I don't think you'll find anyone who disagrees.

Have you tried the newest builds with a challenging / hard world and challenging / hard AIs (you have to set each AI separately)?  Also, if you go to your mana overview screen (click the mana section in the resources at the top or go to the ledger and choose the magic option at the upper right - I forget it's name), you'll see what drains your mana, with the option to dispell any / all of these drains.  At the lower left is a box summarizing used / produced (in that same format, i.e. 3 / 4).

HTH!

Magic/adventure research is not the most straightforward way to play the game, but it is possible, as tanafres says there's a screen to tell you where your mana is going and allow you to cancel enchantments that are draining it. That being said you may want to try winning a few games as a conqueror and/or builder (i.e. warfare and civilization research) which is a much more.. direct? way to play, then see if you can start working magic back into your strategy without neglecting civ/warfare - these are the basics of the game and forgoing them to focus on magic/adventure is like self-induced hard mode. I'm not saying magic/adventure are bad tech areas, but they're dependent on some civ/warfare basics to really shine.

I noticed random maps in 1.1 became too bland and boring. As a result i was forced to learn the map editor and i have never looked back since!

Mastering the map editor has increased my enjoyment of the game by a factor of 10 easily! And there is a long list of saved maps all set up, so you don't have to do too much at all if you don't want to - i use the saved maps, add a heap of extra stuff, this and that, and then I'm in the best games ever!