Rancid Rats

Creature — Zombie Rat

Skulk (This creature can't be blocked by creatures with greater power.)

Deathtouch (Any amount of damage this deals to a creature is enough to destroy it.)

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

Discussion (51)

griffstick on infinite rats

11 months ago

29 lands is not gonna work. You'll need 34 lands at the least. Cut Blightbelly Rat, Carrion Rats, Gnat Miser, Gnawing Vermin, Phyrexian Battleflies, Rancid Rats, Ravenous Rats, Razortooth Rats, Scrib Nibblers, Vampire Bats, and Wave of Rats. Tomorrow we will discuss cards to add. But in the meantime add 5 to 7 lands.

Barbarian_Sun_Pope on Hellbent Rats

1 year ago

I think you can go down one land and go mono-black since you have very few cards that cost more than 3 and only 1 card in your mainboard/sideboard that is red. Also, I'm not sure if Gnat Miser and hellbent is worth running in your deck. Gnat Miser only gets progressively worse as the game goes on. Maybe replace it with Rancid Rats (better blocker and ninjutsu enabler) and Ravenous Rats as both are more relevant late game. As it stands you only have two cards with Hellbent in your deck and almost no removal outside of Liliana and even then the removal is conditional. Having a tutor is nice, but I think it would be better if you had concrete removal spells for something your creatures might not be able to handle. Hooded Blightfang and Hero's Downfall are pretty good answers for planeswalkers and the former adds some utility for your deathtouch creatures. Eaten Alive and Flay Essence are decent options against indestructible creatures for the trade off of being slower. Hope this helps.

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

CardTyrant on Not Another Relentless Rat

3 years ago

I love rat decks! For the longest they were my top favorite deck (then Dinosaurs came and took that spot).

Anyway, I have a few questions. The first is your Isochron Scepter+DR/CR; how does that make infinite mana? You have to tap Isochron which should end the loop. Also, it's 5x Swamps, not 6x for your Magus+Mantle combo.

Ratcatcher is a good tutor for rats. CMC is a bit high, but it lets you find a rattie and draw for turn. Profane Command is a good game ender. Ruin Rat and Rancid Rats are good deathtouch ratties that I noticed you missed. Swarmyard is a good land in rattie decks.

The Laughing Rat Gang

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.

StopShot on I wish skulk was an …

4 years ago

Skulk (This creature can't be blocked by creatures with greater power.)

Example cards: Farbog Revenant, Fogwalker, Rancid Rats

There are only 10 creature cards that have skulk, but I thought it was a really fun-to-play keyword in limited. I like the fact it gives more importance to creatures with defender, creatures with high toughness over power and low-cost creatures. As a keyword it would be used on and creatures and maybe some fringe creatures as well. (Like spiders, snakes, fungi, oozes, etc.)

I recall some people thought the keyword was a little too strong, but if it needs to be powered down I think it would be easier to make a new keyword similar to it. Something like: "New Keyword" (Creatures with power greater than this creature can't block it unless they have reach.)

Green and red decks would normally have troubles dealing with skulk creatures because their creatures typically have high power and since green has access to reach and red has been given more reach creatures like Nimble Birdsticker, Robber of the Rich, Turret Ogre, Brimstone Trebuchet etc. I think having skulk or a modified version of the skulk keyword would really make games more exciting and varied.

What are your thoughts on the Skulk keyword?

DeathBySprnkles on In what order would marrow-gnawer …

4 years ago

If I have a Marrow-Gnawer and an Ogre Slumlord and I sacrifice a rat, like Rancid Rats , in what order would there occur? Would sacrificing the nontoken rat cause the Ogre Slumlord to trigger during Marrow-Gnawer 's ability or do I finish Gnawer's effect and then do the Slumlord?

Cannonhead on A Deeper Dark

4 years ago

Yeah, I’ve never been a fan of the Rat Colony/Relentless Rats strategy, any deck that wants to play out the exact same way every game is just boring to me. You make good arguments for Rancid RatsandCrypt Ratsthough, andCorrupt would probably make a good one-of, as I agree this deck could use a finisher. Thanks for all the suggestions.