The other 3 cards going to the graveyard is what clinches this for me. The graveyard is an extension of the hand in so many of my decks, this becomes draw 6 for 4 mana.
They are amazing, I wish I'd invested in them sooner. They fit a double-sleeved deck perfect, and help to compress the air out of a freshly sleeved deck. I have my decks all in KMC Perfect Fit inners, Ultra Pro Eclipse sleeves, in Ultimate Guard Boulders inside Ultimate Guard Arkhives. When you invest so much into your cards, it's worth also investing in their protection.
Volrath also doesn't specify where that creature with a counter has to be. Rayami exiles creatures with a "blood counter". Have they worded these abilities just right to interact with each other?
My lands deck was helmed by Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder, but I've since upgraded to Golos, Tireless Pilgrim. Golos retains a free casting ability, but also has an impactful etb trigger. A very satisfying upgrade
Oh, another piece of advice I have for improving your deck building is to build using a template. Templates help to make sure you include enough removal, draw, ramp etc.
My template is:
36-38 Lands
10 Removal cards (including at least 3 Mass Removal)
8 Draw cards (preferably repeatable e.g. Rhystic Study, or large draws e.g. Recurring Insight, cantrips and deck filters don't really count unless you can repeat them)
8 Card Advantage cards (more Draw cards, or graveyard recursion, or other card advantage mechanics)
10 Ramp cards (mana rocks, land ramp e.g. Cultivate)
4 Protection cards (cards that protect your gameplan, e.g. Dueling Grounds for voltron decks, Reconnaissance for aggro decks)
2 Wincon cards (main strategy wincons or alternative wincons, Simic Ascendancy, Hellkite Tyrant, Mechanized Production)
19-21 Synergy cards (flexible slots for Commander synergy, strategy synergy, or other jank)
This is just the template I use for my decks, you can find plenty of other templates online from experienced deck builders!
You've constructed a very interesting Cromat deck with many cards that I've never seen played before in Commander. This format is all about building janky decks like this, and having lots of fun!
I used to have Cromat as the Commander of my five colour deck, built around getting Progenitus and other big creatures into play using cards like Elvish Piper and Quicksilver Amulet. I've since replaced Cromat with Ramos, Dragon Engine, and the deck has evolved significantly over time. You'll likely find that your deck will evolve over time too.
Your land-base isn't the worst for on a budget, but there are some very cheap alternatives available that would be significantly better than some of the lands you've chosen. For example the lair cycle, Rith's Grove et al, represent land disadvantage. They essentially cause you to waste your land drop, and set yourself a land behind. Better options for three colours would be the triple taplands, Jungle Shrine et al, or if you want bounce lands, Gruul Turf et al.
However, even these cycles are generally considered sub-par for a five colour deck. You should always have a Command Tower, they are cheap and ubiquitous. But you can also consider a few better five colour lands if your budget allows, such as Reflecting Pool, Meteor CraterExotic Orchard, Path of Ancestry, City of Brass. I also really like Temple of the False God, it's a fairly cheap double-mana land with a usually redundant downside.
Many players swear by using fetchlands (Wooded Foothills) and shocklands (Stomping Ground), amazing lands if you can afford them. However; more budget friendly alternatives include the Mirage fetches (Mountain Valley), and Bicycle lands (Sheltered Thicket). Fetches help to remove lands from your deck, increasing the chance to draw nonland cards towards the late game.
If you're having trouble colour fixing, you can always consider budget dual colour lands such as the Guild Gates (Gruul Guildgate), or just cheat colour fixing using Joiner Adept, Chromatic Lantern, and Prismatic Omen. Setting yourself up with a good land base is the best way to improve your deck IMO.
Tournament magic is expensive, fine. If you want to restrict people who play in tournaments to those with deep pockets instead of skill, that's fine, keep your hollow pay-to-win tournaments.
But casual magic doesn't have to be expensive, and as others have stated many casual players turn to proxies. So why doesn't WotC bank on that, and release these desired cards in a non-tournament legal gold bordered form? They've done it before. Perhaps these could be slotted into the advertisement card slot, or with an advertisement card back?
I personally enjoy how a singleton format makes you think of alternative cards during deck design.
Yeah, that means that you're often looking for cards that do very similar things to make the deck more consistent, but I find that part of the fun. You get to evaluate the relative strengths of different cards trying to do similar things, and the potential value of redundancy vs. dilution of specific card effects.
They are amazing, I wish I'd invested in them sooner. They fit a double-sleeved deck perfect, and help to compress the air out of a freshly sleeved deck. I have my decks all in KMC Perfect Fit inners, Ultra Pro Eclipse sleeves, in Ultimate Guard Boulders inside Ultimate Guard Arkhives. When you invest so much into your cards, it's worth also investing in their protection.
Make those big demons cheap
White:
1. Winds of Abandon
2. Teferi's Protection
3. Smothering Tithe
4. Austere Command
5. Enlightened Tutor
Blue:
1. Cyclonic Rift
2. Mana Drain
3. Leyline of Anticipation
4. Consecrated Sphinx
5. Rhystic Study
Black:
1. Vampiric Tutor
2. Necropotence
3. Sheoldred, Whispering One
4. Cover of Darkness
5. Black Market
Red:
1. Treasure Nabber
2. Wheel of Fortune
3. Neheb, the Eternal
4. Mana Echoes
5. Purphoros, God of the Forge
Green:
1. Elvish Reclaimer
2. Sylvan Library
3. Song of the Dryads
4. Mana Reflection
5. Seedborn Muse
Multicolor:
1. Aura Shards
2. Anguished Unmaking
3. Mirari's Wake
4. Windgrace's Judgment
5. Decimate
Colorless: (excluding Sol Ring/Mana Crypt in every deck)
1. Chromatic Lantern
2. Karn, Scion of Urza
3. Sword of Feast and Famine
4. Phyrexian Altar
5. Vedalken Orrery
Lands: (excluding Command Tower/Ancient Tomb/Cavern of Souls/Path of Ancestry/Reflecting Pool/Temple of the False God in most decks)
1. Yavimaya Hollow
2. Volrath's Stronghold
3. Minamo, School at Water's Edge
4. Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
5. Kor Haven
They print Urza, Lord High Artificer in MH1, and there were discussions revolving around how the power level of cards had shifted considerably.
Now they're printing Vilis, Broker of Blood, and there are actually people looking at him and going, well they didn't ban Razaketh, the Foulblooded, this seems fine...
Build essentially a Prime Speaker Vannifar/Birthing Pod deck.
Pod-chain to Palinchron. Goes infinite with Yarok, the Desecrated and at least 6 mana amongst lands (floating mana between untap triggers).
Sink your infinite mana into Mindshrieker.
*Jazz hands*
My template is:
36-38 Lands
10 Removal cards (including at least 3 Mass Removal)
8 Draw cards (preferably repeatable e.g. Rhystic Study, or large draws e.g. Recurring Insight, cantrips and deck filters don't really count unless you can repeat them)
8 Card Advantage cards (more Draw cards, or graveyard recursion, or other card advantage mechanics)
10 Ramp cards (mana rocks, land ramp e.g. Cultivate)
4 Protection cards (cards that protect your gameplan, e.g. Dueling Grounds for voltron decks, Reconnaissance for aggro decks)
2 Wincon cards (main strategy wincons or alternative wincons, Simic Ascendancy, Hellkite Tyrant, Mechanized Production)
19-21 Synergy cards (flexible slots for Commander synergy, strategy synergy, or other jank)
This is just the template I use for my decks, you can find plenty of other templates online from experienced deck builders!
You've constructed a very interesting Cromat deck with many cards that I've never seen played before in Commander. This format is all about building janky decks like this, and having lots of fun!
I used to have Cromat as the Commander of my five colour deck, built around getting Progenitus and other big creatures into play using cards like Elvish Piper and Quicksilver Amulet. I've since replaced Cromat with Ramos, Dragon Engine, and the deck has evolved significantly over time. You'll likely find that your deck will evolve over time too.
First, I can guide you towards an invaluable resource: https://www.edhrec.com/commanders/cromat
EDHREC is IMO one of the best resources for deck building. It can show you what cards over people are using to build their Commander decks, helping you to pick out key synergistic cards. A couple of cards I can personally recommend for Cromat are Bloom Tender, Maelstrom Archangel, Spirit of Resistance, Bringer of the Blue Dawn, Aura Shards, Chromatic Lantern, Mayael's Aria, Mirari's Wake, Maelstrom Pulse, and Conflux. These are some of my favourite cards within my five colour deck.
Your land-base isn't the worst for on a budget, but there are some very cheap alternatives available that would be significantly better than some of the lands you've chosen. For example the lair cycle, Rith's Grove et al, represent land disadvantage. They essentially cause you to waste your land drop, and set yourself a land behind. Better options for three colours would be the triple taplands, Jungle Shrine et al, or if you want bounce lands, Gruul Turf et al.
However, even these cycles are generally considered sub-par for a five colour deck. You should always have a Command Tower, they are cheap and ubiquitous. But you can also consider a few better five colour lands if your budget allows, such as Reflecting Pool, Meteor Crater Exotic Orchard, Path of Ancestry, City of Brass. I also really like Temple of the False God, it's a fairly cheap double-mana land with a usually redundant downside.
Many players swear by using fetchlands (Wooded Foothills) and shocklands (Stomping Ground), amazing lands if you can afford them. However; more budget friendly alternatives include the Mirage fetches (Mountain Valley), and Bicycle lands (Sheltered Thicket). Fetches help to remove lands from your deck, increasing the chance to draw nonland cards towards the late game.
If you're having trouble colour fixing, you can always consider budget dual colour lands such as the Guild Gates (Gruul Guildgate), or just cheat colour fixing using Joiner Adept, Chromatic Lantern, and Prismatic Omen. Setting yourself up with a good land base is the best way to improve your deck IMO.
Anyway, I hope some of that was helpful!
But casual magic doesn't have to be expensive, and as others have stated many casual players turn to proxies. So why doesn't WotC bank on that, and release these desired cards in a non-tournament legal gold bordered form? They've done it before. Perhaps these could be slotted into the advertisement card slot, or with an advertisement card back?
Yeah, that means that you're often looking for cards that do very similar things to make the deck more consistent, but I find that part of the fun. You get to evaluate the relative strengths of different cards trying to do similar things, and the potential value of redundancy vs. dilution of specific card effects.
Cordial Vampire/Yawgmoth, Thran Physician - Edgar vampire tribal / aristocrats.
Deep Forest Hermit - Riku tokens, I look forward to pairing this with Deadeye Navigator or similar flicker effects.
Collector Ouphe/Force of Vigor - Yisan cEDH, excellent additions for an already top tier competitive deck.
Goblin Engineer/Tribute Mage/Urza, Lord High Artificer/Scrapyard Recombiner - Breya smartifacts, and Jhoira cEDH artifact-storm.
Llanowar Tribe - Radha big mana, just more big mana, makes sense.
Sisay, Weatherlight Captain - Ramos, can get two activations off Sisay from Ramos' ability, a legendary-specific Tooth and Nail-esque combo seems pretty sweet.
Soulherder - Kings theft deck. It's not as good as Deadeye Navigator or Conjurer's Closet for the intended strategy: flicker "until end of turn" stolen creatures to make the theft permanent, but it is a second Roon of the Hidden Realm with "returns under owner's control" for other flicker shenanigans.
Wrenn and Six/Tectonic Reformation - Yidris lands deck, Reformation may make its way into a few other decks too.
Undead Augur/Unsettled Mariner - Varina zombie tribal, particularly intrigued by the Mariner as a zombie in this deck.
Winds of Abandon - Pretty much every white deck, this will be as ubiquitous as Cyclonic Rift. It's a riskier card, but it gives you the opportunity for a possible unblocked alpha-strike. Will need to see it in action.
Echo of Eons - Replacement for Recurring Insight in a couple of decks when shuffling the graveyard isn't detrimental.
Sword of Truth and Justice - Atraxa
Serra the Benevolent - Avacyn angel tribal.
Hall of Heliod's Generosity - Each white deck with >15 enchantments.
Silent Clearing/Sunbaked Canyon/Waterlogged Grove/Fiery Islet/Nurturing Peatland - Across various multicolour decks, mostly replacing a few Check lands.
Metalworker + Voltaic Construct
Metalworker + Staff of Domination
Metalworker + Rings of Brighthearth + Voltaic Key