If you're looking specifically for the abdominal muscles, I think situps with an abmat is great. I've known people with great core strenght, can do tons of situps, plank for a long time, etc, But when I introduced them to abmat situps, they have very sore abs the next day.
If you're looking for core strength in general, probably some sort of dynamic/high tension type of plank would be good, along with abmat situps, and maybe leg levers/lifts (lot of hip, but still an important core movement in my opinion).