I got into Magic right near the end of the Theros block a while back, when the gods were still a big deal. So when I had heard that WotC was bringing gods back in Amonkhet, I was beyond excited. I wanted another set of disgustingly broken caveat-creatures to wreak magical havoc on the boards of my enemies. What we got was a crap-scented dumpster fire the likes of which haven't been seen since telling Mom I don't want any more of her damn lasagna.
The gods in the Amonkhet block, were, putting it lightly, abhorrent. They sucked so bad it was physically painful. "Oh, but Shinwizzles, Bontu the Glorified can go in your Meren of Clan Nel Toth deck, right? I mean, it's black and has to do with sacrifi-" "WRONG! SO WRONG! THEY'RE ALL GARBAGE! And I won't have any of them in my decks!" At least from an EDH/Commander perspective, they're crap. So after my friends coaxed me out of another crying fit, they told me not to fret, that there might be gods in Hour of Devastation too. It didn't matter though. I was despondent. They'd be more horrible Amonkhet gods, for sure. At this point, there was clearly nothing left to live for.
BUT THEN The Scarab God was spoiled, and through the long, dark tunnel of shitty Amonkhet gods, I saw the light. The Scarab God is everything I've ever wanted in a zombie commander and more. He's the prefect commander for milling, tribal zombies, graveyard antics, control, and letting your Mom know that she needs to forgive you about the lasagna already.
HOW IT WORKS:
The deck is pretty much designed to do 2 things:
1) Make zombies
2) Mill opponents.
The deck is great if you like controlling the board, turning friends against you, winning through killing stuff, you like death triggers, and you don't like other people having fun. The deck isn't for you if you don't like zombies and winning so... do with that what you will.
There are plenty of cheap zombies to get out onto the field in the early game that will help out through the whole game. The deck is mostly driven by creature cards, so keep pumping more zombies onto the field. Cards like Gravecrawler, Diregraf Captain, Relentless Dead, and Lich Lord of Unx are all great for dropping out early to assist in more zombie-making. Getting these guys out as early as possible is a good thing, because even if they die before they've served their purpose, they can be called back out by The Scarab God. And something that is very awesome about his ability, is that he turns everything into neat and tidy 4/4s for easy maths, how convenient. Thank you Mr. The Scarab God. What's scarier than an unblockable creature with infect like Blighted Agent? I'll tell you what, a zombie Blighted Agent that also gets buffed by Lord of the Accursed, Undead Warchief, and Cemetery Reaper, that's what.
I usually wait until I have at least 5 zombies on the board before casting The Scarab God. This way, he actually does some damage to the opponents, instead of being killed off early and doing very little. It is also beneficial to try and mill the opponents as fast as possible. Don't save that milling stuff for a game-ender, use it to fill the opponents' graveyards with useful stuff. One of the funniest actions I've taken with The Scarab God was to exile an Olivia Voldaren from an opponent's Edgar Markov deck and start stealing all of his vampires. It was glorious. That day, vampires and zombies worked together to slay those who opposed me.
So there's recursion through The Scarab God, there's creature token generation through Army of the Damned, Grave Titan, Ghoulcaller Gisa, Endless Ranks of the Dead, and others. Great mill cards in the deck are Consuming Aberration, Nemesis of Reason, Riddlekeeper, and Undead Alchemist. As for some disgusting control that will be sure to make your opponents question their choice of opponent, I love using Grave Pact, Dictate of Erebos, and Sadistic Hypnotist. Nothing makes an opponent know that you mean business more than making them mill/sacrifice their It That Betrays, exiling it, making a copy with The Scarab God, then sacrificing it to Ashnod's Altar for . All without breaking eye contact. Who needs that shit? Not us.
As for serious control, there are a few counterspells in the deck to keep opponents from getting too ballsy and really trying to ruin our fun. Make sure to use them wisely, as there aren't many, and most of the recursion in the deck is focused on creatures, not instants/sorceries.
There aren't too many combos in the deck so to speak of, because this deck isn't about combos. It's about millin' bitches and gettin' riches (getting rich not guaranteed). There is one combo that I only noticed after I had included the cards because they were neat anyway. Duskmantle Guildmage and Mindcrank go quite well together, and work to mill an opponent's entire deck. Like I said, the deck isn't super focused on combos, since plenty of my other decks pull that crap.
So the deck is simple enough to almost pilot itself. Drop out some zombies, get The Scarab God out on the field, and then win the game and make your opponents cry sweet, sweet tears of anguish. I realize that the deck isn't technically a zombie tribal, since 75% of the creatures aren't zombies, but... I dunno what to tell you. The creatures turn into zombies with the use of The Scarab God's ability, so it's like a pseudo-tribal deck.
Suggestions that I'm looking for are what to cut and what doesn't look like it works. I always appreciate suggestions on what to add too. I like to control the board, and I don't like my opponents to have fun, pretty basic goals with a million ways to get there. Please let me know if there's anything in the deck that doesn't seem like it belongs, or if I'm missing something that really seems like it should be in there.
Thanks for reading!
