Ichor Rats

Creature — Rat

Infect (This creature deals damage to creature in the form of -1/-1 counters and to players in the form of poison counters.)

When Ichor Rats enters the battlefield, each player gets a poison counter.

Discussion (50)

Eckat on THE Praetor

3 weeks ago

I was moving to my new place.. Finally could unpack cards and get back to tunning this deck :) (Unfortunately thanks to Covid situation here, won't be able to play it anytime soon :()

Drolas , thanks for your comment. The Neoform combo is interesting, I will get the card soon from my friend and will be able to try.

In the meantime, I have removed what is now placed in sideboard and added. Going MOAR creatures.

Putrefax

Phyrexian Hydra

Hand of the Praetors

Ichor Rats

Phyrexian Vatmother

Phyrexian Swarmlord

Toxic Deluge

Oracle of Mul Daya

Phyrexian Arena

Fact or Fiction

Skeletal Scrying

kimosabe on THE Praetor

1 month ago

Aside from very minor infect damage, and a few planes-walkers there is no need to proliferate. I highly suggest taking out some counterspells and a few removal spells. Add a lot more infect cards. Why? Because I count 6 ways to deal infect damage in your 100 card deck. Let's pretend your opponent has removal as well, and can deal with 6 threats; fairly easy task is it not? Suggestions: Blackcleave Goblin, Ichor Rats, Phyresis, Spinebiter, Phyrexian Swarmlord There are so many options. I highly suggest you build more ways to win in your deck. Good luck.

TheVectornaut on Searing Infection

2 months ago

Most of my experience with infect comes from playing simic, but I have played the mechanic in all 5 colors. In terms of power, green is the most effective color to play by a very VERY large margin. You get access to the best infect creature in Glistener Elf (along with the slower and safer option of Blight Mamba), you get trample sources to push through damage with Ichorclaw Myr such as Rancor, Predator's Strike, and Larger Than Life, you get protection bundled with buffs in the form of Vines of Vastwood, Ranger's Guile, and Blossoming Defense, and you get the largest pool of very strong power boosts in the form of Mutagenic Growth, Invigorate, Scale Up, Might of Old Krosa, Berserk, Become Immense, Groundswell, Phytoburst, Noble Hierarch, and Pendelhaven. Since infect is an all-or-nothing sort of archetype, even when running the less aggressive versions, the most important characteristics that you need are speed, protection, and evasion. Green offers two of those things in spades but can struggle with evasion. This is why blue is generally considered the next best color to run. You get the insane threat of Blighted Agent, unblockable buffs with Distortion Strike and Aqueous Form, and protection from spells via Spell Pierce, Dispel, Turn Aside, and the odd Spellskite. Black is the next best. Plague Stinger's flying isn't as good as the unblockable on a Blighted Agent but it's still very powerful evasion as illustrated by the ubiquity of Inkmoth Nexus in every non-budget infect list ever made. Black also nets useful control tools like Thoughtseize, Inquisition of Kozilek, Fatal Push, Dismember, and Assassin's Trophy. White was considered the worst infect color for a very long time since its best option (Apostle's Blessing) can be used in any deck, but the recent introduction of Giver of Runes has breathed some life back into the color. Additionally, I've seen a lot of equipment lists popping up that use Colossus Hammer, Kor Duelist, Sigarda's Aid, and Kor Outfitter to see some success. Unfortunately, that leaves red as the current worst color to run in infect. It has some decent buffs but they pale in comparison to green's offerings. The result is that most red infect decks rely on gimmicks like using Razor Swine's first strike to wither enemy creatures, generating infinite mana to pump into an unblocked Ogre Menial, or putting Phyresis on something like a Spikeshot Elder to bypass combat altogether. Your instant tricks definitely fall in this category. That's not necessarily a bad thing though. If your meta is casual enough, red should still work and it will be much more interesting to play with / fun to play against than a more traditional deck. How competitive you want to be is always up to you.

To answer your specific questions, I would probably start by cutting a few creatures. Most lists run about 12 infect sources (and that's including a playset of Inkmoth Nexus). With Hand of the Praetors on your top end, running 16-20 isn't that unreasonable, at least as long as all of them are good. Infect creatures usually become "bad" when they cost more than 2. That's why I wouldn't usually recommend running Ichor Rats or Septic Rats. Both Necropede and Plague Myr are perfectly acceptable inclusions with very similar power levels. They'll rarely be better than Plague Stinger or Ichorclaw Myr but that's okay if you just want more guys to play. As for Vector Asp, it's honestly a pretty bad choice in most circumstances. While you usually won't need to activate it more than 2 or 3 times to win the game, that mana would be better spent elsewhere, and it doesn't even trigger the Hand. However, given the choice of it and a 3-drop, I'd probably take the snake, especially since it would be your only proactive play on turn 1 (barring the inclusion of Glistener Elf or Inkmoths). Better though would just be to run neither and invest in more buff spells to assist in combat and trigger Livewire Lash. I do like the idea of those spells having cycling in theory, but in practice, the mana needed to cycle can short you of the resources needed to close out the game. Plus, cycling spells tend to cost more to account for the added ability. Cycling lands on the other hand should be fine as long as they come in untapped, although it looks like that only describes Ash Barrens and Blasted Landscape. Just like with creatures, I wouldn't run any spells that cost more than 2 unless they can win you the game like Soul's Fire can. This will also allow you to run 20 lands or fewer, opening up even more slots for gas. I apologize if I'm repeating myself about the low-cost-high-speed thing but that is basically the reason the infect mechanic exists. If you prefer a slow and more controlling style, Rakdos wither built around Necroskitter is a fun option that has some overlap with infect.

Scallywallwest on Atraxa Proliferate Queen of Voltron

3 months ago

Walking Ballista, maybe? I know it's kind of mana-intensive, but you could possibly fit an Ichor Rats in here. Ya got a nice mana base there, though. And a nice curve. Overall, a pretty cool deck.

multimedia on Aminatou, the infected

5 months ago

Hey, good updates. If infect is the way you want to go then consider more of it? Ichor Rats and Viral Drake for infect and proliferate.

When you blink Rats with Aminatou's -1 or Thassa each player including you gets a poison counter. Giving all your opponents a poison counter is very good with proliferate. You getting poison counters is not the end of the world because you can blink Rats 8 times and not die from poison, but this will most likely kill all your opponents if you also have proliferate. If you're affraid of dying from giving yourself poison counters then Leeches will remove them.

Proliferate is an effect that can give your opponents more poison counters as long as they have one poison counter you can proliferate that counter. You choose any number of counters when you proliferate meaning that you don't proliferate your own poison counter only your opponents. Proliferate also works with Planeswalker's loyalty counters. Aminatou in this case can do a lot more -1 if you have proliferate.

Proliferate also works with +1/+1 counters such as support from Together Forever. If you get a +1/+1 counter on Skithiryx or Blighted Agent/Plague Stinger who are powerful two drop infect creatures, then you can proliferate this counter to give the infect creature more power. Forever has interaction with blink because when you blink it you get to support 2 again.

esparta15 on COVID-19 patient 0

6 months ago

i don't like the idea of kill with infect with Ichor Rats but it's a way ro win

triproberts12 on Mutate/Infect deck ratios

7 months ago

Well, it's literally a pile of cards with no lands, making it not a decklist, and you've chosen an awfully odd hill to die on, given how many forum posts are literally just "Help, I'm losing! Here's my list!" For the sake of rules lawyering, despite only adding the pile as an exemplary aid to help answer my question about ratios, perhaps I'll list out all the cards. There's Ichor Rats, Plague Myr, Core Prowler, Blighted Agent, wait, no that one's a human. Where was I?

triproberts12 on Otrimi, Ever-Playful

7 months ago

Infect. Do it. You know you wanna. Mutate a 6/6 onto Blighted Agent. Get some value out of that Ichor Rats and Viridian Corrupter. Eat a whole board with Flesh-Eater Imp. Dump your library into your graveyard, then make Corpse Cur and Otrimi bring both pieces back.