Grave-Shell Scarab MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 2 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost5
RarityRare
TypeCreature — Insect
Abilities Dredge,Mill
Power 4
Toughness 4

Key Takeaways

  1. Grave-Shell Scarab ensures persistent battlefield presence and draws cards, optimizing card advantage.
  2. Instant speed sacrifice grants tactical advantage by surprising opponents with unexpected card draw.
  3. Despite its versatility, the Scarab’s specific mana and high cost can limit its gameplay utility.

Text of card

, Sacrifice Grave-Shell Scarab: Draw a card. Dredge 1 (If you would draw a card, instead you may put exactly one card from the top of your library into your graveyard. If you do, return this card from your graveyard to your hand. Otherwise, draw a card.)


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Grave-Shell Scarab provides perpetual resilience on the battlefield, allowing you to return it from your graveyard to your hand, ensuring a persistent presence and maintaining card advantage.

Resource Acceleration: As a creature that can be sacrificed to draw a card, it acts as a resource accelerator, by contributing to your card flow and enabling you to access more of your deck’s potential rapidly.

Instant Speed: The ability to sacrifice Grave-Shell Scarab at instant speed offers tactical depth, granting you the upper hand by deciding when to trigger its card draw effect on your terms, often catching opponents off-guard.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Grave-Shell Scarab demands that players discard a card in order to activate its drawing ability. This may prove to be a setback when your hand is already depleted or the resources in it are too valuable to lose.

Specific Mana Cost: The Scarab’s casting cost requires a precise combination of green and black mana, which may not be readily available in all deck types, thereby limiting its versatility and potentially causing delays in play.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a total mana cost of five, including one green and one black, the Scarab presents a sizable investment in the early to mid-game. Given that MTG is abundant with creatures that cost less and provide similar or better advantages, the high cost can be a significant drawback.


Reasons to Include Grave-Shell Scarab in Your Collection

Versatility: Grave-Shell Scarab serves multiple roles within your deck. Its function as a durable creature that can consistently regenerate makes it a resilient threat on the board. Additionally, its ability to be sacrificed for card draw offers a steady stream of new options, making it a solid choice for decks that thrive on adaptability.

Combo Potential: Not only does it stand as an efficient creature on its own, but it can also act as an engine in combo-oriented decks. By intertwining with various graveyard mechanics or cards that reward you for sacrificing creatures, it provides substantial value over the course of a game.

Meta-Relevance: In a game environment that values long-term strategies and creature-based tactics, Grave-Shell Scarab can become a crucial component. Its regeneration keeps it relevant against removal-heavy decks, ensuring that it remains a constant presence affecting the battlefield turn after turn.


How to Beat Grave-Shell Scarab

Overcoming a Grave-Shell Scarab on the battlefield requires strategic planning due to its innate resilience. This creature boasts a recurring ability, allowing it to return to its owner’s hand and evade typical removal spells. To effectively counter this, consider using exile effects or spells that don’t target, such as board wipes, to ensure it can’t return to the hand. Additionally, graveyard disruption can play a key role; with cards like Rest in Peace or Leyline of the Void, you can prevent the Scarab’s dredge ability from functioning effectively, thereby stifling your opponent’s card advantage and keeping the creature at bay.

Enhancing your strategy to tackle creatures with regeneration or recurring abilities will also serve you well against Grave-Shell Scarab. Cards that impose sacrifice effects, like edict-style spells, bypass the regeneration shield and force the creature off the field without targeting it directly. Moreover, keeping a tight control on your opponent’s resources, through land destruction or counter spells for their card draw attempts, can limit the frequency at which the Scarab enters the battlefield, giving you a strategic edge to maintain dominance during the game.


BurnMana Recommendations

Going deeper into the multiverse of MTG, Grave-Shell Scarab emerges as a fascinating pick, especially when delving into the intricacies of graveyard mechanics and deck resilience. It offers a combo of endurance and resourcefulness that can pivot a game in your favor. For those who relish multifaceted strategies and the thrill of evolving gameplay, this card is a gem worth considering for your collection. Enhance your repertoire of tactical plays with its unique abilities and maintain board presence against adversity. Keen to unearth more strategies and elevate your card knowledge? Dive into our MTG guides for insights that will sharpen your skills and refine your deck’s edge.


Cards like Grave-Shell Scarab

Grave-Shell Scarab brings a unique spin to Magic: The Gathering’s array of self-recycling creatures. It can be compared to the likes of Reassembling Skeleton, which shares the ability to return from the graveyard to the battlefield, albeit at a lower cost and without card advantage. Grave-Shell Scarab stands out with its built-in card draw feature, allowing players not just to reclaim the creature but also to enhance their hand.

Taking a look at Deadbridge Chant, we can see another card with graveyard synergy, though focused on random selection rather than player choice. The Scarab’s guarantee of additional cards gives players more control over their strategy, particularly in longer games. Eternal Witness also offers a parallel in reclaiming cards from the graveyard, but it pulls directly into the hand at the time of its entry to the battlefield unlike the Scarab’s ongoing cycling ability.

Analyzing their roles in game strategies, Grave-Shell Scarab earns its place with the ability to influence the game both by persisting on the board and through consistent hand replenishment, a trait that is valuable for decks focusing on endurance and card advantage.

Reassembling Skeleton - MTG Card versions
Deadbridge Chant - MTG Card versions
Eternal Witness - MTG Card versions
Reassembling Skeleton - Archenemy (ARC)
Deadbridge Chant - Dragon's Maze (DGM)
Eternal Witness - Fifth Dawn (5DN)

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Marrow Chomper - Alara Reborn (ARB)
Lord of Extinction - Double Masters 2022 (2X2)
Golgari Longlegs - Return to Ravnica (RTR)
Korozda Gorgon - Dragon's Maze (DGM)
Pharika's Mender - Conspiracy: Take the Crown (CN2)
Kheru Dreadmaw - Khans of Tarkir (KTK)
Brood Butcher - Battle for Zendikar (BFZ)
Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest - Double Masters (2XM)
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Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Grave-Shell Scarab MTG card by a specific set like Ravnica: City of Guilds and GRN Guild Kit, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Grave-Shell Scarab and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Grave-Shell Scarab Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2005-10-07 and 2018-11-02. Illustrated by Pete Venters.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12005-10-07Ravnica: City of GuildsRAV 2112003normalblackPete Venters
22018-11-02GRN Guild KitGK1 632015normalblackPete Venters

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Grave-Shell Scarab has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
ModernLegal
OathbreakerLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
PredhLegal
PennyLegal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Grave-Shell Scarab card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

DateText
2005-10-01 You may sacrifice Grave-Shell Scarab to pay for its first ability, then replace that draw using the Scarab’s dredge ability. The result is that the top card of your library is put into your graveyard and Grave-Shell Scarab returns to your hand (after a brief trip to the graveyard).

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