Ramp Whether it's getting lands out faster, or playing creatures and artifacts that generate mana, you need a way to 'ramp' - that is, to rapidly increase your available mana, beyond playing your one land a turn
9/9 Rarity: M #:385 Card Type: Legendary Creature Human Noble Warrior P / T: 5 / 5 Flavor: Let the flames burn within you
Presently the quantity of good one drops in black is not nearly enough to make the extreme card cost of Contagion or Sickening Shoal consistently good enough
Evolution Sage Yawgmoth, Thran Physician is certainly a more powerful card than Evolution Sage, but Sage is the better proliferator, specifically
Maybe Arena of the Ancients being a 30-year-old card that cares about legendary creatures was enough to catch their attention
For this, were sticking to cards in Tales of Middle-Earth that are modern legal so you are staying in the same environment for both flavor and legality