This is an aggro/combo tribal Rat build. The design is exceedingly simple, because roughly half of the non-land cards are the exact same creature! Add to that a high basic land count and a healthy tutor package, and you're looking at what's arguably the most streamlined (functional) EDH deck a person could build.
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History
Relentless Rats was first printed in Fifth Dawn, 2004. The card was a homage to the old Plague Rats, who's function had been savaged by the four card limit rule. I had wanted to build a Relentless Rats deck ever since; but didn't get around to it for almost ten years.
Two years later after Fifth Dawn, WotC printed Thrumming Stone in another wonderfully nostalgic gesture that was Cold Snap. Relentless Rats were even printed in the very next core set, and the combo became Standard Legal for a full year. Relentless Rats never did make much of a splash into Standard. Nor in extended, nor any other competitive format. Extirpate being printed just three months after Thrumming Stone couldn't have helped much either. But in casual magic, Rats were a force to be reckoned with!
In fact Relentless Rats became so good in multiplayer casual that it was actually too good! There was no such thing as Commander at this point, so a casual Rats deck was sixty cards with four Thrumming Stones, four Dark Rituals, and lots of tutors.
Unless your opponents were running sweepers or other control (not all decks did), games would be over before some decks could even get going. Obviously that's no fun, so I never did build a sixty card Rats deck.
Eventually I quit magic for a while, and came back strictly as a Legacy player. By then EDH had become and huge phenomenon, and (imo) a definite upgrade from 60 card casual. It was only natural that I began to start wanting an EDH deck, offering a perfect chance for me to build Relentless Rats after all those years. The "highlander" aspect of EDH keeps the Rats to a reasonable power level, which is part of the point of EDH, I think.
Anyway, I couldn't help but notice there was no Primer for a Relentless Rats build. This is a fun and iconic archetype, as well as an excellent start for new EDHers. So I figured the community could use a guide and blueprint. It is with great pleasure that I share my Relentless Rats build and my thoughts on the archetype.
You are new to EDH, and the thought of playing 100 different cards in a single deck is mind boggling.
Avoid this deck if:
You like a lot of variety in your decks, and a lot of different paths to victory. Relentless Rats are fairly streamlined.
You want to play "good-stuff" (or even just don't like tribal).
You want to play control.
You want a reactive or tool-box style deck.
You in a meta where everybody runs multiple sweepers all the time.
You only enjoy maximally competitive decks. This deck might be a good deck for Johnny, Timmy, or Vorthos, but not for Spike.
You have had a nasty experience with Rats in the real world and you still have horrific nightmares.
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Why Play Marrow-Gnawer
There are plenty of options. Marrow-Gnawer give your Rat army fear, but realistically there are other generals which do more to push the combo - either via their own abilities, or simply by enabling other colours (eg, Aluren / Recycle is a fantastic back-up engine. Marrow-Gnawer does have it's upsides though:
Marrow-Gnawer is a tribal leader. If you want to run other (not Relentless) Rats, you get tribal support from this general.
Mono B. This means you can run lots of Swamps; making a reliable (and affordable) mana-base and facilitating cards like Cabal Coffers and Extraplanar Lens.
Gnawer has a built-in back-up combo with Thornbite Staff, giving us a second path to an army of filthy vermin.
While the deck is built around these 2-card-combos, for all intents and purposes they are 1-card-combos because having access to Relentless Rats and Marrow Gnawer is pretty much a given. So with a single tutor you are off to the races.
Opening Hands
Keep any 7 cards with either:
Thrumming Stone
Thornbite Staff
Any tutor
Provided, of course, you are not totally screwed for mana. Usually having 2 (permanent) black sources or 1 black and 2 colourless is good enough to keep. You can keep hands with less if they have some 1-shot ramp, a spare tutor, or you are feeling lucky.
Toss anything else.
Treat 6 card hands exactly like 7 card hands except you should be less picky about mana sources. Once you are down to 5 cards you should stop aggressively digging for a combo and keep any hand that lets you play cards.
Activate Marrow-Gnawer's ability ad infinitum - creating a zillion 1/1 rats.
Profit!
Thrumming Stone combo is usually faster. Both combos entail a 5-drop, usually the turn before going off. But the Thornbite Staff combo also requires playing 2 other creatures, which slow you down if you also need to play tutors and/or mana rocks.
Hedging Against Sweepers
It's not always wise (or necessary) to dump every Rat in your deck all at once. If you are new to MTG, this is called 'over-extending', and invites heavily lopsided sweepers. Having, eg, 10 creatures which are 11/11s is a pretty good board in most mid-to-early game states. This is enough to do some serious damage and/or bait the sweepers.
Of course it's okay to go for broke and play all your Rats at once, but only under certain circumstances:
You are trying to win that turn (or kill 1 threatening opponent), and you need all your Rats.
You are desperate! If you need that many creatures to survive; or if you think you are on a very short clock regardless, don't hold back. Sometimes not taking risks can be a huge gamble.
Hedging Against Removal
You might decide to hold your Thrumming Stone until you have enough mana to cast Relentless Rats on the same turn. This way if somebody is holding artifact destruction you can catch them tapped out. Similarly You might hold off on Thornbite Staff until You untap with your general in play.
If you are also worried about instant speed creature removal, you can wait on Staff until you have a spare Rat for fodder.
Closing The Deal:
Once you make a Relentless Rat or Token army, there are a number of ways to win. Of course you can just attack the next turn, but it's nice to win even faster sometimes (or at least kill the single most dangerous opponent).
Haste. Mogis's Marauder gives everything haste. Lightning Greaves is okay, because often attacking with a single creature is enough to kill an an opponent. AFAIK there are not a lot of other B cards that grant haste. Akroma's Memorial is a card, but a bit costly for our desired speed (and mana curve).
If you have a Relentless Rat (or 2) in play already you, wont need haste. But if you are on the token plan, your unsick creature will not be lethal unless it is a Pack Rat (or the likes), or if you have a Coat Of Arms effect.
Altar Of Dementia can mill all your opponents and kill them on the spot. Well, almost on the spot. If you also run Mikokoro and/or Geier Reach Sanitarium, you can kill 'em right away. You can even can kill in response to Eldrazi graveyard trigger.
Rite Of Consumption. Sorcery speed, but still kills a player the turn you go off.
I'm open to other suggestions - particularly if they're cheap, efficient, and on-theme.
Back-Up Strategies:
Sometimes both the above plans fall through. Maybe we can't draw a useful cards. Maybe we run into a wall of counter-spells and/or artifact removal, and we simply exhaust or engines. Can we still win? Yes, it is possible. But it's going to be difficult.
You can sometimes win without your combo by an "honest" number of Relentless Rats. Five 6/6 creatures is still pretty good sometimes at just whittling people down. Mass reanimation is still your friend for post Wrath and later game states.
Secret Salvage into discard followed by Mass Recursion on your next turn.
Ink-Eyes or Nezumi can win the game for you using your opponents' "bomb" creatures.
Any other "good-stuff" you happen to include that might seal the deal (Consume Spirit, etc).
Like I said, it is possible, but not easy. The fewer opponents you have, usually the better chance of winning with a pure aggro "fair deck" approach.
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Deck Building
As I said, this is an aggro/combo deck. The purpose is flood the board combo style and bring the beats. However, this is also a tribal Rat deck. You can go all-in on the combos, or you can throw in a bit of versatility.
I'm pushing the combos a lot, but I've made room to included a few other Rats and spells that will add a little variety and give me some outs and extra ways to win. How you build is up to you, but I'll run through some suggestions and options, and present my current list.
Relentless Rats - The big question is how many? If you want your combo to be reliable, This should be at least 1/3 of your deck (33 cards). A little more if you reallydon't want to fizzle. If you want to play alittle risky in favour of some more fun cards, go a little lower If you are happy to only expect a few Rats of Thrumming Stone (maybe this deck is high powered relative to your group), you can a lot lower.
If you are not running these cards, you have no special need for Swamps. Just run enough black sources that you aren't colour screwed too often, and enough basics to endure whatever nonbasic hate is floating around your group.
Finishers:
Sometimes you want to start killing the moment your Rats hit the table (before your opponents can untap and react). Other times attacking simply won't break your opponent's lock. These cards offer faster and alternative means of cashing in on your Rats.
Pack Rat / Swarm Of Rats / Pestilence Rats - With one of these on board, you can attack for lethal the same turn you create your army (even if they are tokens).
Unless you are playing in a soft and easy meta, you will want to speed out Thrumming Stone early if possible. You therefore should prefer low cost accelerants that will get you to 5 mana by turn 3 or 4.
Obviously you can't always go off that quickly, but it is nice to keep it a possibility.
0cc Mana Rocks - Mana Crypt? Smoke 'em if you got 'em! Lotus Petal is okay, but it's more of a ritual than a mana rock.
1cc Mana Rocks - Sol Ring - Goes without saying. Mana Vault can speed you up even more, but is harder to reuse.
3cc Rocks - Coalition Relic and Worn Powerstone are nice because they get you to 5 mana turn 4 even if you punt on lands. Extraplanar Lens is fantastic because it puts you to 5 (or more) on turn 4, but also can provide huge ramp for the long game. But it bites you in the ass if it gets destroyed or if you are short on basics.
Rituals - Dark Ritual - I was told when I built Rats (my 1st EDH deck) that Ritual is not good in this format. I think it's good in this deck. Cabal Ritual will rarely enjoy the benefits of threshold early on, so this is basically a Lotus Petal. Still playable I guess. Bubbling Muck is Dark Ritual only if you have 3 Swamps plus a black source on the side - otherwise it's also just a Petal (or worse).
Cabal Coffers / Lake Of The Dead - These are cards that use or abuse Swamps. They don't like each other very much (and neither plays nicely with Lens), but playing all 3 is still sound to max out your chance of drawing at least 1. Run lots of Swamps!
Note that Coffers cannot ramp until you have 4 Swamps. But it's a total bomb those times you also draw Urborg. It's also good if you are holding off to play Stone and a Rat on the same turn, or any time you get stuck playing a longer game.
Peat Bog / Ebon Stronghold / Phyrexian Tower - the black Sol Lands. Bog works similarly to City. It comes into play tapped, and you can't get a third activation. But the upside is it makes black mana and you can sit on it while you play other lands. Ebon Stronghold is a slower Crystal Vein that produces coloured mana. Phyrexian Tower turns any Rat on the field into a Petal.
Myriad Landscape - an even slower "Sol land", but it does activate turn 3 for 5 mana on turn 4. It also provides long term ramp and has nice synergy with Coffers, Lens, and Lake. This is noteworthy because any other ramp lands are cutting into your Swamp count. This does not, so there is very little opportunity cost to running it.
Terrain Generator - like Myriad Landscape in that you can activate it turn 3 and have 5 mana next turn. Myriad Landscape is much better because it fixes colour, provides card advantage, ands gets you to 5 when you only draw 4 lands. The upside is Terrain Generator enters untapped. Totally a playable card.
Tutors:
These are essential for finding combo pieces, win-cons, and/or answers to various problems.
Brainspoil - Uncounterable tutor for Thrumming Stone that doubles as removal in a pinch.
Insidious Dreams - This tutor is awesome! You can get whatever you need for your combo, as well as protection, a back-up plan, or something to help close the game out. If you don't get screwed you can easily overcome the card disadvantage.
Cruel Tutor - A bit mana intensive, but can still set up a turn 4 Stone.
Diabolic Intent - A good cheap tutor. Again, the card disadvantage can be overcome and then some.
Diabolic Tutor - extremely slow. But with quality ramp you can cast this turn 3 into a turn 4 Stone. And a slow tutor is better than no tutor when your drawing cold.
Beseech The Queen - I don't like this very much because you can't get a Stone until turn 5 (unless you hit a turn 3 Myriad activation).
Protection:
Sometimes you will run into disruption in various forms. Pretty much all of the time. The best protection we have is recursion, hoping to run them out if answers. We have a couple other options though.
In my opinion, other cards (which do not relate to our combos) should offer:
Control / disruption.
Other ways to win.
Things you think are fun.
There are far too many colourless and black cards that are good in EDH. So I'll list just a few that are my favourites and that fit nicely with our strategy and theme.
Other Utility Lands:
Thespian's Stage / Vesuva - These can become basic Swamps in a pinch, so unlike other non-basics, you can run them without really cutting into your Swamp count.
Most Rats are not very good in Commander. You only really run them for fun and/or to sandbag in a weak meta. There are some exceptions:
Throat Slitter - Solid creature removal, getting in with ninjitsu or with fear (thank you, Marrow-Gnawer). Fear works great, because we are targeting players with non-black creatures.
Ink-Eyes, Servant Of Oni - Provides an alternate win-con, and is another Ninja too! I like Ninjas.
Run whatever value creatures you like. Personally I will only run Rats or Rat friends.
Ratcatcher - crazy high cc, but can help us when we are down with general CA as well as occasionally finding answers.
Ogre Slumlord - Gives a bit of resilience to sweeper and can deter attacks against us.
Other Spells:
Between ramp, tutors, and business, there is not a lot of room. There's almost no limit to your options, but choose with discrimination nonetheless. These are some suggestions.
Grave Pact / Dictate - these deter removal but also have amazing synergy with Marrow-Gnawer. They let us "combo off" while sweeping the board at the same time.
Damnation / Mutilate / Toxic Deluge - More sweepers if you your meta is full of faster or more resilient swarm decks.
Darkness - Black is light on reactive defense. This is a fun and cheap little cards that will take 'em by surprise.
Gate To Phyrexia - There are certain artifacts that can give us a world of troubles. This is basically our only out.
I'd been meaning to pick these up for a long time now (I think I couldn't find copies when I built the deck, and they kind of got forgotten). The Misers are not very good. They don't really further the game plan, and they taunt the opponents more than they set them back.
I had been chatting with my LGS owner about Lake and how it would be a good time to get one (seeing as what happens to playable RL cards). Later that same day I got a pm because somebody trading in a collection - with the sole old-framed card being a Lake of the Dead! I figure it heard my call and wanted to me mine. Perhaps the very same copy that was stolen from me ~10 years ago?
Passage is a great card, but between fear and going wide, blockers are not that big a problem. Ramp is better.
I should point this out as playing a deck which also runs around 30 of the same creature, Revolt's Secret Salvage is mighty impressive. However as the deck stands now you don't really have a way to benefit from having them all in hand at once.
However as the deck stands now you don't really have a way to benefit from having them all in hand at once.
That looks like a really cool card.
The only reason I can think to cast this is to set up a discard (eg, to follow up with Patriarch's Bidding). Generally I like to save those mass recursion effects for post Wrath. But if Thrumming Stone has been lost, this can make a good 2-card combo for back-up.
Not only did they fail to give us a Rat tribal precon (EDH is desperate for playable Rats), but instead they print a hoser card! Nothing but a giant middle cat toe.
Edit - Of course I'm being silly. Kitty is a cool card.
This card is much better:
In addition to providing honest card selection, it helps to prevent "fizzling" on Thrumming Stone triggers. Probably worth running, but I'm not sure what to cut. Probably a Swamp - as much as I hate to do that, my utility lands are all very loved.
I suppose I could cut Cavern, as savvy opponents are apt to counter my combo enablers instead. Still, who wants to cut Cavern Of Souls from a tribal EDH deck?
Ixalan is completely spoiled, so it's time to discuss all the great and wonderful new toys for us...
On closer inspection, it appears we have the first ever pirate themed block, and not so much as a single bilge rat.
I'm counting on Dominaria to give us some sexy vermin. There were plenty of Rats in the old days, so it seems like a reasonable assumption. I sure hope we aren't stuck waiting for Return To Kamigawa! I want my power-creeped Rats, gosh darnit.
I'm counting on Dominaria to give us some sexy vermin...
Rat Colony
1B
Creature - Rat
Rat Colony gets +1/+0 for each other Rat you control.
A deck can have any number of cards named Rat Colony.
All is right in the multiverse.
I might very well make the swap. The toughness will be a drag, but I've struggled to hit BB on more than one occasion. I like the extra tribal boost too.
For different generals I would also suggest Razaketh, the Foul-Blooded. With B's mana production it shouldn't be too difficult to cast. Its ability can very easily net you Thrumming Stone. You could also use Sidisi, Undead Vizier, which is a tutor on a body. The only card you'd really need immediate access to is Thrumming Stone. So these two generals do quite nicely. I think you could very easily suggest these two legends as alternatives to Marrow-Gnawer.
My YouTube Channel: The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
Thanks a lot for this primer! Long time tribal rat player there, but I never got into EDH yet for some reason.
What do you think of Rat Colony? Although this could make the deck less combo and more tribal, as any rat can pump rat colony
For reanimators, I use in my tribal rat Immortal Servitude. It brings all Rat Colony back for 5 (or Relentless Rats for 6)
For the kill, I use Essence Harvest.
Cheers
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This is an aggro/combo tribal Rat build. The design is exceedingly simple, because roughly half of the non-land cards are the exact same creature! Add to that a high basic land count and a healthy tutor package, and you're looking at what's arguably the most streamlined (functional) EDH deck a person could build.
Relentless Rats was first printed in Fifth Dawn, 2004. The card was a homage to the old Plague Rats, who's function had been savaged by the four card limit rule. I had wanted to build a Relentless Rats deck ever since; but didn't get around to it for almost ten years.
Two years later after Fifth Dawn, WotC printed Thrumming Stone in another wonderfully nostalgic gesture that was Cold Snap. Relentless Rats were even printed in the very next core set, and the combo became Standard Legal for a full year. Relentless Rats never did make much of a splash into Standard. Nor in extended, nor any other competitive format. Extirpate being printed just three months after Thrumming Stone couldn't have helped much either. But in casual magic, Rats were a force to be reckoned with!
In fact Relentless Rats became so good in multiplayer casual that it was actually too good! There was no such thing as Commander at this point, so a casual Rats deck was sixty cards with four Thrumming Stones, four Dark Rituals, and lots of tutors.
Unless your opponents were running sweepers or other control (not all decks did), games would be over before some decks could even get going. Obviously that's no fun, so I never did build a sixty card Rats deck.
Eventually I quit magic for a while, and came back strictly as a Legacy player. By then EDH had become and huge phenomenon, and (imo) a definite upgrade from 60 card casual. It was only natural that I began to start wanting an EDH deck, offering a perfect chance for me to build Relentless Rats after all those years. The "highlander" aspect of EDH keeps the Rats to a reasonable power level, which is part of the point of EDH, I think.
Anyway, I couldn't help but notice there was no Primer for a Relentless Rats build. This is a fun and iconic archetype, as well as an excellent start for new EDHers. So I figured the community could use a guide and blueprint. It is with great pleasure that I share my Relentless Rats build and my thoughts on the archetype.
"Twenty Black Lotuses and twenty Plague Rats. Now that's real Magic."
Consider this deck if:
breakbend the rules.Avoid this deck if:
There are plenty of options. Marrow-Gnawer give your Rat army fear, but realistically there are other generals which do more to push the combo - either via their own abilities, or simply by enabling other colours (eg, Aluren / Recycle is a fantastic back-up engine. Marrow-Gnawer does have it's upsides though:
If you want a different general, I suggest:
The purpose of this deck is to flood the board with Rats. Lots of Rats! This is accomplished via 1 of 2 combos (detailed bellow); Relentless Rats + Thrumming Stone, or Marrow-Gnawer + Thornbite Staff.
While the deck is built around these 2-card-combos, for all intents and purposes they are 1-card-combos because having access to Relentless Rats and Marrow Gnawer is pretty much a given. So with a single tutor you are off to the races.
Opening Hands
Keep any 7 cards with either:
Toss anything else.
Treat 6 card hands exactly like 7 card hands except you should be less picky about mana sources. Once you are down to 5 cards you should stop aggressively digging for a combo and keep any hand that lets you play cards.
The Combos:
Thrumming Stone combo is usually faster. Both combos entail a 5-drop, usually the turn before going off. But the Thornbite Staff combo also requires playing 2 other creatures, which slow you down if you also need to play tutors and/or mana rocks.
Hedging Against Sweepers
It's not always wise (or necessary) to dump every Rat in your deck all at once. If you are new to MTG, this is called 'over-extending', and invites heavily lopsided sweepers. Having, eg, 10 creatures which are 11/11s is a pretty good board in most mid-to-early game states. This is enough to do some serious damage and/or bait the sweepers.
Of course it's okay to go for broke and play all your Rats at once, but only under certain circumstances:
Hedging Against Removal
You might decide to hold your Thrumming Stone until you have enough mana to cast Relentless Rats on the same turn. This way if somebody is holding artifact destruction you can catch them tapped out. Similarly You might hold off on Thornbite Staff until You untap with your general in play.
If you are also worried about instant speed creature removal, you can wait on Staff until you have a spare Rat for fodder.
Closing The Deal:
Once you make a Relentless Rat or Token army, there are a number of ways to win. Of course you can just attack the next turn, but it's nice to win even faster sometimes (or at least kill the single most dangerous opponent).
Back-Up Strategies:
Sometimes both the above plans fall through. Maybe we can't draw a useful cards. Maybe we run into a wall of counter-spells and/or artifact removal, and we simply exhaust or engines. Can we still win? Yes, it is possible. But it's going to be difficult.
As I said, this is an aggro/combo deck. The purpose is flood the board combo style and bring the beats. However, this is also a tribal Rat deck. You can go all-in on the combos, or you can throw in a bit of versatility.
I'm pushing the combos a lot, but I've made room to included a few other Rats and spells that will add a little variety and give me some outs and extra ways to win. How you build is up to you, but I'll run through some suggestions and options, and present my current list.
My Deck:
1x Marrow-Gnawer
Relentless Rats (34)
34x Relentless Rats
Other Rats (4)
1x Crypt Rats
1x Ink-Eyes, Servant Of Oni
1x Nezumi Graverobber
1x Throat Slitter
Other Creatures (2)
1x Ogre Slumlord
1x Ratcatcher
Artifacts (7)
1x Altar Of Dementia
1x Coat Of Arms
1x Extraplanar Lens
1x Feldon's Cane
1x Sol Ring
1x Thornbite Staff
1x Thrumming Stone
1x Brainspoil
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Diabolic Intent
1x Living death
1x Patriarch's Bidding
1x Rite Of Consumption
1x Twilight's Call
Instants (4)
1x Dark Ritual
1x Darkness
1x Insidious Dreams
1x Vampiric Tutor
Enchantments (2)
1x Grave Pact
1x Vampiric Link
Basic Lands (24)
24x Snow-Covered Swamp
1x Cavern Of Souls
1x Crystal Vein
1x Buried Ruin
1x Ebon Stronghold
1x Geier Reach Sanitarium
1x Lake Of The Dead
1x Mikokoro, Center Of The Sea
1x Myriad Landscape
1x Peat Bog
1x Scrying Sheets
1x Strip Mine
1x Swarmyard
1x Thespian's Stage
1x Urborg, Tomb Of Yawgmoth
1x Vesuva
The Deck's Core:
These are you key combos (plus mana) and form the heart of the deck. Don't leave home without them.
Marrow-Gnawer - The fearless leader with fear.
Thrumming Stone - Essential combo piece.
Thornbite Staff - Essential combo piece.
Relentless Rats - The big question is how many? If you want your combo to be reliable, This should be at least 1/3 of your deck (33 cards). A little more if you reallydon't want to fizzle. If you want to play alittle risky in favour of some more fun cards, go a little lower If you are happy to only expect a few Rats of Thrumming Stone (maybe this deck is high powered relative to your group), you can a lot lower.
Swamp / Snow-Covered Swamp - again, the question is how many? If you are running Extraplanar Lens, and/or Lake Of The Dead, and or Cabal Coffers, you will want lots of Swamps. I would think a minimum of ~22, but I prefer a couple more. Cards like Vesuva and Myriad Landscape can be considered Swamps for this purpose
If you are not running these cards, you have no special need for Swamps. Just run enough black sources that you aren't colour screwed too often, and enough basics to endure whatever nonbasic hate is floating around your group.
Finishers:
Sometimes you want to start killing the moment your Rats hit the table (before your opponents can untap and react). Other times attacking simply won't break your opponent's lock. These cards offer faster and alternative means of cashing in on your Rats.
Altar Of Dementia - Mills on the spot.
Mikokoro / Geier Reach Sanitarium - Instant kill after the mill (and through shuffle triggers).
Rite Of Consumption - Lets you kill a wounded opponent with a sick rat.
Pack Rat / Swarm Of Rats / Pestilence Rats - With one of these on board, you can attack for lethal the same turn you create your army (even if they are tokens).
Coat Of Arms - Lets any Rat swing for lethal.
Mana Ramp:
Unless you are playing in a soft and easy meta, you will want to speed out Thrumming Stone early if possible. You therefore should prefer low cost accelerants that will get you to 5 mana by turn 3 or 4.
Obviously you can't always go off that quickly, but it is nice to keep it a possibility.
0cc Mana Rocks - Mana Crypt? Smoke 'em if you got 'em! Lotus Petal is okay, but it's more of a ritual than a mana rock.
1cc Mana Rocks - Sol Ring - Goes without saying. Mana Vault can speed you up even more, but is harder to reuse.
2cc Rocks - Mind Stone is okay. Charcoal Diamond and Coldsteel Heart give coloured mana but can't draw a card. Jet Medallion is not my favourite because it doesn't affect Thrumming Stone. Grim Monolith is okay but slower than Mana Vault.
3cc Rocks - Coalition Relic and Worn Powerstone are nice because they get you to 5 mana turn 4 even if you punt on lands. Extraplanar Lens is fantastic because it puts you to 5 (or more) on turn 4, but also can provide huge ramp for the long game. But it bites you in the ass if it gets destroyed or if you are short on basics.
Rituals - Dark Ritual - I was told when I built Rats (my 1st EDH deck) that Ritual is not good in this format. I think it's good in this deck. Cabal Ritual will rarely enjoy the benefits of threshold early on, so this is basically a Lotus Petal. Still playable I guess. Bubbling Muck is Dark Ritual only if you have 3 Swamps plus a black source on the side - otherwise it's also just a Petal (or worse).
Cabal Coffers / Lake Of The Dead - These are cards that use or abuse Swamps. They don't like each other very much (and neither plays nicely with Lens), but playing all 3 is still sound to max out your chance of drawing at least 1. Run lots of Swamps!
Note that Coffers cannot ramp until you have 4 Swamps. But it's a total bomb those times you also draw Urborg. It's also good if you are holding off to play Stone and a Rat on the same turn, or any time you get stuck playing a longer game.
Ancient Tomb / City Of Traitors / Crystal Vein - The Sol Lands. Tomb is the best and City is the worst, but they all are good.
Peat Bog / Ebon Stronghold / Phyrexian Tower - the black Sol Lands. Bog works similarly to City. It comes into play tapped, and you can't get a third activation. But the upside is it makes black mana and you can sit on it while you play other lands. Ebon Stronghold is a slower Crystal Vein that produces coloured mana. Phyrexian Tower turns any Rat on the field into a Petal.
Myriad Landscape - an even slower "Sol land", but it does activate turn 3 for 5 mana on turn 4. It also provides long term ramp and has nice synergy with Coffers, Lens, and Lake. This is noteworthy because any other ramp lands are cutting into your Swamp count. This does not, so there is very little opportunity cost to running it.
Terrain Generator - like Myriad Landscape in that you can activate it turn 3 and have 5 mana next turn. Myriad Landscape is much better because it fixes colour, provides card advantage, ands gets you to 5 when you only draw 4 lands. The upside is Terrain Generator enters untapped. Totally a playable card.
Tutors:
These are essential for finding combo pieces, win-cons, and/or answers to various problems.
Imperial Seal / Grim Tutor - Too rich for my blood.
Demonic Tutor / Vampiric Tutor - The quintessentials.
Brainspoil - Uncounterable tutor for Thrumming Stone that doubles as removal in a pinch.
Insidious Dreams - This tutor is awesome! You can get whatever you need for your combo, as well as protection, a back-up plan, or something to help close the game out. If you don't get screwed you can easily overcome the card disadvantage.
Cruel Tutor - A bit mana intensive, but can still set up a turn 4 Stone.
Diabolic Intent - A good cheap tutor. Again, the card disadvantage can be overcome and then some.
Diabolic Tutor - extremely slow. But with quality ramp you can cast this turn 3 into a turn 4 Stone. And a slow tutor is better than no tutor when your drawing cold.
Beseech The Queen - I don't like this very much because you can't get a Stone until turn 5 (unless you hit a turn 3 Myriad activation).
Protection:
Sometimes you will run into disruption in various forms. Pretty much all of the time. The best protection we have is recursion, hoping to run them out if answers. We have a couple other options though.
Swarmyard - Save the Rats!
Cavern Of Souls - Pushes Rats through counter-magic.
Homeward Path - Theft insurance.
Buried Ruin - Gets Stone of [card-thornbite]Staff[/card] back if they're countered or destroyed.
Feldon's Cane - Puts Wrathed Rats back in your deck so you can Thrum them again.
Patriarch's Bidding / Living Death / Living End / All Hallow's Eve / Twilight's Call / Balthor The Defiled - These put your Wrathed creatures directly into play. Living End and All Hallow's Eve are delayed effects, but cost less. Twilight's Call costs extra but can revive your army on your opponent's end step to dodge disruptive sorceries. You can also set this up with Secret Salvage - especially good after Stone=thrumming stone has been hosed.
Other Cards:
In my opinion, other cards (which do not relate to our combos) should offer:
Other Utility Lands:
Thespian's Stage / Vesuva - These can become basic Swamps in a pinch, so unlike other non-basics, you can run them without really cutting into your Swamp count.
Strip Mine / Wasteland / Ghost Quarter - Killing problematic lands can be important.
Rogue's Passage - The General imbues your Rats with fear, but extra evasion is also good.
Urborg, Tomb Of Yawgmoth - Fixes colour and boosts Lake & Coffers.
Scrying Sheets - Helps us dig when we are struggling.
Other Rats:
Most Rats are not very good in Commander. You only really run them for fun and/or to sandbag in a weak meta. There are some exceptions:
Throat Slitter - Solid creature removal, getting in with ninjitsu or with fear (thank you, Marrow-Gnawer). Fear works great, because we are targeting players with non-black creatures.
Ink-Eyes, Servant Of Oni - Provides an alternate win-con, and is another Ninja too! I like Ninjas.
Nezumi Graverobber - Graveyard hate + an alternate win-con.
Crypt Rats - Basically Pestilence in Rat form. Reusable with Swarmyard, and a life-saver with Vampiric Link.
Non-Rat Creatures:
Run whatever value creatures you like. Personally I will only run Rats or Rat friends.
Ratcatcher - crazy high cc, but can help us when we are down with general CA as well as occasionally finding answers.
Ogre Slumlord - Gives a bit of resilience to sweeper and can deter attacks against us.
Other Spells:
Between ramp, tutors, and business, there is not a lot of room. There's almost no limit to your options, but choose with discrimination nonetheless. These are some suggestions.
Grave Pact / Dictate - these deter removal but also have amazing synergy with Marrow-Gnawer. They let us "combo off" while sweeping the board at the same time.
Damnation / Mutilate / Toxic Deluge - More sweepers if you your meta is full of faster or more resilient swarm decks.
Darkness - Black is light on reactive defense. This is a fun and cheap little cards that will take 'em by surprise.
Gate To Phyrexia - There are certain artifacts that can give us a world of troubles. This is basically our only out.
Necropotence / Greed / Phyrexian Arena - solid CA, and well priced in a 40 life format.
Vampiric Link - A versatile card that can enchant an opponent's monster or our own. Life can keep you alive.
https://fieldmarshalshandbook.wordpress.com/
RUGLegacy Lands.dec
RUGBLegacy Lands.dec
RGLegacy Lands.dec
WUBRG EDH Lands.dec
UBR EDH Artificer Prodigy
B EDH Relentless Rats
(sorry for the shabby camera)
https://fieldmarshalshandbook.wordpress.com/
RUGLegacy Lands.dec
RUGBLegacy Lands.dec
RGLegacy Lands.dec
WUBRG EDH Lands.dec
UBR EDH Artificer Prodigy
B EDH Relentless Rats
In - Throat Slitter
Out - Gnat Miser
Out - Locust Miser
I'd been meaning to pick these up for a long time now (I think I couldn't find copies when I built the deck, and they kind of got forgotten). The Misers are not very good. They don't really further the game plan, and they taunt the opponents more than they set them back.
Out - Rogue's Passage
I had been chatting with my LGS owner about Lake and how it would be a good time to get one (seeing as what happens to playable RL cards). Later that same day I got a pm because somebody trading in a collection - with the sole old-framed card being a Lake of the Dead! I figure it heard my call and wanted to me mine. Perhaps the very same copy that was stolen from me ~10 years ago?
Passage is a great card, but between fear and going wide, blockers are not that big a problem. Ramp is better.
https://fieldmarshalshandbook.wordpress.com/
RUGLegacy Lands.dec
RUGBLegacy Lands.dec
RGLegacy Lands.dec
WUBRG EDH Lands.dec
UBR EDH Artificer Prodigy
B EDH Relentless Rats
https://fieldmarshalshandbook.wordpress.com/
RUGLegacy Lands.dec
RUGBLegacy Lands.dec
RGLegacy Lands.dec
WUBRG EDH Lands.dec
UBR EDH Artificer Prodigy
B EDH Relentless Rats
The only reason I can think to cast this is to set up a discard (eg, to follow up with Patriarch's Bidding). Generally I like to save those mass recursion effects for post Wrath. But if Thrumming Stone has been lost, this can make a good 2-card combo for back-up.
Edit - I just added this card to the OP - cheers!
https://fieldmarshalshandbook.wordpress.com/
RUGLegacy Lands.dec
RUGBLegacy Lands.dec
RGLegacy Lands.dec
WUBRG EDH Lands.dec
UBR EDH Artificer Prodigy
B EDH Relentless Rats
Mogis's Marauder is also a surpremely efficient form of Haste and Evasion when running nonToken Black strategies
Thanks for the ideas - and keep 'em coming!
https://fieldmarshalshandbook.wordpress.com/
RUGLegacy Lands.dec
RUGBLegacy Lands.dec
RGLegacy Lands.dec
WUBRG EDH Lands.dec
UBR EDH Artificer Prodigy
B EDH Relentless Rats
This one is a slap in the face:
Not only did they fail to give us a Rat tribal precon (EDH is desperate for playable Rats), but instead they print a hoser card! Nothing but a giant middle cat toe.
Edit - Of course I'm being silly. Kitty is a cool card.
This card is much better:
In addition to providing honest card selection, it helps to prevent "fizzling" on Thrumming Stone triggers. Probably worth running, but I'm not sure what to cut. Probably a Swamp - as much as I hate to do that, my utility lands are all very loved.
I suppose I could cut Cavern, as savvy opponents are apt to counter my combo enablers instead. Still, who wants to cut Cavern Of Souls from a tribal EDH deck?
https://fieldmarshalshandbook.wordpress.com/
RUGLegacy Lands.dec
RUGBLegacy Lands.dec
RGLegacy Lands.dec
WUBRG EDH Lands.dec
UBR EDH Artificer Prodigy
B EDH Relentless Rats
On closer inspection, it appears we have the first ever pirate themed block, and not so much as a single bilge rat.
I'm counting on Dominaria to give us some sexy vermin. There were plenty of Rats in the old days, so it seems like a reasonable assumption. I sure hope we aren't stuck waiting for Return To Kamigawa! I want my power-creeped Rats, gosh darnit.
https://fieldmarshalshandbook.wordpress.com/
RUGLegacy Lands.dec
RUGBLegacy Lands.dec
RGLegacy Lands.dec
WUBRG EDH Lands.dec
UBR EDH Artificer Prodigy
B EDH Relentless Rats
Rat Colony
1B
Creature - Rat
Rat Colony gets +1/+0 for each other Rat you control.
A deck can have any number of cards named Rat Colony.
All is right in the multiverse.
I might very well make the swap. The toughness will be a drag, but I've struggled to hit BB on more than one occasion. I like the extra tribal boost too.
https://fieldmarshalshandbook.wordpress.com/
RUGLegacy Lands.dec
RUGBLegacy Lands.dec
RGLegacy Lands.dec
WUBRG EDH Lands.dec
UBR EDH Artificer Prodigy
B EDH Relentless Rats
With all those double BB rats Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx could generate copious amounts of mana for the deck.
If you wanted to break the tribal theme a little bit Gray Merchant of Asphodel would be obscene in there.
*Maybe get a little bit of card draw in there to keep things moving.
Pauper EDH: ~ Rhox War Monk ~ Scornful Aether-Lich ~ Ashenmoor Gouger ~ Ascended Lawmage ~ Nightscape Battlemage ~ Warden of the Eye ~ Hedge Troll ~ Dinrova Horror ~ Renata
Pauper 60: ~ Caw Blade ~ MonoU Delver ~ MonoW Monk Fish ~
Standard: ~ Boros Knights ~ RDW ~
Pioneer: ~ U BControl ~
Modern: ~ UB Control ~
Legacy/Vintage: ~ MonoU Delver ~
93/94: ~ Erhnamgeddon ~
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
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What do you think of Rat Colony? Although this could make the deck less combo and more tribal, as any rat can pump rat colony
For reanimators, I use in my tribal rat Immortal Servitude. It brings all Rat Colony back for 5 (or Relentless Rats for 6)
For the kill, I use Essence Harvest.
Cheers