The Black Death (Rats)

[Dannyalcatraz]

duped

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Heh! It looks like I'm going to be saying this a lot in el-remmen's threads...

I have a similar deck design- called RUSS' APARTMENT (in honor of one of my buddies)- I'll post later when I'm by my cards!

I don't recall if I used them or not, but Bad Moons may be more cost effective than the Unholy Strengths.

But you know what artifact you really want?

Coat of Arms, baby!
http://sales.starcitygames.com/carddisplay.php?product=8991

That will put the fear of Rats into your opponents!

 

[el-remmen]

Like I said before, I have no Bad Moons, BUT I never heard of Coat of Arms, awesome! Time to go looking on eBay.

Thanks!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

BTW, I know it may seem obvious, but sometimes, even the obvious needs pointing out...

Coat of Arms is very much a double-edged sword. Don't even put it on the table if you see your opponent play a Kobold, Goblin, Elf, Sliver, Angel, Zombie, Minion or similarly common critter around which someone could base a theme deck.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

RUSS' APARTMENT
15x Swamp
2x Lake of the Dead
1x Volrath's Stronghold
4x Dark Ritual

4x Unearth (potential sub/dupe: Phyrexian Reclamation)
4x Terror (potential sub/dupe: Diabolical Edict)
4x Word of Binding

4x Coat of Arms
4x Bad Moon

4x Plague Rats
4x Pestilence Rats
4x Diseased Vermin
4x Crypt Rats
4x Sewer Rats
4x Razortooth Rats

I know- its more than 60 cards. That's typical of my designs, and was seldom an issue when I played.

In this deck's case, note that only Coat of Arms and Word of Binding cost any more than 3 mana- it plays fairly greasily. Also, this deck was never tested for tournament play- it was thrown together in 15 minutes to play in a series of pickup round-robin & multiplayer games.

Tweek or raid to your heart's content.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Infinite Hourglass might also be of use, though its no less a double-edged sword than Coat of Arms. It is cheaper, though.

http://magiccards.info/5e/en/378.html

There is also an artifact called Volrath's Laboratory that would let you add even more rats to the mix...albeit expensive generic ones.

http://magiccards.info/sh/en/136.html

Meanwhile, Volrath's Stronghold would let you recycle your rats- useful if you just lost one of your nastier ones.

http://magiccards.info/sh/en/137.html

For giggles, you could add Snake Basket. Snakes love to eat rats, after all, and its Cobras would be nearly as useful as additional rats- especially if you've got Infinite Hourglass or Coat of Arms out. (Compare that 1 mana for a single 1/1 critter to Volrath's cost of 5 for a 2/2.)

http://magiccards.info/6e/en/311.html

Another potentially useful giggle card? Phyrexian Dreadnought.

http://magiccards.info/mr/en/280.html

 

[Aus_Snow]

A more expensive (in terms of CC) alternative to Volrath's Lab is Riptide Replicator. I like the flexibility of choosing the amount of mana (as well as critter type of course.) Anyway, it's another option, for better or worse.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

One from after my time as an active player: Cryptic Gateway. That would let you use rats in play almost like land to get other rats out of your hand.

http://magiccards.info/on/en/306.html

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

FWIW, these searches I did probably show you most of the rats in the game:

http://magiccards.info/query/cards/370135.html
http://magiccards.info/query/cards/370147.html

 

[el-remmen]

FWIW, these searches I did probably show you most of the rats in the game:

http://magiccards.info/query/cards/370135.html
http://magiccards.info/query/cards/370147.html

Thanks!

I am still trying to get my hand on 4 Swarm of Rats from Portal - but I had not seen some of those other Rat cards.