We may have left Aetherdrift Prerelease in the dust, but that doesn’t mean the set is officially out yet. Arena doesn’t get to start its engines until tomorrow, for example. That said, some events are less strict than others. At the SCGCon cEDH 5K this past weekend Aetherdrift was fair game, which allowed Hashaton, Scarab’s Fist to make a big impact at the event.
Players have been hyping up this Commander, and the Eternal Might deck it comes from since it was revealed. While card evaluation by community consensus is notoriously unreliable, it looks like they were right on the money this time. It’s rare that new cards break into the cutthroat world of cEDH, so to see Hashaton doing so well there speaks volumes about its power level. Looks like we’re starting 2025 off on a strong note indeed.
Hashaton, Scarab’s Fist In cEDH?!
- Mana Value: WB
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- Type: Legendary Creature – Zombie Wizard
- Stats: 1/3
- Card Text: Whenever you discard a creature card, you may pay 2U. If you do, create a tapped token that’s a copy of that card, except it’s a 4/4 black Zombie.
You’ve probably seen Hashaton, Scarab’s Fist by now even if you’re not into cEDH. The card has been everywhere, inspiring financial spikes on the likes of Tortured Existence and Bone Miser pre-launch. Its popularity has picked up so much that it even has a nickname already: Hash Browns. This is what cEDH player and coach ComedIan named his deck for the SCGCon cEDH 5K this past weekend in Portland. In the end, he managed to claim fourth place in the tournament overall.
For those unfamiliar with the format, this is a very big deal. While cEDH does technically use the same ruleset as regular Commander, the power level is so high that it more than justifies its status as a separate format. I’m talking Moxen and Dual Lands in every deck at the bare minimum, and free counterspells and disruption in droves. A card needs to be particularly good to find a spot here, in other words.
It seems like our buddy Hash Browns has what it takes. Having blue in its color identity is a good start. Most decks in the format run blue purely for access to the likes of Force of Will and Fierce Guardianship. These spells let Hashaton decks interact at the highest level, which in turn makes them more likely to pop off.
Being black also opens up access to the full tutor suite: Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, etc. This is another major part of cEDH, consistency, and another mark in Hashoton’s favor right off the bat. It also allows for the inclusion of the Demonic Consultation/Thassa’s Oracle combo, probably the quickest and easiest win in the format.
Roundabout Reanimation
Throw in white staples like Esper Sentinel and Grand Abolisher and Hash Browns is a pretty good pick even if you never cast him at all. Fortunately, he also has plenty to offer once he hits the board. At just two mana Hashaton, Scarab’s Fist is very much in the playable range for cEDH, and his ability has a surprisingly wide range of applications.
Combined with discard effects, which we’ll get to later, Hashaton essentially gives you repeatable three mana reanimation on a body. It also sets the stats of the creatures it reanimates to 4/4, which is an interesting wrinkle. This gives you an incentive to bring back smaller utility creatures like Esper Sentinel or Orcish Bowmasters since they’ll get decent stats on top of their powerful effects.
It’s not quite as good with big creatures, of course. The likes of Nezahal and Razaketh take a considerable stat cut when brought back this way. That said, these creatures tend to be powerful enough on abilities alone to be worth resurrecting regardless. If you can’t tutor up an instant win as soon as Razaketh hits the table in cEDH, you’ve probably built your deck wrong.
This reanimation ability is what makes Hashaton special, and it forms the cornerstone of ComedIan’s strategy here. Three mana sounds like a lot, but in a format full of Moxen and Ancient Tombs it’s really not too bad. It can be used as a tempo tool to power out a disruption piece like Talion, the Kindly Lord, or as a cheap way to get pricey combo pieces into play. Either way, there’s no sorcery-speed restriction to spoil your fun here.
Dis Card Is Pretty Good
Of course, you’ll need some discard to get Hashaton going in the first place. ComedIan’s list actually plays surprisingly few discard outlets, but the ones it includes are all fantastic. Tortured Existence proves worthy of its new $10 price tag here, giving you extra value alongside your reanimation. Cheap looters like Vohar and Rona help smooth out your draws and your plays, while wheel effects like Windfall offer even more value than usual.
Hashaton, Scarab’s Fist clearly has a lot going for it in cEDH. Is it one to watch long-term? Possibly. In the comments of his Twitter post celebrating his fourth place win, ComedIan noted that Hashaton was “definitely solid but I definitely left a lot of the over the top stuff at home. Much happier with it as a solid card quality pile.”
This is an interesting perspective, and one fairly unique to cEDH. Because the format is largely defined by powerful cards in the 99, the abilities of individual Commanders are often irrelevant. The likes of Rograkh and Kinnan see play mostly for fringe benefits, like enabling early Mox Ambers and serving as infinite mana outlets, respectively. Commander abilities tend to take a backseat to color identity more often than not, and this is clearly the mindset ComedIan has approached his Hashaton deck with.
He himself admits that there are more powerful synergies available, but also that just running him as an Esper enabler with some nice upside on occasion is good enough. Given that we haven’t even seen the full release of Aetherdrift yet, I’d expect more players to test and tweak Hash Browns for the top tables. There’s a very real chance he will become a new cEDH staple when all is said and done.