Mono Black Scarabs

Standard Casual Mono-Black Tokens

Asakust

Creature (20)

• 4x Ammit Eternal
• 4x Baleful Ammit
• 4x Banewhip Punisher
• 4x Festering Mummy
• 4x Soulstinger

Enchantment (8)

• 4x Cartouche of Ambition
• 4x Nest of Scarabs

Instant (4)

• 4x Torment of Venom

Land (24)

• 24x Swamp

Sorcery (4)

• 4x Lethal Sting

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Nest of Scarabs has a great ability that has amazing synergy with other cards in its set. This is my first attempt to capitalize on the idea and see how many threats I could answer.

Interaction

Nest of Scarabs + Torment of Venom is the best removal in the deck. At its worst, it weakens or outright kills a threat. At best, you take out one creature and get rid of another nonland annoyance.

Lethal Sting is effective, as well - its not as cheap as Fatal Push, but it doesn't have a CMC limitation.

Soulstinger is the jankiest interaction in the deck, but can be the most effective. Pile up the -1/-1 counters from multiple sources on one Soulstinger, and when it dies you can put five counters on one enemy creature. That's enough to get rid of a lot of heavier threats plus you can double up on those triggers for Nest.

Banewhip Punisher weakens an enemy creature or helps set up the Soulstinger combo. It can also get rid of anything that isn't indestructible.

Festering Mummy and Cartouche of Ambition are great in the early game and can help whittle down bigger threats later on.

Tokens

Nest of Scarabs + Soulstinger is a big threat, assuming you can get two down at the same time. Piling all the -1/-1 counters from two Soulstingers onto the first one down will give you at least four scarab tokens. When it dies, you'll get at least four more.

Ammit Eternal + Nest of Scarabs punishes your opponent for doing anything. Every spell makes at least one token, and as long as you can hit your opponent with combat damage, it's repeatable forever.

Torment of Venom is really the superstar in this deck, though. Either removing or crippling an enemy creature and making at least three tokens is a fantastic combo.

"Heavy Hitters"

Ammit Eternal is the guy who takes it home. The downside of it getting -1/-1 counters is easily removed by attacking, and even if its blocked the Afflict 3 still does some damage.

Baleful Ammit can hit pretty hard and gains some life back to help survive into the inevitable scarab swarm.

Soulstinger, while mainly in the deck for its counter synergy, can also hit hard early.

I'd love to hear suggestions, but I'd like to keep it mono black. The inclusion of Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons would be great, I agree, but that's another deck entirely. I'm also looking for suggestions with this build after it rotates out of Standard, because I have way too much fun with it to put it away after M19.

Suggestions for Standard

Suggestions for Modern

• Fume Spitter replaces Festering Mummy
• Midnight Banshee replaces Baleful Ammit
• Sickle Ripper replaces Cartouche of Ambition
• Everlasting Torment replaces Banewhip Punisher

Date added	6 years
Last updated	6 years
Key combos	Nest of Scarabs + Torment of Venom Nest of Scarabs + Soulstinger Ammit Eternal + Nest of Scarabs
Legality	This deck is not Standard legal.
Rarity (main - side)	4 - 0 Rares 12 - 0 Uncommons 20 - 0 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	3.00
Tokens	Insect 1/1 B