[cleveland]

Omnirizon said:
wraith sword- lifedrain
standard otD- spell: drain life

I'm not so sure what lifedrain on a weapon does. is basically the drain life spell on the target hit?
See page 79 of the manual

I'm also not sure how spell casting items work. do they cast every turn?
Not automatically. When you equip the item it becomes an available spell for that commander. If you put it on a non-mage & script "cast spells," he'll automatically cast it for the entire battle.
HINT: Put it on a commander with Heroic Quickness, or one that can self cast Quicken, etc.

on an SC, which of these two is better? I'm thinking the sword, but I don't know.
[b]Neither. An SC needs an AOE weapon. An anti-SC-SC, however, could do nicely with the Sword, backed up by an indy commander holding the SotD.