MTG Salvation

Can anyone give me good suggestions, preferably creatures, that are nice fat threats for the scarab god? I feel like my deck needs a bit more to close out the game beyond some 4/4 creature tokens and the few big creatures I have. Remember good etb and/or death triggers are nice with the god due to the token potential.

The current potential game enders are:

• 1 Wurmcoil engine
  
• 1 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
  
• 1 Demonlord Belzenlok
  
• 1 Grave Titan
  
• 1 Entomb
  
• 1 Vampiric tutor
  
• 1 Reiver Demon
  
• 1 In Garruk's Wake
  
• 1 Revel in Riches
  
• 1 Rite of replication
  
• 1 Army of the Damned
  

I did add in Demonlord Belzenlok, entomb, Wurmcoil engine and revel in riches recently. Perhaps the deck is a bit more set up than before. Still, please share thoughts and good finishers here. Preferably things $15 and under! The deck list has a link in my signature.

Built a The Scarab God EDH myself recently, though I took a different approach to you. I take it then that your meta is mostly creature focused? I know part of my goal, originally, was to use my Commander as the primary wincon and finisher itself. Giving your armies evasion with Wonder or Cover of Darkness (calling Zombies, obviously) could help slip past your opponents. But it depends on how long your games go, I suppose.

Exsanguinate is a classic, and Torment of Hailfire is pretty good.

Gray Merchant of Asphodel should be great, even in UB.

You can also go the "lots of Zombies in one card" route by playing Army of the Damned, Josu Vess, Lich Knight, Dark Salvation, Empty the Pits, Grave Titan, etc. and just burn them out through The Scarab God's upkeep trigger.

My Scarab God "finishers" are: Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur, Razaketh, the Foulblooded, Consecrated Sphinx, Rune-Scarred Demon, Fleet Swallower, Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Noxious Ghoul, Ghoulcaller Gisa, Josu Vess, Lich Knight, Army of the Damned.

Thanks for the great responses! I just updated the thread in my list to include a strategy section. Please post your lists there or post a link to your thread for the Scarab God. I'm hungry for more decklists to peruse.

Here are your questions answered:

My meta is generally slow, underpowered, creature based, and lacking boardwipes. I built this deck to teach these fools a lesson. There are no combos to be found anywhere, which I do like.

I recently took out Josu vess, Lich Knight because army of the damned is better with its flashback. The deck had too many 7+ mana cards in it and that was cut.

I had in Exanguinate before and cut it. It could go back in. Same could be said for Gray merchant, but with my many board wipes there aren't many black mana symbols floating around on my side of the board.

I do mean "win cons" as it was put. The deck generally wins through attrition. We get rid of their creatures/commanders and we always have ours. I just want to close out the games faster with this method. Not looking for a combo.

I added in Swiftfoot boots which should really help. There's a fair amount of evasion in the deck, and the god doesn't mind attacking sometimes either. A low cost card to get damage through faster, especially after one of the numerous boardwipes.

Demonlord Belzenlok was just added. I feel this late game style deck wants lots of card draw. I think he should help. I may make room for Rune-scarred Demon and Wonder does look really good since I run a number of fetchlands and dual land cards.

I'm considering Propaganda and Dissipation Field. They aren't wincons, but it slows my opponents down enough for me to draw answers to their creatures. Also allows me extra chances at scrying/lifeloss in this creature based meta.

I'd use The Scarab God its a pretty big creature that keeps returning from the dead.

Mirror-Mad Phantasm - Scarab God it EoT, activate the ability, mill your entire library (as the token won't be in the library). Untap, upkeep Scarab God Laboratory Maniac, draw, win.

LOL. Well that is pretty brutal. I suppose I could put one conditional/combo win-con in there. I suppose that could bump the deck up into the outright competitive realm. Fastest win would be entomb Mirror-Mad Phantasm after ramping into the god. Then proceed as you said. That could happen pretty early in the game if everything lines up. I like that the combo is at least susceptible to a bounce spell or instant speed removal. Keeps it somewhat fair. I may look into it. It's not as though I must use this combo if it's available to me.

I really like Sphinx of uthun. While 7 mana is a lot to pay, that fact or fiction effect is amazing. Also, I have entomb, final parting so getting this into the 'yard when I need a draw spell isn't bad. Also fact or fiction is brutal already in this deck as I don't care about having to put some creatures into the graveyard. I've been looking for more card draw on a stick. I want to convert as many straight card draw spells as possible into creatures. (Demonlord Belzenlok, Mulldrifter)

Frost Titan isn't bad either. However I think the other cards at this cmc are stronger than this.

I like Erebos, God of the dead. Having an indestructible creature in a deck with a lot of boardwipes is nice. Also, tokens are reanimated with their mana cost on the card, so devotion should be easy to trigger. Mostly, I like that it costs 4 and helps draw cards and is indestructible.

I think one card you could consider for a finisher is Tidespout Tyrant. An absolute terror in the early days of EDH, it doesn't see much play anymore, but is a very effective way to finish out games. The only issue is that it's contingent on being able to cast enough spells to make it work, but that's not usually a problem in UB.

Is your meta against infinite combos? You're already considering Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, which is good on his own. If you do, you could add in Triskelion, which is OK on its own, and game-ending when added to Mikaeus.

i think that lich lord of UNX UNX UNX UNX is a good one cause most of the things you are creating will also be zombies which will fuel the lich lord

Quote from Outcryqq »

Is your meta against infinite combos? You're already considering Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, which is good on his own. If you do, you could add in Triskelion, which is OK on its own, and game-ending when added to Mikaeus.

Doesn't Triskelion just become a 1/1 after you remove all the counters from it? Are you forgetting that I need a sac. outlet for that to happen, or am I missing something?

Are you thinking of Walking Ballista with Mikaeus, the unhallowed? I might be down to throw in an infinite combo or two. My friend's new jeleva deck is pretty hard to beat.

EDIT: I found the combo online. You must save enough counters to kill off Triskelion, then it undies. NICE! I might just put in both ballista and triskelion. Perhaps it's time for my meta to experience the dreaded combo.

You might already be aware, but I've seen so many people get it wrong, so do note that, unlike Triskelion, Walking Ballista does need a sac outlet to go infinite with Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, as Ballista isn't a human so gets +1/+1.

I was thinking of it wrong. Thanks.

If anyone here is playing the scarab god as their commander, please post your list on the link in my signature. I'm attempting to develop enough community and experience to turn it into a primer someday. I love that I get so many responses here. I've learned a ton. Since we can't post our lists here, post them on my thread (I haven't found any other active Scarab god threads yet.)

I think I may go all in on a combo deck eventually. I said before that I didn't want to, but my play group is really stepping up it's game. It would be nice to include a few ways to win besides the traditional kill off the opponents via damage. Depending on how my group responds, I might throw in that mirror-mad phantasm and laboratory maniac combo too. It doesn't hurt that the scarab god has a built in scry ability, great for combo decks.

You all heard about Arena of the Ancients? I just added it to my deck because Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge, along with Eldrazi and other attack based commanders have been plaguing my group. Seems great here, as we care much more about our commander's abilities than we do it's ability to attack/block.

I see incredible potential in this deck and want to continuously upgrade it to the best it can be, given my price range and time.