Septic Rats
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Legality

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

Septic Rats

Creature — Phyrexian Rat

Infect (This creature deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters and to players in the form of poison counters.) Whenever Septic Rats attacks, if defending player is poisoned, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn.

legendofa on infinite rats

11 months ago

Pulling from my own Rat tribal deck (Modern-ish casual, not EDH):

Karumonix, the Rat King gives you an out against lifegain-heavy decks. I don't recommend going deeper than that with poison (i.e. don't add Ichor Rats or Septic Rats), but Karumonix adds a layer to your attacks and keeps rats coming.

I haven't gotten Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm yet, but I want to. It looks amazing. If your budget can handle it, I'm recommending it just in theoretical grounds.

I personally am not impressed with Swarm of Rats (Rat Colony is pretty much all-around better) and Pestilence Rats, but they might work better in EDH, where you always have access to a fear-granting effect. How have they worked for you?

Ratcatcher is a free tutor for a rat every turn. Highly recommended.

Memoricide is a little odd, since it can only hit one card that isn't in play. Is this a meta choice? Do you have a specific target for it that you know you'll see?

Unless you see a bunch of Voltron, Battlecruiser, or other decks with one big creature, I would diversify the removal a little bit. You have a lot of single-target creature removal. I'm a big fan of discard, so I'm recommending based on what I like at this point. Cabal Therapist, Mind Slash, and Sadistic Hypnotist turn your rats into hand removal. Feed the Swarm offers enchantment removal with a very evocative name for this deck. Try some of these in place of Cast Down or Ultimate Price or something. Also, Despise isn't great if you're just fishing. If you want a T1 discard effect, Thoughtseize is best, Inquisition of Kozilek and Blackmail are solid, and Dread Fugue is pretty good.

Following up on that, I see a good set of mass removal and graveyard recursion, and Marrow-Gnawer lets you rebuild quickly. This part looks solid.

Almios on Blessed Perfection [1.3/MOM] - Suggestions Wanted!

11 months ago

My suggestions are based on not spending an arm and a leg to make improvements but maybe a finger or toe.

At a quick glance the first comment I have is lands seem a little low. I personally lean towards 36 if the deck isn't mono colored.

I know they are a bit slower but I would suggest using the tri colored lands as you are already using fetches. These lands add some real good color fixing early on and if they do become dead in hand cycle them away. Spara's Headquarters, Zagoth Triome, Indatha Triome and Raffine's Tower. I would replace your lands that reference the opponent count to come in untapped.

A land that goes on theme is Mirrex since it can get you mites as the game drags on. A second land I recommend since your land base is so varied is Field of the Dead, the zombies can add up and are nice little chumps if need be.

With the above changes I would say Crucible of Worlds but if you find sometimes you struggle to have something to play Conduit of Worlds is an extra mana but has the ability to give you the chance to cast something when you might not have anything else to work with.

I would personally go full Praetor and run each variation if possible for the big flavor. The added benefit is each one of them is practically game warping, but be warned it can attract a lot of attention. The newest Vorinclex is probably the odd man out though since he only finds basic forests and Dominaria Sheoldred simply because of price. Added benefits of the new praetors is you can accelrate their saga. Realmbreaker, the Invasion Tree would then make a very nice inclusion if you go that way.

Cards to consider dumping for them from what I can at a first glance are Flesh-Eater Imp, Plague Stinger, Septic Rats and Slaughter Singer. I chose these because I don't feel once they hit the board they are something that people say "this needs to die".

Norn's Choirmaster is a recent card that gives your commander even more of a presence on the board.

On the sorcery since the only card that I don't like the look of is Nature's Lore, sure it is a cheap way to get you your colors especially if you have dual typed lands but if we are upping the land count I would switch it to a Skyshroud Claim since it can find you the same lands but untapped if the land can come in untapped for mana efficiency.

The biggest suggestion on the instant side would be to add Krosan Grip over Infectious Bite. Sure the bite is a form of removal and poison generation but I find having one of the best artifact/enchantment removals is the better option.

I understand the suggestion fromm KongMing as a strong one but I don't think it works the way he intended it Temporal Distortion does put counters on their lands but it removes ALL of them not just one so even if you proliferate it doesn't keep the lands tapped down longer unless you destroy your own enchantment.

Astral Cornucopia is nice with since you can keep building it but getting only one color out of it can be problematic at times. I suggest replacing with a Crystalline Crawler if you are find being a little off theme.

I would find a home for Chromatic Lantern, having one artifact to fix all of your mana problems is very nice especially when in more than two colors.

Overall there are a couple of other cards I would recommend to consider but unsure of an exact home without taking apart every step. Grafted Exoskeleton, Tainted Strike, if you go the praetor route Geth's Summons is a great reanimation spell of you have the corrupted. Yawgmoth's Vile Offering is also a very strong spell for reanimation and removal. Inexorable Tide should probably have a home somewhere, it is a bit high CMC but it gets the job done. As Foretold also helps a lot of mana problems, do keep in mind it can also be used off turns if you have instant speed spells.

Mortlocke on New hubs to be added

2 years ago

Hello legendofa,

I propose a new hub to be added: Phyrexian. During Modern Horizons 2, 225 creatures were retconned into having the Phyrexian creature subtype to join Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider . Additionally, there were a smattering of Enchantments, Artifacts and etc that ether have the Phyrexian subtype or create creature tokens that do. Thanks to this retcon I now have a deck that has a Phyrexian tribal theme. For your reference, below is a full list of spells that were affected by WotC's Phyrexian errata.

Source: https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Phyrexian

osiczym on Rats Rats Rats Rats

3 years ago

Very nice deck!

Septic Rats doesn't seem to work well here - it is the only card that deals damage in form of poison counters, so if you won't manage to deal 10 damage with 2 of them in the deck, they won't actually do anything. Unless you want them just for block using -1 counters... Maybe Swarm of Rats ? I know they are much worse than Pack Rat, but you already have 4 of these. The majority of your creature spells cost 2 mana (18/30) I would consider using Aether Vial and stop on 2 counters to speed up the drops I don't really get the Fabled Passage here. How is it better than just swamp, since the only card you can take with that is swamp and it may come tapped? I would rather use Swarmyard s instead

TheVectornaut on Searing Infection

3 years 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.

Chesu on Mono-Black Infect

4 years ago

Septic Rats and Ichor Rats are both good creatures here.

Crow_Storm on No Friends? No Problem (Budget Infect\Wither)

5 years ago

I would suggest these revisions to the mainboard: +4 Phyrexian Crusader -4 Scar

-2 Swamp +2 Memorial to Folly

-4 Swamp +4 Inkmoth Nexus (I know this is a budget deck, but I believe this will receive a reprint soon, and while 1-2 copies is expensive, it won't break the wallet)

-2 Septic Rats +2 Ichorclaw Myr

-2 Blowfly Infestation +2 Nest of Scarabs

+1 Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon -1 Virulent Wound

dudesquirrel on

6 years ago

CardTyrant! I love this deck and decided to build it myself with a few alterations after playing it with my group. Have you considered Altar of the Brood for an instant speed table library mill? With all your single creature pump spells, an infect creature like Septic Rats could also be a welcome addition instead of something less impactful like Typhoid Rats or Rancid Rats. You can even just have it ping people to fatal infect damage using Thornbite Staff after it gets big enough! That especially helps after the anthem effects(i.e. Caged Sun, Door of Destinies, Eldrazi Monument, etc.) makes it so Marrow-Gnawer + Thornbite Staff no longer kills your rats to enable the infinite combo. I also really enjoy Torment of Hailfire with all the mana we're generating. There are a couple more things i've changed in mine, so please let me know what you think! Here's mine.

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