Since the release of Bloomburrow, we’ve seen some major metagame shifts in Standard. Early on in the format, it looked like black midrange decks were poised to dominate the format. Over time, however, archetypes like Gruul Prowess began to show their worth. We’ve also seen plenty of innovation, with some unique strategies like Boros token control popping up and making their presences felt.
Today, we’re going to focus on an extremely intriguing strategy that managed to win a 107-player event and make top 16 of a Magic Online Standard Challenge out of nowhere. This deck is none other than Dimir Rats! With a handful of potent Bloomburrow additions and some elite payoffs for sticking with the Rats theme, there’s a lot to like about this deck that’s suddenly surging. Can it keep up its dominant performance? Let’s dig a little deeper and discuss what the deck has going for it.
Rat Payoffs
- Mana Value: 2UB
- Rarity: Rare
- Stats: 3/4
- MTG Sets: Bloomburrow
- Card Text: Ward 2. If a creature an opponent controls would die, exile it instead. At the beginning of each end step, create X 1/1 black Rat creature tokens with “This creature gets +1/+1 for each Rat you control,” where X is the number of creatures your opponents controlled that were exiled this turn.
To start, it’s worthwhile to look at the Rat payoffs. These are the creatures that actively incentivize you to increase your Rat count as much as possible. First up, we have Vren, the Relentless. Vren is a decent card on its own. With Ward 2, it isn’t always easy for the opponent to get rid of it in a timely manner. If you ever get to kill an opposing creature with Vren in play, you get the bonus of generating Rat tokens on your end step. This deck has access to some decent removal to help maximize Vren.
What makes Vren especially threatening in this deck, though, is the fact that the Rat tokens you create with Vren have the potential to be absolutely enormous. This is because they don’t just grow based on the number of Rat tokens you control, but rather the number of Rats you have in total.
This brings us to another card with a similar ability: Persistent Marshstalker. Once again, the floor of having a 3/1 body for two-mana isn’t bad. In this deck, however, it’s easy to get that power up significantly. Enabling Threshold absolutely can come up in grindy matchups, too, so you may be able to resurrect Persistent Marshstalker in the late game to deal some extra damage.
Finally, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention Karumonix, the Rat King. Karumonix is a complete workhorse in a deck with a high density of Rats. You basically get a Lead the Stampede attached to a 3/3 body with some potent abilities. With some luck, you’ll be able to generate a ton of card advantage at once while simultaneously presenting pressure on the battlefield.
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Supporting Cast
- Mana Value: B
- Rarity: Uncommon
- MTG Sets: Dominaria United
- Card Text: Destroy target creature with total power and toughness 5 or less.
The rest of the deck is primarily made up of other strong Rats and removal spells. In the Rat section, a playset of Azure Beastbinder makes an appearance. Azure Beastbinder isn’t the most exciting card in the world, but it does make attacking a bit easier by letting you shrink an opposing threat.
You’ll also find four copies of Lord Skitter, Sewer King. Lord Skitter is a great three-drop in its own right, showing up from time to time in midrange decks without a Rat package. With Rat support built in, the card becomes a slam dunk inclusion. If left unchecked, you’ll start flooding the board with Rat tokens, powering up your Vrens and Marshstalkers.
To help ensure that Vren can reliably produce beefy tokens, this archetype also features a large number of efficient removal spells. Cut Down, Go for the Throat, and Anoint with Affliction are the primary kill spells in the early game. Later on, Gix’s Command can break any creature matchup wide open. It even combos well with Vren. Against decks like Boros Convoke, you’ll often sweep away a bunch of creatures at once, thereby generating a plethora of Rats on your end step that each buff each other.
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A Victorious Effort
- Mana Value: R
- Rarity: Uncommon
- MTG Sets: Phyrexia: All Will be One
- Card Text: Destroy target artifact. If you controlled that artifact, create three 1/1 red Phyrexian Goblin creature tokens.
In a field dominated by midrange mirrors and Gruul Prowess, this Dimir Rats deck certainly has some appeal. Versus Gruul Prowess, you have a healthy mix of removal and pressure. In midrange slugfests, Karumonix and Lord Skitter are capable of generating a lot of value. Sunfall strategies like Domain ramp aren’t the easiest to beat, but Counterspells such as Negate out of the sideboard are very helpful.
The one matchup where this deck can struggle a bit compared to traditional black midrange decks is versus Boros Convoke. Persistent Marshstalker lines up very poorly against Gleeful Demolition, and the fact that Lord Skitter tokens can’t block makes a huge difference. In this matchup, you’d much rather have Preacher of the Schism as your three-drop of choice. The good news is that Malicious Eclipse can still win games two and three singlehandedly.
If you’re expecting to play against a lot of Deep-Cavern Bat decks, Dimir Rats is a very reasonable metagame choice. Its sudden success really goes to show that there’s still room for innovation in Standard. With Duskmourn’s release coming later this month, it’ll be cool to see how the format continues to shake out.
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