Scarab God "Control" PRIMER

[Morganator 2.0]

There are so many creatures that go good in this deck, and so many avenues that I haven't explored. If you can think of any other cards that I should test out for this strategy, let me know. As strange as this may seem, this primer is not near to being completed. I just wanted to smash this out and get as much done today as I could. I also probably misspelled Sacrab God somewhere, so let me know if you see any spelling or grammar mistakes.

"Can I see your graveyard?"
A primer on The Scarab God’s "control" archetype.



https://deckstats.net/decks/82803/973458-scarab-god-control-/en#show_description

[Rinzler]

Hey, I really love this deck and primer!  I was inspired to make a scarab god deck a while ago because of this list, and used it heavily to help me make mine, although I dropped a lot of the tribal part for more of a control/mill build. 

[WizardSpartan]

Morganator 2.0 giving himself official primer status:

[Morganator 2.0]

That's not happening for a while with this one. Even then, WWolfe is the one who promotes mine, for the sake of keeping it unbiased.

[WizardSpartan]

Haha I know, just saw an opportunity and took it

[Morganator 2.0]

Alright, I think the brunt work of the primer is basically done. I'll need to get some testing of other cards done (somehow), but for now I think it's good. I do want feedback on two things:

• Notable exclusions: Did I include enough? Are there any cards that you think I should include?
• Playing reactively: Found in the "Gameplan" tab. Did I describe this section well enough? It really is the core part of playing a "control" deck, so I need to make sure that readers understand this part.

[WWolfe]

The two cards that jumped out at me, and maybe I just missed them in the exclusion sections, were Wonder & Filth.

[WizardSpartan]

Playing reactively looked fine to me, but I already have experience with that with Kumena. It seems to explain the strat effectively to me.

I'm not a Zombie player, so the main thing that popped out to me was a lack of explanation for your landbase.
Why aren't you running any fetchlands, Prismatic Vista, Underground Sea, etc.? Also, wouldn't Ancient Tomb be good to get The Scarab God out earlier/activate his ability more?
Mystic Remora seems really good in any high-powered EDH setting. Why not include it here?
Buried Alive really surprised me, as it fills your graveyard with the perfect cards. Diabolic Intent also seems like an option.
While it is 7 mana, Kindred Dominance can turn the game on its head, allowing you to get your opponents' creatures into their graveyards and into your sights.
Murderous Rider is another removal option that can become a 4/4 lifelinker when milled.
You mentioned a couple of the Viziers, but not Vizier of the Scorpion. I know most EDH players won't be a fan of blocking deathtouch creature tokens.
Liliana, Untouched by Death has 3 relevant abilites (her -3 might not be that good here, though) for a 4 mana planeswalker.
Lazotep Plating is a bit spicier, but I think it could be cool.
Paradox Haze & Illusionist's Bracers are also spicy, but I'm a fan of effects that specifically synergize with your commander. May not be for you.

Overall, looking nice!

[Morganator 2.0]

So I'll write down my thoughts now and then update the primer later.

Wonder: Filth exists too, but it's the weaker of the two. I'm not using Wonder because combat isn't super important for this deck, so giving the zombies evasion seems like it would only moderately help. I think I will at least give it a try in the future (but not Filth).

Land base: I don't really talk about lands too much, unless they have some use other than just mana (Cephalid Coliseum, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth). It's pretty obvious what a stronger mana base would look like, so I don't feel the need to address it.

Mystic Remora: I tried it's counterpart Rhystic Study for a while. I didn't like it. Being a non-creature meant that if it got milled it was useless. The card draw it gave was alright, but I generally preferred wheel effects, so it got scraped. I'll add these to notable exclusions.

Buried Alive: I'm going to try out Entomb in the near future. I know Corpse Connoisseur works pretty well, but that's just because it's a creature. If I like Entomb, I'll test Buried Alive after.

Diabolic Intent: I would use Vampiric Tutor first. While it's good, there are better options to use before it.

Kindred Dominance: This has one fatal flaw; The Scarab God isn't a zombie, so he gets destroyed too, meaning for one whole turn cycle I likely have no responses ready. That's anti-control. I use Cyclonic Rift instead. I'll add it to notable exclusions.

Murderous Rider: Hero's Downfall works better, and I removed that card because I wanted my non-creature-based removal to be lower costing. If ever a Planeswalker deck shows up I'll consider putting it in. I'll add Hero's Downfall to the notable exclusions.

Vizier of the Scorpion: I'm not going to bother listing this under the notable exclusions. If I'm already choosing to disregard actual evasion like Eternal Skylord, I'm also avoiding pseudo-evasion.

Liliana, Untouched by Death: I think she's worth trying out. She gives better mill than Liliana, Death's Majesty, but doesn't give a token, and her other ability isn't as good.

Lazotep Plating: Counterspells just make for better protection.

Paradox Haze: On the list of cards to test.

Illusionist's Bracers: Seems like a steep cost, but I'll have to try it out. I can't help but think that I'll always end up grabbing one creature I want, and another that I don't.

[WizardSpartan]

Yeah most of my cards are just cards you should add to the notable exclusions list. A few like Buried Alive were suggestions, but I see why you don't include most of them.

[WWolfe]

I am pleased to promote this primer to official primer status. Morganator really has a knack for writing these.

[Morganator 2.0]

I added a section for turning this deck into a bit of a combo build, if that's what you want. Tell me what you think of it.

Also, I'm a little annoyed that no one liked this joke.

I also probably misspelled Sacrab God somewhere, so let me know if you see any spelling or grammar mistakes.

[Morale]

Fleet Swallower + Fraying Sanity: Curse yourself with Fraying Sanity, and then attack with Fleet Swallower, milling your entire library. You now have infinite extra turns with Nexus of Fate

im a bit confused. shouldnt this deck yourself at the beginning of your next turn? i know im missing something here.. id just like to know what im missing.

EDIT: I did miss something... how dumb of me..
this is a silly combo and i shall need to use it..

[CleanBelwas]

...so let me know if you see any spelling or grammar mistakes.

Hey man.

Seeing as you asked:

In your new Combo section, your last line of the necrotic ooze combo reads "They are better commanders to use this combo with" instead of "There are better commanders to use this combo with".

As a fellow Scarab God lover who plays him completely differently in EDH (but played him in the control shell back when I played Standard), this made for an interesting read. Good job.

[CleanBelwas]

Hey,

I've recently included a card in my Scarab God deck that has been performing pretty well and I can't see it mentioned any of the single card discussion points on this primer so thought I'd bring it up here for you and for anyone else who happens to come across this primer and might be interested.

Gravespawn Sovereign.

In my experience, one of the Scarab God's biggest downsides is that he doesn't reanimate the creature. He exiles it and creates a token. Often this is fine, but it is somewhat limiting to how many times you can abuse a creature's ETB effect. This is especially true if you are running a fairly heavy mill suite. You are often only able to trigger any given creature once. To combat this, I looked in to including more reanimation effects outside of Scarab God in my deck and came across this guy. How I forgot about him, I'll never know. Onslaught was my first exposure to MTG before I even knew what the game was called and I've always loved the Zombies. This guys seemed to be the answer to my prayers. Tried him out and have found good results.

Here is my assessment.

Pros:
Is a creature so can be reanimated with Scarab God of milled/discarded.
Is a Zombie
Lets you reanimate without exiling
Can be activated at instant speed (like the Scarab God)
Can target any graveyard (like the Scarab God)
Doesn't have a tap symbol so summoning sickness doesn't matter
Can tap itself as it is a zombie
Ability only requires bodies and no mana

Cons:
6cmc for a 3/3 is a bad rate
Dies to bolt (if not "Eternalized")
5 zombies is quite a lot of zombies outside of a dedicated tribal build

If you can reliably get yourself 4 other zombies, I find this guy can do a lot of work (It also works insanely well with intruder alarm, but that's a dead card outside of the combo so only worth it if your plan is a jank brew).

I know your Scarab God deck focuses more on the control elements rather than Zombie tribal so maybe the 5 zombies is too tall of an ask, but thought this guys was worth highlighting a) in case you wanted to give it a play test and b) to put on the radar of other users reading this in case they wanted to try it out. In my experience though (at a much less competitive level than you play at of course), card has been real good.