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Moxonomy

Grave-Shell Scarab

Creature — Insect2 generic manaBlack manaGreen manaGreen mana

Dredge gave the graveyard a self-replacing engine, and this is the rare member of the keyword's family that pays you to feed it. The sacrifice ability turns the body into a cantrip the moment it has done its work in combat: spend one mana, draw a card, and from the yard the dredge clause offers to bring it back instead of drawing normally. That loop is the whole design. A 4/4 attacks, trades or chips in, then converts itself into card advantage; dredge then reloads it for the cost of a single milled card per cycle. Dredge 1 is the gentlest number the keyword reaches, which matters here because the card wants to recur many times rather than empty a library fast. Where the higher-dredge enablers were built to bury self-mill payoffs in a hurry, this one is built to grind: a green-black value piece that asks only a steady trickle of cards for the privilege of coming back. The cleverness is that recursion engines usually cost a card to keep running, and this one folds that cost into a draw step you were spending anyway. It is the patient end of the mechanic, a card for decks that win by out-attriting rather than out-comboing.

Grave-Shell Scarab (gk1)
GK1 · #63rare
Pricing
Normal: $0.28
Foil:
Oracle Text

Rules text

1 generic mana, Sacrifice this creature: Draw a card. Dredge 1 (If you would draw a card, you may mill a card instead. If you do, return this card from your graveyard to your hand.)
Legalities

Format Status

Standard
N/A
Pioneer
N/A
Modern
Legal
Legacy
Legal
Vintage
Legal
Commander
Legal
Pauper
N/A
Brawl
N/A
Historic
N/A
Alchemy
N/A
Timeless
N/A
Standard Brawl
N/A
More formats
Old School
N/A
Premodern
N/A
PreDH
Legal
Pauper Commander
N/A
Oathbreaker
Legal
Gladiator
N/A
Penny Dreadful
Legal
Duel Commander
Legal
Future Standard
N/A
COMPETITIVEBRAWL
N/A
TLR
N/A
Printings elsewhere

Other printings

1 set
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