These are very similar to the old Magic: The Gathering prerelease promo cards that we recently discontinued, much to the frustration of Magic players
Black decks that want to cast many noncreature spells should add the Rod to help chip away at opponents' life totals
Ive mostly been limited to using this card as a defensive layer in control decks, but Ive been run over more times than Id like to admit by some beefed-up commander with menace that I now can no longer block
He could even make a decent Commander, albeit one that limits you to a mono-white deck
Of course, those tend to be the more enfranchised players, rather than the super casual folk who might only play with precons, or just do drafts. But, he continued, once you get into Eternal Constructed formats, Commander, and especially Cube, you get the players who want to make their collections special