Stronghold Rats

Creature — Rat

Shadow (This creature can block or be blocked only by creatures with shadow.)

Whenever Stronghold Rats deals combat damage to a player, each player discards a card.

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

Discussion (44)

DreadKhan on Lil' Shit

5 months ago

IMHO their are few bigger 'lil shit' type cards than Rite of the Raging Storm, if their is an opponent who can't handle 5/1 Tramplers they are dead meat very quickly, it's a very chaotic atmosphere with Rite out. It's also very good with many cards that would work well with your Commander, such as Mask of Griselbrand, and I can point out a bunch of other options. Relic of Sauron is a very good Grixis mana rock that can also draw a card now and then. I think copy effects are probably pretty good with your Commander, if you cast Rite of Replication on your Commander you still get 5 copies ETBing and dying, which should clear out hands and serve as a huge board wipe (you get 5 triggers each of the ETB and death trigger, if you have 3 opponents left 2 of them have 1/4 of their permanents and one has half left, similar for their hands. Irenicus's Vile Duplication is another fun copy effect, this one doesn't die right away and has flying. If you like annoying creatures you might like some of the specters out their, Hypnotic Specter is an old classic that will always take away a card from whomever you hit, and Stronghold Rats can take one from each player fwiw.

I can't decide if MImic Vat would be worth it with your Commander, if you can get him into the Vat you can make a copy each turn for very little mana, but it doesn't get sacrificed unfortunately, it gets exiled at end of turn, so you'd need sac outlets to get his Death Triggers (but on the upside nobody is going to block you).

Their are a few Chaos type cards that might help with your plans to annoy the table, I've always enjoyed Teferi's Puzzle Box, but any effect that cares about your opponent drawing cards really loves the effect, if you can get Box and a Notion Thief out your opponents each lose their hand and you draw cards equal to how many they had when they lost them. Grip of Chaos can help keep your Commander (or another key permanent) alive longer, and you don't run a ton of targeted interaction yourself. Omen Machine is pretty funny, it's especially useful if you use a high average MV, same with Timesifter. Some people will try to flip the table if you resolve a Possibility Storm, especially if your deck isn't trying to abuse the effect. If you leaned harder into your spell plan, or into permanents that work regardless of who controls them you could try Thieves' Auction, a card many that is so obnoxious that some people consider scooping rather than resolving the effect.

I hope some of these ideas aren't too disruptive, it's fun to have a deck that can troll your playgroup a bit!

ImNora on Tergrid, God of Grave Robbing

1 year ago

Rankle, Master of Pranks really has the perfect abilities but I'm not sure how to sneak him past enemy defenses to deal combat damage to a player. The Stronghold Rats come with shadow, so it was an easy pick. I do have Whispersilk Cloak but that's about it. At my LGS, running flyers is the norm. I have no idea if that's how it is at most places, so it may be more of a local quirk that makes Rankle harder to benefit from.

I swapped out a basic for Mikokoro, Center of the Sea.

CJMikey on Tinybones Discard

1 year ago

Recent changes:

OUT: Instant/Sorcery Mind Peel Unmask Horrifying Revelation Tragic Slip Yahenni's Expertise

Enchantment Megrim Shrieking Affliction

Creature Fell Specter Virus Beetle Stronghold Rats

IN: Instant/Sorcery Despise Divest Toxic Deluge Heartless Act Malakir Rebirth  ^Flip

Enchantment Liliana's Caress

Creature Elvish Doomsayer Liliana, Heretical Healer  ^Flip Murderous Rider Rankle, Master of Pranks

DreadKhan on Discarded Treachery

1 year ago

I always like effects like Bottomless Pit and Necrogen Mists when I'm building a discard deck, these clear out a ton of cards over time, and even one will quickly make it very hard to keep any cards in hand past upkeeps. There is also Cunning Lethemancer, Necrogoyf, Stronghold Rats and maybe Raiders' Wake if you think you can count on being able to swing at someone. I like these effects more as a way to keep opponent's hands extremely small, they play more like a Stax effect in many ways. They play well with the 'cares about hand size' effects as well as 'cares about discard' effects, and as noted, make it very hard for people to store cards. Other than stuff like Mind Twist and Hymn to Tourach, I don't find single target discard is reliable at keeping hands small, 'engine' enchantments always felt really good.

Have you considered Helm of Possession and Ritual of the Machine, both can do great work in a sacrifice deck that can afford to lose a creature to steal something much juicier. I think Helm is usually the stronger card if people can't blow it up right away, but Ritual is Reserved List and prone to spiking when someone realizes it's potential. Both are a tad pricey, just thought I'd mention them.

Final point, if people are going to be discarding a bunch of creatures potentially, you might like Coffin Queen as a way to reanimate those pitched bodies, especially your opponent's stuff, as it gets exiled when it dies again. Demon of Dark Schemes can also work, not sure if you can generate enough energy to make it viable, but with stuff like Pitiless Plunderer it can go infinite reasonably easily.

DreadKhan on

1 year ago

It's a bit high MV, but Stronghold Rats is a really solid discard source. Not sure you really need it, but Necromancy offers instant speed fwiw, but it's also a 3 drop which is perhaps why you cut it?

Cool deck!

DreadKhan on Uber For Phage?!

1 year ago

If you're looking for discard stuff, I use Bottomless Pit, Necrogen Mists, Cunning Lethemancer, Stronghold Rats, Necrogoyf and Creeping Dread as my best discard outlets in my Discard/Stax deck. No clue how many you'd want (if any), but these tend to be good at generating a lot of discard triggers if that's what you want, both for you and opponents.

Strong but not as consistent, you could look at Syphon Mind, it might be the best discard spell, but it's a one and done unfortunately. If you can generate a lot of bodies, Sadistic Hypnotist can clear out big hands. If you think you can consistently deal combat damage to opponents (via Shadows or other unblockables), Court of Ambition is really decent, offering damage and discard on the same card.

DreadKhan on

2 years ago

I suspect Jeweled Lotus will backfire in cases where other people are running removal or counters for Tergrid, because getting her out early is amazing, but losing her early when you've used a Ritual to get her out can be backbreaking. 7 mana without Sol Ring or Mana Crypt is hard to manage until the game is well underway. You could still run Worn Powerstone as a way to get to your Commander faster without using Rituals. I would even think about Sol Talisman if you don't want to run top tier mana rocks.

Bottomless Pit is very amusing in a deck like this, way nastier than the also relevant Necrogen Mists, either can both pressure people's hands and cheat things into play for you with your Commander. Court of Ambition might work, and Cunning Lethemancer can also do work for you, each having a nice upside. Stronghold Rats is very useful too. I run a Discard based deck that has a Tergrid in it, and I love it when anything like this is out with Tergrid. Forced sacrifice is good too, but discard can catch something big and hard to cast that they were holding up for later, nothing like cheating in an Eldrazi off of a repeated discard effect.

carpecanum on Tergrid, God of Fright EDH

2 years ago

Braids, Cabal Minion , Nettlevine Blight : I was just looking for things to make people sac LANDS. After the first round on Braids, Cabal Minion you would be able to sac other players stuff if you wanted. No pain. The other land sac cards were NOT budget.

Not sure what Underworld Dreams does here? I would replace it with Unnerve , Reign of the Pit , Arterial Flow or Stronghold Rats