Relentless Skaabs

Creature — Zombie

As an additional cost to cast Relentless Skaabs, exile a creature card from your graveyard.

Undying (When this creature dies, if it had no +1/+1 counters on it, return it to the battlefield under its owner's control with a +1/+1 counter on it.)

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (6)

drpeppercan on Scarab god

5 years ago

Some cards to consider:

• Bojuka Bog : A must include in any black commander deck.
• Boneknitter : Utility, simple as that.
• Corpse Harvester : Out with the old, in with the new... and a swamp!
• Cryptbreaker : So much value in such a small package. Token generating, card draw, good in the early and late game... what is not to love about this card!
• Death Baron : A zombie lord with some extra punch Sure he doesn't get deathtouch himself, but all those 2/2 tokens that are now 3/3 deathtouch.
• Dread Summons : Ever seen those zombie movies with that big hoard that just keeps coming... that's this card. Gives you a bunch of tokens, and recursion bait for your commander.
• Endless Ranks of the Dead : Card title kind of says it all for this one. Obviously not the best in metas with wrath effects coming down every turn, but shines like a copper penny otherwise.
• Ghoulcaller Gisa : So take one creature, throw it under the bus, and get more...
• Grave Titan : Why this thing isn't a zombie I will never know. 6/6 for 6, deathtouch, and brings two friends with it AND when it attacks.
• Graveborn Muse : Card draw based on zombies, who is also a zombie!
• Infernal Caretaker : Mass recursion, either play them out, or discard them back for more effects.
• Liliana, Death's Majesty : Just an all around strong zombie planeswalker.
• Liliana's Mastery : Zombies + an anthem that won't be a big target for removal.
• Lord of the Undead : A low to the ground zombie lord with recursion on a stick.
• Noxious Ghoul : Sweeps out low toughness cards for things you're already doing. Just great value.
• Relentless Dead : A great early drop, and late game it serves as a sac target + recursion.
• Shepherd of Rot : Yes it hits you, but this can be such a major threat.
• Undead Warchief : Cheaper zombies, and bigger zombies. All in one convenient package.
• Awaken the Erstwhile : Disruption, plain and simple. Sure it hurts your hand too, but you are the one with all the zombie based anthems.
• Victim of Night : Doomblade 2.0, but hits black creatures.
• Sidisi, Undead Vizier : You'll have so many tokens kicking around to exploit that she's just a straight tutor, and if she ever hits the graveyard just use her again with Scarab God.
• Fleshbag Marauder : Hurts them a lot more than you, and enter the battlefield abilities are great with Scarab around.
• Josu Vess, Lich Knight : Solid 4/5 Menace for 4, got the extra 6 mana though and he brings friends who also have menace.
• Wonder : Flying zombies... yep, that's scary.
• Pull from Tomorrow : Nice draw on an instant with the added benefit to pitch something for Scarab to target.
• Price of Fame : Legendary killer + Surveil 2... love it.
• Sinister Sabotage : Counterspell + Surveil... love it too.
• Paradox Haze : You've got a couple effects that trigger on upkeep, why not double up?

Some mana fixing/ramp:

• Dimir Signet
• Talisman of Dominance
• Mind Stone
• Dimir Locket

What would I take out:

• The deck currently seems to be going in two directions, you have a large zombie theme which I love, but you also have a minor mill theme which seems out of place.
• Advanced Stitchwing : Slow for what it gives, even on the bounce back it comes back tapped.
• Apprentice Necromancer : This is one I'm on the fence suggesting, it's a one use for one turn only.
• Grimgrin, Corpse-Born : This guy is beast, but he works best in a deck build around him.
• Lamplighter of Selhoff : Slow, for his effect.
• Merciless Eternal : He's not bad, just a lot better things to include in the 3 cost bracket.
• Phenax, God of Deception : Love this guy, really do, but he's out of place here because he's a mill guy who loves big butts.
• Relentless Skaabs : This guy does everything you don't want as he hurts your graveyard in order to even hit play.
• Servant of Tymaret : Slow with high cost. In order to make the best use of him you have to be attacking, and if the way isn't clear that means a 3 mana tax just for 1 life on each opponent.
• Spiteful Returned : Don't hate it, but better things out there.
• Stitchwing Skaab : Suffers from the same as Advanced Stitchwing.
• Undead Alchemist : This guy can go either way, but the way I look at him is generally people have more cards in their decks than life, so it's easier to take out their life.
• Vindictive Lich : This guy is fun, though for his cost there is a lot more out there.
• Exotic Orchard : Risky unless you know your playgroup always has one of your colors, otherwise it's just a colorless and a swamp or island would be just as good.
• Leechridden Swamp : Slows you down for a minor effect.
• Path of Ancestry : Phenax is the only other god creature, so even if you keep him in it's very slow for the benefit it probably will never get the chance to give.
• Coat of Arms : I love this card, I really do, but it's a calculated risk and I find zombies are usually too slow of it. Run up against a goblin or elf deck and this will do more for your opponent.
• Mindcrank : This is another I'm on the fence with as it pairs really well with Scarab.
• Vanquisher's Banner : Good card, though you're not casting all those tokens so you're only getting a bit of a benefit from it.
• Liliana Vess : Good card, out of place in this deck unless you are going heavier into the mill.
• Ob Nixilis Reignited : Just completely out of place for zombie tribal.
• Glimpse the Unthinkable : One of those mill cards, it suffers as a one of.
• Rise from the Grave : Expensive for effect.
• Ruthless Disposal : This isn't bad in this deck, but compared to Morbid Slip for example it lacks that added shine.
• Curse of Disturbance : So much politics, this is VERY meta dependent as to if players fall for the bait.
• Quest for the Gravelord : This can work out, but more often then not stuff isn't dying fast enough or it just gets pinged with early removal.
• Search for Azcanta  ^Flip: More at home in a non-creature strategy.
• Torment of Scarabs : Most people can play around this with not too much fuss, and it gives all the choice to them. I'd prefer some targeted removal.

Austin_Smith_of_Cards on Chestburster 2.0

6 years ago

Emerge is a pretty fun mechanic to play around with, and the synergies with undying is an interesting angle.

I'd add a playset of Ancient Stirrings as a powerful 1-drop that can grab your emerge creatures off the top or find a land you need.

You need to add some more early drops so you can be doing something for the first few turns. Young Wolf and Strangleroot Geist are powerful early drops with undying, so you can either block for a couple turns or pressure aggro, and synergise with emerge later on.

You could also add a couple evoke creatures so you can cheaply emerge an Elder Deep-Fiend. Mulldrifter seems like the best option, since it also provides card advantage alongside a hefty converted mana cost. By evoking it and flashing in the Deep-Fiend, you can cast it for only five mana.

For cuts, I would drop your more expensive undying creatures and chaff, so cut Frost Lynx, Primal Huntbeast, Relentless Skaabs, Wall of Frost, and the Woodland Patrol. I would also cut Mockery of Nature since artifact/enchantment destruction is more sideboard material.

englishmuffin9 on Bring out your dead! (Scarab God EDH)

7 years ago

What do you think about Relentless Skaabs, Skaab Goliath and Geralf's Messenger?

Samuel-Frederick on Overrunning Zombies

7 years ago

Hey there, you have to love zombies right! Here are a few suggestion to have a think about.

There are loads of sweet zombies out there, and because you have the ability to play some nice one and two mana cards, I feel that playing Dark Ritual is a bit of a waste. The advantage it gives you isn't worth the card advantage. However, I don't know your meta of course, and if it does let you overrun them, then that's fair enough! Either way, here are some zombies I like that may be worth a peek at;

Diregraf Ghoul of course! It isn't Gravecrawler by any means, but playing them alongside each other makes it almost certain that you'll get an aggressive turn one play down.

Not the best card, but if you end up running more multi colour guys, then Grixis Grimblade isn't too bad. He's a 3/2 deathtouch for two, he's solid, and he gets no play, so he's certainly not expected.

Zombies, as with most aggro decks (especially tribal), are vulnerable to removal. You already have creatures that come back, and that take advantage of the dead, but there is always more that can be done! Let's make these zombies impossible for control to deal with! First off, Spiteful Returned. May not look that exciting to start off, but he does a really good amount of damage. His strength of course is when he is bestowed, as it means your opponent will have to kill him twice, and his bestow is only four mana, it's a bargain! Next is another card that doesn't look exciting, Sultai Emissary. He'll get boosted by your lords, he'll be a zombie in the yard when he dies, and he'll put a 2/2 onto the field. If that card is a creature, then that's extra bonus, either way, he takes two removal spells to kill. Geralf's Messenger is of course one of the all stars, but he is a little greedy when it comes to the mana... Awesome though! Ghoulraiser is much less exciting, but draws you a card as he enters, and counts towards your zombie count, and is boosted by lords. If you wanted to drop the blue to tidy the mana, you can run Cemetery Reaper instead of the Captain, another way to reanimate guys from the grave. Or, stick with the blue and maybe throw in Prized Amalgam as he's going to keep coming back as well. Finally, Undying Evil is awesome, one mana save a guy and make him bigger!

You could go down the route of keeping your graveyard nice and tidy, changing out cards that want zombies in there, and change them for those that clean and take advantage of it. So Cemetery Reaper is a card that cleans the yard, and it works well with Risen Executioner as he is then cheaper to keep bringing back. They work well with Gravecrawler as well as he gets himself out the yard. Stitched Drake, and Relentless Skaabs are really awesome, clean the yard, and pack one hell of a punch as well. Or, if you really wanted to go bit, Skaab Ruinator is huge, allows the Executioner to always come back cheap, is three mana, and can be cast from the graveyard himself. Or if you want to cast them from the yard, then Havengul Lich is the guy to do it!

Or you could go mono black to take advantage of the Gray Merchant of Asphodel. You want those black pips, so cards like Stromgald Crusader, Sangrophage, Lifebane Zombie (who is obviously awesome against Green and White decks!), the Messenger is obvious the king of black pips. For four mana, he isn't a zombie, but he's all sorts of crazy worth it, Phyrexian Obliterator... I mean, who made that guy, he's so powerful and awesome, and he adds 4 to your devotion for the Merchant!

Just a few directions the deck could go in, and some suggestions of cards that I like and think you may enjoy. Give them a go, some of them might surprise you.

Samuel-Frederick on My Only Zombie

7 years ago

Hey there. For me, the first thing to look at is tightening the deck up. Any deck that has all 1 and 2 ofs is a deck that doesn't have a great deal of focus. Do you want a deck that is fast off the ground and applies pressure, and then makes a load of tokens in the mid-late game? Or did you want something slower? At the moment the deck is fighting against itself. It runs Diregraf Ghoul which is an aggressive one drop, but also runs Grave Betrayal for seven mana, which is loads.

If you want to play more aggressively and make tokens, there are some really nice and very cheap zombie cards out there, I'll send some suggestions your way and see what you think.

Quest for the Gravelord is a nice one drop, pop it down, let your deck do what it does, and it won't be long before you get your 5/5. In very aggressive builds I like Carnophage, but as this build may be a bit slower, he might just cost you too much life. Another one drop you can run is Slitherhead. He isn't great, but he is one mana and boosts a guy after he dies. and if you run 4x Endless Ranks of the Dead then you want to have a whole bunch of zombies down if you can.

Because you want zombies on the field, your deck can be vulnerable to removal, so it's nice to have some creatures that have some sort of protection. For two mana there is Butcher Ghoul who comes back, Spiteful Returned who enters when the creature he bestows dies, and Sultai Emissary who manifests when he dies. All super cheap cards, as well as being fun and interesting as well.

For three mana Unbreathing Horde is awesome, so I'd run more than one if you can. Another guy that packs a hell of a punch is Diregraf Colossus and Liliana's Elite. Or if you want to get rid of them from your graveyard, then Corpseweft lets you keep getting zombies back.

If you want to take to the skies, then Stitched Drake is really strong. A 3/4 flyer for 3 is amazing value. If you want to go even more bold, then you can run Skaab Ruinator. If you are playing a graveyard sort of feel, then Undead Servant can be really good value, and gives you guys for your Endless Ranks as well.

A big guy with protection is Relentless Skaabs. I love this guy, he's huge, and he comes back! Awesome!

If you want things in the graveyard then make sure you have cards that will do it. Cards such as Screeching Skaab, Thought Scour, and Geralf's Mindcrusher are only a few suggestions for you.

Anyway, there are just a few ideas to have a look at.

Udinaas on Zombie (Suggestions Please to make Standard Legal)

7 years ago

Some actual suggestions: Prized Amalgam and Relentless Dead are very good, if you get your hands on more of them, be sure to add them.

For replacements: Gisa's Bidding for Moan of the Unhallowed. It's mostly the same; doesn't have flashback, but you can madness it in (potentionaly instant speed). Or if you'd prefer more power, than there is From Under the Floorboards. Also the potential for madness with a chance for even more power. (I'd actualy recomend both.)

For Diregraf Captain you can put in Risen Executioner, but it will rotate out in fall. I don't know if there is any other zombie lord in standard curently.

And instead of Relentless Skaabs I would recomend Geralf's Masterpiece. It's potentionaly 7/7 flier, enables madness and lets you get Amalgams and other cards into graveyard (and also takes Amalgam out right away).

For the rest, you can choose from these: Haunted Dead/Stitchwing Skaab come back from graweyard and enable madness. Ghoulcaller's Accomplice is 2/2 for 2 and can kind of come back.

Also personaly, Shamble Back is very bad. I suggest little more tempo aproach with Stitched Mangler, Compelling Deterrence and maybe even Just the Wind

I hope this helps. I purposefuly kept the suggestions in cheaper cards.