The Battlefield

Nest of Scarabs

$10.34

Yawgmoth, Thran Physician

$34.66

Zulaport Cutthroat

$2.01

AI DraftFeb 26, 2026

Nest of Scarabs + Yawgmoth, Thran Physician + Zulaport Cutthroat

Overview

If you sacrifice Zulaport Cutthroat as part of Yawgmoth, Thran Physician’s activation cost, Zulaport’s death happens during cost payment and its triggered ability is created before you put Yawgmoth’s activated ability on the stack; that triggered ability will be put on the stack (and therefore resolve) before Yawgmoth’s ability resolves . When Yawgmoth’s ability resolves and puts -1/-1 counters on a creature, Nest of Scarabs’ triggered ability triggers for those counters and creates that many 1/1 Insect tokens; if those counters cause a creature’s toughness to be 0 or less, state-based actions put that creature into its owner’s graveyard , which can create additional death triggers such as from other Zulaport Cutthroats. The order of life loss/gain from Zulaport relative to token creation depends on whether Zulaport died as the sacrifice (it triggers earlier) or it dies as a result of the -1/-1 counters (it triggers after the counters and Nest’s triggers) .

Step 1

Activate Yawgmoth's first ability: as part of paying costs you pay 1 life and sacrifice another creature; the sacrifice (and that creature’s death) occurs while paying costs, before the activated ability is put on the stack .

Step 2

Because the creature died while costs were being paid, any triggered abilities caused by that death (for example, Zulaport Cutthroat’s "Whenever this creature or another creature you control dies..." if it wasn’t the creature being sacrificed) are created at that moment and will be waiting to be put on the stack; after the activation completes, those waiting triggered abilities are put on the stack per the normal rule for putting waiting triggers on the stack .

Step 3

The activated ability is put on the stack after costs are paid; the death-trigger(s) created during cost payment will be placed on the stack above that activated ability when waiting triggers are moved to the stack, so the death-trigger(s) will resolve before the activated ability resolves .

Step 4

When Yawgmoth’s activated ability eventually resolves it 'Put[s] a -1/-1 counter on up to one target creature and draw[s] a card.' Putting -1/-1 counters on a creature will cause Nest of Scarabs to trigger because Nest’s text triggers 'Whenever you put one or more -1/-1 counters on a creature'. That Nest trigger is created when the counters are put on the creature.

Step 5

If the -1/-1 counters put on a creature by Yawgmoth reduce its toughness to 0 or less, that creature is put into its owner’s graveyard by state-based actions ; that death will create any appropriate death triggers (including any additional Zulaport Cutthroat triggers from other Cutthroats that remain on the battlefield) which will be put on the stack after the ability finishes resolving and SBAs are checked .

Step 6

If you put more -1/-1 counters than the creature’s toughness, you still put all those counters on it and Nest still creates that many Insects (see Ruling [2017-04-18]).

Resolution

Sacrificing Zulaport as the sacrifice cost: Zulaport’s death trigger will be placed on the stack above Yawgmoth’s ability and resolve first . Putting -1/-1 counters via Yawgmoth’s ability: Nest of Scarabs triggers for those counters when they are put on a creature, and any creature that ends up with toughness 0 or less is put into its owner’s graveyard by state-based actions ; Zulaport triggers from such a death will trigger after Yawgmoth’s ability resolves .

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