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The Scarab God

Commander / EDH Zombie

xLithium

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Creature (29)

Land (36)

Instant (8)

Enchantment (6)

Commander (1)

Commander: The Scarab God

Artifact (12)

Sorcery (8)

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Creature (11)

Artifact (3)

Enchantment (11)

Sorcery (5)

Land (4)

Instant (1)

The Scarab God

Lore and Symbolism

Interesting facts from Wikipedia:
"In ancient Egyptian religion, the sun god Ra is seen to roll across the sky each day, transforming bodies and souls. Beetles of the Scarabaeidae family (dung beetle) roll dung into a ball as food and as a brood chamber in which to lay eggs; this way, the larvae hatch and are immediately surrounded by food. For these reasons the scarab was seen as a symbol of this heavenly cycle and of the idea of rebirth or regeneration. The Egyptian god Khepri, Ra as the rising sun, was often depicted as a scarab beetle or as a scarab beetle-headed man. The ancient Egyptians believed that Khepri renewed the sun every day before rolling it above the horizon, then carried it through the other world after sunset, only to renew it, again, the next day."

From another source we learn:
"The Egyptians had early on observed the life of the scarab. Scarabaeus sacer is a species of dung beetle. The act of the scarab’s rolling of a ball of dung across the ground was thought to represent the journey of the sun across the sky. They also observed that the scarab beetle often laid its eggs in bodies of dead animals. This was a symbol of life being created from dead matter. The Eygptian scarab consequently became a representation of Khepri, the God of the Rising Sun and eternal life. [...] In Egyptian mythology there is a story how the corpse of Khepri is divided and buried every night. Every morning his body is resurrected and he rises in triumph."

Khepri - God of the Rising sun

In other words, The Scarab God deck fits the theme of bringing life back from death because of its symbolism in Ancient Egypt religion. Scarabs were considered a symbol of life cycle because they rolled the ball of dung on the groud like the Sun across the sky and layed eggs in dead bodies to bring life back from de death. Egyptian God Khepri, which was represented as a beetle-headed man, was one of the forms of Ra, the god of Sun. Khepri represented rejuvenation, divine wisdom and immortality. We can induce a direct parallel from Khepri's signification to a Blue-Black recursion-control zombie deck with a God as the commander!

Deck tech

Strategy

The deck focus on making the most out of The Scarab God two main abilities.

  • Milling players to make zombies from their graveyards with The Scarab God second ability. We must find ways to bring great value in every player's graveyard.
  • Flooding the board with a large army of zombies to trigger The Scarab God first ability. This ability will also make you the target since everyone will be passively drained.

Signature cards

This is what you want in your hand (or graveyard) no matter what!

Combos

Grave crawler combos

Rite of replication kicked targets

Rite of replication is good on everything, but has interesting interactions with these:

Try-hard combo:

Prerequisites:

Steps:

  1. Cast Buried Alive to put Sheoldred, Whispering One, Sidisi, Undead Vizier and Gravecrawler in the graveyard.
  2. Cast Gravecrawler from the graveyard.
  3. Reanimate Sheoldred, Whispering One with The Scarab God's second ability.
  4. At the begining of the next upkeep, return Sidisi, Undead Vizier to the battlefield with Sheoldred, Whispering One's ability. Exploit Gravecrawler to go get Ashnod's Altar.
  5. Cast Ashnod's Altar.
  6. Sacrifice Sidisi, Undead Vizier to Ashnod's Altar.
  7. Cast Gravecrawler from the graveyard.
  8. At the begining of the next upkeep, return Sidisi, Undead Vizier to the battlefield with Sheoldred, Whispering One's ability. Exploit Gravecrawler to go get Rooftop Storm.
  9. Cast Rooftop Storm.
  10. Generate infinite mana with Gravecrawler + Rooftop Storm + Ashnod's Altar.
  11. Reanimate Sidisi, Undead Vizier with The Scarab God's second ability. Exploit The Scarab God to go get Pull from Tomorrow.
  12. Cast Pull from Tomorrow with X = the number of card in your deck to draw yout entire deck.
  13. Win the game with a combo such as Dread Summons or Diregraf Captain or Consuming Aberration and Gravecrawler + Rooftop Storm + Ashnod's Altar.

Variant one turn win

Prerequisites:

Preparation turn:

  1. Cast Buried Alive to put Sheoldred, Whispering One, Sidisi, Undead Vizier and Gravecrawler in the graveyard. Cast Gravecrawler.

The endstep before your game-winning turn:

  1. Reanimate Sheoldred, Whispering One with The Scarab God's second ability.

Game winning turn:

  1. At the begining of the next upkeep, return Sidisi, Undead Vizier to the battlefield with Sheoldred, Whispering One's ability. Exploit Gravecrawler to go get Ashnod's Altar
  2. Cast Ashnod's Altar. (Cost: 3 colorless)
  3. Sacrifice Sidisi, Undead Vizier to Ashnod's Altar. (Generates: 2 colorless)
  4. Reanimate Sidisi, Undead Vizier with The Scarab God's second ability. Exploit The Scarab God to go get Rooftop Storm (Cost: 1 blue, 1 black)
  5. Sacrifice Sidisi, Undead Vizier, Sheoldred, Whispering One and your other zombie creature to Ashnod's Altar (Generates: 6 colorless)
  6. Cast Rooftop Storm. (Cost: 1 blue)
  7. Generate infinite mana with Gravecrawler + Rooftop Storm + Ashnod's Altar.
  8. Cast your win-condition card combo.

Updates

November 2018

August 2018

  • Dreamborn Muse -> Altar of the Brood: Dreamborn makes you a target instantly and does not stay on the board for very long. Altar of the brood mills almost the same amount of card for every player each turn, but does not make you fell like a danger in opponent's eyes.
  • Paradox Haze -> Plague Belcher: I found paradox haze to be not as efficient as I tought it would be. Maybe because I don't have enough upkeep effects. Its only potential was to trigger the scarab god's damage twice. Plague belcher is a nice body and combo piece.
  • Dark Salvation -> Overseer of the Damned: They almost have the same effect for the same cost, but overseer can be re-used with the scarab god's recursion. I found myself using dark salvation often for 7 mana and it is way too much for what it does.

January 20th 2018

January 12th 2018

December 23rd 2017

To include

These are the cards I really want to include, but can't find what to swap them for.

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Date added 7 years
Last updated 6 years
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

10 - 0 Mythic Rares

40 - 0 Rares

23 - 0 Uncommons

6 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.45
Tokens Copy Clone, Frog Lizard 3/3 G, Human Cleric 1/1 BW, Zombie 2/2 B, Zombie Wizard 1/1 UB
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