Help with an interesting Ukkima voltron commander

[Crimson Fire Fox]

https://deckstats.net/decks/124833/1810141-ukkima-flicker

Hello! I decided to make an interesting deck that relies on flicking/reanimating my commander to drain any opponent that messes with my commander.  I know that I could have Cazur, Ruthless Stalker in the command zone as well, but I feel like adding green may not be advantageous to my cause. By remaining dimir instead of sultai, I can make some of my equipment more effective: Nightmare Lash, Lashwrithe, Strata Scythe, Cranial Plating.

Although I am looking for suggestions for cards that I may have missed, my biggest problem is card draw/selection. Occasionally I'll feel like I just am not drawing the gas that I need to keep going. This is a budget deck. Some of the more expensive cards I just tossed in from my trade binder. Ideally, I am looking for cards that are only $5 or less.

[ApothecaryGeist]

How about some instant speed pumping?


Warped Physique
Soulshriek
Howl from Beyond
Ghoul's Feast


and Hatred, but that one's not a budget card.

[Crimson Fire Fox]

How about some instant speed pumping?


Warped Physique
Soulshriek
Howl from Beyond
Ghoul's Feast


and Hatred, but that one's not a budget card.

Hatred would have been great if it didn't spike in price. The others seem okay. I feel like I don't have enough creatures in the deck to make use of Soulshriek and Ghoul's Feast. Howl from Beyond may work to help close out a game by being a massive mana sink.

Warped Physique is probably the most interesting to me out of all of them. If I could find a way to get a huge amount of card draw, I could use it to either pump for massive damage on a swing (if I have something like blackblade reforged equipped) and if the pump is large enough, it can cause my commanders LTB ability. Also that it works as removal too... hmmm... I think I might just drop one of my removal spells for this guy actually.

[TropicalBoi]

The reason you seem to have a lot of problem with card draw is probably because of how high all of your card draw is on your mana curve. Also, you do have to sacrifice creatures for some of your draw, and that might be good for Ukkima, but ulimately you really don't want to keep casting the Whale Wolf a million times. I would suggest some cheaper card draw spells like Night's Whisper, Sign In Blood, Treasure Cruise (which can be delved),  and maybe some X Spells Like Pull from Tomorrow or Read The Runes. This will speed up your game plan quite a bit! Also, if you want more repeatable card draw, Mystic Remora and Mirrodin Besieged are great options, and one of them has an additional win-con stapled to it! If you want to stick with higher casting cost for card draw, Ambition's Cost and Ancient Craving get cards into your hand at a pretty fair price. If you don't want to be losing so much life, use more blue card draw effects, like Windfall or Fact or Fiction. Hope this helped you out!

[Crimson Fire Fox]

...  and maybe some X Spells Like Pull from Tomorrow or Read The Runes. This will speed up your game plan quite a bit! Also, if you want more repeatable card draw, Mystic Remora and Mirrodin Besieged are great options, and one of them has an additional win-con stapled to it!

Ya, my card draw is a bit wonky because I revamped the deck to try and make it rely less on blue, but after some playtesting, I found that I had no problems getting at least three blue sources. I actually really like Mirrodin Besieged with Read the Runes as a combo to take someone out. That said, graveyard hate is a part of my meta. X spells are probably a solid include for me though. I find that I can end up with a bunch of mana through some trickery but then have nothing to spend it on. I'll probably take a look at low curve spells as well.