As the title says, is this a dead card?
I can never find the opportunity to get it down in a match, never mind get it down and have it be effective or no insta-dispelled / removed.
Playing at Diamond Rank with a control Sajj deck (Aymara Healer / Dioltas / Spinecleaver).
Anyone make any suggestions as to what I can replace it with?
Thanks!
It’s far from dead. It’s a card that gains value over time, one person here made a good point by comparing it to Nimbus and I fully agree with that. Such cards with no immediate game impact are often clunky to play.
Anyway, if you want deck advice you need to link us your deck or otherwise we can’t properly help you.
Ok, the deck I’m using is below.
Any advice appreciated.
This is an “answer-or-die” card due to its ability to devastate the opponent, especially given Vet’s many buffs. Like others of this type, you must protect it and/or play it after having a reasonable suspicion that your opponent’s removal has been exhausted.
If you are playing Magmar for example, and you put it down with nothing else on the board, and your opponent hasn’t played Natural Selection, then it will probably get “selected”. Look to the number of cards in their hand as a general indicator, and pay attention to what they’ve already done.
-3 pyro +3 pax
-2 rae +1 shroud
-1 scarab +2 decay
I have a feeling something like this would make the deck a bit more consistent. Pax is something you should definitely put in, but the rest is up to debate. Two domwill might be too much as well and grove lion is worth considering too. Just have in mind that in diamond you will have some issues with the deck even if it’s fully optimized. The best vet deck out there is simcity zirix.
A lot of the common cards are essential for the Gauntlet mode of the game. Since you primarily get commons as choice when you are in the deckbuilding mode. The Starfire Scarab is an amazing Gauntlet card, since you can protect it with your general, and there is a limited amount of removal available in that setting.
Even if it doesn’t have strong constructed potential, since that format is much quicker, with ubiquitous removal options. Starfice Scarb has its own special place as an all star in quite a few Gauntlet runs.
Try to bait out dispels and removals from your opponent before playing scarab down. It should help 
@raqyee I will give your suggestions a try, thanks mate.
@pfcmickey When I bait them out, I’m usually in a position where dropping a scarab wouldn’t actually do much.
That’s weird 
Vet usually have lots of good value minions that are great dispel targets, and you also run dioltas. If you’re playing on curve, your opponent should be dispelling the heck out of your minions before an aymara or a scarab drops.
Then again, I play dervish vet and people love to dispel obelisks xD
Honestly, the issue is less the Scarab itself, and more that you have a high redundancy of minions that are super slow. Dioltas and Healer are both functionally the same kind of play (except, Healer does have provoke, which is somewhat relevant.) Decks like these are super dependent on having fast plays (spells with legs,) like Sunset Paragon, Primus Fist, Dancing Blades etc.
I like @raqyee’s suggestion, but I’d rather try something like…
-3 Pyromancer
-2 Spelljammer
-2 Repulsor Beast
-1 Dominate Will
+1 Entropic Decay
+1 Dancing Blades
+2 Sillhouette Tracer
+2 Primus Fist
+2 Rasha’s Curse
In general, the idea is to increase the number of fast plays available to you, and shift the tech around. Sillhouette Tracer is a better defensive choice than Repulsor Beast, because repositioning your General tends to make you harder to reach, or allows you to plow down something with your face that your opponent is trying to protect- where Repulsor Beast lets you invalidate something slow for a couple of turns (but as Control Sajj, you tend to want to clutch the board center, reducing the amount of time you buy with Repulsor.) Your curve also shifts upward a little, making Spelljammer more awkward than options like Sojourner, Flood, or Ruby Rifter. Decay works remarkably as a singleton. Rasha’s Curse is just super flexible.
The biggest mistake I’ve seen with Scarabs is trying to go all in on getting the blast value. Scarab is one of (if not) Vet’s best dispel sponge- and while it’s tempting to try and protect it for blast value, it’s fine to play Scarab exposed/semi-exposed on one of the non-center board tiles.Trying to put it on the back row means stepping away from the center of the board, and letting your opponent establish range that might become problematic. Scarab’s raw body can do most of the heavy lifting, and often just blasting down a column is strong because your opponent will be playing against the ankh by spreading out on the rows.
Appreciate the detailed response.
I’ve had a think and decided to just cut the scarab, but I have taken your other suggestions on board.
How do you think this revised deck looks?
EDIT :- Unless you think I can put it back in? Maybe like this?
-3 healing mystic
+1 dancing blades
+2 scarab
?
It looks nice enough, but you should playtest it before we draw further conclusions 
Let us know how it works for you.
Your deck looks mostly fine. The main card that stands out as a poor fit is Spelljammer really. You don’t want to give your opponents more opportunities to draw answers in an “Are you out of answer yet?” deck. With the way you build the rest of the deck, you probably end up needing to suicide your Spelljammer into them instead of they needing to kill your Spelljammer, yielding no card advantage. That’s just bad all around.
This is probably how I would go with the deck:
-2 Repulsor Beast
-2 Spelljammer
-1 Dominate Will
+3 Sojourner
+2 Silhouette Tracer
Keep an eye out for drawing your opponent in to create side-swap opportunities with Tracer -> Blast minion, obviously.
Even as a 4/5 dispelled minion the scarab is not an unreasonable card. The scarab is definitely slow to get going. On the bright side, this card will win you many games if left untouched. As mentioned above, the opponent often either deals with it, or gets dealt by it.
It is a good card, only a bit slow.