@GrimmOfTheHollowZone

So just to clarify; you want to play a deck that doesn't rely on combat damage because the people you play with run a bunch of spells that blow up all creatures and you dislike seeing your game plan constantly being brought to a halt?

It's not that you dislike playing creatures, you just think that they are too fragile to depend on as your win condition?

A card that I only just remembered is Promise of Power. 5 mana and 5 life for 5 cards is a fairly decent exchange rate. It's just that, once you get to five mana, black has a lot more options for game-warping cards that outclass it.

Still, it's a decent budget-friendly draw spell for mono-black if you are just looking for something to help refuel your hand in the mid to late game.

"Tower Defense" is a whole genre of strategy-based video games that have you arrange and build defensive structures to protect a central point from multiple waves of attackers. Maybe something like that could provide the sort of game experience you are looking for?

@theNeroTurtle

Yeah, with Necrologia you only get the chance to draw and cast instants before you have to go to your discard phase.

You typically play it when your hand is nearly empty, you are really trying to dig for something specific, or your hand is full of useless cards that you want to get rid of. Similar to Ad NauseamGC, it's a card that teaches you to be ok with tossing away life and currently unneeded cards if it means getting closer to what you want and leaving yourself with a full hand. Necrologia is generally a worse 1-shot Necropotence effect, but it can potentially be better than Ad Nauseam in a deck with more high-cost cards. And unlike Necropotence, it lets you discard cards without exiling them so that can make it more useful in decks that want a full graveyard.

When I play it in commander I generally cast it while giving up 10 to 15 life because out of those cards there are going to be a bunch of unneeded lands and cards that won't be particularly relevant at that point in the game, like extra mana rocks. I'm willing to give up the extra life if it means being able to leave myself with a sculpted hand of relevant cards.

I wish that the card didn't have the restriction of only being cast during the end step but sometimes you just have to work with what you've got.

I think that the next best options to draw a bunch of cards at once might be Cut of the Profits and Necrologia. If you are having to frequently recover from board wipes then having Grim Haruspex on the board at least lets you draw a card for each other non-token creature that gets wrathed away.

Icon of Ancestry is an anthem and can help dig for more rats. Some less desirable options might be Slate of Ancestry (expensive and doesn't help you recover after a board wipe) or Endless Atlas (probably just not strong enough for the level you are building for).

Instead of more draw spells, another option would be to try to up your tutor count (Beseech the Queen maybe?) and just aim to tutor for Necropotence as often as you can.

@DemonDragonJ I don't think that you need to sell yourself short like that. It's not like more competitive players are super-machine players or anything, I've seen them mess up plenty of times. They are often playing stronger decks then what people tend to casually play at the kitchen table but on an even playing field you could probably score wins.

I'm in agreement with the sentiments above. The years playing MtG doesn't necessarily correlate in equal measure with growth in skill.

That's not to say that playing for a long time doesn't bring improvement though. The longer you play the more cards, combos, and game actions you'll have seen. That's all learning experience that you can pull from to help you find ways to win a game.

Competitive play pushes you to learn game play and deck building concepts in a much more thorough manner than casual play does though. You need every edge you can get to win in a competitive environment. You'll learn more about concepts like:

• How to better evaluate which cards are the strongest and most efficient options for your deck.
• How to get the most out of every card slot in your deck.
• How to improvise and stretch the most benefit out of the cards in your hand.
• How to arrange your plays to improve your tempo.
• Which strategies are stronger than others.
• How to read your opponent's plays to anticipate what their next play might be or what cards might be in their hand.
• Weird rule interactions and how to research the meta.

Casual play lets you skate by without needing to learn things quite as quickly or thoroughly. When people are just playing with random stuff that they want to test out there isn't as much drive to find the most efficient way to do things. People are more focused on what they find fun.

An issue with commander being one of the main entry point for casual play these days is that the politicking and multiplayer nature of the format can cause new players to miss honing some of the skills noted above. Playing politics gives you a way to buy time or redirect threats in a manner that isn't available in the 1v1 games of other constructed formats. The transition from Commander to 1v1 is a larger learning curve than the other way around.

I haven't read the short stories for Lorwyn Eclipsed yet so I don't know what the current state of the story is. However, I did have a theory pop into my head back when I first heard that Strixhaven students were going to be the main focus characters for the Lorwyn set. I think that WotC doesn't know what to do with the MtG story anymore beyond their current plotline and that the planeswalkers have kind of run their course as the main characters of the franchise. Having a bunch of kids as characters that explore planes and get into trouble in a sort of Scooby-Doo type fashion provides a younger cast of characters to try to appeal to a younger audience and draw them into the game as new players. It would be in line with HASBRO's past experience with the kids cartoon format for selling toys. Who knows, maybe it would wind up as an actual cartoon.

I had this mental image of an MtG/Lego crossover where it is Lego making kits based around the adventures of the Strixhaven students on different planes.