While he is cheap, his ability is far less so and thus for him to be consistently a useful card in your deck you need to not rely on him
Enabling typal synergies is great, and even if you dont hit any its still a white Elvish Visionary, which is more than playable
Volrath, the Shapestealer Volrath, the Shapestealer can be a convenient removal source in -1/-1 counter decks, or it can simply be a versatile Clone card
While he thrives as a Commander, pumping out more and more extra mana and peppering each opponent with damage whenever you play a noncreature spell, he can also slot nicely into any blue-red spell-slinging deck
This is someone being pushed to an extreme, standing their ground against an onslaught and simply saying no as emphatically as they can