Can we get some reviews as to whether or not some spells actually work in game? Newer member to the Magic community but when it comes to spells, abilities, and effects the rules seem very straight forward as to just follow what the card says. So please correct me if I'm wrong and please provide some insight as to why so I have a better understanding.

My example of this as it happened to me last night playing Brawl in Arena. I was using my commander to attack, my opponent had a creature with Deathtouch. Knowing this, I played the instant spell Not Dead After All, and applied it to my commander which would allow my commander to die but then return to the battlefield tapped. This was not the case. My commander died and was sent back to the command zone and the mana cost to cast was increased, it never went back to the battlefield as the Not Dead After All card described it would. As a side note, my opponent had no cards in his hand to perform a counter spell.

When doing a google search, google says Deathtouch does not negate spells so I'm just a bit confused as to why my spell didn't work on my commander. The only thing I can think of is maybe because my commander has Ward the spell didn't activate, but I thought Ward was for enemy spells and not my own. Double checking the rule book, it states Ward is for enemy spells/abilities