Grave-Shell Scarab

Creature — Insect

{1}, Sacrifice Grave-Shell Scarab: Draw a card.

Dredge 1 (If you would draw a card, instead you may put exactly one card from the top of your library into your graveyard. If you do, return this card from your graveyard to your hand. Otherwise, draw a card.)

Legality

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

Discussion (11)

PeriodicalFits on

2 years ago

As far as lands go, one thing I noticed is that about 25% of your lands come in tapped, not including the ones that can come in tapped unless you pay life, or ones that sacrifice to put tapped basic lands down. I DO like the lack of non-basic colored mana generation, but you may want to watch out for the cards you have thrown in for the cycling ability. Lands coming in tapped without the ability to play multiple lands a turn, put you a turn behind your opponents. Given that your commander is also a sorcery, your commanders cmc will rise quicker than usual, and chances are you will want that mana rather than the one card draw from cycling. Also if you want to save a few bucks, you can replace Overgrown Tomb with Llanowar Wastes . There is a set that llanowar only costs 50 cents, as opposed to Overgrown's 25 bones.

For creatures, I noticed a few high(er) mana spots were taken by some lower-synergy cards. Like Grave-Shell Scarab . It may be helpful to have more insect-creation in its place that can match near the CMC of your commander creature. Like for example Hornet Nest and Saber Ants .

LadyZ on Savra, Queen of the Golgari Aristocrats

4 years ago

There are some more reanimation options you can look at. Victimize and Dread Return both support the aristocrats theme, and Vigor Mortis brings the creature back stronger.

I'd think about cutting Grave-Shell Scarab , it's main purpose is to fill your grave from the deck. Drakestown Forgotten similarly cares more about how fat your grave is than actually using it. And as for Gifted Aetherborn ... I would just cut it, but if you like the deathtouch-lifelink vampire that much, I'd pay the one extra for Vampire Nighthawk

Narsus on Black and Green Weenie Swarm

5 years ago

I like the idea, Bog! I'm pretty much strictly Commander these days, but I might suggest Worm Harvest and/or dredge cards, possibly Grave-Shell Scarab. The former would likely require adjusting your mana base with more lands that sacrifice themselves for some benefit, among other options, but there's nothing else in green/black I can think of that can give you that many bodies on the field. The latter is more for resiliency, especially since you can sacrifice it and then replace its draw effect with its dredge effect.

smashadams83 on Asps! Very Dangerous! (Hapatra)

6 years ago

Geier reach sanitarium looks great, ill have to add that to my list. do you think that Crop Rotation would be a good way to find it, or another utility land?
Another all star land for me has been Yavimaya Hollow. I would recommend getting one as its great for protecting hapatra. its a little pricey, but totally worth it. Ive justified the price tag but just rotating it throughout all my green decks. I cut Whispersilk Cloak for the Sword of Feast and Famine, not sure this was the right cut but i still have Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots in the list. Do you think these 3 are necessary for protection?

I added Bitterblossom to my list as I think that your logic in needing more token producers is correct. Having flying blockers is relevant as well. I also added Westvale Abbey  ^Flip and removed Rogue's Passage. passage seemed nice as a way to make hapatra unblockable but the activation cost is just too high for this deck and I never used it much.

I also wanted to recommend Forbidden Orchard. It helps to color fix, is an untapped land, and is great for putting more targets into play for -1/-1 counters. I find alot of times i run out hapatra on turn 2 and there are no other targets besides her to put a counter on, so this should help with that.

Also if you want another cycling land we can put in Polluted Mire.

How has Slate of Ancestry been working? I put it in my list but it seems kinda slow, although I haven't been able to really use it yet.

Sounds like life from the loam has been great. Honestly, I've never used this type of dredge strategy and I'm worried about discarding a win con ( like craterhoof or the archfiend) when dredging. What are your thoughts on this? is the risk worth the reward here? Maybe more recursion is correct if life from the loam is included?

I agree that the creature count is low. I've played a few games where I have nothing to discard to fauna shaman or survival. And Undead Gladiator looks like a great inclusion.

I cant think of many other creatures to recur to our hand, maybe Genesis? discarding it will turn on the ability we want anyway. How about something like Evolutionary Leap? With all the tokens we should be able to activate it multiple times in a turn if necessary to get some creatures into the hand.
Golgari Guildmage could work but its an expensive activation cost.

Sanitarium Skeleton could work as a creature to discard and return to hand.

Stinkweed Imp is a nice utility creature but dredging 5 seems too high for this deck.

Could Grave-Shell Scarab work here?

Its too bad that we don't have more creatures with relevant keywords for something like Mwonvuli Beast Tracker. its a nice creature tutor along with Fierce Empath. Actually, fierce empath might be nice for finding hulk or craterhoof. I guess if we are looking to up the creature count these could be nice utility guys but you're probably right in using wood elves and steve as utility creatures to ramp and possibly discard later on in the game if necessary.

I still want to find a spot for Golgari Charm as I've like Heroic Intervention so far. Great utility, and a blowout if someone boardwipes and we keep all our things.

HangDoll on What mechanics should return for …

6 years ago

I'm going to defend Dredge.

So dredge isn't that threatening in commander. Its good, but its not what breaks the dredge decks. Hermit Druid is. The dredge cards are good, but without the druid those decks couldn't combo off nearly as easily. Plus a blue dredge card wouldn't be that bad at dredge 2-3. Especially if it wasn't a creature card. So would it really break Legacy? Not likely. The dredge decks of those formats don't use all dredgers just to use dredgers. I mean, how often do you see Grave-Shell Scarab getting used?

Snydog17 on

6 years ago

Cheap BG stuff that you might want to consider: Vulturous Zombie stuff dying is quite good, Varolz, the Scar-Striped graveuard stuff and sac engine, Spiritmonger, Reaper of the Wilds stuff dying is good, Rakshasa Deathdealer, Putrid Leech a decent buff, Pharika, God of Affliction graveyard and make some snakes, Hag Hedge-Mage versatility is good, Grave-Shell Scarab for some draw, Doomgape is a good sac engine, Deity of Scars good dude in general, Baloth Null for some recursion, Puppeteer Clique not BG but steal your opponet's stuff.

More recursion because you are a sacrifice deck: Whip of Erebos who doesn't like lifelink, Vigor Mortis, Seasons Past got lots o stuff.

(1/2)

Leptys on Gitrog Dredge Combo [Primer]

6 years ago

@enpc

Thanks! No kidding with the lack of a cheaper Kozilek, getting domed for 10 via Ad Nauseam is a kick to the curb and forces us to be more conservative with the card in comparison to other combo decks. You actually can use Gaea's Blessing as a shuffler by its lonesome, but it needs more dead cards like Golgari Brownscale and Grave-Shell Scarab to become functional. Additionally, having another shuffler that works as protection for targeted grave exile is incredibly effective when fighting grave hate, so Kozilek is here to stay until WotC brings a cheaper option.

MindAblaze on Necrotic Ooze Combos

7 years ago

Civilized Scholar  ^Flip + a creature with Dredge allows you to get every single* card in your graveyard.

*you have to be able to dredge exactly x cards, so it's possible you'll be left with a small number of cards in your library, unless you happen to have a Grave-Shell Scarab as your dredge creature.

After that, infinite mana and something that machine guns them for the win. Grand Architect + Pili-Pala works. (If you've made the ooze an artifact, for the challenge)