MTG Salvation

First time actually trying to make a decent Commander deck. Obviously, going to be very, very janky, but what do you guys think? There are a few obvious holes in the mana base, but aside from that, what else can be improved? It wants to bulldoze the table with buffed up creatures, or sneak a win with Simic Ascendancy if possible.

I would have thought hardened scales was an auto include.

Edit
doubling season another useful one
And since this a multiplayer forum.. managorger hydra worth a run?

Hardened Scales and Managorger Hydra at least, got it. What do you think they should replace?

Some of your sorceries. Your creature removal are good cards but do they really suit what you're doing? Which is getting bigger faster than they do. But I'm not sure, I'd have to play it a bit to see.

Some creatures you might consider that work well with your +1/+1 counters theme:

Novijen Sages, Sage of Fables and Zameck Guildmage for card draw.

Apocalypse Hydra for some removal.

I think at the moment you're running too few creatures, and you'll probably appreciate removing some of your non-creature cards to fit more in.

You might also want to edit your deck list to arrange things in alphabetical order. If people can see clearly what is already in the deck, they are more likely to comment with suggestions

kalonian hydra is an awesome card too, survives one turn you might be able to double animar.

I agree that creature with some removal could be a good slot in for sorceries, polukranos world eater is great at eating weanies up.

Obviously you'll be vulnerable to wipes, asceticism might be worth it. Maybe not, it costs a lot of mana. Then again, with animar you should be able to empty your hand quickly and have some mana around. I'd experiment with it.

You are really making me want to play an animar deck haha

Had a spare Polukranos and Novijen Sages lying around, so they swapped in for Burn From Within and Sleight of Hand. Rolling Thunder was swapped out for a Nessian Wilds Ravager for the time being. What do you think of Hangarback Walker?

The trick with polukranos is to go monstrous in your last opponents end step. But even if you never do - 4cmc (or less with animar) for 5/5 is pretty good.

I actually think Burn from Within is quite good in this format, you'll often find indestructible creatures around in the shape of commanders. Bonfire is a card I use a lot in conjunction with brainstorm but otherwise it only works in the right deck. It's a tough call.. what sort of meta do you play? Decks with weenies that bonfire for 2 might vape? Or decks that burn within goes well against?

Plains walkers like domri rade & Vivian reed are good at combining draw with removal too

Truth be told, I have not really experimented a lot with the local meta. I've messed around with Precons at this point and watched a few episodes of Game Knights. I have very, very little experience with the format, so perhaps I should actually feel it out before making that call. I know that I do have a spare Brainstorm, though, so perhaps I should slot it in.

Sorry I meant that combo works well in preconstructed. Having 4 of each in a 60 deck means you can set up a miracle easily. Don't try to do it in EDH.

What about Hangarback Walker?

Walking Ballista is another good counter/removal creature

Ashling the Pilgrim could be an okay board wipe, right?