Summary
There are many different kinds of Rats inMagic: The Gathering. The creature type has been around since the early days of the game, and is one of the more popular choices for a Commander deck that’s built around a specific creature type.
A lot of Rats make for excellent commanders, but there are also cards that work best in the 99. Some cards act as very good support for Rat commander decks, enabling massive turns or turning your army of Rats into big threats that require immediate attention. These cards are best to look at when building a Rat commander deck and are the best to include in it.
10Mirkwood Bats
Token Burn
In a Rat commander deck, you are likely going to begenerating a ton of Rat tokens. There is no shortage of cards that enable this, especially since the most popular Rat commander Marrow-Gnawer can generate Rat tokens on its own.
Mirkwood Bats is the big payoff for making tokens. It turns every Rat token entering the battlefield into burn damage, as well as any Rat token leaving the battlefield. If you have enough Rat tokens on the battlefield and a board wipe happens, it’s possible that Mirkwood Bats can burn all of your opponents out of the game.
9Thrumming Stone
Rat Colony Payoff
Thrumming Stone isn’t the best in every Rat deck, but it is far and away the best artifact you can put in Rat decks that are built around Rat Colony. Rat Colony lets you play any number of them, so when you cast one, you’ll likely ripple into another copy and snowball for a ton of Rat Colony copies on the battlefield in one turn.
There is a possibility Thrumming Stone whiffs, but the odds of that are really low with how many copies of Rat Colony will be in your deck if you build your deck around the combo.
8Swarmyard
Regenerate Rats
What makes Swarmyard so good in a Rat Commander deck is that there is practically no downside to playing it. Even if you don’t have a Rat to regenerate, it can still tap for colorless mana. Since most Rat decks are mono-black, you won’t be hurting for color fixing.
Swarmyard is great protection for any Rat. There are a lot of useful Rats you want to stick on the battlefield, and Swarmyard helps make your opponents require two removal spells if they ever want to take care of a Rat.
7Ratcatcher
The Rat Tutor
Ratcatcher is one of the best non-Rat creatures you may put in a Rat Commander deck. So long as it’s on the battlefield,you get to tutor for anyRat. There are no requirements for the effect, letting you get any of your best Rats out from your library and into your hand at your upkeep.
Ratcatcher does cost a fair bit of mana to cast, but the investment is worth it. So long as it sticks to the battlefield, even if you get just one activation, that may be enough to win the game, given how many useful Rats there are.
6Herald’s Horn
Creature Deck Staple
If you are playing a deck thatcares about a specific creature type, Herald’s Horn is one of the best cards to include. It is especially useful for Rat Commander decks, as the discount is useful since a lot of the best Rat cards have a high casting cost.
It also helps to put more Rats into your hand if they’re on the top of your library. Herald’s Horn can be cast very early on in the game, letting you get ahead of your mana curve to get your Rats onto the battlefield as quickly as possible.
5Coat Of Arms
Rats Are Stronger Together
If you have a ton of creatures with the same type, Coat of Arms is amazing. Since a Rat Commander deck has almost exclusively Rats, Coat of Arms will boost all of the Rat creatures to massive stats that are hard to deal with.
Since you will likely have a large battlefield of Rats and Rat tokens, Coat of Arms makes them both amazing attackers and defenders. It’s one of the best win conditions for the deck, making it trivial to win through combat damage with how many powerful Rats will be on the battlefield.
4Piper Of The Swarm
The Menacing Piper
Piper of the Swarm is fantastic when mixed with other cards that boost the stats of your Rats. Since it gives them all menace, it makes it even harder to deal with your Rat army since each one will require at least two blockers.
The ability to give Rats menace would be solid enough, but it has the extra bonus of beingable to make more Rat tokensand steal your opponents' creatures. Piper of the Swarm has a low casting cost, making it very easy to give all your Rats menace.
3Rat Colony
As Much As You Want
Rat Colony is a staple of Rat commander decks, and sometimes the only creature you play in one, depending on the kind of Rat deck you want to build. Youcan have as many copies of Rat Colony as you want in a deck, and they’re boosted by each other Rat you control, not just other Rat Colony copies.
Rat Colony is very easy to cast, letting you flood the battlefield with Rat Colony copies easily, especially in the late game when you have a lot of mana to work with. If you’re also playing Thrumming Stone, that’s another reason to commit to a (mostly) all-Rat Colony deck.
2Karumonix, The Rat King
Toxic Rats
While Karumonix, the Rat King, is a solid commander in its own right, it’s much better used in the 99 since other commanders can make Rats quickly that Karumonix can back up. It gives all Rats toxic one, and since you make so many Rats, you can get your opponents to ten poison counters quickly.
It lets you get more Rats into your hand quickly, digging through your deck for your best Rat cards. The toxic it adds is the main attraction, however, and when combined with all the other Rat support cards, it becomes easy to win through poison counters.
1Ogre Slumlord
Deathly Rats
Ogre Slumlord is one of the best Rat support cards you can play. It turns any creature dying into a 1/1 Rat token. Notably, this counts for any nontoken creature dying, not just your own. So removal or killing creatures in combat will net you Rat tokens.
The passive ability to give all your Rats deathtouch is fantastic as well. This makes all of your Rats much better in combat, forcing your opponents to trade their creatures if they want to block a Rat, which will then give you more Rat tokens as another creature dies.
