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Cromat

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Cromat

At a glance

  • Commander: Cromat
  • Colors: Five-Color
  • Archetype: WUBRG pinger/edict grind control
  • Power tier: mid-high

Cards

Commander

Cromat — Legendary Creature — Illusion (5/5)

Real printed abilities:

: Destroy target creature blocking or blocked by Cromat. : Cromat gains flying until end of turn. : Regenerate Cromat. : Cromat gets +1/+1 until end of turn. : Put Cromat on top of its owner’s library.

Note on the scout text: the roster called this a “pinger/edict grind control” general. That’s a description of the deck shell, not the card — Cromat itself does NOT ping or edict. Its real abilities are all self-buffs: it’s a 5/5 that can grow, fly over blockers, regenerate through removal/wipes, kill whatever tries to block it, and bounce itself to your library to dodge a hard answer. So the commander is a self-protecting evasive finisher, and the 99 is a pure goodstuff control pile. PRINTED TEXT WINS — built accordingly.

Gameplan

Durdle, answer everything, and win on inevitability. You are a five-color control deck: counter the scary spells, spot-remove or edict the scary creatures, sweep the board when you fall behind on creatures, and refill with a deep card-advantage package. Once the table is stabilized, Cromat closes the game as a resilient evasive beater — for flying gets 5+ in per turn, grows it, regenerates it through removal and your own wipes, kills any chump blocker, and tucks it to dodge exile/edict so it never costs more to recast. Murmuring Mystic builds a parallel flying army, and Striped Riverwinder / Gray Merchant provide backup closers.

Key Synergies

  • Cromat + your own wraths: regenerates Cromat through Drown in Sorrow, Crypt Rats, Sulfurous Blast, etc. You can one-sidedly sweep with Cromat on board.
  • Cromat + evasion: flying turns the 5/5 into a clock the table struggles to block; pumps for the kill turns.
  • Cromat + recursion: tucks Cromat to the top of library to dodge a hard removal / edict; it costs the same WUBRG to recast (no commander tax escalation), so it’s effectively unkillable.
  • Archaeomancer / Mnemonic Wall: rebuy your best counter or removal spell, turning a single answer into an engine.
  • Cuombajj Witches / Mogg Fanatic: repeatable damage outlets that pick off mana dorks and small utility creatures, doubling as the “pinger inevitability” the shell wants.

Role Breakdown (counts from the real list)

  • Lands: 37
  • Ramp / fixing (rocks + ramp spells): 11 — Arcane Signet, Prophetic Prism, Prismatic Lens, Sphere of the Suns, Chromatic Star, Mind Stone, Pilgrim’s Eye, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Cultivate, Harrow, Llanowar Visionary
  • Card advantage / draw: 12 — Sign in Blood, Night’s Whisper, Read the Bones, Compulsive Research, Divination, Phyrexian Rager, Sea Gate Oracle, Elvish Visionary, Coiling Oracle, Mulldrifter, Cloudkin Seer, Augur of Bolas
  • Spot removal + interaction (incl. counters): 28 — Counterspell, Arcane Denial, Mana Leak, Negate, Essence Scatter, Exclude, Dispel, Diabolic Edict, Geth’s Verdict, Doom Blade, Go for the Throat, Cast Down, Disfigure, Tragic Slip, Bone Splinters, Lightning Bolt, Flame Slash, Lightning Strike, Galvanic Blast, Generous Gift, Journey to Nowhere, Oblivion Ring, Fade into Antiquity, Into the Roil, Vapor Snag, Man-o’-War, Cuombajj Witches, Mogg Fanatic
  • Mass / pseudo-wipes: 5 — Drown in Sorrow, Fiery Cannonade, Sulfurous Blast, Evincar’s Justice (buyback = repeatable), Crypt Rats (scalable X-damage, repeatable)
  • Finishers / engines: Cromat (cmdr), Murmuring Mystic, Striped Riverwinder, Gray Merchant of Asphodel, plus Archaeomancer/Mnemonic Wall recursion and Whitemane Lion (re-buy ETBs)

Manabase / Fixing Note

37 lands, ~20 of which fix multiple/any colors — the binding constraint at common is touching all five colors:

  • Any-color in commander identity: Command Tower, Path of Ancestry, Opal Palace, Study Hall.
  • Any-color (filter/sac): Crystal Grotto, Shimmering Grotto, Unknown Shores, Painted Bluffs, Rupture Spire, Transguild Promenade, Gateway Plaza, Survivors’ Encampment, Holdout Settlement, Conduit Pylons, Crumbling Vestige.
  • Two-color karoos: Azorius Chancery, Dimir Aqueduct, Rakdos Carnarium, Gruul Turf, Selesnya Sanctuary (these five collectively touch all five colors twice).
  • Guildgates: Boros, Golgari, Izzet, Orzhov (fill remaining pairs).
  • Fetches: Evolving Wilds, Terramorphic Expanse, Ash Barrens.
  • Basics: 2 each of Plains/Island/Swamp/Mountain/Forest.

On top of the lands, the ramp slot adds Prophetic Prism, Prismatic Lens, Sphere of the Suns, Chromatic Star, Arcane Signet, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Cultivate, Harrow, and Pilgrim’s Eye — all of which fix colors, so total any-color sources land around 30+. Casting WUBRG Cromat by turn 5–6 is realistic.

Pilot Notes

  • Mulligan for 3+ lands and at least one fixing source; you can function on any two colors early because nearly all your cheap interaction is mono-pip.
  • Hold up counters early; don’t tap out for Cromat into open mana unless you can protect it or are okay re-casting (no tax, so it’s cheap to recur).
  • Sequence wipes around Cromat: drop Cromat, then sweep with mana up to regenerate it. Crypt Rats and Evincar’s Justice can be scaled/rebought to grind multiple boards.
  • Use to tuck Cromat in response to targeted exile, edicts where you have no other creature, or a board wipe you can’t regen through.
  • Archaeomancer/Mnemonic Wall want to rebuy Counterspell or Cultivate — bounce them with Man-o’-War / Whitemane Lion for extra loops in long games.

Weaknesses

  • Enchantment/artifact removal is thin (Fade into Antiquity, Generous Gift, Oblivion Ring/Journey) — resilient enchantment-based combos or stax can be hard to break.
  • No true Wrath; the wipes top out at -2/-2 or 3 damage, so go-wide decks with bigger bodies or recursion can out-grind the sweep package.
  • Speed: this is a slow control deck. Aggressive multiplayer starts can race you before the interaction comes online.
  • Cromat costs all five colors — a stumble on fixing delays the wincon, though the deep card-advantage suite usually finds it.

Win Condition

Grind the table out with counters + spot removal + repeatable sweeps, then close with Cromat as a recurring evasive (flying), self-pumping, regenerating, un-tuckable 5/5 finisher — backed by Murmuring Mystic tokens and Striped Riverwinder / Gray Merchant as redundant clocks.

Decklist

⬇ Download as .txt — paste into Moxfield, Archidekt, or MTG Arena.

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