Holy %$#% dude!!! Massive thank you for that post! I'm sorry it took so much of your time, but I truly appreciate it!! Thanks!
Regarding my budget. It normally wouldn't be a problem, but I'm in the process of moving to Tokyo in July and I'm independent (had a rough year last year) so I basically don't have time to put fun money aside each month hehe. I literally need every last penny I've saved hehe. So I will mostly just be going through my old cards and seeing what I can borrow/trade in my play group.
Most of my play group are people I've grown up with and family, so we're all very large with each other borrowing and trading.
I for one know one of my mates has a
Gravecrawler I can borrow
But knowing myself, I will give in to the temptation of the Scarab and get a couple of cards
But I legit shouldn't.
Aaaanyway, on to the more important parts!
1 Lowering CMC cost
I agree. I recently did a couple of small tweaks to the deck specifically lowering the general cmc.
Haven't actually drawn
Rooftop Storm since I bought it, but the prospect of casting zombies for free is too good not to try out at least once hehe.
But yes, I definitely agree I need to focus on lowering the cmc.
2 Mana generation spells
Will definitely up it to 10 spells
I have
Ashnod's Altar in my
Breya, Etherium shaper deck. I could maybe swap it out and see how it goes. the Breya deck spawns a lot more thopters enabling the altar more than I think I'll be able to with Scarab god, but I'll probably be sac'ing more actual creatures than tokens in that deck.
One of my mates has
Black Market in his Markov deck. That card is %$#% sick and I definitely need it!
Heartless Summoning seems very.... backhanded at first glance, but when you take into account one of the win conditions is getting Scarab God life drain triggers, then yeah, I can definitely see it being brutal!
Not a fan of the Ritual spells in this deck. I have my 22 year old
Dark Ritual in my Kess deck though where it's sick.
Nyx Lotus,
Thran Dynamo and
Gilded Lotus all look good for the deck, will look into it!
3 Tutors
I don't have many because I don't really have that many hehe. I have a couple of the ones you mention in my Yuriko deck. I can swap a couple around, but I'm not too keen on making that deck weaker since it's really fast and good as it is hehe.
My play group hate Yuriko more than all my other decks hehe.
Muddle the mixture looks really really sick, very high contender for my 5th counterspell/tutor in the deck.
I'll check out what I have available, but I'd prioritise other parts of the deck over this for now.
4 Removal
Good question hehe.... I used to have more spot removal, but I have cut too much without noticing how little I have now. I usually want more mass removal in commander and it feels like every slot in this deck is valuable. I feel some of my other decks can be a bit more loose with card choices, but this deck needs a lot of thought to make it flow properly.
I have
Kindred Dominance in my Kess deck. I should swap it out and put it in this deck for sure. I also have two
Cyclonic Rift but they're in other decks where I value them more. I wish I had it in all my decks (all my decks have blue in them hehe)
Force of despair is so good. I have two and will find space for it in this deck for sure.
Drown in the loch is definitely going in and I'll put good old
Fleshbag Marauder in too.
I have a lot of different black spot removal spells, I'll look into trying to add some more kill stuff since the deck is VERY weak to flying threats.
* Draw power
I'm definitely not taking enough advantage of playing blue.... and I play blue in nearly every deck I have.....
Never thought of adding
Search for azcanta since it's more creature based, but giving it a second thought, it could be really good because it's graveyard fodder and the deck does actually have a ton of non creature spells for when/if it flips.
I have
Skullclamp in other decks, but I don't think it's consistent enough in this deck.
Bolas's Citadel is really good (even though I hate the grammar mistake in the name hehe). I use it in my Yuriko deck as a pseudo
Scroll Rack and always have good effect from it. Definitely need to consider this for the deck.
I really need to look through my draw cards again. Particularly ones with discard as you mention.
I have
Chemister's Insight because it's a good discard target too, but need more stuff.
* Win Conditions
I guess the main win con I'm aiming for is life drain from Scarab God triggers, second is just zombie beat down (with my own zombies, tokens and stuff I've stolen with Scarab God from other graveyards)
My playgroup have all pretty much agreed to not use infinite combos, so we stay away from them. Sometimes one of us will go "I have this cool combo, so I put it in my deck for just one game. Let's see if i can make it go off". But generally a no go for us.
I have
Throne of the God-Pharaoh somewhere. Will definitely add it.
I used to have
Torment of Hailfire, but cut it because it was another mana intensive card. That card is an all star in our playgroup though. Love it, but not space for it here.
* Recursion and reanimation
I haven't given much thought into this aspect of the the deck other than a couple of good targets for Scarab God.
One of them being
Diluvian Primordial which is usually pretty amazing. I usually discard it and then reanimate it with Scarab God, but you'd ideally cast it, kill it and then reanimate it.
I don't have many spells other than
Unearth which I love, but I think may be too narrow for this deck.
* Zombie optimisation
The only zombie you recommend I have access to is
Gravecrawler so I'll make sure to add it.
I will keep a high number of zombies and I'll not really think twice about removing the ones you mentioned other than
Noosegraf Mob (great for discarding and reanimating with Scarab God. It's a 9/9 that spits of 2/2 tokens. It's insanely good with Scarab God. at least in my experience hehe)
I've also had really good experience with
Lord of the accursed giving menace. I'm pretty happy with all the lords in the deck to be honest hehe.
* Cards to cut
I always thought of
Liliana's Mastery as a good "lord" card since it's an enchantment and harder to deal with, but it's maybe better in mainly beat down strategies. I'll have a hard time cutting this card to be honest.
Army of the Damned, it's just too funny not include hehe. I know it can backfire hard with wipe, but man.... so many zombies!!!
Grave Betrayal Very good, but VERY expensive. I've had it out a couple of games and it's sick, but it's too expensive. I can cut it for other stuff for sure.
Dreadhorde Invasion Only got to play with it in one game so far. I got pretty good results from it, so I'll keep it in for a while and see how it plays out with more games. I added it mostly to get a good early game drop out.
Tymaret calls the dead I mostly added this because I think the art is dope hehe and could give a little graveyard filling and spawn tokens. The two times I played it so far though.... I hit some REALLY good %$#% that I didn't want to mill hehe... so I'm a bit skeptical.
Tombstone Stairwell This will be the hardest card for me to cut hehe, but I can see it's a good idea. It's just a really fun "let's %$#% %$#% up" card in a stalemate with the whole "YOU GET A ZOMBIE!! YOU GET A ZOMBIE!!! AND YOU GET A ZOMBIE!!" It's creates a good incentive for relentless and carefree attacks. But yeah. It requires a lot of mana for it to properly go crazy.
Curse of Disturbance is honestly a favourite of mine and I've always had great experience playing it. It's a great card for bargaining. Always saying "You get a zombie if you attack X"
People think it's a really fun card (I hate the dude in the artwork though hehe...)
Mind Grind is pretty wild and
Altar of the Brood is good for feeding graveyards, but there's something about milling cards that triggers people in my playgroup. They all REALLY %$#% hate it and will target you if you make people mill even two or three cards hehe.
Graf Harvest is slow? I haven't tried playing it yet, but the thought of a 1 drop enchantment that gives all my creatures menace is pretty sick hehe. But could be right to cut if I'm more about life drain than attacking.
Those are just some of my general thoughts about your post. I have a ton of inspiration for what I need to do to tweak my deck.
I will get back to you when I've done a couple of tweaks. Not sure when I'll get to play though since everyone has jobs and most of them also have a wife and kids... so getting to play is kinda..... yeah... you know how it is hehe.
Thanks again so much! I will reply as soon as I've swapped stuff around.