"The Scarab God: Zombies rejoice!"

"The Scarab God: Zombies rejoice!"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr. MD

The world of Amonkhet had 8 gods and Nicol Bolas took 3 of them as his own minions. These 3 grixis color aligned gods have now emerged on the plane and the one that got me the most excited was the Dimir colored Scarab God. 

This legendary creature is the commander that Zombie EDH decks have been waiting for a long time  and would now probably replace the now reigning Gisa and Geralf in this department or in the case of my friend Mark worth making another EDH entirely.

Just take a look at that long line at the very beginning and tell me that this was not made for EDH games. That long line alone will win you games. So at the beginning of your upkeep 2 things happen depending on how many zombies you have in the battlefield. 

1) Each opponent loses X life. Each opponent! So you have 40 zombies. That normally just spells the end for everyone around the table.

2) You scry X. Not enough zombies in play? Well you can dig them up from your every library.

And The Scarab God doesn't even need to attack. He just needs to survive for a couple of turns as you keep on pouring zombies unto the battlefield from cards like Army of the Damned or Grave Titan.  

The reasons for playing this 5/5 God might just as well end there but it also has an activated cost that makes you want to play it even more. For 4 mana , 2 colorless and Dimir Colors you can exile a creature from a graveyard( any graveyard including your opponents!) You create a 4/4 Black zombie creature token of that thing you exiled and you get all of it's benefits. Enter the battlefield effects from Titans or Primordials or Gearhulks even stat boosters from opponents if you copy a zombie lord from an opposing player or Mikaeus for example. 

By using this ability you have eliminated a possible reanimation target or even trigger it in response to a creature being targeted by a reanimation spell. Yup Eternalizing an opposing players creature has never been sweeter.

So what happens when an opponent decides that he or she would deny you of a Scarab God win and wipes the board clean? Well the Scarab God just comes back to your hand at the beginning of the next end step. It may not have indestructibility as the other 5 mono colored gods but it more than makes up for it by potentially coming back to your hand to be utilized again. 

So are you excited about the Scarab God? I know I am.