the Scarab God is a potent commander that can effectively head a variety of decks. The most common build seeks to capitalize on The Scarab God’s upkeep trigger by steering into zombie tribal. These decks can deal damage quickly both through the Scarab God’s passive effect as well as through combat, but is vulnerable to board wipes and exacerbates dimir’s weaknesses with mana ramp. A more effective build compensates for the inherent slowness of the Scarab God by stalling opponent’s strategies, while using mill and discard strategies to fill the graveyard. This deck is an example of this control/attrition style of Scarab God deck. Card explanations are broken up according to function.
Self-Mill/Discard
The Scarab God’s power and flexibility as a commander comes from its ability to instant speed reanimate any target in any graveyard. Because of this, many of our creatures are more effective in the graveyard than out of it. To insure that our yard is full of effective targets, discard and self-mill outlets are necessary. We aren’t too concerned at losing non-creature cards, as there are options within the deck to recur these as well, such as Archaeomancer and Diluvian Primordial. Mesmeric Orb is MVP in this deck, getting things in the yard early from us and our opponents. Dreamscape Artist is our most valued ramp card, letting us discard to bring out basic lands. loot effects from Wharf Infiltrator, Loot el-kor, champion of wits, frantic search, along with Pull from Tomorrow and Windfall all let us draw and discard together. Search for Azcanta and Cryptbreaker also let us put our own tools into the graveyard.
Mill/Discard
The Scarab God can target creatures in ANY graveyard, meaning our opponent’s creatures are often better or equal targets to our own. Mill and discard effects can help to fill our opponents’ graveyards with targets, while also disrupting our opponents’ strategies. These strategies will inevitably attract a great deal of hate from our opponents, but this is probably unavoidable with any decent build of the Scarab God. Mesmeric Orb effects every player, and cards like Mindcrank, Manic Scribe, Altar of Dementia, and even Dreamstealer can lead to massive amounts of cards put into opponents’ graveyards throughout a game. Looter and specter effects such as Wharf Infiltrator, Needle Specter, and Loot el-kor are potent threats when turned into 4/4 zombies. Dread Summons puts us way ahead even with a cheap casting, and Grisly Spectacle can dramatically turn the game around if cast on the right target.
Control
The Scarab God requires 9 mana to play and activate its effect, which means that almost all of our opponents will be outspeeding us in getting their strategies going. Rather than run a losing race, this deck takes advantage of excellent Dimir control options to slow down and disrupt our opponents. Discard and mill function as one form of disruption. Counter spells are another excellent strategy for control. While counters are generally seen as less than useful in EDH, in this deck they can function to fill graveyards with targets and buy much needed time to get the Scarab God running. This deck runs Counterspell, Cryptic Command, and Mana Drain. Creature based counters that can be reanimated at instant speed are especially useful. Nimble Obstructionist counters a spell while setting up a flier for reanimation, while Mausoleum Wanderer becomes much more useful when reanimated as a 4/4 zombie. Ulamog’s Nullifier is a processor that also counters a spell. Draining Whelk comes out of the graveyard as a massive flyer.
Other forms of control include removal (Shriekmaw, Syphon Flesh, Never // Return, Toxic Deluge, Cyclonic Rift, Grisly Spectacle), Notion Thief, and Phyrexian Revoker.
Card Draw
Discarding and self-milling is essentially card draw in this deck, but we run a few traditional card draw sources as well. The formally mentioned looters, along with Syphon Mind, Rhystic Study, Windfall, and Pull from Tomorrow, all help fill our hand. Thought Sponge is a good reanimation target, often coming in as a 9/9 with some card draw tacked on.
Ramp
Dimir’s primary form of ramp is through rocks, so we run the whole suite - Chromatic Lantern, Commander’s Sphere, Dimir Signet, Dimir Keyrune, Felwat Stone, Sol Ring. Cabal Coffers, Urborg, and Deserted Temple are available on the land side, and the previously mentioned Dreamscape Artist does serious work. Burnished Hart and Solemn Simulacrum are useful reanimation targets and help us hit early land drops.
Processors
There isn’t room in the deck to run huge threats, we are counting on our opponents to bring the eldrazi titans, the wurmcoil engines, the Blightsteel Colossi. Eldrazi Processors serve the needed function of getting these cards back into graveyards after The Scarab God has exiled them. Wasteland Strangler, Ulamog's Nullifier, Alamos’s Reclaimer, and Oracle of Dust all serve a highly valued role in this deck.
reanimation targets
reanimated Diluvian Primordial should almost always be a win condition in this deck. Embodiment of Agonies easily becomes a 10/10 flyer. peregrine drake is essentially a free 4/4 flyer once it’s in the yard. All the creatures are at least as good as 4/4 zombies as they would be hard cast, but again, targets for the Scarab God and Reanimate should probably be the powerhouses in our opponent’s graveyards. This helps keep the deck feeling fresh and has added psychological weight for our opponents.
Scarab God Support
Hearthstone, Illusionist’s Bracers, Mindcrank, Rings of Brighthearth, and Training Grounds all push our commander’s abilities into overdrive.
