MTG Salvation

Quote from cyberium_neo »

I am not sure if Empty the Pits is worth it however, since the cost is very high and may need to exile valuable cards to cast it effectively, also at sorcery speed.

A lot of people overvalue cards in the GY. Even in recursion heavy lists, you usually have something you can exile unless you're being hated out. With a general like Scarab God, where looting/windfall into reanimation targets is a viable plan, you're probably going to find yourself overloaded anyways. Killing your opponents and digging to other cards more quickly with the upkeep trigger is going to trump the increased flexibility of floating a bunch of targets most of the time. Take into account supporting instants and sorceries, fetches, etc and you should be able to delve deep without a problem. The quad-black seems like the more difficult part unless you're running heavy black.

Empty the Pits is one of the few zombie cards I'm planning on running in my first draft.

Weebo, do you have a link to that first draft? What do you think of mine?

Quote from FearDReaper »

Weebo, do you have a link to that first draft? What do you think of mine?

With the disclaimer that's it's super rough and I place quite a few deckbuilding restrictions on myself (few to no tutors, limit the number of goodstuff staples), list is here.

Your list looks good. I'm always a little wary about Choked Estuary and Temple of the False God, though I'll admit to not ever really trying out the SOI duals. Temple has bitten me on too many opening hands for me to be a big fan. I think you may be a couple lands heavy with the cheap draw and rocks, maybe consider Ponder/Preordain. You're riding the general really hard for GY hate with basically just it and Kalitas, which is pretty easy to play around. Maybe add in another piece of that somewhere. Shred Memory is a personal favorite and will find you something more useful when it's a dead card. Reanimation targets all seem like good choices. I'm interested in seeing if token creation and small creatures keep up with Razaketh.

God-Pharaoh's Gift? As I'm just thinking that so we can have more zombified clones.

Quote from FearDReaper »

It's an instant

Thanks for the correction.

Quote from Weebo »

Quote from cyberium_neo »

I am not sure if Empty the Pits is worth it however, since the cost is very high and may need to exile valuable cards to cast it effectively, also at sorcery speed.

A lot of people overvalue cards in the GY. Even in recursion heavy lists, you usually have something you can exile unless you're being hated out. With a general like Scarab God, where looting/windfall into reanimation targets is a viable plan, you're probably going to find yourself overloaded anyways. Killing your opponents and digging to other cards more quickly with the upkeep trigger is going to trump the increased flexibility of floating a bunch of targets most of the time. Take into account supporting instants and sorceries, fetches, etc and you should be able to delve deep without a problem. The quad-black seems like the more difficult part unless you're running heavy black.

Empty the Pits is one of the few zombie cards I'm planning on running in my first draft.

I don't mind exiling cards from GY, I do that all the time with Tasigur, but I don't find EtP efficient for its cost, although upon knowing it's an instant does help quite a bit.

EDIT: Adding God-Pharaoh's Gift.

Quote from man1acc »

Awesome thread guys. Since I saw the spoiler I really want to build him (and 2color is a cheaper deck :D)
What do you guys think how strong he is as a commander? In my opinion the U gives as a perfect card: Rhystic Study ? I have never seen people hate a card more

In terms of strength at a competitive level he's probably tier 2 like Jarad, Alesha and Narset. I don't think he's tier 1 like Tasigur, Zur and Prossh,

Unfulfilled Desires might be more useful in this build than Phyrexian Arena. You can control when it is triggered and stock your own graveyard with good things from your hand. It is also a useful place to sink mana if a turn goes by that you decide not to activate the Scarab God's ability.

Quote from Gamazson »

Unfulfilled Desires might be more useful in this build than Phyrexian Arena. You can control when it is triggered and stock your own graveyard with good things from your hand. It is also a useful place to sink mana if a turn goes by that you decide not to activate the Scarab God's ability.

This is one of the better looting effects. There are plenty of them on creatures if you want more of it - Oracle of Dust was mentioned earlier and plays nicely for a couple reasons. Compulsion isn't quite the same (basically gives your hand cycling), but it's a favorite of mine. I wouldn't underestimate the usefulness of straight card advantage though, especially if you're running a more controlling list. If you're just going for zombie tribal/tempo/aggro, the filtering effects are probably good enough.

Breathstealer's Crypt? Maybe?

Quote from Life_Weaver »

Breathstealer's Crypt? Maybe?

Looks interesting, but most players would just pay 3 life when you're telegraphing reanimator as strongly as this deck does.

I think it's a auto-include. There's some hand transparency, and that life loss can add up quickly!

I like Breathstealer's Crypt! Hand intelligence, another source of life loss and a chance to gain a reanimation target from your opponents. It also a convenient discard outlet for your own creatures.

How does the god's ability work with Phage and such?

Quote from Loki Sukaido »

How does the god's ability work with Phage and such?

With Phage? Oh the usual, you die.

Quote from hyalapterouslemur »

Quote from Life_Weaver »

Breathstealer's Crypt? Maybe?

Looks interesting, but most players would just pay 3 life when you're telegraphing reanimator as strongly as this deck does.

I will add this alongside Unfulfilled Desires, options is good.

One of the guys at my LGS is looking at building this and pointed out a rather good little interaction - Mirror-Mad Phantasm. Activating a token version (such as that created by The Scarab God...) will mill your entire deck. So, EOT Scarab God the phantasm and activate it, then make a Laboratory Maniac copy with the God on your upkeep, then on your draw step win. Risky, as with all Lab Maniac wins, but pretty easy to pull off.

Quote from PhroX »

One of the guys at my LGS is looking at building this and pointed out a rather good little interaction - Mirror-Mad Phantasm. Activating a token version (such as that created by The Scarab God...) will mill your entire deck. So, EOT Scarab God the phantasm and activate it, then make a Laboratory Maniac copy with the God on your upkeep, then on your draw step win. Risky, as with all Lab Maniac wins, but pretty easy to pull off.

Eww. That is disgusting. And I love it

Quote from PhroX »

One of the guys at my LGS is looking at building this and pointed out a rather good little interaction - Mirror-Mad Phantasm. Activating a token version (such as that created by The Scarab God...) will mill your entire deck. So, EOT Scarab God the phantasm and activate it, then make a Laboratory Maniac copy with the God on your upkeep, then on your draw step win. Risky, as with all Lab Maniac wins, but pretty easy to pull off.

Awesome combo! Add both and Hour of Eternity into the list.

Added a few cards, including some new spoilers.

Quote from man1acc »

What du you think about Wonder? Should be easy to get it into the GY and then we have a *****load of Flying Zombies

Wonder is wonderful! Will add. Thx!

Quote from commanderziggy »

The Scarab God is definitely going to replace Gisa and Geralf in my zombie EDH deck.

I really don't think this will be a good replacement for Gisa and Geralf. He draws too much hate and doesn't really aid you.
Playing Zombies from the GY is a lot stronger than Scrying.

Trust me, in August you will have switched back.

I think UB Control is the way to go. With utility creatures and abit of mill.

Quote from Kangodo »

Quote from commanderziggy »

The Scarab God is definitely going to replace Gisa and Geralf in my zombie EDH deck.

I really don't think this will be a good replacement for Gisa and Geralf. He draws too much hate and doesn't really aid you.
Playing Zombies from the GY is a lot stronger than Scrying.

Trust me, in August you will have switched back.

Two styles of zombie deck, and Scarab God can be played as reanimator without being a full blown zombie tribal. It's always nice to steal opponent's stuff from graveyard, making 0/1s and 1/1s as 4/4 instead, at instant speed no less.

I agree with Kangodo and RedGauntlet.
Utility creatures, Training Grounds, Cryptic Cruiser and Oracle of Dust to abuse opponents' creatures more than once and a slight mill subtheme (e.g. put Phenax in the 99) will be the way to build this commander.

Most people building The Scarab God as Zombie tribal will be converting to Gisa and Geralf by the end of july or august at the latest (unless they rebuild their deck, of course).
He is a decent commander, but not for zombies. My current draft has 4 zombies: 3 Zombie lords that are just value with eternalized creatures and Grey Merchant of Asphodel (because literally every Black deck with less than 3 colors runs one).

At this point it's not about two styles of zombie decks, but the fact that a focus on zombie tribal cuts down on the potential The Scarab God brings to the table. You can't get around lords, but limiting oneself to zombies and building them as a tribe is just wrong if you plan on using The Scarab God as your commander, as Gisa and Geralf just have more utility.

Quote from DarknessGrace »

At this point it's not about two styles of zombie decks, but the fact that a focus on zombie tribal cuts down on the potential The Scarab God brings to the table. You can't get around lords, but limiting oneself to zombies and building them as a tribe is just wrong if you plan on using The Scarab God as your commander, as Gisa and Geralf just have more utility.

I'm not sure what you mean by "is just wrong", The Scarab God's upkeep trigger benefits from having zombies en mass, without losing its ability to steal opponent's creatures. It's a versatile general with many plausible directions, zombie tribal being one of them, and enough room for players to wiggle between tribal and utilities to fit into their ideal, the same way they could decide how many mill cards they need for their deck to suit their wincon.