Nationals are fast approaching and the recent GPs showing standard as a healthy format with a wealth of diversity, it is safe to say standard is in a great place right now.  So what better time to briefly discuss the current standard format and in particular a new deity of the format and one that I feel is around to stay.  The Scarab God has begun to appear in a variety of flavours within standard, be it as a splash in Temur Energy or as the main win condition in UB control or even as part of the Sultai reanimator deck, the Scarab God has certainly begun to make waves (and zombies) in the current standard format.

But why has the God gotten good and why now?

Well, the Scarab God, if given the time, can take over a game completely.  WOTC have been pushing creatures as the main aspect of standard for some time now, focusing on interactive games involving creature combat, removal spells and blocking.  This focus means that the creatures have been getting consistently better and better over the years (this even resulted in recent bannings of some particularly strong creatures).  

The Scarab God also seems to shape up well against most of the common removal in standard right now.  First of all it is a 5 mana 5/5 which may seem irrelevant, but this couldn’t be further from the truth.  As a 5/5 it is too big to be killed by a single Grasp of Darkness or Abrade (however Harnessed Lighting can still get the job done with a little help, at least temporarily) and at 5 mana, it is out of reach of Fatal Push with revolt.  The return clause means that exile effects and counter spells are the best way to deal with the God and many of the better decks were not running these a couple of weeks ago, however I feel control decks will move towards this more now predominantly due to the strength of this card.

The Scarab God rewards you for either you or your opponent playing powerful creatures in their deck, which in standard is almost always bound to happen (apart from possibly UW Approach of the Second Sun, most decks have powerful creatures you can target Game 1).  The Scarab God lets you take advantage of these powerful creatures from the graveyard, even if they aren’t in your deck.  You can abuse powerful ETB triggers using the God’s ability even if the creature doesn’t stay around for long, you will have gained a lot of value just from the token entering the battlefield.  When we begin to target Champion of Wits, Rogue Refiner or even Thought-Knot Seer with the ability then the game begins to swing in our favour.

In Temur, the Scarab God can lead to cards and energy continuing to flow for your deck.  You can return Rogue Refiner which is significantly better as a 4/4 and even Bristling Hydra gets an increase if it receives the blessing of the Scarab God.  You have a multitude of powerful creatures that benefit from being brought back to life (sort of) and it helps to give your deck inevitability while also attacking on a slightly different axis.  It is a great final threat; after your opponent has dealt with your multitude of cats, hydras and dragons, you can slam The Scarab God and it must be answered immediately as you threaten to bring your powerful threats back to life, bigger and better.

This surge in powerful creatures over recent years has also led to typical draw-go control decks shifting their focus to winning with creatures too, we have all felt the pain of having out opponent cast a Torrential Gearhulk in our end step then proceed to attack 4 times with it.  Similarly, The Scarab God provides another way for control decks to utilise powerful creatures in order to close games quickly.  Plus, Scarab God makes your powerful creatures recursive allowing you to generate even more value with it later in the game; casting a Torrential Gearhulk flashing-back a Glimmer of Genius is already great but effectively getting to do it again without using a card is brutal and can even mean your Gearhulk led to 5 extra cards (2 from first Glimmer, 1 for the 4/4 Zombie and 2 more from the other Glimmer).

The god’s activated ability can be used at instant speed, meaning it works wonderfully in a control deck like UB.  It allows you to hold up mana for counter spells or removal in your opponent’s turn, then, if they do not present a threat, you can instead use your mana to raise a powerful army of the dead and feel like the Night King.  This ability being an instant means you can do some powerful, albeit initially unintuitive things too.  You will see many players stopping in their upkeep with the Scarab God in play, often responding to the trigger in their own upkeep and activating the ability to create a Zombie, then when the trigger resolves it notices you have another Zombie in play and you get to Scry one more, while also making the opponent lose an extra life.  You can even respond to this trigger if you have no Zombies in play.  It is a clever trick that many players can utilise to get an incremental advantage over the course of a game, as PV would say, Magic is all about those little edges.

Let’s not presume that The Scarab God is purely a proactive threat, it also lets you target creatures in graveyards that might be causing effects or other issues.  Opponent trying to reanimate an Angel of Invention with God Pharaoh’s Gift? Nope. It’s now your Zombie. Opponent uses Liliana Death’s Majesty to reanimate a Noxious Gearhulk? Nope, it’s now yours and so is the ETB trigger.  Just the presence of the Scarab God with mana untapped can change an opponent’s game plan by a lot and reduce the number of options they have within the game.

One difficult part of playing with The Scarab God is when your opponent also has one in play too.  Neither of you want to activate the ability as it gives an opportunity to respond by targeting the same card, which only goes well for person whose ability is on the top of the stack.  This also means that it can be difficult to use mana elsewhere as it can provide an avenue for your opponent to create Zombies while you have tapped out for something else.  Ensure you understand how this works, unlike one of my previous opponents, who stopped in their upkeep, activated their Scarab God targeting Bristling Hydra only to have me target the same card with my God. I’d advise forcing the issue in your opponent’s end step, forcing them to use their mana in order to not fall significantly behind, then act again in your upkeep while they are (hopefully) tapped out.  It also involves a lot of small decisions regarding which creatures to animate, which creatures to fight over and which to let your opponent have.  Remember, apart from a small amount of exceptions, all of the tokens will trade with one another and can easily be blocked by the Scarab God.

So, with Nationals on the horizon closely followed by a new standard format, keep an eye out for our blue and black overlord dominating the tables.  Hopefully I have given you some advice on how to play with, and against the powerful creature.  Have fun assembling a horde of zombies and make sure to remember your trigger if ever your Scarab God dies! Next time you cast Scarab God remember, the only thing better than resurrecting a horde of zombies to destroy your enemies is resurrecting their own dragon as a zombie and using it against them.