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1: Zombie tribal!
2: Milling!
3: Eternalizing opponent's creatures!
The Scarab God is THE zombie commander in my opinion, because zombies fuel him. Other zombie commanders like Ghoulcaller Gisa, Gisa and Geralf, Stitcher Geralf, Varina, Lich Queen, Thraximundar, Grimgrin, Corpse-Born and Sidisi, Brood Tyrant are good too but do single things on their own.
Okay where do I start, this commander is absolutely nuts. The power of The Scarab God, if left unchecked, will lead you to victory, no doubt.
.At the beginning of your upkeep, each opponent loses X life and you scry X, where X is the number of Zombies you control, this hits hard when you have a decent board state filled with zombies. The scry X part will dig you deeply for answers or win conditions, very strong.
.Then there is the second part, : Exile target creature card from a graveyard. Create a token that’s a copy of it, except it’s a 4/4 black Zombie. This can “Eternalize” back your own important creatures from your graveyard, but even better, the creatures in your opponent's graveyards. The Hour of Devastation Eternalize mechanic can be activated only on sorcery speed but with The Scarab God it is an instant speed activation. The copy is not just a token, it is a true copy, so everything is copied onto it, like mana cost.
.And the final part when The Scarab God dies, return it to its owner’s hand at the beginning of the next end step. 99% of the time The Scarab God lands safely in your hand and you will never pay the commander tax.
Rules:
Since the copy is a 4/4 Zombie, creatures with the text _“…power and toughness are each equal to…”_ and the base power and toughness are indicated as * / *, will stay 4/4 instead, although regular anthem effects from zombie lords, for example, will still add up. Consuming Aberration is not the best target for Eternalize, it will be a 4/4 Zombie and loses all benefits from being a huge creature.
Strengths and Weaknesses:
Strengths:
This commander likes graveyards, so paired against Meren of Clan Nel Toth, Alesha, Who Smiles at Death, Sidisi, Brood Tyrant or Muldrotha, the Gravetide is like being in a candy store. These commanders need to fill the graveyard in order to function, exile their best creatures and eternalize them for your own use. You drain your opponent's life pretty fast over the course of the game.
Weaknesses:
There is no such thing as the best commander ever, every commander has a weakness clause. The Scarab God is not a cheap cast at and on top of that, you need zombies on the board and graveyards filled if both of these factors are not present then it is just a 5/5 for 5 like any other ordinary creature. It takes a few turns until your engine is running. Another gameplan ruiner is graveyard hate, good luck playing against a Rest in Peace or a Ground Seal. There are also plenty Tormod's Crypt effects out there in the world of Magic. Be aware of hate in general while playing The Scarab God you will probably be the Nicol Bolas at the table, so you might want to take it easy and politic your way out from time to time.
Starting Hand:
Nothing special here, basically just three lands, a rock or two would be nice and a Cryptbreaker, Gravecrawler or Dreadhorde Invasion. The deck tends to go off midgame, there is no hurry.
Combos and Synergies:
Gravecrawler + Phyrexian Altar starts the combo. Recasting Gravecrawler from the graveyard with the floating mana in combination with the following cards;
!!!Watch out for graveyard hate!!!.
One Scavenging Ooze activation, for example, is enough to ruin the combo.
Gravecrawler can also be used as a fodder for discard and sacrifice.
- Altar of Dementia : Mill (target opponent). Combined with anthem effects from lords will increase the mill value.
- Cryptbreaker : discard for a 2/2 zombie token.
Paradox Haze + Strionic Resonator starts the combo, for some of the combinations you have to order the stack correctly to get the best out of it.
The Scarab God = Tripple drain your opponents. Copy the Paradox Haze trigger, this will grant you a second copy of your upkeep making it a total of three upkeeps.
Prioritized Triggers on the stack at the beginning of the upkeep:
Extra combo pieces:
If combined another Mass Mill.
Copy the Endless Ranks of the Dead trigger first, when both triggers are resolved, the Paradox Haze trigger resolves, and a third Endless Ranks of the Dead trigger goes on the stack and resolves. Starting with 5 zombies, to begin with, will result in 15 zombies after three triggers. When it is your turn again those 15 zombies, will grow to 49 zombies after the triggers and so on. (5-15-49-163-549-1851-6246….a lot).
With The Scarab God on the board, you get two drain triggers, one before the Paradox Haze trigger and one after. With the given example of 5 zombies to start with, will result in 25 damage to all opponents and scry 25.
Prioritized Triggers on the stack at the beginning of the upkeep:
Some great synergies worth mentioning:
Zombie Tokens
- Ghoulcaller Gisa + Consuming Aberration: Lots of 2/2 zombie tokens. You can easily yield 50 plus tokens from one activation if your mill pieces are on the board. If you do this on an opponent's end-step or at the beginning of your upkeep, you win the game with The Scarab God on the board.
Milling
Free graveyard recursion
Gisa and Geralf + Rooftop Storm + Zombie
Best targets:
Another zombie combo enabler?!
Relentless Dead + Phyrexian Altar + Rooftop Storm, It is like the Gravecrawler combo, with one more hoop to jump through. It is a larger combo, because it needs a fourth card the function properly, for example Bontu's Monument.
Sacrifice Relentless Dead to Phyrexian Altar, choose black mana. Pay the cost of the first trigger with the floating black mana and return Relentless Dead to your hand. Then cast Relentless Dead for free with Rooftop Storm.
The three cards on their own can be used to return another target Zombie creature card with converted mana cost X from your graveyard to the battlefield, if you need a critical zombie from your graveyard and have the mana for X to pay, but that is not the main goal of the combo.
More to come, stay tuned. To be continued.
In this deck?! Yes, it is in here but is indeed the worst zombie in the deck to have, I’m aware of that. Instead of doing damage to an opponent or opponents, done by zombies, the damage is converted to milling cards instead. Every creature card milled in the process is exiled and you create a 2/2 zombie token for each creature that goes to exile. By doing so the “Eternalize” part of The Scarab God is completely gone to waste, with the exception of your own creatures. I only use this strategy if all goes wrong and if I have at least a Paradox Haze or a Endless Ranks of the Dead on the board. The value of getting 2/2 zombie tokens on the board with the prior mentioned pieces can knockout a player or two by The Scarab God or even win you the game.
There is another sweat zombie that works realy well with Undead Alchemist and that is Noxious Ghoul. While you create 2/2 Zombie tokens with milling and exiling creatures, Noxious Ghoul sees these 2/2 Zombie tokens entering the battlefield and is handing out -1/-1s to all non-zombies on the battlefield (including your own non-zombies, though). At a point in time you have to sacrifice Undead Alchemist and get The Scarab God as fast as possible on the battlefield or swing for the win with your anthem pumped 2/2 Zombie tokens.
So What's next?!
Training Grounds will be added in the future, hoping for a reprint, for now way too expensive, even the foreign language prints are pricey. Rhystic Study is going in as soon as the EU gets the Jumpstart boxes. Another focus point is the mana base, I dislike cheap "tapped in play" dual lands, a basic land is much better in my opinion. Better dual lands and other utility lands will be added in the near future, for now it functions.