Marrow-Gnawer

Legendary Creature — Rat Rogue

Rat creatures have fear.

{T}, Sacrifice a Rat: Create X 1/1 black Rat creature tokens, where X is the number of Rats you control.

Combos

• Marrow-Gnawer + Thornbite Staff
• Ayara, First of Locthwain + Marrow-Gnawer + Plague of Vermin
• Marrow-Gnawer + Plague of Vermin

Tokens

• Rat 1/1 B

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
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (50)

HeavenlyAxe on

1 month ago

Hey Indie,

First off I really like the lands you have assembled and the suggestions from SufferFromEDHD are all good.

You are definitely going to want an artifact ramp package.

Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, Arcane Signet, Fellwar Stone, Gilded Lotus, Thran Dynamo

Special Mention to Nyx Lotus, it could be good being in mono black. and Jeweled Lotus, pays for your commander for free on turn 1 even.

Sword of the Animist is not bad ramp at all and buffs yours rats

Commander's Plate might be cute.

Liliana of the Dark Realms, makes sure you always get a land drop and could make your swamps tap for four.

Chittering Witch if your playing with more opponents.

Crypt Ghast is sort of ramp, but doubles your swamps. Very good in mono black.

Dauthi Voidwalker is not on theme at all but is just sooo much value in a two cost card I have to recommend it.

God-Eternal Bontu is excellent draw power in the right situation.

Dont forget you can run any number of Relentless Rats

Gray Merchant of Asphodel will heal you up a lot and hurt your opponents

Krav, the Unredeemed is also great card draw.

Yawgmoth, Thran Physician, has card draw, removal, and proliferate all on one card

Deadly Rollick, potentially free removal

Defile, cheap good removal

Thrilling Encore saves you from a board wipe or lets you bring everything back after sacrificing it all to like God-Eternal Bontu

Phyrexian Arena some ok card draw.

Bojuka Bog if you are worried about graveyards

Mutilate, a good board wipe in mono black

Night's Whisper, Read the Bones, Sign in Blood, are a great draw package for mono black

Toxic Deluge a great board wipe for when things need resetting, and you could follow with Thrilling Encore and get it all back

Syphon Mind is great draw if your playing with more players

Victimize - is really really strong, get rid of one weak thing for two of your best things

Yawgmoth's Will - lets you treat your graveyard like your hand for a turn

Lord Skitter, Sewer King makes rats

Marrow-Gnawer - lets you make lots of rats

Infectious Inquiry - good draw and gives poison

Ogre Slumlord - makes rats when your creatures or your opponents creatures die.

Tangled Colony - if your opponent has to block it or it dies to like Blasphemous Act will make you rats

Vraska's Fall removal and poison counter

Drown in Ichor removal and poison

Bontu's Monument all your creatures cost less

Rat Colony can have any number and they buff themselves, and cost less mana than Relentless Rats

Typhoid Rats deathtouch rat opponents wont want to block

Crypt Rats can board wipe but can also win the game if you give it infect, doesnt work with your commander because toxic specifies combat damage but does work if you give it infect and deal damage with it's ability.

Ratcatcher tutors rats, and gives you card advantage

Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm - buffs your rats and lets you get rats back

Wave of Rats has blitz and reanimates itself

Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni rat that steals opponents stuff

Nashi, Moon Sage's Scion rat that steals opponents stuff

Adaptive Automaton is a rat and buffs rats

Okiba-Gang Shinobi rat makes opponents discard and has ninjutsu

Filth gives all your rats swampwalk pairs well with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Dark Ritual lets your get a head start or some extra mana a turn you need it

Tainted Strike instant speed infect, funny in multiplayer because you can use it on anyone's creatures.

Phyresis Outbreak gives poison and might kill opponents creatures

Feed the Swarm enchantment removal in black

Vat Emergence gets a creature back and proliferates

Spread the Sickness destroys a creatures and proliferates

Pact of the Serpent strong tribal card draw

Living Death swap graveyards with battlefields, great after sacrificing your whole board to draw cards

Skullclamp sack small rats for card draw

Thrumming Stone if you go the Relentless Rats or Rat Colony route

Coat of Arms your rats will be huge

Bolas's Citadel this card is dumb lol, lots of casting power and then you hit Gray Merchant of Asphodel and keep going lol

Icon of Ancestry kinda draw buffs rats...is ok

Contagion Engine proliferate twice each time you activate

Eldrazi Monument gives creatures flying indestructible and +1/+1

Grafted Exoskeleton gives a creature infect, great with Crypt Rats

Sword of Truth and Justice proliferate sword

Bad Moon buff all black creatures, opponents too

Phyresis gives infect again good with Crypt Rats

Greed card draw

Vraska, Betrayal's Sting proliferate planes walker

I know that's a lot but hopefully gave you some ideas to work with!

legendofa on Mono Black Rats Deck (First Deck Ever)

3 months ago

Welcome to the club, Lardex!

If you're on Cockatrice and budget isn't a concern, Thornbite Staff allows you to create an infinite number of Rat tokens with Marrow-Gnawer. Ratcatcher and Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm are more good utility and aggro options. (If you're pulling this together in paper and budget is a concern, then it's safe to skip these suggestions.)

I'm not sure Spine of Ish Sah and Scour from Existence are pulling their weight here. Sure, they can get rid of anything, but {7} is a huge investment to get rid of a single permanent, and you're in a color that has a lot of removal options for just about about everything.

Above all, have fun!

legendofa on Infinite rats

4 months ago

The important lines here are “Whenever a creature dies, untap [equipped] creature.” from Thornbite Staff, using the updated wording, and "{T}, Sacrifice a Rat: Create X 1/1 black Rat creature tokens, where X is the number of Rats you control." from Marrow-Gnawer. You also need at least two other Rats to get infinite creatures. Let's say you have Marrow-Gnawer and exactly two other Rats.

1. With Staff equipped to M-G, tap M-G and sacrifice one of your other Rats to activate Marrow-Gnawer's ability. You now control two Rats.

2. Since a creature died, Staff's granted ability triggers and resolves, and M-G untaps.

3. M-G's ability from 1 resolves, and you create two Rat tokens. You have effectively tapped M-G and sacrificed a Rat to untap M-G and create two Rats, with the net result being that you created a Rat token for no cost.

4. If you go through this cycle again, you'll create three Rats, then four, then five, and so on, continually tapping M-G and sacrificing rats to untap M-G and create more rats.

Gidgetimer You create tokens equal to the number of Rats you control, not the power of the sacrificed Rat.

Gidgetimer on Infinite rats

4 months ago

You would also need a third card to generate value from this interaction. As is you will make a number of 1/1 rats equal to the total power of your rats. (Tap Marrow-Gnawer and sac a rat to make the 1/1s, untap from Thornbite Staff trigger, repeat). You either need an anthem effect (Bad Moon, Adaptive Automaton, Caged Sun, etc) to make the tokens 2/2s thus saccing 1 token to make 2 tokens and looping. Or you need a Blood Artist effect to win off off saccing a token to make a token infinitely.

indieinside on Infinite rats

4 months ago

Please explain to me how Marrow-Gnawer and Thornbite Staff equals infinite rats??? If it doesn't but there is a way, what is it?

TheSurgeon on Verminous

5 months ago

Profet93- Thanks for the upvote and for asking!

Boardwipes are a problem for any deck that requires a board state. As there are few spells to truly combat boardwipes in mono black, this deck accepts that inevitability, and takes it a step further to exploit its own low toughness of the creatures, to squeeze as much benefit as we can from it.

Zulaport Cutthroat makes a nice aristocratic win, while Elixir gives another shot at a Thrumming Stone play, should a board wipe be limited to creatures. Both Grim Haruspex and Species Specialist allow for a hand refill should your board disappear, and the Elixir keeps your library full.

Ogre Slumlord replaces your nontoken rats with 1/1 rats, while also counting your opponents' dying critters, giving you ALL the rats, for a go-wide win.

Early game, hitting early and aggressively with 3/1 - 5/1 creatures puts you within win range around t6 with some form of modified evasion on a single creature (Rogue's Passage, Whispersilk Cloak, fear from Marrow-Gnawer, and either gravepact or Dictate of Erebos, or the zulaport cutthroat on the board.

Hope I could clear that up, if you have any more questions or suggestions, please feel free to comment further!

Darb_the_Bard on Buttercup: Princess Bride

6 months ago

The deck can be built in a number of different ways, which is why it's so intriguing to me. I am not building around rats specifically since Rodents of Unusual Size cannot be tutored for with Buttercup (since it's not legendary), but if you want to do that, I say go for it! I have a Rat Colony deck with Marrow-Gnawer as the commander and it's a lot of fun.

I took out Kodama's Reach, Cultivate, and two of the weaker deathtouch creatures and swapped in Arcane Signet, Ornithopter of Paradise, Three Visits, and Garruk's Uprising. I also took out Valakut Awakening  ^Flip for a basic Mountain and Jwari Disruption  ^Flip for a basic Island. Not only will that improve Myriad Landscape, but it should also help out lands like Canopy Vista and Cinder Glade so they come into play untapped more reliably. Those "Forest" typed lands are also important so I can tutor for the color I need when I draw one of the key green ramp cards: Farseek, Nature's Lore and now Three Visits.

legendofa on infinite rats

11 months ago

So it is Dragon tribal, be cautious about Patriarch's Bidding. I think it has a place in this deck until proven otherwise, but make sure you get at least as much value out of it as Atarka-deck does.

What I see here is a bunch of high-mana dragons, and I assume the mana dorks to support it will be in there, too. Crippling Fear has potential to be an all-star. I don't think you need more fear, since your commander grants fear and you have pretty good stall capacity until Marrow-Gnawer comes out. I'm not sure what ramp to recommend if you're at your budget limit, but Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Crypt Ghast, and Nirkana Revenant are all cards to keep in mind.