Drainpipe Vermin

Combos Browse all Suggest

Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Arena Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Gladiator Legal
Highlander Legal
Historic Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Pauper Legal
Pauper Duel Commander Legal
Pauper EDH Legal
Pioneer Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Drainpipe Vermin

Creature — Rat

When Drainpipe Vermin dies (is put into the graveyard from the battlefield), you may pay . If you do, target player discards a card.

Apollo_Paladin on Rat Attack!

3 years ago

For mono-black, Castle Locthwain is a fairly common one to toss a couple copies of. There's not much in the way of mono-black card draw, and at a glance that's what I see being the biggest constraint. Getting things out quickly can be nice, but against a control deck your creatures won't last long and then you'll be stuck Topdecking.

You might look at some early 1-mana Discard options to further play into your strategy/theme. Thoughtseize is by far the most common (and best) choice for this, but it can also be quite expensive to purchase singles of.

Other less costly options (albeit with more restrictions/conditions) for 1-mana discard spells are Duress or Specter's Shriek.

The newly released Mind Drain is vastly superior to Mind Rot, and is literally identical in its casting cost and card type; just an upgraded version.

I have a mono-black Hand Hate deck which I play regularly on MTGA online, and I've found Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage to be an excellent card to include. He serves beautifully as guaranteed damage per turn in longer games once the hands are cleared out, and he also provides a mana-free discard option for multiple turns while he's in play early so that you can keep the pressure on the opponent.

I have won numerous games on the back of Davriel, just by having enough creatures in play to act as stalemate blockers and then just keeping the opponent's hand empty and letting him tick each turn. Stalemate blockers can be amazing, and he's only a few cents to order singles of.

Drainpipe Vermin can be a useful 1-drop which would play into both your Rat and Discard mechanics, and it pairs very well when sacrificed to Nezumi Bone-Reader.

Ravenous Rats is an identical card functionally to Burglar Rat, in case you find this a useful card and wish to rebuild to include more than 4 of them by including both types.

Other neat suggestions you might want to try (depending on how this playtests) are Rancid Rats, Ratcatcher and/or Marrow-Gnawer

Beyond that, you mentioned Instants - I'd suggest control options even if they're cheap ones like Murder or Unmake (in case Indestructible is a thing you run into frequently) to handle things your Rats can't take care of straight away. There's also other permanents like Basilisk Collar which could make your weakling rats a real blocking threat, and it has a cheap enough Equip cost that you can attack with it on a creature, and typically afford to move it to an untapped Blocker immediately after. If the collar is too expensive or you don't like the Equip cost on it, you could go an Instant route with things like Deadly Allure, Lash of Thorns, Virulent Swipe, or Touch of Moonglove.

Even if none of these suggestions help, I like your build! +1

Darkshadow9 on $5 Discard Control

3 years ago

@Scallywallwest: Mind Rot is cheap, but Hymn to Tourach is a way better card. More expensive so it won’t fit into the 5$ budget, but discards 2 cards at random instead of letting the opponent choose, while being 1 mana cheaper than Mind Rot.

@5dollarMTG: thanks so much for the deck list! I really love playing it. Haven’t found any low budget deck which is better. I also added 4x Shrieking Affliction for of the Drainpipe Vermin which usually finish the game quickly :)

Epicurus on Rat attack

4 years ago

Good theme. A few suggestions...

  • You're not utilizing Rat Colony's capability to have more than 4 in the deck. Since you're foregoing extra copies of it, I'd say you should use Pack Rat instead.

  • Rotting Rats is exactly the same card as Burglar Rat, but with Unearth. Yes it makes you discard as well, but still I think worth it.

  • Nezumi Bone-Reader gives you a reusable, activated effect that turns all of your rats into Drainpipe Vermin; much easier to control.

  • I don't see how Gnat Miser is doing you much good in this deck, unless you're playing it on turn one. Even then, it loses potency quickly. I'd replace it with either Ravenous Rats or Rancid Rats, or maybe 2 of each.

I certainly do believe that you have a fully functional deck here. Essentially it's a tribal rat aggro discard deck. Low mana curve, plenty of discard. Play around with my suggestions and see how it feels.

Barbarian_Sun_Pope on Let's see what kind of trouble we can get into

4 years ago

Personally I think the logistics of the deck should always come down to playtesting and the local meta. That being said, here's what I'd change out from a glance. Also I avoided most of the discard to make room for card draw.

Remove - 15

Add - 15

  • 4 Swamp - Bringing the land count to 22 because a lot of cards in your deck still require mana for abilites. (Pack Rat, Bone-reader, Piper, Ink-Eyes)
  • 3 Ayara, First of Locthwain - Not 4 to avoid dead draws because it is legendary.
  • 4 Piper of the Swarm - Not legendary, earliest token generator, and works with pretty much everything in the deck/fuels Ayara and Marrow-Gnawler.
  • 2 Morbid Curiosity - To fill up your hand mid to late game.
  • 2 Read the Bones - More card draw

Bonus

You'll still have 20 rats in the deck, which should keep Marrow-Gnawler happy. Read the Bones and Morbid Curiosity are probably the easiest thing to change here for sideboard. I'd probably replace it with Throat Slitter and/or Okiba-Gang Shinobi (or two of the bonus cards) depending on the meta. Hope this helps and I wish you luck with you FNM =).

oreo1123 on Official missing/incorrect card/token thread

4 years ago

It turns out that there are lots of card that are marked as illegal in Noble that should be legal. Some of these cards include Corpse Hauler , Drainpipe Vermin , Necromancer's Assistant and Dawnstrike Paladin . Am I missing something? Or do these cards need to be fixed?

Goblin_Geometromancer on

5 years ago

Modern is fairly flush with Counterspells and Removal, so I'm not sure how often you will achieve infinite rats Marrow-Gnawer (that said, hell of a commander deck).

Currently rats very much likes being a tempo version of 8-Rack, so I definitely recommend looking into that kind of strategy.

Thoughtseize, Liliana of the Veil and Collective Brutality aren't exactly budget friendly pieces, but the idea of disrupting your opponents hand with Ravenous Rats, Chittering Rats, Drainpipe Vermin etc. while beating down with Pack Rats seems like a game plan.

as for Marrow-Gnawer, he seems like a sweet transformative Sideboard plan against combo or even control.

ellie-is on Night of the Living Rats!

5 years ago

Great idea! I'd definitely want to tweak the lands, though, because you dont need nearly as much green mana s you do black. Also really wouldn't run 4x Eldrazi Monument, because they cost so much mana and you only really need on in play. I think you're fine with just two in the deck.

Also: Pack Rat is a great card that you should have 4x, because they're essentially a better Rat Colony that still comboes with the colony.

You probably want some one-drops, either rats that might help you control the early game (Drainpipe Vermin, Typhoid Rats), or some green mana dorks to help ramp into more rats and/or the monument and Bloodbond March. Otherwise your deck might get run over by more complex decks before you have a chance to set up your combo. Some more control might be nice too. Tragic Slip goes well with the monument, as well as with creature-heavy decks in general since something is always going to be dying. If you can afford it, staples like Inquisition of Kozilek and Thoughtseize could be a good turn 1 play as well, to ensure you're not just losing a turn, and to get rid of threats that could disrupt your rats later on.

Another card I like for this is Claim, since it can bring back either pack rat or rat colony for just one mana.

Noa on Bloodbond Verminator

5 years ago

Cool idea, dude. Unfortunately if you want it to be viable in Modern I think you need the normal Rock package. 3 Inquisition of Kozileks, 2 Thoughtseize, 1 Abrupt Decay, 1 Maelstrom Pulse and 3 Fatal Push. You're just not fast enough to beat the fast decks in the format. I'd also play 2-3 Collective Brutality, because discarding Rat Colony to bring the back later with Bloodbond March is the way to go.

To find room for this, I'd lose 4 Drainpipe Vermin, 4 Ravenous Rats and the Aether Vials. Using Aether Vial to dump your hand quickly doesn't seem to have the same impact as in other decks, as you don't win with great speed. Control is also not a huge problem due to the addition of discard. I'd also take out 1 Grim Backwoods for another Overgrown Tomb. 2 of those is too many.

Sideboard should be 1x Maelstrom Pulse, 2x Chameleon Colossus for black decks (and in flavour), 2x Damnations, 2x Nihil Spellbomb (card draw is relevant vs Leyline), 3x Fulminator Mage for Tron, Surgical Extraction for combo/Tron, 2x Collective Brutality, 1x Deglamer/Unravel the Aether and 1x Golgari Charm.

I don't know if this meant to be budget because those cards obviously bump up the price, but I think that makes the deck viable, haha

Sorry for the over advice. It was meant to be short, but just kept going...

Load more
Have (2) reikitavi , SunshineDynamo
Want (0)