In the vast majority of games, the life that your opponent gains from you nuking their creatures with Swords to Plowshares will not amount to much, unless theyre playing a black deck with life-to-resource cards (watch out for Toxic Deluge or worse, Yawgmoths Bargain !) Swords to Plowshares isnt a particularly expensive card, and its very easy to find
Argue all you want for Incinerate, which came out in Ice Age and replaced Lighning Bolt in the core set, saving one Red Mana to keep your opponent in fear is a lot better than having to save two
If not, you'll need to mulligan
Cryptic: Sometimes in the grim darkness of the 41st Millenium, you might be losing
The secondary commander, Szarel, Genesis Shepherd, is a consistent engine that lets you play lands from your graveyard, similar to the staple Crucible of Worlds