Plague Rats

by 37192 on 19 October 2025

Main Deck (62 cards)

Instants (4)


Artifacts (1)


Sideboard (15 cards)

Artifacts (2)

Submit a list of cards below to bulk import them all into your sideboard. Post one card per line using a format like "4x Birds of Paradise" or "1 Blaze", you can even enter just the card name by itself like "Wrath of God" for single cards.


Deck Description

Out: Cabal Coffers
In: Eumidian Hatchery

Deck at a Glance

Social Stats

1
Like

This deck has been viewed 334 times.

Mana Curve

Mana Symbol Occurrence

006400

Card Legality

  • Not Legal in Standard
  • Not Legal in Modern
  • Legal in Vintage
  • Legal in Legacy

Deck discussion for Plague Rats

Are you going for budget casual here?

0
Posted 09 November 2025 at 06:10

Permalink

Ya, already have the cards, ordered the Hatchery the other day, should make the deck more consistent.

0
Posted 09 November 2025 at 20:40

Permalink

I gotcha.

I see a little bit of anti-synergy going on here. This deck desperately wants to have three lands to cast its rats, and desperately wants to build up rats (as on their own they're just three-drop 2/2's), but you're running lots of spells that make both those goals harder.

Up front, rats are only good when they swarm. One rat is just a 2/2, two rats are just two 3/3's, three rats are just three 4/4's. You can get the same thing by running green fatties that are 4/4's all the time. Plus, you're only running thirteen rats, so your chances of fielding more than two at a time are actually pretty slim. On top of that, you've got land/removal problems.

Innocent Blood and Smallpox lose you a creature. Smallpox loses you a land. You'd theoretically play both before you cast a rat, which is good synergy, but once you've got a rat/rats, topdecking one is a problem, so if you don't have one off the bat, you're running seven cards in the maindeck that you don't want to draw once you field a rat, which is the entire plan this deck wants. So, at that point, you've probably got enough lands, so you've got seventeen-ish lands and seven removal you don't want to topdeck, so you've got almost exactly a 50/50 chance of drawing a card every turn you don't want.

On top of that, when you do play Smallpox turn 2, you lose a land and thus can't drop a rat the next turn, so you're slowing yourself down and letting opponent have a chance to catch back up. Smallpox is a really cool card and combos perfectly with Hatchery, but you've sort of got to build the whole deck around it to make it work and I don't think that's going to happen very consistently. Typically, Smallpox pairs with stuff like Life from the Loam, Wasteland, Urza's Saga, a bunch of cheap cheat artifacts, and a high land count so you take advantage of denying opponent resources while eeking out the win slowly in the grind.

This build is sort of trying for both without committing to either, which makes neither work very well. A turn 1 rat in exchange for a Dark Ritual goes -1 against any spot removal, makes your Smallpoxes and Innocent Blood's a bad investment, and only swings for 2 damage until turn 3, at which point you get a 3/3. You also can't rely on Swarmyard to cheese your way around this, as sacrificing isn't destroying, so you can't regenerate them.

So, in general I'd sort of advise picking which theme you want to run and focusing on that more. You could build a rat swarm deck on the cheap, especially with how strong cards like Karumonix, the Rat King.

Just some thoughts, not trying to diss the build.

0
Posted 15 November 2025 at 20:14

Permalink

I've played Karumonix in a rat build for Standard, and he is such a value-train of a card.

0
Posted 16 November 2025 at 23:15

Permalink

Nothing says good value like a lord card that's got a body of its own that nets you card advantage

0
Posted 17 November 2025 at 00:55

Permalink