Rats have always been a thing in Magic: The Gathering. Back in the days of Alpha, folks would pair their singleton Plague Rats with Black Lotus and Dark Ritual. People have been building Rat decks since before four-ofs became a thing for tournament and Casual play. Every new rat became an opportunity to expand your chittering hordes.

I remember when the first Rat card was printed that broke the gold standard four-per-deck rule. Relentless Rats was massively popular and saw tons of play in Casual Rat brews of all kinds.

Things evolved further thanks to the several Legendary Rats introduced in Kamigawa Block (that would later go on to lead Rat Commander decks), and more Rats being printed that care about how many Rats we have. That's the thing I like about the Rat creature type. They love to go both wide (like most Kindred strategies) and tall (with Rats that get bigger the more Rats you have). They're kind of like Slivers in that way, if every Sliver was a Muscle Sliver.

Thinking about the history of Rats in Magic has inspired me to build the best Rat Commander deck I possibly can. But I don't want to break the bank. So, for budgetary reasons, I won't be running Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm, despite the fact she is pretty much the ideal Rat Commander. Pumping up your Rats when she attacks or blocks and filling our graveyard with more rats to return to our hand? Yeah, seems pretty ideal.

However, we have a couple of Legendary Rats with the title of Rat King that are just begging to sit at the helm of our Mono-Black Rat Brew!

I've chosen to build around Rat King, Verminister. This two-drop 1/1 legendary Rat Avatar has a trigger at end of turn if a permanent left the battlefield under our control. If something did leave the battlefield, (from it dying, flickering, being sacrificed, you name it) we get to make a 1/1 Rat and toss a +1/+1 counter on Verminister. Then we can tap Verminister to sacrifice three Rats to return target creature, and all creatures that share a name with it, from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped.

Rat King, Pale Piper is sitting pretty in the 99. This four-drop 3/3 Rat Avatar with Menace can spend , without tapping, to sac a token and draw a card. That'll do an excellent job triggering Rat King, Verminister to make a free replacement Rat. The Pale Piper has the added benefit of giving you another Rat token to sacrifice whenever one of your other nontoken creatures leave the battlefield.

As you can see, we already have a great core of Rat synergy going on. So, let's dive in and tie some more tails onto our Rat King.

Mana and Lands

Big Apple, 3 a.m. enters tapped and asks us to choose a color. For us that will be Black, so it will produce Black mana once it untaps. The main reason I'm including it in the list is it's ability to tap for to make a number of 1/1 Rats for each opponent we've got. Swarmyard also cares about Rats, helping us save our precious rodents by granting them Regenerate.

Of course, we'll be choosing Rats when Cavern of Souls enters, making Rats cast with that mana will be uncounterable. We'll also be choosing Rats for Patchwork Banner, giving all of our Rats +1/+1 while tapping for mana.

Mind Stone taps for colorless and can also be tapped and sacrificed for to draw a card. Commander's Sphere also makes an obligatory appearance for that useful card draw clause. Fabled Passage can be sacrificed to grab any basic land and put it into to play tapped, unless you have four or more lands. I also tossed in three other cheap Fetch Lands, Myriad Landscape, Evolving Wilds, and Terramorphic Expanse. More permanents to leave the battlefield for Verminster!

Three Tree City asks you to choose a creature type when it enters (Rats, of course), and then taps for to make one mana of any color for each Rat we control. Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx taps for to make Black mana equal to our devotion to Black. And yes, I tossed in Cabal Coffers and Cabal Stronghold for all of that sweet Black mana. Mudflat Village can tap for colorless for anything, and Black for Creatures. You can also tap and sac it (trigger) for { } mana to Regrowth a Rat to our hand.

Synergies and Win-Cons

Piper of the Swarm is a two-mana 1/3 that gives our Rats Menace, making it very difficult to block our chittering hordes. You can also tap it for to make a 1/1 Rat, or tap it for to sac three Rats and gain control of target creature.

Ogre Slumlord gives our Rats Deathtouch, which is makes them even harder to block or attack into since folks won't want to swing into our boar and lose their creatures. He has some added utility when our non-token creatures die, making 1/1 Rats for each creature that hit the Graveyard.

Pack Rat's Power and Toughness are equal to the number of Rats we control. It has the ability to pay and discard a card for to make a copy of itself. We do like throwing Rats into our Graveyard to fuel Verminister, and for Bloodline Bidding (the latest take on Patriarch's Bidding). For , or less with the help of some Convoking creatures, we can Reanimate every Rat in our Graveyard.

Burglar Rat is reminiscent of Ravenous Rats, but better for us in Multiplayer since it makes each opponent discard when it enters. Ratcatcher has Fear, and each upkeep he lets us tutor a Rat from our Library to our hand. Getting our best Rat for any given situation or just a win-con is some incredible value over the course of the game.

Old Flitterfang grants you a Food token during the end step if something died during that turn. It can also sacrifice a Creature or Artifact into a mana-free Food for cracking for a card from our Pied Piper and then triggering our leader or just gaining life too.

Marrow-Gnawer is pretty pricey since it was the first major option for helming a Rat Commander deck. He's also amazing since he gives all of our Rats Fear. He can also tap and sac a Rat to make a number of Rats equal to the number of Rats we control. Rat Krenko, Mob Boss anyone?

Lord Skitter, Sewer King exiles a card from an opponent's graveyard when another Rat enters. Then, at the beginning of our combat we get to make a free 1/1 Rat token that cannot block. Having some more Graveyard hate on top of Bojuka Bog is always welcome.

Valley Rotcaller has a nasty, game-winning trigger when it attacks, forcing each opponent to lose life equal to the number of Rats, Bats, Lizards and Squirrels we control. We also gain that much life.

Thrumming Stone gives our spells Ripple 4, which allows us to dig four cards down and cast any spells with the same name from among them for free. Of course, the free copies are also cast, so Thrumming Stone will then trigger again, and so on and so on. That's an excellent combo with Relentless Rats since we can include any number of them in our deck, even in a singleton format like Commander. Also, remember that Verminister can tap to bring each creature with the same name back from our Graveyard!

I will not, Relentless Rats originally started as Rat Colony in this list. Gaining power for every Rat you control was good, and Relentless Rats only benefits from other Relentless Rats, not any Rat. However, the increase toughness in addition to power makes Relentless Rats harder to kill with damage, and the two Black pips in the mana value is great for Devotion on Nykthose and... one a few other inclusions.

Mogis's Marauder counts our Devotion to Black when it enters, and then gives that many of our Creatures Haste and Intimidate. And of course he have to include good, old Gary. Gray Merchant of Asphodel enters and drains life from each of our foes equal to our Devotion to Black. A classic Mono-Black win-con if there ever was one.

Twisted Sewer-Witch enters and creates a 1/1 Rat token that cannot block. Then all of our Rats receive a Wicked Role Aura to give them all +1/+1. All those Roles will also cause our opponents to lose one life when it dies, which is likely to happen often in this deck. Tangled Colony cannot block, but when it dies, it creates a number of 1/1 Rat tokens equal to the amount of damage dealt to it this turn.

Revenge of the Rats makes a 1/1 tapped Black Rat token for each creature in our graveyard, and it has Flashback for . Finally, Banner of Kinship enters and gains fellowship counters equal to the number of Rats we control. Then, each Rat we control gets +1/+1 for each fellowship counter on the banner.

Answers

Fell the Profane can either destroy a Creature or Planeswalker, or we can play it as a land if needed. Modal Double-Faced cards are just cool like that. Speaking of which, Malakir Rebirth can save and bring back a dying creature, or also be a land.

Unrelated, I'm tossing in Nameless Inversion since it counts as a Rat while still being a removal spell.

Next up we have some -X/-X effects. Pack's Disdain is an Instant that gives a Creature -1/-1 for each Rat we control, which will often be many. Chittering Witch enters and creates 1/1 Rat tokens equal to the number of opponents we have. She can also spend { over and over again to sac a Rat and give a Creature -2/-2 until end of turn.

Since these are -X/-X effects, they safely get past protection like Indestructible, but don't carry the feel-bads of exiling something forever.

Let's talk about Board Wipes. One of my favorite sweepers ever is Living Death. It swaps all Creatures in play with all Creatures in graveyards for five mana. Of course, it's easy for us to maximize how much we get from it since we know it's coming. It can also be used early in the game as just a great mass removal spell if no one has any Creatures in their Graveyards.

Crippling Fear will give all non-Rats -3/-, which is pretty favorable for us. Then, Kindred Dominance flat-out destroys all non-Rats. Period.

Card Draw

We choose Rat for Gathering Stone, which reduces the cost of our Rats. It also lets us choose to put the top card of our Library into our hand at the beginning of our upkeep if it's a Rat. If we don't put it into our hand, we can choose to put it in the Graveyard instead.

We're also going to choose Rat for Species Specialist. When our Rats die, we'll get to draw for each one. Our Rats are going to be dying often thanks to all of our sacrifice effects, so expect to draw truly so many cards with Species Specialist.

Pact of the Serpent is also an obscene amount of card draw in one go since we'll be choosing Rat when we cast it. We'll draw X cards and lose X life, where X is equal to the number of Rats we control. Or, we can potentially use it to take out an opponent with a low enough life total or number of cards left in their deck.

Skullclamp is a must-include in this deck with all of our 1/1 Rat tokens running around. We can equip it to a Creature to give it +1/-1, and then when that creature dies we draw two cards. Not bad. Not bad at all!

Lord Skitter's Butcher is an interesting Charm creature, with three abilities to choose from when it enters the battlefield. It can make a 1/1 Rat token that cannot block, give our Creatures Menace this turn for a surprise win, or sacrifice a another creature to Scry 2 and draw a card.

The Decklist

All right, ready for this brew?

• Commander (1)
• 1 Rat King, Verminister

• Creatures (45)
• 1 Burglar Rat
• 1 Chittering Witch
• 1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1 Lord Skitter, Sewer King
• 1 Lord Skitter's Butcher
• 1 Marrow-Gnawer
• 1 Mogis's Marauder
• 1 Ogre Slumlord
• 1 Old Flitterfang
• 1 Pack Rat
• 1 Patron of the Nezumi
• 1 Piper of the Swarm
• 1 Rat King, Pied Piper
• 1 Ratcatcher
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Species Specialist
• 1 Tangled Colony
• 1 Twisted Sewer-Witch
• 1 Valley Rotcaller
• 26 Relentless Rats

• Instants (3)
• 1 Fell the Profane // Fell Mire
• 1 Malakir Rebirth // Malakir Mire
• 1 Pack's Disdain

• Sorceries (7)
• 1 Bloodline Bidding
• 1 Crippling Fear
• 1 Haunting Voyage
• 1 Kindred Dominance
• 1 Living Death
• 1 Pact of the Serpent
• 1 Revenge of the Rats

• Artifacts (9)
• 1 Banner of Kinship
• 1 Commander's Sphere
• 1 Gathering Stone
• 1 Jet Medallion
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Patchwork Banner
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Skullclamp
• 1 Thrumming Stone

• Lands (35)
• 15 Swamp
• 1 Abundant Countryside
• 1 Big Apple, 3 a.m.
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Cabal Coffers
• 1 Cabal Stronghold
• 1 Cavern of Souls
• 1 Crypt of Agadeem
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Fabled Passage
• 1 High Market
• 1 Mortuary Mire
• 1 Mudflat Village
• 1 Myriad Landscape
• 1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1 Path of Ancestry
• 1 Swarmyard
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Three Tree City
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1 War Room

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Some final notes: I included War Room to draw a card for a single life, and High Market to sac a Creature to gain a single life. Crypt of Agadeem is here as another Cabal Coffers type mana producer that cares about Creatures in our Graveyard instead of Swamps we control.

Commander's Sphere might be worth cutting, since it's mostly just an additional Mind Stone. I included Solemn Simulacrum, but Changeling Wayfinder costs one less mana for a Lay of the Land effect rather than a Rampant Growth. But Changeling makes it a Rat, so there are trade-offs. I also included Abundant Countryside as a way to make a 1/1 colorless Changelings Rats.

Maskwood Nexus is absolutely an option since it makes all of our Creatures Rats in every zone. We could even toss in Throat Slitter as an extra piece of repeatable removal and another Rat for our growing horde.

There are a ton of options to consider, but I hope you enjoyed this fun take on Mono-Black Rats in Commander!