Killing them all? Are you taking the str test with one die or two? It should only take out 1/3 under the template. You only roll one die per model and on a 1-4 you're safe. And regular practice for 2000+ lizardmen is a life slann. And dwellers goes off on an 18+ and is far more devistating of a str test than the dark elves. And only his gaurd have over 3 str. And with runemation you get a free die to add to your roll, so it's almost as easy to get off. I find dark magic lacking. He'd be better off running death and trying to IF your saurus with purple sun. But dont tell him. ;-)
Might be worth mentioning that the Dark Elves can only pick from the lore of dark, death, metal, fire, and shadow. And if they pick dark magic they are a lore master. So he should always have his spell 6 of he picks Dark. My guess is you are taking your stat tests wrong. I imagine you are playing low piont games 1000-1500. And that spell should only take out 33% of everything under the template. Which shouldn't even be 33% of your unit. Where as the lore of heavens is extremely good in low point games. Unlike most other lore's spell 5 and 6 that scale with the size of units killing a rough % a unit, the lore of heavens always does 2d6 pre unit it hits. Which is a way higher % of the enemy's unit/army at lower pionts. And against dark elves at low pionts they normally can't run a BSB. Meaning they can't reroll failled panic tests. Puts them in a bad spot vs chain lightning and the comet. In fact I hit a DE player so hard with chain lightning one time, that 50% of his army fled off the board in a single cast because he didn't move foward wanting to shoot at me as long as possible. Sallies are also your friend. In my expirence, without pionts for a hydra and BSB, Dark Elves are no match for the Lizrads.
