I think that some of the things that you have read might be confusing Absolute Virtue's ability with how the one on True-Name Nemesis works.

True-Name Nemesis gains protection from a player, which includes all the spells and permanents that player controls. That means that the player's creatures can't block it, the same way a creature with Protection from Red can't be blocked by Red creatures.

Absolute Virtue gives you, the player, protection from your opponents. So nothing they control can target or deal damage to you. A non-targeting spell or effect that causes loss of life like Siege Rhino, Torment of Hailfire, or Hissing Miasma could still lower your life total though.

More importantly to your question, Absolute Virtue's protection effect is only for you, the player, not the permanents you control. Since it doesn't extend to your permanents, your creatures can still be blocked by your opponents.

If the protection extended to creatures you control, the card would have used the wording "You and creatures you control have protection..." like on Serra's Emissary.

Oh, and Kataki, War's Wage is another way of taxing opponents that run a lot of mana rocks that you could consider if you aren't running many yourself.

If you are looking to slow down opponents with a bunch of discard/hate bear/taxing effects then a commander you could consider is Alesha, Who Smiles at Death.

There are a lot of 1/1 creatures that make all of your opponents discard a card, and a lot of the hate-bear cards are in the 2 or less power range. Alesha giving you a way to keep bringing them back after they die or you sac them could be a useful effect in the command zone. Cards like Dauntless Dismantler, Inspired Insurgent, or Hammer Mage might help with destroying artifacts. Lurrus of the Dream-Den and Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle in the 99 could work as backup for your commander. Requiem Monolith gives you a card draw engine that can also kill your weaker ETB creatures so that Alesha can bring them back.

Goblin Sharpshooter + a way to give it deathtouch like Basilisk Collar, Onyx Mage, or Vault of the Archangel lets you repeatedly clear creatures from your opponents' boards.

Alesha's signature trick is to attack an opponents who has lost their creatures and bring back Master of Cruelties onto the board tapped and attacking (getting around the restriction of it attacking alone). The opponent won't be able to block the MoC, so their life total becomes 1, and then Alesha finishes them off. Cards like Break Through the Line can help creatures like MoC push some damage through.

There are a variety of combos that you could run as a finisher. If you don't care for combos, then cards like Cathars' Crusade and Serra Redeemer can help to make your creatures more dangerous threats. If you end up running a lot of discard and forced sac effects like Accursed Marauder then you could potentially run Tergrid, God of FrightGC  ^Flip as one of your game changers to steal your opponents' stuff and win with that.

@theNeroTurtle I actually own a number of those older MtG novels. I enjoyed seeing how the authors tried to interpret the mechanics of the game into a more traditional magic system that worked better for a written story. I think that my favourite one is Arena by William R. Forstchen.

Like others have mentioned, after WotC stopped regularly publishing novels they did start posting short story chapters on the main MtG website. They helped to fill the void of the missing novels a bit but in my view the stories were often a little lacking. The stories about the New Phyrexia invasion of the multiverse were pretty rough to go through. They read like the whole writing project was rushed and that there wasn't much creative oversight. You could see it in how the corruptive power of the Phyrexian oil varied between the different stories, as though all the different authors weren't on the same page as to how it worked.

I haven't really read the stories that have come out since the invasion, so that's on me. Perhaps I would have a better appreciation of the underlying story connections between the sets if I did. I've picked up snippets of the lore here and there, and there is what is shown on the cards too, but I still think that from what I have read the story is meandering a lot.

Thunder Junction got the ball rolling with Jace and Loot but you can't really tell what the whole deal is from the cards alone. Murders at Karlov Manor seemed like a weird detour. Bloomburrow didn't really seem to link up its story (I still liked the set though). Duskmourn kind of started to get things on track with more recognizable characters playing bigger roles. Aetherdrift got focus back on Chandra and Loot pops up again. Tarkir apparently sees the return of Nicol Bolas (who's missing his memory) but that doesn't really get explored in the cards. Edge of Eternities was mostly its own thing except that Tezzeret also happened to be there. If there has been a unifying story connecting the sets then it has been told mostly through the online short stories because you don't really see it through the cards of the various sets.

I'm just not sure what the plan is for the game's story once this current story arc concludes. The planeswalker characters seem to be getting phased out of being the main narrative focus of the game. I'm not sure how WotC is going to center the story again.

I think that, to HASBRO, "Magic: the Gathering" is just the mechanics of the game. They don't really see an issue with re-skinning the game with outside IPs in the same way that they have repackaged Monopoly a million times over. The game is making a ton of money doing what they are doing so they have no real motivation to stop.

It does feel like the MtG lore sets have been sidelined. It comes across to me as though WotC doesn't know what to do with the story anymore. The theme sets that have come out since the latest Phyrexian invasion arc ended have been novelties in the same pattern that the UB sets are. I think that Edge of Eternities and the robots in Aetherdrift were designed to be exposure to foster the MtG player base to be more familiar and excepting of hard Sci-Fi themes in the game, probably to reduce resistance to the upcoming Star Trek set that will be coming out.

My personal preference would have been for the UB set to have stayed silver border products, but WotC knew that Commander didn't usually accept silver border cards and they really wanted an easy transition for people who came for the spotlight IP to then move over to Commander as the the primary casual format. So they ditched the silver borders instead of maybe making a separate "Ultimate Showdown" style product line for the game.

I was ok with the D&D sets WotC did because they were also WotC IPs and I could see how the D&D settings could maybe fit in some corner of the MtG multiverse. They were also a more novel thing at the time. LotR I was less happy with but at least it was still high fantasy. If the original MtG sets were still going strong in their support and concepts then maybe I wouldn't be quite as despondent with the breakdown in the cohesive image of the game that the UB sets have brought. As it stands now though, I find the original MtG sets to be pretty hit or miss and I don't really know what's going on with the Jace and Loot storyline.

I'm sure that WOtC still has people on staff that still love MtG's own IP. I just don't know how much support they are given from the corporate side these days to really build MtG's own world.

@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.