Mono Rat Stompy

[FTW]

This deck started off as a joke, but there are quite a few Rats that work as a 1-man engine:
Pack Rat - makes Pack Rats
Nezumi Shortfang - wrecks hands
Crypt Rats - kills stuff
Stronghold Rats - wrecks hands
Ogre Slumlord - deathtouch rat tokens

Given the surge in GY decks (Hogaak, Reanimator, Emry, Loam, Lands, Echo storm, Breach, etc), and even decks like UR Delver using GY value, MD Leylines seem strong.


//Lands: 26
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
10 Snow-Covered Swamp
4 Chrome Mox
3 Cavern of Souls
1 Swarmyard

//HelmLine: 6
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Helm of Obedience

//ArtiStax: 8
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Trinisphere

//Planeswalker: 4
4 Karn, the Great Creator

//Rats: 13
4 Pack Rat
3 Nezumi Shortfang
3 Stronghold Rats
3 Crypt Rats

//Other: 3
1 Toxic Deluge
2 Ovalchase Daredevil

//SB: 15
2 Plague Engineer
2 Liliana's Triumph
2 Liliana of the Veil
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Dead of Winter
1 Chains of Mephistopheles
1 Mycosynth Lattice
1 Helm of Obedience
1 Lion's Eye Diamond
1 Sorcerous Spyglass
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Thorn of Amethyst

//Maybeboard:
x Chittering Rats
x Burglar Rat
x Mutavault
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Whip of Erebos
1 Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni
x Throat Slitter



The stompy+Leyline+Karn shell was enough to put up some wins against UR Delver, RUG, and some combo decks.

Pack Rat was very strong, especially once 3sphere is on the board or I hit 5 mana.

Ogre Slumlord underperformed. It was either too expensive or died before providing value.

Nezumi and Stronghold helped grind out cards against slower decks. They pitch cards invalidated by Chalice/Leyline/Sphere first, so there's some anti-synergy, but eventually they start pressuring valuable cards. Nezumi can hit them in draw step! Nezumi only flipped once in 20 games, though even the threat of it forced removal. Stronghold Rats being "unblockable" was useful for killing Planeswalkers and finishing games.

Crypt Rats was useful for killing things like Delver, YP, Mentor, weenies

Suggestions?

[Glass House]

Ah, a man after my own heart :laugh: IRL I am quite fond of our nibbling friends (foes to some :tongue:).
I think your Rat selection is probably the most optimal for what the deck is trying to do - that is, discard. Nezumi Bone-Reader could do some work maybe, but you need bodies. It pairs nicely with something like Rotting Rats.
Piper of the Swarm is a Rat-oriented card that could have potential, but probably not in this build.

[kinda]

I second piper. Definitely +1 helm too. Possibly IGG too or oath of ghouls.

[FTW]

I second piper. Definitely +1 helm too. Possibly IGG too or oath of ghouls.

I started with 3 Helms main but found I was drawing it too often.

Leyline is still good without Helm (kills GYs, imprints on Mox) but Helm is really bad without Leyline. With the 4 Karns, I had 7 virtual copies of Helm, seeing Helm a lot more than I had Leyline. I might go back up. I just had too many games with 2x Helm wishing I could imprint one on Chrome Mox.

Oath is interesting. Could be better than Ovalchase.

[bruizar]

I just want to mention you posted this on Chinese New Year, Year of the rat :D

[FTW]

I just want to mention you posted this on Chinese New Year, Year of the rat :D

The only appropriate time to post it!

[FTW]

Incidentally, this deck has great matchups against the new Brain Freeze Underworld Breach decks and pretty much all of the latest Legacy Challenge top decks (Breach combo, Lands, BR Reanimator, storm...)

I crush my own tuned combo deck in testing. This deck packs SIXTEEN MAINDECK HATE pieces, plus repeatable discard effects to grind away the hand, with even more discard in the board and 3 more Karnable hate pieces. It is literally a deck full of hate that eventually vomits Pack Rats everywhere.