The Scarab Club Comes to Fort Worth: Star City Games 1000DBS Top 8

Fort Worth, TX — September 5, 2026 Format: Seeker | 28 players | Swiss into Top 8

Twenty-eight Stoneseekers walked into Star City Comics & Games on Saturday morning. By late afternoon, eight decklists were on the table and one of them had done something the other seven couldn’t: win out.

Aaron C’s By God’s Eye or Scarab’s Bite took the title, and the name of the deck tells you most of what you need to know about the Fort Worth metagame. If you didn’t bring Lumina Scarab, you brought a plan for Lumina Scarab.

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The Shape of the Room

Five of the eight decks ran Lumina Scarab, and four of those ran the full three copies. Around the Scarab, a recognizable core showed up again and again:

• Lumina Scarab (5 decks)
• Forgekeep Outpost (5 decks, 3 copies in four of them)
• Feline Entity of Dreams (5 decks)
• Phoenix Quill (6 decks)
• Sister Azura Silversong / Solar Soothe (4 decks each, always together)
• Gearheart Enclave Inner (3 decks, 3 copies each)
• Desert Survivor NBC Suit (5 decks)

Stephen B’s deck was literally named after the package and if you squint at the list, the acronym isn’t hard to decode.

The other side of the story is the players who declined the invitation. Michael G brought a Volcanic Wastes / Emberblaze Encampment beatdown shell with zero Sister Azura and a lone Scarab.And Moe R’s Dimir went fully into the Umbrathene dark — Cryptreach Province, Necropolis of the Damned, Twilight Marsh — with an archive stacked eleven deep in Pollen Drones.

That’s a healthy Top 8: a dominant package, a mirror-tuned variant, and three distinct alternative plans that all made the cut.

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Champion: Aaron C — By God’s Eye or Scarab’s Bite

Aaron’s list is the Scarab core at its most refined. Three Scarabs, three Forgekeep, three Gearheart Enclave Inner, three Feline Entity, three Celestium Heights — and then the twist that gives the deck its name: two God’s Eye Release backed by two Indra’s Citadel and three Nyx Fleetfoot.

Two paths to the same destination. Either the Scarab engine grinds you out, or God’s Eye closes the door. The archive is lean, just Infinite Fractal Core and Letter From a Friend, which says everything about how confident Aaron was in the fifty.

Worth noting: American T’s Dallas Deck FINAL v3 LAST ONE 2 THISONE new is the same skeleton, card for card in most slots. r.

2 Captain Nebula Talon
3 Celestium Heights
1 Core Meltdown
2 Desert Survivor NBC Suit
1 Dreameater
1 Eternitum the Space Lich
3 Feline Entity of Dreams
3 Forgekeep Outpost
3 Gearheart Enclave Inner
2 God’s Eye Release
2 Indra’s Citadel
1 Keeper of Beauty
2 Lucas Dorian
3 Lumina Scarab
1 Market of Lost Wonders
1 Mysteron Veilguard
1 Mystic Albeala
3 Nyx Fleetfoot
1 Phoenix Quill
1 Quadritusk Etherphant
1 Resonance Reach
1 Sirius Aetherblade
2 Sister Azura Silversong
2 Solar Soothe
2 TauMecha South
1 The First
1 Utterly Complex Compound Bow
1 Vaylen Vos
1 Vivi Bitstorm
1 War Beast

Archive:
1 Infinite Fractal Core
1 Letter From a Friend

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Top 8: American T

Same God’s Eye / Scarab chassis as the champion, swapping Captain Nebula Talon and Celestium Heights for Sunfire City, a second War Beast, and singletons of Roman Silvershot, Noctarum the Lost, and Duatian Frontier. The archive carries Silvershot’s Arcane Rifle and Radiant Gravpack to give Roman something to do.

1 Core Meltdown
2 Desert Survivor NBC Suit
1 Dreameater
1 Duatian Frontier
1 Eternitum the Space Lich
3 Feline Entity of Dreams
3 Forgekeep Outpost
1 Galactic Sovereign Throne
3 Gearheart Enclave Inner
2 God’s Eye Release
2 Indra’s Citadel
1 Keeper of Beauty
2 Lucas Dorian
3 Lumina Scarab
1 Market of Lost Wonders
1 Mysteron Veilguard
1 Mystic Albeala
1 Noctarum the Lost
3 Nyx Fleetfoot
1 Phoenix Quill
1 Quadritusk Etherphant
1 Resonance Reach
1 Roman Silvershot
1 Sirius Aetherblade
2 Sister Azura Silversong
1 Solar Soothe
3 Sunfire City
1 TauMecha Outskirts
1 The First
1 Utterly Complex Compound Bow
1 Vivi Bitstorm
2 War Beast

Archive:
1 Heatseeker
1 Radiant Gravpack
1 Silvershot’s Arcane Rifle

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Top 8: Rabanero P — Anti-scarab scarab club deck

The deck name is a thesis statement. Rabanero runs the three Scarabs, but the rest of the list is built to fight the mirror: three War Beast, three Mosspaw’s Respite, three TauMecha Outskirts, two Ichorite Infusion, and a Matter Eliminator 3000. Where the champion leaned on Gearheart Enclave Inner, Rabanero went Azure Vault and Ashenleaf instead.

2 Ashenleaf
2 Azure Vault
2 Deconstruct
1 Eye of Petraia
3 Forgekeep Outpost
1 Galen Mosspaw
1 High Priestess Rosalind Wildwood
1 House of Verdantleaf
2 Ichorite Infusion
1 Kaia “Clutch” Shockbite
3 Lumina Scarab
1 Master Farid
1 Matter Eliminator 3000
3 Mosspaw’s Respite
1 Mountain Ridge Mammoth
1 Phoenix Quill
3 Quiet Creek
1 Raziya Balakai
2 Resonance Reach
1 Roman Silvershot
2 Sister Azura Silversong
2 Solar Soothe
3 TauMecha Outskirts
1 The First
2 Tik Nollegee
1 Utterly Complex Compound Bow
1 Vincent Varok
1 Vivi Bitstorm
3 War Beast
1 War’rinoco, Nature’s Firstborn

Archive:
1 Commander Wright
1 Heatseeker
1 Killclaw
1 Radiant Gravpack
1 Sesstrio Vetus
1 Silent Death
1 Silvershot’s Arcane Rifle
1 Taste of the Wild

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Top 8: Michael G

The first of the non-conformists. Michael brought a ground game: three Rockskin Shredder, three Unconfined Dusthowler, three Briarmaw, three Commanding Croak, the Leader, with Volcanic Wastes and Emberblaze Encampment underneath. Two Corrupted Prismatian Behemoth and two Mechalion sit at the top of the curve, and Soul Jar Mastery and The Awakening give the deck a way to keep the bodies coming. One Scarab, no Azura, no Soothe. It made Top 8 anyway.

2 Baron, the Unstable
3 Bloomstone Stream
3 Briarmaw
3 Commanding Croak, the Leader
2 Corrupted Prismatian Behemoth
2 Dealmaker Paladius
2 Emberblaze Encampment
3 Feline Entity of Dreams
1 Galen Mosspaw
1 House of Verdantleaf
1 Lumina Scarab
3 Luminous Labyrinth
2 Mechalion
1 Nyx Fleetfoot
2 Path of Light
3 Rockskin Shredder
2 Sirius Aetherblade
2 Soul Jar Mastery
1 Sunfire City
2 Sylira Shadowstalker
2 The Awakening
1 The First
3 Unconfined Dusthowler
3 Volcanic Wastes

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Top 8: Joel T — My Birthday

Happy birthday, Joel. This is the closest thing to a highlander deck in the Top 8 — 27 singletons, and the only cards at three copies are Quadritusk Etherphant and Sunfire City. It touches nearly every corner of the card pool: War’rinoco and High Priestess Rosalind Wildwood from the Verdantleaf side, Eternitum the Space Lich and Galactic Sovereign Throne from the void, Tavish Shadowfuse and Nexus Phasebringer in between. No archive at all.

1 Caelith Leaftracker
1 Cast Out
1 Cedarshade Grungle
1 Comet Cleaver
1 Desert Survivor NBC Suit
1 Dreameater
2 Dustfall Badlands
1 Eternitum the Space Lich
1 Eye of Petraia
2 Feline Entity of Dreams
2 Finduilas Foresteye
1 Forgekeep Outpost
1 Galactic Sovereign Throne
1 Galen Mosspaw
1 High Priestess Rosalind Wildwood
1 House of Verdantleaf
2 Luminous Labyrinth
1 Market of Lost Wonders
1 Master Farid
2 Nexus Phasebringer
1 Phoenix Quill
1 Plant Terror of Ethereal Grove
3 Quadritusk Etherphant
2 Quiet Creek
1 Raziya Balakai
2 Resonance Reach
1 Sentient Explosion
2 Sirius Aetherblade
3 Sunfire City
1 Sunscar City
2 Tavish Shadowfuse
1 The Blazing Phoenix Pub
1 The First
1 Tony Fortune Hunter Thickfur
1 Utterly Complex Compound Bow
1 Vivi Bitstorm
1 War’rinoco, Nature’s Firstborn

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What Fort Worth Tells Us

Lumina Scarab is the card to beat in Seeker. Five of eight decks, four at full copies, and the champion’s list built entirely around protecting it. The next person to win a Seeker event will either be running Scarab or have a very specific answer to it.

The Scarab core has room to move. Aaron went God’s Eye. Stephen went Cosmic Cataclysm and Mass Driver. Rabanero went War Beast and anti-mirror tech. Same first twenty cards, three different closers. The format isn’t solved — the skeleton is.

The outliers were real. Michael’s beatdown, Anthony’s Path of Light tempo, Moe’s Umbrathene archive engine, and Joel’s singleton pile all made the cut in a 28-player field. Whatever Scarab does to the room, it hasn’t shut the door on anyone.

Congratulations to Aaron C, to everyone in the Top 8, and to Star City Games for hosting. See you at the next one.

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Event page: https://play.wondersccg.com/events/755890