This is my take on the Scarab God: A deck that loves to play out of the enemy's graveyard, turning their creatures as well as their spells against them. The Scarab God is well equipped to do this all by himself, but he gets support from cards like Diluvian Primordial and Wrexial, the Risen Deep. If the enemy doesn't have anything juicy in the yard, we'll just recur our own creatures for maximum value instead. I've always loved the Dimir gravestealer playstyle (with Lazav and later Mirko at the helm previously), but The Scarab God seems the best commander for it yet.
I'm deliberately not pushing two of the more obvious synergies. One, I'm not running a lot of Zombies simply because I don't want this to be primarily a tribal deck. The Scarab God can generate enough zombies for some decent scrying by himself, and I do run some zombies that are powerful on their own even without tribal aspects (like Grimgrin, Corpse-Born). And as a backup win condition, there's a couple of mass zombie token generators like Army of the Damned in there.
Furthermore, I don't have a lot of mill either. This stems from previous experience with Lazav and Mirko: Unless it's your primary win condition, even powerful mill cards like Traumatize don't do much once the graveyards are already well stacked. That's why I only run mill cards that have other powerful effects on top. Consuming Aberration and Dread Summons are perfect examples. However, this may change based on further testing, as I've noticed the Scarab God burns through graveyards quite a bit faster than other commanders of his kind. In turn, he doesn't need as many other cards that steal from the enemy's grave because he's so good at just doing that himself and very hard to get rid of on top of that.
The win condition, then, is drowning the enemy in reanimated value both from his yard and mine, with the Scarab God's bleed hastening his demise. It's probably not the most cut-throat way to play him, but I feel it's the most fun with plenty of versatility and interesting decision-making. However, I'm of course still looking to make the strategy run as smoothly as possible, so if you have any ideas, I'd love to hear them!
This is my take on the Scarab God: A deck that loves to play out of the enemy's graveyard, turning their creatures as well as their spells against them. The Scarab God is well equipped to do this all by himself, but he gets support from cards like Diluvian Primordial and Wrexial, the Risen Deep. If the enemy doesn't have anything juicy in the yard, we'll just recur our own creatures for maximum value instead. I've always loved the Dimir gravestealer playstyle (with Lazav and later Mirko at the helm previously), but The Scarab God seems the best commander for it yet.
I'm deliberately not pushing two of the more obvious synergies. One, I'm not running a lot of Zombies simply because I don't want this to be primarily a tribal deck. The Scarab God can generate enough zombies for some decent scrying by himself, and I do run some zombies that are powerful on their own even without tribal aspects (like Grimgrin, Corpse-Born). And as a backup win condition, there's a couple of mass zombie token generators like Army of the Damned in there.
Furthermore, I don't have a lot of mill either. This stems from previous experience with Lazav and Mirko: Unless it's your primary win condition, even powerful mill cards like Traumatize don't do much once the graveyards are already well stacked. That's why I only run mill cards that have other powerful effects on top. Consuming Aberration and Dread Summons are perfect examples. However, this may change based on further testing, as I've noticed the Scarab God burns through graveyards quite a bit faster than other commanders of his kind. In turn, he doesn't need as many other cards that steal from the enemy's grave because he's so good at just doing that himself and very hard to get rid of on top of that.
The win condition, then, is drowning the enemy in reanimated value both from his yard and mine, with the Scarab God's bleed hastening his demise. It's probably not the most cut-throat way to play him, but I feel it's the most fun with plenty of versatility and interesting decision-making. However, I'm of course still looking to make the strategy run as smoothly as possible, so if you have any ideas, I'd love to hear them!
1 Animate Dead
1 Body Double
1 Chancellor of the Spires
1 Diluvian Primordial
1 Dimir Doppelganger
1 Lazav, Dimir Mastermind
1 Memory Plunder
1 Necromancy
1 Puppeteer Clique
1 Reanimate
1 Rise from the Grave
1 Rise of the Dark Realms
1 Sepulchral Primordial
1 Spelltwine
1 Wrexial, the Risen Deep
//Control
1 Big Game Hunter
1 Counterspell
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Decree of Pain
1 Fleshbag Marauder
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Insidious Will
1 Massacre Wurm
1 Necromantic Selection
1 Pongify
1 Psychic Strike
1 Rapid Hybridization
1 Disciple of Bolas
1 Jace, Memory Adept
1 Mulldrifter
1 Necropotence
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Rhystic Study
1 Rune-Scarred Demon
1 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
1 Sire of Stagnation
1 Sphinx of Uthuun
//Utility
1 Archaeomancer
1 Consuming Aberration
1 Entomb
1 Ever After
1 Illusionist's Bracers
1 Training Grounds
//Zombies
1 Army of the Damned
1 Dread Summons
1 Grave Titan
1 Graveborn Muse
1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
1 Grimgrin, Corpse-Born
1 Undead Alchemist
1 Zombie Master
//Mana
1 Burnished Hart
1 Caged Sun
1 Crypt Ghast
1 Dimir Signet
1 Expedition Map
1 Fellwar Stone
1 Liliana of the Dark Realms
1 Magus of the Coffers
1 Sol Ring
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Talisman of Dominance
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Cabal Coffers
1 Command Tower
1 Dimir Aqueduct
1 Drowned Catacomb
1 Evolving Wilds
1 High Market
11 Island
1 Nephalia Drownyard
13 Swamp
1 Tainted Isle
1 Temple of the False God
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth