Table of Contents
After wondering what the best legendary creature for our second Commander article would be, we realized the full lists for Aetherdrift Commander Decks were out, and let me tell you, both have a lot of potential!
Saheeli, Radiant Creator, and Pia Nalaar, Chief Mechanic seem fun and Energy finally has legendary creatures worth being in front of an energy EDH deck.
However, Hashaton, Scarab's Fist has been called the strongest of the new legendary creatures in the set. Its potential for appearing at cEDH tables is undeniable. After all, putting yourself in a winning position at an instant speed is something that not every deck can accomplish.
We will choose Hashaton as our Commander in this precon upgrade. This means we will focus the upgrades on letting Hashaton have instant speed win conditions, more protection, and synergies with Hashaton's ability.
If you want a zombie tribal deck guide, please let me know in the comment section. I always had the urge to build a Grimgrin, Corpse-Born deck; and Varina, Lich Queen is also very popular. With Innistrad Remastered just being released, zombies are everywhere! 🧟🏻♂️
Notable Reprints
This section is fundamental in any commander guide. Understanding our game plan will let us play our 99+1 better, making the deck more consistent. Also, looking at what could give us value while choosing a precon is a good habit some may give you more for your money.
Furthermore, these cards function as the backbone of our archetype, which gives us options for upgrading the deck finding effects that may work similarly to our primary cards.
Artifacts
In a final Hashaton, Scarab's Fist deck, Bontu's Monument could be a take-out, however, every copy is around $6 while writing this article. Not bad at all.
From Midnight Hunt Commander, Crowded Crypt is a staple mana-rock for any zombie deck. This reprint is very appreciated. Eventually, you can put a lot of counters on it by generating loops, letting you have tons of zombie tokens on the battlefield when you crack it.
Creatures
This big fella is another highly appreciated reprint. From Game Night 2018, Rot Hulk is another card that may end games on the spot. Returning 3 zombies simultaneously may enable many combos that will kill your opponents thanks to combining etb abilities.
We just talked about having hordes of zombies with Crowded Crypt; starting a turn with The Scarab God in a situation could be a game changer. If we have some reanimator win conditions, we can make tokens of big creatures with The Scarab God ability instead of using reanimate effects, which is very useful.
This one is a great reprint from an old Innistrad set. Cryptbreaker is not only good in a tribal zombie deck; in any deck with a reanimator side-quest, this creature can enable our strategy while giving us a body to have a presence in the field.
On top of that, drawing advantage is always appreciated. Tapping three untapped zombies is not a big deal counting on the fact that you may also tap Cryptbreaker.
Lands
I'm amazed how many good zombie tribal cards have very few prints. Unholy Grotto was only on Onslaught and The List + one Secret Lair. Now many zombies tribal decks without Unholy Grotto may grasp a copy of this amazing land.
Occasionally, this land helps us recover important pieces of our deck, but not only that; we may let our commander die, put it on top of our library for B, and then cast it for its regular cost the next turn, effectively avoiding commander tax.
Precon Deck
Total main deck mana value: 216 Recommended Number is between 100-180
Ramp cards: 10 Recommended number is between 12-23
- Sol Ring
- Arcane Signet
- Crowded Crypt
- Twisted Abomination
- Timeless Dragon
- Talisman of Hierarchy
- Talisman of Dominance
- Orzhov Signet
- Dimir Signet
- Commander's Sphere
Cards that draw: 23 Recommended number is between 12-20
- Midnight Reaper
- Cryptbreaker
- Corpse Augur
- Commence the Endgame
- Prophet of the Scarab
- Twisted Abomination
- Gempalm Polluter
- Archfiend of Ifnir
- Pull from Tomorrow
- Forgotten Creation
- Champion of Wits
- Timeless Dragon
- Gate to the Afterlife
- Commander's Sphere
- Undead Augur
- Rhet-Tomb Mystic
- Irrigated Farmland
- Fetid Pools
- Desert of the True
- Desert of the Mindful
- Desert of the Glorified
- Ash Barrens
- Temmet, Naktamun's Will
Tutors: 3 Recommended Number is between 5-10
- Gate to the Afterlife
- Terramorphic Expanse
- Evolving Wilds
Cards with combo potential: 6 Recommended number is between 5-15
- Sol Ring
- Corpse Knight
- Gravecrawler
- Rot Hulk
- Maskwood Nexus
- Bontu's Monument
Removal cards: 10 Recommended number is 5-15, including spot and mass removal
- Swords to Plowshares
- Liliana, Death's Majesty
- Damn
- Cast Out
- Cementery Reaper
- The Scarab God
- Despark
- drc-65-dusk-dawn
- drc-96-never-return
- drc-45-murderous-rider-swift-end
Upgrades
Upgrading Eternal Might for having Hashaton, Scarab's Fist as your Commander will take this upgrade guide far away from any other you may find. For this reason, we need to have clear points for what direction we have to take with our upgrades:
- We want to win with Hashaton's ability, or at least make it one of our win conditions. That means that we need more ways of protecting it.
- More ways to discard cards would be great. This would allow us to use Hashaton's ability more often.
- If we discard cards, it would be great if more effects would benefit us from discarding.
- Creatures that are great targets for Hashaton's ability are mandatory.
- A pair of ramp pieces.
- Madness is an ability that lets us play cards for an alternative cost while they are being discarded. Most of the time it is a reduced cost meaning these cards have great synergy with our deck.
- Finding ways to duplicate the tokens we generate can give us huge amounts of value.
- A consistent draw engine is always great.
- As we always said, finding what we need when we need it it's a centerpiece of the format. A pair of good tutors would make the deck more consistent.
- Closing games instantly with an infinite combo, hordes of attackers, or similar interactions helps a lot when the table gets complicated.
- Some solid removal and/or counterspells help us answer threats immediately.
- 2 or 3 Esper staples are always appreciated.
- Some ways of reanimating creatures help us capitalize on our graveyard as a resource.
- A few untapped lands that produce Azorius, Orzhov, Dimir, or Esper.
As we did in our Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls commander guide, let us keep the upgrades under $150 and below 30 cards, tops.
Protection
Curiously Lightning Greaves is absent in Eternal Might. In decks when our Commander is fundamental to our game plan, having the boots around helps a lot. However, due to our 30-card limit for this upgrade, I will leave the counterspells to do the job.
Discard
This is one of the best cards for Hashaton, Scarab Fist, no question asked. If we have this enchantment and our commander in the field, we can discard a card, make a token of the discarded creature, and then return that creature to our hand. All for UB2. Sick.
Windfall may be a risky play sometimes. There are occasions where you fix your opponents' hands, and others where you crush their plan making them throw everything to the graveyard. Nevertheless, when we have ways of reanimating big creatures, having the upper hand in wheeling is not that hard.
Also, if we keep Temmet, Naktamun's Will in the list, pumping our army of zombies with Windfall may finish the game on the spot.
One of the best Hashaton's, Scarab Fist enablers is Frantic Search. This lets us draw two cards and discard a card we want to use for Hashaton's while untapping the three lands we used for casting this spell. This results in a free Hashaton's activation or free card selection spell, as you prefer.
Free Enablers
Having ways of discarding cards without paying mana is the best way to trigger Hashaton. Ghostly Pilferer is also great for drawing extra cards while Psychic Frog can chip our opponents' lives while also drawing cards.
If Psychic Frog is too expensive, you can always go with Psychatog
Creatures that connive are great for triggering Hashaton without spending mana. It is not hard to think what two creatures are the best with this ability. Both were powerhouses in Standard, and Ledger Shredder has been in eternal formats with great success.
I only go for Ledger Shredder but feel free to add Raffine, Scheming Seer
I remember the old days when I started playing Magic. Skirge Familiar was one of the most broken cards in combination with Yawgmoth's Will and Yawgmoth's Bargain. Ah, what good times.
In this case, this phyrexian imp enables Hashaton while helping us pay for its ability simultaneously. Furthermore, by making this deck upgrade into the discard-at-will direction, having an extra enabler that gives mane while doing what we want is great.
Payoffs
Bone Miser is great when you can assemble combos with Tortured Existence and Phyrexian Altar. But being close to 20 dollars could mean a hard chump to our budget. Just keep that name in mind.
You can cast this creature for 2 or 3 mana in many games. It lets us play any big creature we discard making our graveyard a resource pile we can take advantage of. Don't forget you can cast any card you've discarded without any time window as long Oskar is on the field.
Targets for Hashaton
Draw and Tutors
Even if we have amazing options in creatures like Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, and Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant, we will aim towards non-legendary creatures. This is because adding ways of duplicate tokens is great for this deck. Nevertheless, you can add these amazing phyrexians if you like.
A good example would be playing Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant + Nezahal, Primal Tide + Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite if you are not aiming for duplicate tokens or until you can grab a copy of Anointed Procession.
Despite all I said, Consecrated Sphinx is gas, and should be there 100% of the time. And it's good enough that hard-casting this creature never feels wrong.
I wrote above that we need one or two more tutors to make the deck more consistent. If we could have one in the form of a great target for Hashaton, I take it. If we could have two, that's better!
Combos
Making a token of Astral Dragon may finish a table faster than you think. If we have Anointed Procession and target the enchantment with both children dragons we will end with 69 tokens of 3/3 Dragon Anointed Procession tokens. 🤯 This is why I just said adding token doublers is a goal for Hashaton.
It's hard to push Anointed Procession into the budget, however, Astral Dragon is good enough to be in the deck on its own.
Another amazing creature that was a nightmare during its Standard period was Hullbreaker Horror. This creature has amazing abilities but is here mostly because it can ensemble an infinite <> mana combo with Sol Ring.
You need to add two colorless mana with Sol Ring, cast a permanent, one that can be cast using <>, return the Sol Ring with Hullbreaker Horror's trigger, cast the Sol Ring by paying 1, then we can return the permanent cast initially; repeat.
We will add Springleaf Drum for this combo
Ramp
Springleaf Drum works great with our token theme enabling the Hullbreaker Horror combo in the same way as Lotus Petal. Lotus Petal is a bit expensive, but it enables powerplays one turn earlier plus has the infinite combo with Hullbreaker Horror. I will not add this to the list for budget purposes but feel free to do the upgrade.
Madness
From Under the Floorboards, is one great way of capitalizing the Hullbreaker Horror combo. We would have an infinite number of 2/2 zombies + infinite amount of life.
Token Duplication
If we add Anointed Procession or Mondrak, Glory Dominus we explode our budget. This card is not needed for a functional Hashaton deck. Nevertheless, the impact of having this enchantment is huge. It makes combos that may finish any table on the spot like the one with [card]Astral Dragon, and duplicating the value of every Hashaton's trigger is immense. That's why we have Renewed Solidarity in the precon.
Choose this one if you are planning on spending on an expensive card. I said this because besides doubling Hashaton's triggers it doubles any other zombie token generator + any card that doubles tokens entering the battlefield will always retain its value over time.
For budget purposes, I will not add either one to this section.
This is not as powerful as the previous cards in this section; however, it could double one or two times without much trouble.
Draw Engine
This is not Rhystic Study, but it helps quite a bit. Drawing 3 or 4 cards with this is more than enough.
After Anointed Procession hit our budget hard, I couldn't add many more cards in each section. However, if you cut Anointed Procession or want another draw engine before getting Rhystic Study or on top of it you may add Pollywog Prodigy
Tutors
Diabolic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, and Imperial Seal are out of our budget. Beseech the Mirror and Diabolic Intent may be a cheaper option. In any case, I'm doing my best to keep Consecrated Sphinx, which makes me leave this section with just one card.
This artifact can find your winning card. Giving it to any of our opponents after the resolution of the effect becomes irrelevant. Also, thanks to Hoarding Broodlord and Rune-Scarred Demon we don't have the urge to add more tutors.
Combos
We have enough room on the budget to add the most popular Dimir combo in cEDH. We only need to cast Demonic Consultation which will exile all our library. Then casting Thassa's Oracle wins the game when it enters. You can also add Tainted Pact to give consistency to the combo.
Counters and Removal
We already have Swords to Plowshares in the list. Adding two counters that only cost one blue mana will help raise our defenses in crucial moments.
Having one reset button is always a good idea.
Esper Staples
Many Orzhov and Esper cEDH lists play Lotho. This could generate 1-3 treasure tokens during one turn cycle. That amount of extra mana could be enough to close a game unexpectedly.
Reanimate
Having many good creatures to discard for Hashaton leaves our graveyard full of amazing targets for reanimate spells. Adding more cards with this effect like Unburial Rites is not outside of the equation.
Lands
The Commander's dual lands are now at a very accessible price. Having them is great because they are format staples.
Takeouts
- Temmet, Naktamun's Will
- Liliana, Death's Majesty
- Binding Mummy
- Cemetery Reaper
- Corpse Augur
- Corpse Knight
- Eternal Skylord
- Fleshbag Marauder
- Gelmpalm Polluter
- Gravecrawler
- Lord of the Accursed
- Plague Belcher
- Priest of the Crossing
- Prophet of the Scarab
- Rhet-Tomb Mystic
- Undead Augur
- Vizier of Many Faces
- Wayward Servant
- Wizened Mentor
- Zombie Master
- Commence the Endgame
- Bontu's Monument
- Maskwood Nexus
- Desert of the Glorified
- Desert of the Mindful
- Desert of the True
- Orzhov Basilica
Upgraded Decklist
End Step
Wow! What a ride!
After writing this guide I can't wait to buy a copy of this deck. It has a lot of potential and the win conditions leave many options to explore. The limitations of our budget and the number of cards we want to add as a first step shape some choices. However, if you think about playing Hashaton as a full cEDH Deck, let me assure you that it has the potential to be on top of the most competitive tables out there.
I leave out of the equation cards as Anointed Procession that assembles a powerful combo with Astral Dragon, Imperial Seal, Tainted Pact, and other fun combos as Acererak the Archlich + Rooftop Storm.
This was a non-traditional way to upgrade a precon. Doing so using the face commander is most of the time the main way; Nevertheless, doing it in this way was exciting, and a challenge, and I hope this work became useful for many of you who like me would buy this precon on day 1.
If you like this article, we could return to Hashaton, Scarab's Fist to work on a fully upgraded non-pre-con Hashaton deck from scratch below $100, tune these upgrades more on a part 2, or maybe you prefer a fully cEDH deck guide with play patterns and strategy.
What do you prefer? Please let me know in the comment section, or on my Twitter. We could also tackle Living Energy, the other Aetherdrift precon, or an Innistrad Legendary creature. Well, the truth is that we could tackle anything, just let me know!
Coaching Note
After a long hiatus, it is a pleasure to return to one of the things I love the most; writing and Magic. Sometimes, life gets difficult. However, you know what they say: "One always returns to where they were happy." And indeed, that is the case. After spending quality time with my family and taking the time to reorganize myself, I am now back to Magic: The Gathering, fully committed to bringing you the best Commander content.
First of all, I want to welcome Snacky, our new writer. He is now taking care of our Meta Tier List. Please, check out his first two articles here:
If you don't know my previous work for other DotGG sites or my content on Twitch or Youtube, I would like to tell you that I'm offering coaching services for MTG, and Marvel Snap at $15/hour. If you want to contact me, look for me at:
- My Discord
- My Twitter
- Via email: [email protected]
- Twitch or YouTube
Thank you so much for reaching this last paragraph. We are happy to continue our efforts of making playingmtg an amazing source for MTG fans all around the world.
Lastly, and as I always say, don't forget to smile daily; it makes a difference.
