You can't send them on their way without explaining summoning sickness! Creatures can't tap or attack unless you've controlled them since the beginning of your turn.

When do we make out? UwU

I’ve had to adapt and just not care about every set release which has been good for my wallet and free time.

I like playing budget 60 and some commander so the card prices generally ain’t too bad.

One thing that cannot be circumvented unless you proxy is mana base costs. Fuck paying $100+ for your lands to make a deck work.

In short, tbh, just get good and learn to play politically. We play 4-5 person commander games so we have the opportunity to goad eachother with tabletalk.

I realize my comment before wasn't very informative:

I recommend picking a two color combo to build, and build into something. The goal for long games, especially when dealing with net-deckers, is to have a "Program" that you're trying to run.

You should put all the functions you need for your deck to win in the deck, and have redundancy. I don't play tutors personally, I think they take the fun out of the game, so instead I focus on making sure i have card advantage. This is handled (in my fave deck) with sac triggers that allow me to draw cards when I sac a creature (that creature then re-enters at the next end step as long as it has a 1/1 and my commander is out.

Watch your mana curve, you should never be in a situation where you can't afford to play something that will improve your standing.

Make sure you have cards in hand, or access to cards. Some decks perform well when you're hellbent, if you're playing one of those it is ideal to have lots of graveyard recursion.

The biggest thing is pay attention. You won't win every game, in fact you'll probably lose most of them if you're building your own decks. A self-made deck is an incremental thing, a living, ever-changing grimoire.

I have a deck I don't play anymore because after 30 games it was tuned so well it isn't fun. Having a billion 40/40 hydras on the board within 6 turns is boring. I keep it with me for arch-enemy games.

Oh! Another thing!

Play blue. I know, everyone hates blue mages, but play blue. This will help you to learn how the stack functions, and allow you to learn to play on your opponents turn. Cards like Propaganda will discourage attacking you, and cards like Leyline of Anticipation gives all your stuff Flash, meaning you can use sorceries and enchantments to handle big combat stuff.

There is always a way out, you might just not have it in your deck. Playing blue will teach you to be cunning and tricksy, and teach you interactions that will help you turn the balance in your favor.

A fun one if you're looking to learn weird interactions: This was a precon, you can probably still buy it as is. Swap the commander from "Mirko, Obsessive Theorist" over to "Lazav, the Multifarious" and you've got a super tricky card cloning deck capable of producing copies of legendaries legally. Play this a few times, cut the chaff, replace them with some mind-control cards in dimir and some Better mana rocks.

Get a group of friends, download cockatrice, and do this.