[Standard] Jund Scarabs--oh my!

[Nickadimoose]

Jund Scarabs--oh my!

Generate -1/-1 tokens with Nest of Scarabs out! Due to the nature of how this deck operates, it will utilize very low powered minions to get damage across to an opponent, which means you need to overwhelm your opponent with outright numbers.

As long as Soul-Scar Mage is on the field every bit of damage outside of combat deals -1/-1 counters, which means Harnessed Lightning, Kozilek's Return, Outnumber, Deem Worthy--all these damage spells yields -1/-1 counters whenever Soul-Scar Mage is on the board. You can wipe your own Scarab board and your opponents with Kozilek's Return while at the same time generating a higher number of scarabs per round! Fantastic!

The ultimate goal is to flip Westvale Abbey off the token sacrifice while at the same time having a decently aggressive early game in Greenbelt Ravage, Consuming Fervor, Hapatra, Channeler Initiate, etc.,

There is minimal counterspell/remove -1/-1 counters in Hapatra's Mark, just in case you want to save something specific for the engine. I didn't do the lands because I don't have dice in front of me and I need to see it in action first.

[G. Moto]

  Honestly I think that Soulstinger should be at 4 copies. Reason being is that it's a 4 drop creature that (if nest of scarabs is on the field) will automatically make 2 more creatures to accompany it. Also when it dies (if you've been stacking those -1/-1 counters) you're getting like 5 more tokens just by having it die on you. You've got the right idea as far as your deck goes though, that I support you on. What's your side board looking like?

[Nickadimoose]

I did really enjoy using Soulstinger the last time I played! I think I minimized the amount to account for some of the more aggressive decks that my friend told me about. He's played me with something like Mardu Vehicles before or the token deck, and both of those were alarmingly aggressive to the point of not being able to breathe for a turn.

Since I was using Soul-Scar Mage for the -1/-1 board wipe idea, or the hammering home with some of the instant-pain spells, I wasn't going to play it very often as an initial start of the game. I do love Soulstinger quite a bit though. God it was fun to play with, so I might say screw it and throw it in for play-testing this Friday anyways.

I'm glad I'm on the right track--the clearing up of Soul-Scar Mage helped me out with a lot of ideas! I wanted to originally use Heaven/Earth, but I was afraid of the double-cost red. I still think I'm missing some more removal, so I was going to spot Fatal Push into the sideboard? If I don't have board control my engine won't be very good at getting the Nest of Scarabs triggers online.

I'm really, really bad at finding out what works/what doesn't without playing though. I wish I could visualize how the deck would work in my head, but the only reason it's built like this to begin with is because this is the bones of the deck I played last week in real life.

Sideboard would probably be a bit more spot removal; Fatal Push, potentially Grasp of Darkness (though I hate the double B for a tri deck!), Soulstinger additions and uhhh...that's all I can think of. I'm not a very strong player, so making the ideas work hardly ever works out well for me. >.< I'm getting better at it, but not enough to make them tier 1.

[G. Moto]

  Well just keep in mind, your deck doesn't have to be a championship winning deck to be good. Just find out what you like and what works for you and I'm sure you'll find the cards you need to make it work. Also if visualization is not your strong suit then try looking at the deck through the hand simulator on this forum under the deck building section. This way you can actually see what your hands would look like as you draw your cards. For the sideboard make sure that you're accounting for your opponent's plays as well. You sideboard should serve as your contingency plans for various decks. This deck seems pretty mid-ranged so you'd want to have cards that protect you FROM control and aggro players. Just remember, when you have a plan always factor in the possibility of error. This will cover your back in case someone wants to say play blazing volley and try to wipe out all your scarab tokens. Protect your board state and make it strong. 

[Nickadimoose]

I guess that's a good way to go about ensuring the deck works. I think my issue is I get too wrapped up in the idea of how do I make X work, rather than what are X's weakness and how I can support it?

I know it doesn't have to be competitively viable, but that wonderful part of my brain that says 'you can do it, man!' chimes in to remind me that viability of the cards in Magic is what drew me to the game to begin with. I made this deck while working (I am right now!) so I can piece together the small card pieces in a small, minimized window while I do other work--but play-testing or balancing them is another matter. Aside from that, I've run out of time, tomorrow is the big 1 on 1 game where I get to see this thing in action!  Thanks a lot for the help, G.Moto! That's a lot of the reason why I started coming on here, so many helpful/informative people to help you carve out a solid foundation for an idea.

[G. Moto]

  I'm just glad that you get to grow and learn as a player. Make sure you let us know how your event went and how it matched up. It would be good topic for discussion on the forum.

[Nickadimoose]

I got rekt on Friday night with this thing lol, 4 matches total after i got off work and only the first one came close (got him down to 6, he was playing Sultai Delirium again!). The rest of the games were me struggling to get the scarab engine online.

Westvale Abbey flip in 3/4 games so that worked consistently. In the turn i flipped he had a sacrifice a creature spell, so, didn't expect it. I had to sac Westvale Abbey. Another was a grasp of darkness x2, one from his hand and one from using the new Nissa to flash it onto the battlefield. Overall, very nasty stuff.

I did find quite a lot of fun in Soul Scar Mage though. I think that card is just incredible. I bought a playset since i enjoyed it so much. Overall, by the end of the night i was pretty frustrated with how it turned out. The deck arguably has so many 1/2 drops it should have been relatively aggressive with consuming fervor, yet each time i couldn't play a creature(never saw any of my 2 drops in all 4 games, except Hapatra and one Channel Initiate).

I even rebalanced the deck, took the count down to 60, removed outnumber and Kozilek's return in favor of more cycling options and more creatures. Nadda. I'm still just confused about what happened lol, theoretically this ans the modified deck should have at least been a small force to reckon with. My last week 1st build of the deck did better than my built version!

When the engine came online it was really great, but it just wouldn't run consistent. It was a 4 cylinder car running on 1. I have 3 4 drops in my deck, all Soulstinger, i drew 2 of them on round 3 and couldn't play a creature till turn 4.

[G. Moto]

That does sound frustrating. So the engine was able to come online just not consistently you say? IS there any way you think that the deck could have or should have performed better? What areas of improvement do you want to see in your deck.

[Nickadimoose]

I think the colors i chose might have been wrong for it.

The cycling isn't enough to make it workand since you need very specific cards to kick the engine into high gear, it mivht be more beneficial to run in a blue/black environment. I went very light on my curve, only 3 4 drops and that was the highest cost i had. I ran 24 lands, which was probanly a big mistake given the curve i had. I loved the red aspect of the deck, trigfering prowess on a Soul Scar Mage using Harnessed Lightning to -4/-4 on a Gearhulk, then kill it during combat felt incredible. After that, making 4 insects with Nest of Scarabs was fantastic.

I had a few hiccups Make Obselete doesn't place -1/-1 counters on an opponent, so no Scarab trigger. Really, really killed me there lol.

 I genuinely believe that since indestructible is being more prevalent  (the gods and Gideon still being massively played) that Soul Scar Mage will be an incredible asset to have in the future. I want to use him more, so red is definitely more of a component of my future deck. I was debating going red/blue/black, using Soul Scar and the aggressive red prowess creatures to trigger the -1/-1 counters while splashing black solely for fatal push/nest of scarabs.

Not sure though, those were my initials thoughts after just getting my ass kicked.

[G. Moto]

  Well if you do play GRIXIS (B/U/R) instead of JUND (R/B/G), then you can use cards like decision paralysis, galestrike, illusory wrappings on your opponent's creatures (before they get the -1/-1 counters), naga oracle can help you go through your deck faster so you'll know what cards you need up front. Also a cool combo would be to have scribe of the mindful combo with supernatural stamina. This way if you have any creatures with E.T.B effects then you can get multiple triggers (or you can just bring back your scribe in favor of another necessary spell). Also splendid agony should have been something that you could of added to this deck. IT's an instant that simply lets you place -1/-1 counters on any creature you choose. That would set off the prowess trigger of soul-scar mage, could of sped up killing off your own soulstinger in necessary, and would also give you scarab tokens in the process. Just some thoughts there. And really when it comes to mechanics almost every color combo has its weak points and its strong areas, you just have to see how the cards you chose interact with each other and whether its cohesive or not.

[DarkLotus]

Grixis Delver my friends. hehehehe

[G. Moto]

 Grixis delver with embalm....How about Esper Delver with Embalm and zombie tokens? Everything in this set comes back as a black or white zombie token anyway right? Wayward servant would be a powerhouse.

[Nickadimoose]

Grixis is sounding better and better for this deck. I've wanted to test the embalm mechanic out ever since I first saw it (I like testing just about everything actually), so that would be awesome. I'm a lot more comfortable using blue than most of my colors. Splendid Agony was something I was originally running and it worked wonderfully! Then I came across Make Obsolete and thought it would be a better fit due to -1/-1 all your opponent's creatures, then I could just black 'en mass with the generated scarabs. I just misread the card due to it not actually triggering Nest of Scarabs. It made me so sad. On the turn I was trying to play it I would have generated 16 scarabs; 2 Nest of Scarab enchantments were on the battlefield, it would've been amazing.

I've always been a bit more comfortable with blue compared to anything else. The utility in the draw and combat tricks suit my more passive/indirect play-style, so I think I'll go for Grixis!

That combination for Scribe of the Mindful and Supernatural Stamina looks great! Supernatural Stamina in general looks like a great way to save a card that helps with the total engine. I'm all for trying this deck when I get the next opportunity to play.

Well, with this build--aside from my issues with -1/-1 and -1/-1 counters, most of the cards combo'd or interacted off one another in a very cohesive way, or so I thought. I really, really did not expect to have my ass handed to me so thoroughly with my current generation build. Almost none of the combos effectively worked--there were small, shreds of interaction light that came through on occasion, like the Soul Scar Mage/Harnessed Lightning combo, but overall it just had no real good win-con. Even flipping Westvale Abbey wasn't the game-ender I thought it would be since there weren't really any cards to help support it.

I think my theory on how the deck was built was mildly correct, I just really tried too hard to support the engine production itself, rather than supporting the conditions the engine could thrive in.

[G. Moto]

So now you know (and I'll say this in mechanic terms): Build a sturdy vehicle first, then focus on the engine. The car can't drive if the wheels fall off.