Relentless Rats

Archived from groups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy (More info?)

Alrighty, I've cobbled together a Relentless Rats deck. It's got
proxies (Rats are 3-4 bucks a piece!), but I wanted to see how it
worked before I invested in more copies. Here's what I have:

20 Relentless Rats (didn't want to go less than that)
4 Primal Rage (all your creature trample to us)
4 Loxodon Warhammer (more trample + life gain)
4 Journey of Discovery (in case I need more land)
2 Greed
2 Night's Whisper
1 Patriarch's Bidding (mix and match card-drawing and GY recursion)

4 Tranquil Thicket
4 Barren Moor
2 Forest
16 Swamp


This works all right actually, but I play NOTHING on turn one and two
(occasionally Primal Rage falls on turn two). That's pretty scary,
and against a reasonably speedy deck, I'm toast.

Still, I get plenty of rats. The cycling lands help out a lot and you
don't care if they come in tapped because you aren't playing anything
turns 1 and 2 either. Primal Rage on the board means a slamming
attack that stomples over any chump blockers. Nice.

Patriarch's Bidding is in there just for fun. I only have one, and it
seemed appropriate.

I can keep my hand relatively full, but getting the rats out and
keeping them on the board is tough.

I love the Warhammers, but they take 6 to play and activate, which is
TWO rats you aren't playing. Unless it comes late in the game,
there's always a hard decision on which to play. Usually a Rat makes
more sense and I've had three or four rats out with a Hammer that's
been sitting unused for several turns.

I never got Journey of Discovery, but I've pretty much had most of the
land I needed.

And once a big flyer hits, I got nothin'.

So, I'm thinking of yanking the Hammers and Journeys and replacing
with something, but I don't know what.

Aether Vial is, I think, a winner. As long as I can keep the hand
full, I get twice as many Rats per turn!

Then I need some removal. Either Dark Banishing or Consume Spirits.
I like Consume Spirits because I'll have mana open with the Vial, and
need life. But it's tough to Consume a Mahamoti Djinn. This is a
tough choice and 4 spots might not be enough.

Also, then, maybe switch from Green to Blue, and use some sort of
flying (Crown of Ascension?) and add no-life-cost drawing.

Any suggestions?
Peter

Archived from groups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy (More info?)

knucklehead000@yahoo.com (Peter) wrote in message news:<9591b0f0.0409030301.59727363@posting.google.com>...
> 20 Relentless Rats (didn't want to go less than that)
> 4 Primal Rage (all your creature trample to us)
> 4 Loxodon Warhammer (more trample + life gain)
> 4 Journey of Discovery (in case I need more land)
> 2 Greed
> 2 Night's Whisper
> 1 Patriarch's Bidding (mix and match card-drawing and GY recursion)
37 Spells

> 4 Tranquil Thicket
> 4 Barren Moor
> 2 Forest
> 16 Swamp
26 Land
=62 cards?

You are experiencing the same problem that anyone who puts together a
Rats deck runs into - what to cast before the rats come out and what
to do when you don't want to cast a rat. The first problem can be
answered in one of two ways: mana acceleration and cheaper creatures.
Mana acceleration is relatively easy to find in green and/or
artifacts. Chrome Mox or Birds of Paradise will accelerate your mana
development. Wayfarer's Bauble can be used to make sure that you are
able to get that third land into play. Vine Trellis can provide
defense for the times when it doesn't provide mana acceleration. Myr
can be used to provide an early defense and possibly ramp up your
mana. Talismans can be used to ramp up your mana, but their
acceleration would generally be too late to help bump your rat
production. Cheaper creatures can also be used to mount an early
defense until the Rats come on line. In addition to Vine Trellis and
mana myr mentioned earlier, Ravenous Rats both help the theme and work
on your opponent's hand.

The second problem is what to add to a rats deck for when you don't
want to cast a rat. Some of the things that you've added address this
issue: cycling lands and Night's Whispers will help move through your
deck and enable you to keep casting spells. The rest of the spells
don't seem to help your deck. Journey of Discovery is too slow to
speed your mana, Greed is inefficient, and Patriarch's Bidding doesn't
have any additional support. Loxodon Warhammer is expensive to use.
Primal Rage is good for the deck, but the second one is always wasted
so four copies is too much. Some of the mana acceleration cards that
I've listed above can take the place of some of these spells. I would
also add in some removal (Terror, Dark Banishing).

An alternate list:
20 Relentless Rats (didn't want to go less than that)
4 Leaden Myr
2 Twisted Abomination
4 Terror
4 Ravenous Rats
2 Night's Whisper
1 Slate of Ancestry

4 Barren Moor
19 Swamp

mypetrock

Archived from groups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy (More info?)

knucklehead000@yahoo.com (Peter) wrote in
news:9591b0f0.0409030301.59727363@posting.google.com:

> Alrighty, I've cobbled together a Relentless Rats deck. It's got
> proxies (Rats are 3-4 bucks a piece!), but I wanted to see how it
> worked before I invested in more copies. Here's what I have:
>
> 20 Relentless Rats (didn't want to go less than that)
> 4 Primal Rage (all your creature trample to us)
> 4 Loxodon Warhammer (more trample + life gain)
> 4 Journey of Discovery (in case I need more land)
> 2 Greed
> 2 Night's Whisper
> 1 Patriarch's Bidding (mix and match card-drawing and GY recursion)
>
> 4 Tranquil Thicket
> 4 Barren Moor
> 2 Forest
> 16 Swamp
>
>
> This works all right actually, but I play NOTHING on turn one and two
> (occasionally Primal Rage falls on turn two). That's pretty scary,
> and against a reasonably speedy deck, I'm toast.
>
> Still, I get plenty of rats. The cycling lands help out a lot and you
> don't care if they come in tapped because you aren't playing anything
> turns 1 and 2 either. Primal Rage on the board means a slamming
> attack that stomples over any chump blockers. Nice.
>
> Patriarch's Bidding is in there just for fun. I only have one, and it
> seemed appropriate.
>
> I can keep my hand relatively full, but getting the rats out and
> keeping them on the board is tough.
>
> I love the Warhammers, but they take 6 to play and activate, which is
> TWO rats you aren't playing. Unless it comes late in the game,
> there's always a hard decision on which to play. Usually a Rat makes
> more sense and I've had three or four rats out with a Hammer that's
> been sitting unused for several turns.
>
> I never got Journey of Discovery, but I've pretty much had most of the
> land I needed.
>
> And once a big flyer hits, I got nothin'.
>
> So, I'm thinking of yanking the Hammers and Journeys and replacing
> with something, but I don't know what.
>
> Aether Vial is, I think, a winner. As long as I can keep the hand
> full, I get twice as many Rats per turn!
>
> Then I need some removal. Either Dark Banishing or Consume Spirits.
> I like Consume Spirits because I'll have mana open with the Vial, and
> need life. But it's tough to Consume a Mahamoti Djinn. This is a
> tough choice and 4 spots might not be enough.
>
> Also, then, maybe switch from Green to Blue, and use some sort of
> flying (Crown of Ascension?) and add no-life-cost drawing.
>
> Any suggestions?
> Peter





hello, maybe this is a dumb question, but, i thought you couldnt have
more then 4 of anything in a deck? (not counting land) so, how can you
have 20 rats? sorry if this is a dumb question...

David

Archived from groups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy,rec.games.trading-cards.magic.rules (More info?)

panoptes@iquest.net (Daniel W. Johnson) wrote in
news:1gjtexm.1mhrjo49jctq4N%panoptes@iquest.net:

> david <nope@nope.com> wrote:
>
>> hello, maybe this is a dumb question, but, i thought you couldnt
>> have more then 4 of anything in a deck? (not counting land) so,
>> how can you have 20 rats? sorry if this is a dumb question...
>
> 103. The Magic Golden Rules
>
> 103.1. Whenever a card's text directly contradicts these rules, the
> card takes precedence. The card overrides only the rule that applies
> to that specific situation. The only exception is that a player can
> concede the game at any time, regardless of what other cards say (see
> rule 102.7).
>
> Relentless Rats
> {1}{B}{B}
> Creature -- Rat
> 2/2
> Relentless Rats gets +1/+1 for each other creature in play named
> Relentless Rats.
> A deck can have any number of cards named Relentless Rats.
>
> And the land exception you mention is only for *basic* land:
>
> 100.2. In constructed play, each player needs his or her own deck of
> at least sixty cards, small items to represent any tokens and
> counters, and some way to clearly track life totals. A constructed
> deck can have any number of basic land cards and no more than four of
> any card with a particular English name other than basic land cards.

ok, thanks.... i didnt know that about that rat

David

you should add doomblades or some other cheap removal, maybe infest, and definitely some coat of arms