Highlights
- Rats are versatile in MTG, providing options for commanders or support cards in your deck strategy.
- Cards like Mirkwood Bats and Thrumming Stone maximize Rat token generation and synergies.
- Swarmyard, Ratcatcher, and Coat of Arms are essential for protection, instruction, and strength in a Rat deck.
There are many different types of Rats in Magic: The Gathering. This creature type has been around since the beginning of the game and is one of the most popular options for a Commander deck based on a specific creature type.
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Show them what it means to be a Rat King.
Many Rats make great Commanders, but there are also cards that work best in the 99. Some cards are very good support for Rat Commander decks, allowing for massive turns or turning your Rat army into major threats that require immediate attention. These are the cards you’ll want to look at and incorporate into your Rat Commander deck when building it.
10 Mirkwood bats
Token burning
In a Rat Commander deck, you’re likely to generate a lot of Rat Tokens. There’s no shortage of cards that allow you to do this, especially since the most popular Rat Commander, Marrow-Gnawer, can generate Rat Tokens himself.
Mirkwood Bats are the big reward for creating tokens. They turn every Rat token that enters the battlefield into fire damage, as well as every Rat token that leaves the battlefield. If you have enough Rat tokens on the battlefield and a board wipe occurs, it’s possible that Mirkwood Bats can knock all of your opponents out of the game with fire damage.
9 Booming Stone
Paying out a rat colony
Thrumming Stone isn’t the best thing in every Rat deck, but it’s by far the best artifact you can use in Rat decks built around Rat Colony. Rat Colony lets you play any number of them, so if you play one, you’ll likely get another copy and amass a ton of Rat Colony copies on the battlefield in one turn.
There’s a chance that Thrumming Stone could miss, but the chances of that happening are very slim considering how many copies of Rat Colony will be in your deck if you build your deck around the combo.
8 Swarm farm
Rats regenerate
What makes Swarmyard so good in a Rat Commander deck is that there is virtually no downside to playing it. Even if you don’t have a Rat to regenerate, you can still use it for colorless mana. Since most Rat decks are mono-black, you won’t be lacking in color fixation.
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The Hive Court is a great protection for any Rat. There are a lot of useful Rats you want to keep on the battlefield, and the Hive Court ensures that your opponents will need two removal spells if they ever want to take care of a Rat.
7 Pied Piper
The Rat Teacher
Ratcatcher is one of the best non-Rat creatures you can put in a Rat Commander deck. As long as it’s on the battlefield, you can search for any Rat. There are no requirements for the effect, so you can put any of your best Rats from your library into your hand during your upkeep.
While Ratcatcher costs a lot of mana to cast, it’s worth the investment. As long as it stays on the battlefield, even a single activation can be enough to win the game, considering how many useful rats there are.
6 Herald Horn
Basic equipment for creature decks
If you’re playing a deck that’s all about a specific creature type, Herald’s Horn is one of the best cards to include. It’s especially useful for Rat Commander decks, as the discount is useful since many of the best Rat cards have high casting costs.
It also helps to get more Rats into your hand when they’re at the top of your library. Herald’s Horn can be cast very early in the game, allowing you to get ahead of your mana curve and get your Rats on the battlefield as quickly as possible.
5 coat of arms
Rats are stronger together
If you have a ton of creatures of the same type, Coat of Arms is great. Since a Rat Commander deck is almost entirely Rat, Coat of Arms gives all Rat creatures massive stats that are almost impossible to deal with.
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Since you’ll likely have a large battlefield full of Rats and Rat tokens, the Crest makes them both amazing attackers and defenders. It’s one of the best win conditions for the deck, as it’s trivial to win via combat damage depending on how many powerful Rats are on the battlefield.
4 Whistler of the Swarm
The threatening piper
Piper of the Swarm is fantastic when combined with other cards that boost your Rats’ stats. Since it makes them all threatening, it makes your Rat army even harder to deal with, as each one needs at least two blockers.
The ability to give Rats threat would be solid enough, but it has the added benefit of being able to create more Rat tokens and steal your opponent’s creatures. Piper of the Swarm has a low casting cost, so you can easily use it to give all Rats threat.
3 Rat colony
As much as you want
Rat Colony is a staple of Rat Commander decks, and sometimes the only creature you play in such a deck, depending on what kind of Rat deck you want to build. You can have as many copies of Rat Colony in a deck as you want, and they’re boosted by any other Rat you control, not just other Rat Colony copies.
Rat Colony is very easy to play, so you can easily flood the battlefield with Rat Colony copies, especially in the late game when you have a lot of mana available. If you also play Thrumming Stone, that’s another reason to go with a (mostly) pure Rat Colony deck.
2 Karumonix, the Rat King
Poisonous rats
While Karumonix, the Rat King is a solid commander in his own right, he is used much better in the 99 because other commanders can quickly create rats that Karumonix can support. He gives all rats a poison counter, and since you’re creating so many rats, you can quickly give your opponents ten poison counters.
This allows you to quickly get more Rats in your hand and search your deck for your best Rat cards. The added Poison is the main attraction though, and combined with all the other Rat support cards, it becomes easy to win through Poison counters.
1 Ogre Slumlord
Deadly rats
Ogre Slumlord is one of the best Rat support cards you can play. He turns any creature that dies into a 1/1 Rat token. This is especially true for any creature that dies that isn’t a token, not just your own. So when you remove or kill creatures in combat, you get Rat tokens.
The passive ability to give all Rats deathtouch is also fantastic. It makes all your Rats much better in combat and forces your opponents to swap out their creatures if they want to block a Rat. This gives you more Rat tokens when another creature dies.
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