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Artifact (1)


I designed this deck around Marrow-Gnawer's ability, similar to the Krenko deck I built previously but mono-black this time. The main goal of this deck was to make something functional in Commander, keeping the rat tribal theme intact while still enabling the deck to win on more than just overwhelming numbers (since rats are so easy to get rid of in Commander and so difficult for mono-black to boost).

The main theme is, obviously Rats. Lots of them. The majority of the creatures in this deck are rats, and what isn't a rat either works with rats (Ogre Slumlord, Ratcatcher, Patron of the Nezumi), or is related to demons. That's right, demons. In order to give the rats something bigger to build up to, I've included a selection of demons as the big bomb creatures. Many of the demons involve sacrifice in some way, given how Marrow-Gnawer's ability works, keeping up a theme.

Also Filth is in there, for the swampwalk (enabled by Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Contaminated Ground). Thanks to sac outlets on some of the demons, getting Filth into the graveyard is not very difficult.

Meanwhile, Diseased Vermin + Night Dealings gets me a tutoring option thematic to the nezumi, Conspiracy ensures that everything counts as a rat in a pinch, and Dictate of Erebos bypasses pesky problems like protection and indestructible if enough of my creatures die, such as when one-sided board sweeps hit.

In order to ramp into more and better spells as the game continues, the deck utilizes Crypt Ghast, Liliana of the Dark Realms (if her ultimate can fire off), and Caged Sun to increase the amount of black mana produced by its lands, Cabal Coffers to produce a lot of black mana on its own, and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth to make every land that isn't already a swamp a swamp.

The real fun part of the deck is messing around with Marrow-Gnawer + Thornbite Staff , for a potentially infinite combo, made even better with Illusionist's Bracers to get twice the effect for each activation.

Finally, to deal with problems of card advantage and running a weenie deck, Temple Bell is the group hug card draw while Tamiyo's Journal creates Clues that can be used for card draw or tutoring, and Caged Sun and Door of Destinies beef up my creatures without boosting others.

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After going through a pile of pulled cards for this and other decks, I made some changes. Aside from future minor tweaks as new, better-fitting rats/demons are introduced to the game, this should be close to the final variant of this deck.

Took out:

Temple of the False God for Cabal Stronghold - potentially more mana off the Stronghold, vs. a card that only produces 2 colorless or 1 (maybe more) black depending on what else is on the board.

Basic Swamp for Swarmyard - obvious regeneration capabilities.

Skirsdag High Priest for Krav, the Unredeemed - the High Priest was only tangentially related to the deck's themes, and required a morbid trigger to produce the demons that fit better. Krav is a demon himself and plays on the sacrifice theme of the deck.

Rabid Rats for Throat Slitter - trading a not-very-good basic rat for a better ninja rat.

Drainpipe Vermin and Ravenous Rats for two Rat Colony - trading in mediocre one-use rats for rats that get bigger, as the other similar rats in the deck have been pretty good in plays with this deck.

Disease Carriers for Yawgmoth's Vile Offering - trading a rat that would've been better at a lower CMC for a big spell to remove something and resurrect something else.

I may also trade around board sweeps in the future, but so far what I have has been pretty handy.

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Date added 5 years
Last updated 5 years
Key combos
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

3 - 0 Mythic Rares

29 - 0 Rares

20 - 0 Uncommons

16 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.67
Tokens Clue, Copy Clone, Emblem Liliana of the Dark Realms, Human Cleric 1/1 BW, Rat 1/1 B
Folders Commander/EDH Decks
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