Ok I've been play testing for about a week now and I get completely destroyed by any deck with flying. I need to find out what to remove to make room for removal. Lots of it.

Thanks for all the comments and votes everyone! Sorry I have been away for a bit, but I have been reading the comments. I am glad so many of you are enjoying the deck. Are there any changes you would make after all of your play testing?

Hey, Ive been testing the deck quite a bit and came up with a final version of mine I think. Basically I decided to go for the combo as a main wincon. The deck is able to pull off a win without it simply by drain, attacking and attrition but I usually resolve one of my combos and use all the zombies and general just to stall a bit and draw my cards. So combos I play are:

1) Rooftop Storm + Gravecrawler + Altar of Dementia - infinite mill

2) Gravecrawler + Phyrexian Altar + Diregraf Captain/Altar of the Brood/Diregraf Colossus - infinite mill/life loss/zombie tokens

3) Rooftop Storm + Havengul Lich + sac outlet (reccuring Gary/Marauder/Sidisi)

4) Mindcrank + Duskmantle Guildmage - infinite mill

5) Mindcrank + Bloodchief Ascension - infinite mill if Ascension is active

6) Notion Thief + Windfall/Whispering Madness - draw ton of cards and discard all opponents

7) Cabal Coffers + Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth + Torment of Hailfire - huge drain

Some other good synergies I use:

1) Corpse Harvester + Arcane Adaptation

2) Cyclonic Rift + Windfall/Whispering Madness

3) Lord of the Undead + Arcane Adaptation

I also tend to play more counterspells (6) and board wipes (3 + O-Stone) as my main goal is to combo out.

Some other cards I really like in the deck:

1) Yawgmoth's Will - Useful is your non-creature combo piece gets destroyed

2) Snapcaster Mage - Crazy good with reanimation

3) Hostage Taker and Aura Thief - one of few ways how to get rid of/steal some enchantments and artifacts

4) Necropotence - much better than Phyrexian Arena in the deck

5) Muddle the Mixture - Both counter and tutor for a combo piece.

Yea Necropotence needs a spot for sure. mikeintosh how do you defend against big flyers? I never seen to be able to get rid of them or defend against them efficiently.

VeneX, I think you're starting to run a bit low on creatures. Also, I think Black Market needs to go. We already have so many ways to make Mana and I think we would rather see something else in our hand that costs five Mana. Maybe replace it with a creature or some more removal?

MizzMizz Mass removal, spot removals plus you can reanimate their flyers afterwards. You have to be able to sweep the board early so running cheap wrath effects like Toxic Deluge and Damnation is essential. Shriekmaw is also great since you can use him twice. And if you have Havengul Lich out, you are golden.

If anyone is interested, heres my combo decklist for inspiration: Scarab God Zombie Combo Goodness

TheRealAdam: I am sticking to a classic art on whatever old cards aren't to overpriced. Keep to the Ancient feel, if you ask me haha. I think Arcane Adaptation is a fun idea if you are not running a zombie heavy deck like I am!

Azdranax: I think Duskmantle Guildmage falls under the category of "only good with one other card" combo cards. Both of its abilities are way overpriced for what it is offering, but yes, pretty sweet with Mindcrank lol.

Coward_Token: The suggestions your brought up make me really want to build a second The Scarab God deck that plays with ETBs/mill/control... I just don't think I have the room to fit ETBs in this deck without taking away from one of my other archetypes. Thank you for the cool suggestions though!

iAzire: Crypt Ghast came out because it underfunded. Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth makes it a monster, but only then would it be that useful.

mikeintosh: Thank you for sharing more combos/synergies with us! The beauty behind The Scarab God is how versatile you can build him! Generally speaking, there are four paths you can take; going wide, mill, control, and combo. Most commander decks require you to really focus on one of the possible path, while maybe splashing a bit of a second one. The Scarab God on the other hand can normally get away with using two archetypes, and splashing a third. My list is strongly focused on going wide and using control to keep my own board safes, while also splashing mill to complement the going wide plan (with Scarab's second ability). All three of these archetypes also happen to lead to win with Scarabs first ability! Let me tell you, nothing is more fun then starting your Upkeep having 15 zombies in play alongside Mindcrank and The Scarab God. Take 15 each... then mill 15 each... then I Eternalize whatever cool stuff of theirs I want! That is how my version of The Scarab God wants to run! haha

Your control/combo deck seems extremely good, and fun to pilot, but it would not bode to well in my meta. Players around here do not like when someone wins because they happen to draw the two cards that say "I win". I am not saying that it is not a viable way to play, it just does not work for me. How has your list been received overall in your meta? Are there a ton of other combo players?

MizzMizz: Thank you for the consistent comments! I am sorry to here flyers are beating you up! I would recommend adding more control pieces (like removal and counters), then focus on Eternalizing their own flyers to make blockers. Flyer Commanders normally like to attack with the air clear, so if you have 1 or 2 flyers on your side then you should be safe for a bit!

man1ac: I agree with your assessment of Buried Alive and heavy mill strategies. Pulling your best card into your grave is a great play in just about any point of the game. However, people generally hate being milled a ton!

dlaxw7: 36 lands has been perfect for me (even to much sometimes). However, I count my cheap mana-rocks as lands toward my pool, so maybe that is why you are hurting a bit. But also keep in mind that The Scarab God's scry each upkeep can make hit/missing lands very easy!

Odysseus_97: I already kind of hit pretty hard on some of the topics you brought up. If you can afford a Mana Drain then now is the time to get one.. I for one cannot during this holiday season.. lol.

Right now I am thinking about Necropotence in for Black Market, also maybe Windfall in for something. Thoughts?

Have never really played with Necropotence before, even though i have one. So I am not too sure on it, but i have found Black Market to be kind of underperforming. A little too big of a mana sink when playing it and even though the triggers makes the counters stack up very fast it rarely is very rarely worth it and is a little bit tricky to play with which can take some of the fun out of it.

Windfall is a very good card, depending on how big of a deal it is for the deck that opponents get to refill their hands too it would be a nice include, but the deck seem to have very strong card draw, so it will be a nice include but not super needed :)

I cant agree more regarding Black Market! I cant even remember a game in which it was that useful or made my game!And I have to say that Diregraf Colossus seems underperforming too. I never get much Token out of him. Played early game (T2-T4) he wont get many Counters. Even with a Buried Alive I choose in 9 out of 10 times Grave Titan, Sheoldred, the Whispering One and Noosegraf Mob. So only on of them helps the Colossus.

I think Black Market should be cut for Sheoldred, the Whispering One and Thran Dynamo out for Necropotence also I think Propaganda deserves a spot.

Fact or Fiction strikes me as hit or miss. Definitely at risk for things going into the yard that we don't want. Maybe replace it with Eldrazi Monument or Coat of Arms. Fact or fiction gives the opponents options which I don't think we want.

Hrmm, instead of Fact or Fiction what do you think about Search for Azcanta  ^Flip? It's kinda not useful thanks to The Scarab God amazing upkeep scry ability, so not sure if that would be worth it.

Odysseus_97 Search for Azcanta  ^Flip is drffinitely better than Fact or Fiction but I'd still be so pissed if I had to put something sweet on the bottom of my library. I think the card draw is good enough that the spot would be better filled with another creature or something that helps defend the creatures. Just my opinion though.

Since the mill is so heavy in this build, why not add Consuming Aberration ?

Since the mill is so heavy in this build, why not add Consuming Aberration could go really well if Undead Alchemist or phenax is out. You could potentially end the game with one tap of consuming ab

I'm also wondering how useful Vedalken Orrery is. I like having the leyline, but when I draw vedalken, I'm usually kinda wishing it was something else.

Same for me, that's why I removed the flash enablers from my deck. The spots are way better for other stuff.Starting playing Liliana, Death's Majesty and so far really pleased with her. With a little bit Zombie shenanigans it's not so hard protecting her..

man1ac how do you feel about Lich Lord of Unx? He seems to really underperform for me. I never really feel like his activation is worth it. I'm thinking about replacing him with Propaganda what are your thoughts?

Kindred Discovery also seems to really never really be what I want to play. Usually sits in my hand. Just replaced it with Consuming Aberration I also took out Vedalken Orrery to put in Thran Dynamo

MizzMizz:Somethimes I like the Lich Lord of Unx. Propaganda will definitely help you, but I don't like stuff that strictly doesn't support the Deck Strategy (of course stuff like Rhystic Study is too good to leave). I think Propaganda is dependent on your meta. I have lots of small and many creature decks so it will perform better here. How about Arcane Adaptation ? It will be useful as long as Scarab is in play and since we run some stuff like Mikaeus, Sheoldred and Grave Titan we sure as hell want more Zombies. Corpse Harvester may be worth a slot too? I'll playtesting him tomorrow.Consuming Aberration seems to underperform too. Since we never have lots of Zombies in a GY he is dependent on the Mill you run, the more, the better he gets...

About the cards you discussed:

Lich Lord of Unx very underwhelming, got rid of it long time ago, never really liked the cards

Kindred Discovery is perfect card draw actually. And it works the moment you put it on the table and attack

Consuming Aberration Can be really strong if there are no defences but it could be chumped for turns, left my decklist long time ago

Corpse Harvester - Tutors up my zombie combo (either Sidisi or Gravecrawler) and also guarantee you a land drop

Thran Dynamo - The deck is very mana hungry so I play every good ramp possible. Never actually played flash enablers, I think they are quite redundant

Propaganda - I prefer another boardwipe instead since you can reanimate all the creatures later

I mainly like Consuming Aberration for tapping when I have Phenax, God of Deception out. When I play this deck, I usually have alot of trouble getting many zombies out. mikeintosh do you have your deck on here? Can you link it? How does it perform for you?

I'm trying to for Sheoldred, the Whispering One Arcane Adaptation Corpse Harvester in but I'm not sure what to take out. Also, is Reanimate worth putting in?