (Energy, certain Trainer cards), as well as any prior evolutions it had
Although your exerted characters will still be susceptible to getting challenged, Aurora can defend them from actions with her ability
This card draw engine watches your thopters, clues, and mutagen tokens come down turn after turn and draws you a dinosaur's mouthful of cards
I'd recommend using a local card shop or GameStop for your first submission
From a more meta perspective, I think the low scores of Abzan Keywords and Sultai Mutate show some of the dangers of tying Commander precons to set releases
Once a spell is announced, the mana has been spent, whether or not the spell actually takes effect as planned