#Reanimator Combo - Looking for help with final touches (Scarab God)

76 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

marsh plover
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Hello everyone,

I'm posting my Scarab Reanimator deck here. I already playtested it a bunch and it works well but I would appreciate another set of eyes. An advice on a nonbo I missed, a cool reanimator specific card I'm not running or just a general observation about the deck.

I have written out my combo lines in the moxfield deck description but long story short - casting burried alive with at least another 4 mana open and scarab god on the battlefield is Game (if nobody interacts / you protect your combo with counterspells which you have plenty of).

I recomend choosing the "Group by Type and Tag" option in the "view options".

https://www.moxfield.com/decks/CB8z9SjTSkutnYbbGRTdMw

Thanks for any input,
Ben

Moxfield
The Scarab God - Let's reanimate a combo - Commander (The Scarab God)

A deck created using the deck building website, Moxfield.

mild veldt
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Any particular reason for choosing Scarab God?

marsh plover
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@mild veldt a couple of them.

Firstly I like the play style it offers. I can be a relatively non-threatning draw-go deck. If someone is trying to hurt me/win I usually have counter magic up, otherwise I just use his ability to reanimate something.

Secondly, it makes buried alive into a 7-mana 1-card win con.

Even if I don't have the combo ready, I have a bunch of cards that find me entomb and most decks cannot beat a 5-mana flash Razaketh that can tutor for counters to protect himself.

Lastly, it's a nostalgic card for me:D

mild veldt
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I don't think I've ever played against a Scarab-god player who was "non-threatening" with all that mana open

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Though the ones that do that play-style are normally also not playing zombie tribal/ kindred

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Every time I've run it, it eats a LOT of removal

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Your list looks very high power but not cedh. On this server, most people will probably call it an 8

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Is that your aim?

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I'd call it a low 8, just because you aren't running ALL the free counterspells / removal

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There are a few tweaks, but it depends on the rabbit hole you want to go down

mild veldt
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There are a few cards that I'm questioning the value of in your deck. Since you're running Dark Ritual + Buried Alive already, you could add in the below 3

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if you have Dark rit > buried alive > reanimate / animate dead on Warren Soultrader

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you just cast GC and POX follows

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it generates a good chunk of mana, obviously at life, but it might be a route worth considering?

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37 lands seems like a lot of mana, even with a few being utility. But then you are in dimir and scarab god is quite mana hungry

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pongify and rapid H aren't as strong as they once were. Sure they're nice for 1 mana but you're in black and eldrazi are a big thing these days, that and graveyard hate in the term of enchantments

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you might find it more useful to replace these with the black destroy creature / enchantment cards that black has received recently

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no demonic tutor? Budget or just don't have in collection?

marsh plover
marsh plover
# mild veldt Is that your aim?

Definitely. I have some lover power decks already and I wanted this to be high power, so I could run stuff like entomb into Razaketh and not feel bad about pub stomping.

marsh plover
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I have to run but I will definitely come back and respond to the rest of the suggestions.

Thank you for all the suggestion!

marsh plover
# mild veldt pongify and rapid H aren't as strong as they once were. Sure they're nice for 1...

I'm thinking about replacing at least one but I'm not sure the enchantment removals fit my deck. Feed the swarm is a sorcery which I really don't like for this deck and the new one is 3mana so on turn 5 when I usually have my commander and 6 mana open I want to be able to use my kill spell to destroy something and reanimate it with Scarab god. (My plan for rest in peace etc. is usually tutoring for cyclonic ryft, casting that before my turn, when I'm ready to win and then going of after I untapp.)

marsh plover
marsh plover
mild veldt
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Yeah fed the swarm isn't great at scorcery

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At 8's, and I hate being "that guy" but you are in the colours of thassa's Oracle and demonic consultation

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Not saying you should run it...

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XD

mild veldt
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exiles the creature instead of destroys and it can mess up someone's plan if they tutor something to the top of their dck

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Gravecrawler does really like zombies. With how your deck is currently, you give me hope that you'd at least make an interesting zombie deck, instead of the normal anthem ones I see all the time

mild veldt
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this is my main zombie list: https://www.moxfield.com/decks/o8e95h_Q20arcE4ImYyREw

Though I've got several others - this is my Scarab God brawl - we're missing a lot of the cards you have to make a true reanimator deck

Moxfield
Zombie Knights with BRAINS - Commander (Varina, Lich Queen)

A high power zombie deck, around a 7.5 to low 8 scale. This deck is jammed full of complicated interactions / combos while trying to avoid easy wins.

I opened a Spanish Haakon, azote de Stromgald while on holiday as a kid in Mallorca and have enjoyed building around him since 2006, even more ...

marsh plover
marsh plover
mild veldt
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yeah but you aren't playing a cedh deck 😛

marsh plover
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I know but if I add thoracle then that suddenly becomes my main combo line and at that point Scarab god kind of stops being relevant.

I still want the deck to a Scarab reanimator

mild veldt
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I mean, you can still entomb Thoracle into the GY and reanimate her that way? 😛

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heck, you could go turn 1: dark rit

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entomb

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demonic con

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reanimate

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definately still a reanimator deck XD

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please note I say all of this in jest, I'm 100% with you on this

marsh plover
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😂😂

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Do you have any cool incidental discard outlets ideas?

marsh plover
mild veldt
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Stubborn Denial seems a bit... meh? I guess at PL8 I'd expect force of will

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because of how Scarab God reliant you are on the graveyard, having something like [[Trickbind]] or [[Overcharged Amalgam]] to fend off triggered abilities might be nice?

cedar masonBOT
mild veldt
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Micromanager seems very "eh"

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there are transmute effects for cheaper that do the same thing

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or I would just up and replace Micromanger for a Windfall

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and [[Whispering Madness]]

cedar masonBOT
mild veldt
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especially since you're already running Notion Thief

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[[Solar Transformer]] is this any good? I understand the cheapness of it but I think I'd prefer Chromatic Lantern.

cedar masonBOT
mild veldt
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I'm honestly not 100% on that recommendation though

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this is the big catch with how I look at deck ratings

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I normally think of cedh as = PL 9 +10

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And, unfortunately, scarab god just ISN'T as good as other dimir commanders for cedh

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so it automatically puts it to a 8 for me, if you are trying to build a cedh version, it would be around 8.5>

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I like the look of your deck if you're wanting to keep it around the high 7/low 8 marker

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higher than that, you're best bet is to review the cedh staples used here

marsh plover
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@mild veldt

About the powerlevel,
I'm pretty happy with where the deck sits powerlevelwise. I have almost 40% winrate and I only play with PL8s and make sure that everyone is ready for turn 6/7 wins.

The goal of this "final" tuning is to just find cards that aren't great and replace them with cards that will make my deck run more smoothy. After our convo I took out the Pongify/Rapid and instead added cards that let me discard my big creatures - [[bitter triumph]], [[ghostly pilferer]] (I felt like I'm running a bit to much of creature kill spells/wraths anyway, so I cut one).

About stubborn denial,

I think that card is actually great. I definitely want to get a Force of will too eventually but I think I'm gonna cut something else for it.

The main reason for the amount of counters I'm running is to protect my combo and whenever I'm comboing off I always have a power4 creature (Scarab god, his ability also makes 4/4). I definitely think swan song/offer are better but denial is really much better than it looks in my deck.

About the overcharged amalgam,

I had it in my deck for a while but countering anything for 4mana didn't feel great and it doesn't leave a body I could later sacrifice to Razaketh.

About trickbind,
That's an interesting idea! I have never seen that card. Do you think it's better than tishana's tidebinder?

About the mana rock,
I really value being able to ramp on turn 2 over turn 3. If I play a 2mana rock, I can follow up with a bunch of 4mana cards on turn 3. If I play a 3mana rock, it's pretty likely I would do nothing on turn 2.

About wheels,
I have both of the wheels you sent me in my binder, I'm just not sure whether I should add even more ways to make everyone loose their hands xdd.

Another worry - when I used to play those in the deck, they kind of sucked unless I had narset/notion thief. I like to sculpt my hand and this is taking a blind jump but maybe it worth it.

cedar masonBOT
marsh plover
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Thank you for all your input!

Thanks to you, I replaced two mediocre removal spells in my deck (which I felt like I should be running given I'm in blue) for cards I'm way more excited to play.

uneven quartz
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i do like [[mausoleum secret]] in reanimator cause it hits 1 mana tutors in black with 1 creature in the graveyard

cedar masonBOT
uneven quartz
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usually use it to find reanimate or entomb but it does scale with more creatures in graveyard