Would it be a flavor-fail to include the ten original Signets or some other such cycle? Otherwise your mana is going to be super rough, even with the million-dollar manabase.
EDIT: Maybe the Borderposts would fit better since they hit off a Niv trigger?
I know it's expensive, but Cavern of Souls would help make sure Akroma gets to do her thing (and you have a Tabernacle, so $$ really shouldn't be an issue).
Endless Horizons is an underrated mono-white gem. I usually dig out about 5-10 Plains each time and it's fine even if it gets blown up right away.
Dunharrow is absolutely right about your mana base. Enemy color pairs generally get the shaft when it comes to dual lands, but there are still enough solid options out there that you should be able to run at least half a dozen. In addition to his suggestions, I'd get a Simic Guildgate and a Thornwood Falls.
It would also help to list your main goal(s)/theme(s) for the deck. It sounds like you want to play sea monsters? Better get some cheap ramp spells to be able to afford them all. Make sure that they all check two very important boxes: 3cc or less so they can come out before your sea monsters do, and try not to make them mana dorks, because creatures can't be used right away like lands and they die a lot. Because your commander is technically a "land" sometimes, you can probably get away with creatures that untap lands. For example, Sakura-Tribe Elder and Wood Elves are essentials, Voyaging Satyr is fine given your commander, and Quirion Elves are bad bordering on unplayable.
And, as usual, it's easier to suggest cards to add than cards to cut, so I'll do the latter:
- Naturalize: in spite of its cost, this is a bit too underwhelming for a format that lets you play all the giant sea monsters. For one more mana, Krosan Grip is much stronger, and Beast Within is more flexible. For the same cost, Deglamer and Unravel the Aether can deal with Theros Gods.
- Dragon Throne of Tarkir: This costs nine mana to get paid off, is easily disrupted by removing either the equipment or the body it's attached to, and only really works well if you have a lot of smaller bodies to take advantage of the bonus (instead you have a few big bodies).
- Prismatic Lens: You're only two colors, so the second line is mostly irrelevant, and you're green, so you have better ways to ramp.
- Hedron Archive: I'm all for the flexibility of cashing in your rock for two cards, but at four mana you'd always rather cast your commander, and for one less mana, you could just play Simic Locket. Also, green decks should never run artifact ramp.
- Sphere of the Suns: See above.
- Soul's Majesty and Rush of Knowledge: The former is especially bad because it doesn't work if someone else removes the target. Both are bad because you need to have an actual creature in play to make them work, and your commander doesn't always count, and creatures die a lot.
Where is this $22 mana crypt? I'm only seeing $150+.
I recommend real estate. Get on-color shocks (~$12), checks (~$5), and possibly pains (~$5) for decks you already have or decks you're about to build. Mana fixing never goes out of style and prices will typically only go up. They're not sexy, but they do a lot of work.
This. Always this. I'd buy complete sets of 40 fetches, shocks, and checks before I bought any expensive spells.
Nice! Glad to hear it. I'm going to get my first EDH game in for a few months now. The Scarab God will definitely be coming out.
The tokens made by the Scarab God DO in fact come down with their same mana cost on the card as usual. So any card that had black in it's casting cost will still add black devotion when resurrected as a token. The difference is just that anything that is resurrected by the God will also have black as part of it's color identity, even if it didn't originally have black in it's cost.
In that case, guess it's time to move Gary up a few notches...
First off, you'll get a lot more feedback if you use the appropriate deck tags. I'm also a fan of the spoiler tag to keep the wall of text to a minimum, like so:
Second, I think that 35 lands is not enough. You run enough big stuff that you could easily run into situations where you don't draw enough acceleration to get over the hump, so I'd look to add 1 or 2 more lands.
Finally, it would help if you provided some direction about what your deck is trying to accomplish at a very high level, or if there are any themes you want to focus on.
Updated the list after several months of updates and a few test games. Highlights include:
- Cutting almost all of the mill spells. Altar of the Brood is constantly on/off the hot seat because my group generally finds it obnoxious to have to mill one card over and over again, even when I try to bunch the triggers together to make it "easier" on them. Altar of Dementia is the only one that's locked in, and that's largely because it's a free sac outlet and it can target the one player who is likely to have good reanimation targets for a larger chunk. The rest of the mill cards were in fact garbage, as others pointed out.
- Adding a bunch of counters. All of them had three things in common: they needed to be very cheap (most were 2 mana or less), the main purpose was to keep Scarab on the table, and they only needed to counter non-creature spells (since the majority of the rest of the deck was already designed to get rid of creatures).
- Adding a few more bounce effects for non-creature permanents, largely due to the addition of the counters mentioned above. I've already documented my past trouble with non-creature permanents, so this was a natural progression.
EDIT: going forward, two things still need to be fleshed out:
- Global discard effects. Currently, I have only Liliana's Specter in that role, and I'm considering swapping it out for Rotting Rats, which can unearth itself in a pinch and allows me to setup my own yard as well.
- Some sort of life-gain. The two top options are Gray Merchant of Asphodel, which is normally the gold standard but might suffer from a lack of devotion (since I don't think that Scarab tokens carry any color pips), and Exquisite Blood, which works very well with the upkeep trigger on Scarab. More to follow on this.
Finally, two other potential cards to test:
- Crystal Shard: functions as protection for the important stuff and a way to re-use the many ETB guys I naturally have.
- Spellskite: A cheap body that takes a bullet for Scarab, messes with a few random targeted spells, and potentially comes back to take another bullet. Also a target for Muddle.
Happy to help. Like I said, it's always easier to suggest adds than cuts, and it helps that TSG is my latest favorite deck.
In your case, I would maybe try to look at what type of card you need more of. Do you need more counters, more wraths, more token generators, etc?
Specifically from your list, Undead Warchief and Zombie Master would probably be reasonable. Army of the Damned might not be the most cutthroat, but it'd probably be fun to resolve. Training Grounds is probably too expensive, but maybe Heartstone is within your budget? Making TSG cheaper to activate will go a long way.
For lands, is Underground River in your price range? Maybe Darkwater Catacombs, as long as you make sure it's the first land you tap, since it can't make anything without help. Bad River will "eventually" find you duals. Both of the Memorials from Dominaria are also excellent.
EDIT: One more that I just thought of. Not the highest on my list, but it's a Zombie, it's a common, and it's on theme: Rotting Rats!
As uaual, it's always easier to suggest new adds than make cuts, so I'll try the latter:
- Corpse Augur: Dimir colors have access to all of the best card draw spells in the game. I'd rather not wait until I can off this guy to get some, even if he is a Zombie.
- Crypt Ghast: Doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the deck. In a vacuum, it's a solid card, but it's not a Zombie or a key reanimation target.
- Havengul Skaab: Is this a type-o? This card is unplayable.
- Jace's Archivist: Guys like this that you have to untap with in order to get value are rarely worth the wait. Even if you try to cheat with Lightning Greaves etc, it's still unlikely to turn a profit.
- Josu Vess, Lich Knight: 4 mana for a 4/5 menace is kind of meh in this format, so this is really only good when kicked, and kicker doesn't work when reanimated.
- Notion Thief: It's a fine card, but it feels a lot like running a single Thalia or a Gaddock Teeg somewhere in the 99. One random hate-bear that you might never use or might not get at the right time.
- Soulless One: Vanilla body, no evasion or abilities, not good.
- Blue Sun's Zenith: I've had excellent results with Pull from Tomorrow, which is also a bit easier to cast.
- Dissipate: Another fine card that just doesn't seem to fit. Not sure what your goal is with your counters, but mine are all to protect the God from harm, so I went with cheaper Negate effects. Counterspell is fine, Arcane Denial is also pretty solid. Disdainful Stroke is surprisingly effective, Stubborn Denial is almost always ferocious, and even plain old Negate is solid.
- Wretched Confluence: The other confluence is soooo much better, and pretty cheap after a reprint.
- Graf Harveset: You'll never use the four-mana ability on this card when you could use the one on your commander.
- Levitation: For one more mana, I'd rather have Eldrazi Monument. Four mana just to give your guys some evasion that they don't really need seems weak.
- Manalith: You only have two colors, and they just printed Dimir Locket.
- Grimoire of the Dead: You have to untap with this how many times to turn a profit? No thanks.
- Hedron Archive: Another fine card that doesn't seem to fit much. I've found that more colored mana is the bottle-neck than colorless. Wouldn't fault you for keeping this one, but if you HAD to cut something...
I am disappointed no one has mentioned Word of Command. All the judges love that card; just make certain you ay thw wrong land for them during their draw step
Honorable mention to Magical Hack, for something no one will expect.
Word is a pretty cool card, but way out of my budget. Not sure what Magical Hack would actually accomplish, maybe I'm missing something?
As for BSZ, it is certainly flexible and deals with a lot of problematic things. I actually used to run it in the first version of my deck, and I recall casting it for 4BB in one game that allowed TSG to live through it, which was pretty helpful.
EDIT: Maybe the Borderposts would fit better since they hit off a Niv trigger?
Endless Horizons is an underrated mono-white gem. I usually dig out about 5-10 Plains each time and it's fine even if it gets blown up right away.
It would also help to list your main goal(s)/theme(s) for the deck. It sounds like you want to play sea monsters? Better get some cheap ramp spells to be able to afford them all. Make sure that they all check two very important boxes: 3cc or less so they can come out before your sea monsters do, and try not to make them mana dorks, because creatures can't be used right away like lands and they die a lot. Because your commander is technically a "land" sometimes, you can probably get away with creatures that untap lands. For example, Sakura-Tribe Elder and Wood Elves are essentials, Voyaging Satyr is fine given your commander, and Quirion Elves are bad bordering on unplayable.
And, as usual, it's easier to suggest cards to add than cards to cut, so I'll do the latter:
- Naturalize: in spite of its cost, this is a bit too underwhelming for a format that lets you play all the giant sea monsters. For one more mana, Krosan Grip is much stronger, and Beast Within is more flexible. For the same cost, Deglamer and Unravel the Aether can deal with Theros Gods.
- Dragon Throne of Tarkir: This costs nine mana to get paid off, is easily disrupted by removing either the equipment or the body it's attached to, and only really works well if you have a lot of smaller bodies to take advantage of the bonus (instead you have a few big bodies).
- Prismatic Lens: You're only two colors, so the second line is mostly irrelevant, and you're green, so you have better ways to ramp.
- Hedron Archive: I'm all for the flexibility of cashing in your rock for two cards, but at four mana you'd always rather cast your commander, and for one less mana, you could just play Simic Locket. Also, green decks should never run artifact ramp.
- Sphere of the Suns: See above.
- Soul's Majesty and Rush of Knowledge: The former is especially bad because it doesn't work if someone else removes the target. Both are bad because you need to have an actual creature in play to make them work, and your commander doesn't always count, and creatures die a lot.
This. Always this. I'd buy complete sets of 40 fetches, shocks, and checks before I bought any expensive spells.
Ice Cave is a great idea!
I’m looking for some good ideas for the theme of a deck with Surrak Dragonclaw. Any fun or unique ideas are welcome. Budget is mostly not a problem.
In that case, guess it's time to move Gary up a few notches...
1 Saheeli, the Gifted
Creatures (24):
1 Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer
1 Chief Engineer
1 Foundry Inspector
1 Goblin Welder
1 Hellkite Igniter
1 Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain
1 Junk Diver
1 Keranos, God of Storms
1 Kuldotha Forgemaster
1 Maverick Thopterist
1 Myr Retriever
1 Padeem, Consul of Innovation
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Platinum Angel
1 Sai, Master Thopterist
1 Scrap Trawler
1 Silent Arbiter
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Soul of New Phyrexia
1 Steel Hellkite
1 Stuffy Doll
1 Void Winnower
1 Walking Ballista
1 Wurmcoil Engine
Artifacts (27):
1 Ashnod's Altar
1 Caged Sun
1 Contagion Clasp
1 Contagion Engine
1 Darksteel Forge
1 Duplicant
1 Everflowing Chalice
1 Extraplanar Lens
1 Fellwar Stone
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Krark-Clan Ironworks
1 Mana Vault
1 Mirage Mirror
1 Mox Opal
1 Mycosynth Wellspring
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Paradox Engine
1 Planar Bridge
1 Retrofitter Foundry
1 Skullclamp
1 Sol Ring
1 Spine of Ish Sah
1 Sword of the Animist
1 The Chain Veil
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Throne of Geth
1 Rhystic Study
Planeswalkers (8):
1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
1 Dack Fayden
1 Daretti, Scrap Savant
1 Karn Liberated
1 Saheeli Rai
1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
1 Tezzeret, Artifice Master
1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
Sorceries (12):
1 All Is Dust
1 Banefire
1 Blasphemous Act
1 Displacement Wave
1 Expropriate
1 Red Sun's Zenith
1 Reshape
1 Rite of Replication
1 Saheeli's Artistry
1 Saheeli's Directive
1 Scrap Mastery
1 Time Stretch
Instants (6):
1 Chaos Warp
1 Comet Storm
1 Counterspell
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Swan Song
1 Whir of Invention
Lands (35):
1 Buried Ruin
1 Cascade Bluffs
1 Command Tower
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Great Furnace
1 Inventors' Fair
1 Izzet Boilerworks
1 Seat of the Synod
1 Shivan Reef
1 Steam Vents
1 Strip Mine
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Temple of Epiphany
1 Wasteland
9 Mountain
Second, I think that 35 lands is not enough. You run enough big stuff that you could easily run into situations where you don't draw enough acceleration to get over the hump, so I'd look to add 1 or 2 more lands.
Finally, it would help if you provided some direction about what your deck is trying to accomplish at a very high level, or if there are any themes you want to focus on.
- Cutting almost all of the mill spells. Altar of the Brood is constantly on/off the hot seat because my group generally finds it obnoxious to have to mill one card over and over again, even when I try to bunch the triggers together to make it "easier" on them. Altar of Dementia is the only one that's locked in, and that's largely because it's a free sac outlet and it can target the one player who is likely to have good reanimation targets for a larger chunk. The rest of the mill cards were in fact garbage, as others pointed out.
- Adding a bunch of counters. All of them had three things in common: they needed to be very cheap (most were 2 mana or less), the main purpose was to keep Scarab on the table, and they only needed to counter non-creature spells (since the majority of the rest of the deck was already designed to get rid of creatures).
- Adding a few more bounce effects for non-creature permanents, largely due to the addition of the counters mentioned above. I've already documented my past trouble with non-creature permanents, so this was a natural progression.
EDIT: going forward, two things still need to be fleshed out:
- Global discard effects. Currently, I have only Liliana's Specter in that role, and I'm considering swapping it out for Rotting Rats, which can unearth itself in a pinch and allows me to setup my own yard as well.
- Some sort of life-gain. The two top options are Gray Merchant of Asphodel, which is normally the gold standard but might suffer from a lack of devotion (since I don't think that Scarab tokens carry any color pips), and Exquisite Blood, which works very well with the upkeep trigger on Scarab. More to follow on this.
Finally, two other potential cards to test:
- Crystal Shard: functions as protection for the important stuff and a way to re-use the many ETB guys I naturally have.
- Spellskite: A cheap body that takes a bullet for Scarab, messes with a few random targeted spells, and potentially comes back to take another bullet. Also a target for Muddle.
In your case, I would maybe try to look at what type of card you need more of. Do you need more counters, more wraths, more token generators, etc?
Specifically from your list, Undead Warchief and Zombie Master would probably be reasonable. Army of the Damned might not be the most cutthroat, but it'd probably be fun to resolve. Training Grounds is probably too expensive, but maybe Heartstone is within your budget? Making TSG cheaper to activate will go a long way.
For lands, is Underground River in your price range? Maybe Darkwater Catacombs, as long as you make sure it's the first land you tap, since it can't make anything without help. Bad River will "eventually" find you duals. Both of the Memorials from Dominaria are also excellent.
EDIT: One more that I just thought of. Not the highest on my list, but it's a Zombie, it's a common, and it's on theme: Rotting Rats!
- Corpse Augur: Dimir colors have access to all of the best card draw spells in the game. I'd rather not wait until I can off this guy to get some, even if he is a Zombie.
- Crypt Ghast: Doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the deck. In a vacuum, it's a solid card, but it's not a Zombie or a key reanimation target.
- Havengul Skaab: Is this a type-o? This card is unplayable.
- Jace's Archivist: Guys like this that you have to untap with in order to get value are rarely worth the wait. Even if you try to cheat with Lightning Greaves etc, it's still unlikely to turn a profit.
- Josu Vess, Lich Knight: 4 mana for a 4/5 menace is kind of meh in this format, so this is really only good when kicked, and kicker doesn't work when reanimated.
- Notion Thief: It's a fine card, but it feels a lot like running a single Thalia or a Gaddock Teeg somewhere in the 99. One random hate-bear that you might never use or might not get at the right time.
- Soulless One: Vanilla body, no evasion or abilities, not good.
- Blue Sun's Zenith: I've had excellent results with Pull from Tomorrow, which is also a bit easier to cast.
- Dissipate: Another fine card that just doesn't seem to fit. Not sure what your goal is with your counters, but mine are all to protect the God from harm, so I went with cheaper Negate effects. Counterspell is fine, Arcane Denial is also pretty solid. Disdainful Stroke is surprisingly effective, Stubborn Denial is almost always ferocious, and even plain old Negate is solid.
- Wretched Confluence: The other confluence is soooo much better, and pretty cheap after a reprint.
- Graf Harveset: You'll never use the four-mana ability on this card when you could use the one on your commander.
- Levitation: For one more mana, I'd rather have Eldrazi Monument. Four mana just to give your guys some evasion that they don't really need seems weak.
- Manalith: You only have two colors, and they just printed Dimir Locket.
- Grimoire of the Dead: You have to untap with this how many times to turn a profit? No thanks.
- Hedron Archive: Another fine card that doesn't seem to fit much. I've found that more colored mana is the bottle-neck than colorless. Wouldn't fault you for keeping this one, but if you HAD to cut something...
...and I just can't resist advocating for a couple cards that are dirt cheap and have done serious work for me:
- Pull from Tomorrow
- Dimir Locket
- Champion of Wits
- Kagemaro, First to Suffer
Mind Grind is a good idea. Added to the maybeboard.
Word is a pretty cool card, but way out of my budget. Not sure what Magical Hack would actually accomplish, maybe I'm missing something?
As for BSZ, it is certainly flexible and deals with a lot of problematic things. I actually used to run it in the first version of my deck, and I recall casting it for 4BB in one game that allowed TSG to live through it, which was pretty helpful.
Unfortunately, context = Scarab God, so Dimir cards only need apply.
Yeah, I've been using Pull from Tomorrow with great success. I've even considered Epiphany at the Drownyard as a functional second copy. Read the Runes might be worth trying as well. Wouldn't be bad to have a kill spell like Pongify or Go for the Throat.