Hello, Nation! Today, I want to build a Commander deck around a Legendary creature selected at random from all of the Legendary creatures in the game. I think it would be fun to challenge myself a bit and grab an interesting creature. I used to select random cards to build decks around all of the time. I remember articles where I selected random tribes to build around, random cards from all of Magic, and so forth. It’s good to push yourself.

I open up Gatherer and do a search for the Legendary creatures. There are twenty-two pages. The first thing I do is used random.org to select one of these pages. The page that is selected is p. 12. Now it is time to randomly select the creature. I get a 10. What is the tenth creature on this page?

Marrow-Gnawer

So, let’s build a deck around Marrow-Gnawer! The obvious way to build the deck is to rock Relentless Rats a-go-go. There’s always a question of whether that would be allowed under the rules of Commander.

Relentless Rats has this ruling in Gatherer:

“This card’s text does not override other format-imposed restrictions on the number of cards. For example, in a Highlander format, you would still only be allowed one Relentless Rats.”

Is it allowed in multiples in Commander? That seems to imply that the answer is no. Let’s look more closely at the rules of the format. Here is Rule #6:

“6. With the exception of basic lands, no two cards in the deck may have the same english [sic] name.”

In addition to wondering why English is not capitalized, we can see that it seems like Relentless Rats looks like it can’t be played as more than a one-of. As a reminder, here is the pertinent Oracle text for it:

“A deck can have any number of cards named Relentless Rats.”

Well, it seems from the wording, rulings, and rule that it would not be allowed in multiples, but Sheldon, a couple of years ago, made this post in the forums:

“The RC has discussed it and for the time being thinks that multiple Rats is OK. We reserve the right to change our minds down the road.”

So, they look all right to play in large stacks. The flavor of the card outweighs the ruling. I appreciate that. However, I will not be playing Relentless Rats today. The whole concept of this deck was to challenge myself as a deck-builder, and if I toss in fifty Relentless Rats, a tiny amount of flavor, and Swamps, then I missed. That’s not a particularly interesting deck. Sorry.

Let’s go with something else.

"Rat-a-Tat-Tat"

• Commander (1)
• 1 Marrow-Gnawer

• Creatures (30)
• 1 Cackling Fiend
• 1 Chittering Rats
• 1 Crypt Rats
• 1 Cunning Lethemancer
• 1 Cutthroat il-Dal
• 1 Demon's Jester
• 1 Dirty Wererat
• 1 Disease Carriers
• 1 Earsplitting Rats
• 1 Infected Vermin
• 1 Kuro's Taken
• 1 Liliana's Specter
• 1 Nezumi Graverobber // Nighteyes the Desecrator
• 1 Nezumi Ronin
• 1 Nezumi Shortfang // Stabwhisker the Odious
• 1 Okiba-Gang Shinobi
• 1 Pestilence Rats
• 1 Ratcatcher
• 1 Ravenous Rats
• 1 Rotting Rats
• 1 Scrib Nibblers
• 1 Skeletal Changeling
• 1 Stronghold Rats
• 1 Swarm of Rats
• 1 Throat Slitter
• 1 Adaptive Automaton
• 1 Brass Herald
• 1 Rackling
• 1 Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni
• 1 Patron of the Nezumi

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 1 Karn Liberated
• 1 Liliana Vess
• 1 Sorin Markov

• Spells (29)
• 1 Expunge
• 1 Suffer the Past
• 1 Aphetto Dredging
• 1 Damnation
• 1 Exsanguinate
• 1 Life's Finale
• 1 Patriarch's Bidding
• 1 Syphon Flesh
• 1 Syphon Mind
• 1 Unnerve
• 1 Bottomless Pit
• 1 Brink of Madness
• 1 Gibbering Descent
• 1 Liliana's Caress
• 1 Megrim
• 1 Painful Quandary
• 1 Quest for the Nihil Stone
• 1 Seal of Doom
• 1 Armillary Sphere
• 1 Guardian Idol
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Mycosynth Wellspring
• 1 Paupers' Cage
• 1 Riptide Replicator
• 1 Scepter of Fugue
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Volrath's Laboratory
• 1 Wheel of Torture
• 1 Thornbite Staff

• Lands (37)
• 22 Swamp
• 1 Barren Moor
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Dust Bowl
• 1 Homeward Path
• 1 Leechridden Swamp
• 1 Mishra's Factory
• 1 Mutavault
• 1 Mystifying Maze
• 1 Polluted Mire
• 1 Strip Mine
• 1 Swarmyard
• 1 Tower of the Magistrate
• 1 Urza's Factory
• 1 Wasteland
• 1 Volrath's Stronghold

• Sideboard (0)

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Here is my Marrow-Gnawer deck. The obvious theme is Rats and more Rats. To that end, I went with every Rat in the game that has any value whatsoever to me. A simple 2/1 for 2 mana by itself didn’t make the cut, but most stuff did. Then I added some tribal elements, a minor hell-bent subtheme, and finally a combo to win the game with infinite Rats.

The obvious place to start were the great Rats. Ink-Eyes is very strong here. Nezumi Graverobber // Nighteyes the Desecrator is a suitably powerful card as well. The Rats that give you some control ability also made a lot of sense, such as Crypt Rats, Infected Vermin, or Throat Slitter, while ETB creatures like Chittering Rats do yeoman’s work. Nezumi Shortfang // Stabwhisker the Odious can get you card advantage over time, and it can easily flip in this deck, with its strong discard theme. Once it flips, it becomes one of your more reliable ways to kill off your enemies.

I added a few beaters. Pestilence Rats and Swarm of Rats are both huge in this deck. Nezumi Ronin is adequate in the red zone, as is Dirty Wererat. Even defensive creatures like Kuro's Taken and Skeletal Changeling are about as good at being defensive Rats as you’ll find, so they got tossed in as well.

I wanted to emphasize the tribal theme. Patron of the Nezumi and Ratcatcher were obvious additions. Swarmyard can regenerate a Rat. Brass Herald can both find you Rats as well as pump them. It is only one of two lords in the deck, since I prefer to stick away from Coat of Arms, due to the likelihood that you run into a better tribal deck. Post–Magic 2012, we are adding Adaptive Automaton as well.

I didn’t stop there. I found space for more tribal elements. Patriarch's Bidding will bring back all of your cool Rats, while Aphetto Dredging is a hammer of card advantage in any tribal deck. You’ll also note that both Volrath's Laboratory and Riptide Replicator are in the deck to make a bunch of Rats. Lab Rats doesn’t fit the discard theme, otherwise it would be in this deck easily.

Every Rat deck will have a strong discard theme, and this does as well. Okiba-Gang Shinobi is another great Ninjitsu card, and we have lots of discarding Rats—Ravenous Rats, Chittering Rats, and more. I decided to toss in the all discard Rats, like Earsplitting Rats and Rotting Rats. This gave me an idea for a hell-bent theme, but most of the good cards for it are in Red.

With that hell-bent theme, a few cards went into the deck. Brink of Madness can trigger when you have no cards, and force an opponent to discard his hand. Since you want people to have no cards as part of the theme of this deck, I felt that it was a good way to keep someone from hoarding his cards. I also included a pair of hell-bent creatures in Demon's Jester and Cutthroat il-Dal to amp up the power of the theme.

With a discard theme in the Rats, I pushed it. I tossed in more discard cards, such as Unnerve, Scepter of Fugue, and Liliana's Specter. I decided at the last minute to pull out Scythe Specter because I’ve been using it more than any other card from Commander since its debut, and I wanted to give it some breathing room. It totally fits, though.

I felt I needed to amplify the discard theme even harder with Painful Quandary. It will force people to discard or lose life when they try to play out their cards, thus forcing them to make bad decisions. It acts as both an adjunct to the discard and a win condition. Bottomless Pit will force a random discard from everyone during their upkeeps, while Cunning Lethemancer will force everyone to choose and discard on your upkeep. Finally, Gibbering Descent will force discards and dole out some life loss. These cards will all severely upset your foes, so make sure to play them at the right time. I’d recommend not dropping Bottomless Pit on the third turn and riding it to victory—too many things could go wrong in that quest.

With an emphasis on discarding creatures and spells, I decided to push the element for a winning condition as well. Nezumi Shortfang provides one route, and I added others. Rackling is both a creature and a recurring source of damage. Both Wheel of Torture and Paupers' Cage will hit all opponents for damage when hand size diminishes. We have both Megrim and Liliana's Caress in the deck to deal some damage to folks.

There is one card that is particularly nuts in here—Quest for the Nihil Stone. Getting counters on it is easy, and if you can keep people from having cards in hand, it will kick them for 5 life every upkeep. It’s just at a nasty level of power in this deck.

With this deck relying on weaker Rats to rule and win, I wanted to have some removal for the issues that might follow. Take the discard theme as a great example. It may put some cards in an opposing graveyard that you don’t want there. Genesis, Vengevine, Life from the Loam, Golgari Grave-Troll, and many others can rear their quite ugly heads. I included some ways to stop this—Nezumi Graverobber, Bojuka Bog, and Suffer the Past.

Another weakness of this deck is Black’s historical weakness to artifacts and enchantments. With luck, you will force the discard of any problems, but if not, there are not a lot of options. Oblivion Stone or Nevinyrral's Disk takes out the very important win conditions we have. To counter this, I added Karn Liberated. It not only fits the discard theme, with no chance of a card being further trouble, but it can also take out any permanent, and that includes those normally a problem for Black.

I also felt this was a good place for the other two planeswalkers I could include. Liliana Vess is a natural fit, as her first ability is perfect here, and her ultimate is deadly lethal. Her middle ability is just as strong as always. Sorin Markov is more powerful in Commander when he cuts an opponent’s life by 75% of its starting value, rather than just 50%. It has the power of an ultimate ability, but it’s not, and you can do it again in a future turn on another player. His removal of creatures is nice in a deck light with it. Even his ultimate is okay, but in Commander, I tend to prefer bouncing between the first and second abilities.

On the topic of removal, we need it. Damnation and Life's Finale are good ways to handle problems. Don’t get the creatures from an opposing deck unless you know that they can’t be used. You can see the deck, so you’ll know. Grabbing Reya Dawnbringer, Akroma, Angel of Wrath, and Twilight Shepherd from a player who has no other recursion is nice. Otherwise, stay away (unless you have a Bojuka Bog in hand or an active flipped Nezumi Graverobber post-Wrath due to something weird).

Other removal cards include a pair of pinpoint removal spells—Expunge and Seal of Doom. With the minor hell-bent and self-discard theme, Seal of Doom is a great choice here. You can play it, and then use it when needed. It might even keep opponents from attacking into the Seal. Syphon Flesh is a nice way to slow down the board when it starts to get out of hand. Not only do you edict everyone but yourself, but you also get a handful of creatures to chump-block with, or perhaps try to push past a now-weakened defense.

I thought this deck might weaken a bit at the end, so Exsanguinate is included as a way to deal that last damage to some folks after they clear out your Quest for the Nihil Stone and Painful Quandary, or get hit by Sorin Markov. You get the idea. It’s a good final blow (without being Fatal Blow).

This deck has a lot of effects that deal damage directly at people’s faces. Patron of the Nezumi, Crypt Rats, Painful Quandary, Leechridden Swamp, Rackling, Megrim, and more. I feel it is very appropriate for a Rat deck to bite you a bit at a time. It won’t take you out with giant creatures, but it will eat at you, a bit here and a bit there, until you fall. It has numbers.

Note that we do have an infinite combo here—Marrow-Gnawer and Thornbite Staff. Here’s how it works:

1. Equip Marrow-Gnawer with the Staff. Since Marrow-Gnawer is your Commander, you can always cast it when you draw the Staff.
2. Have out at least two other Rats.
3. Tap Marrow-Gnawer to sacrifice a Rat, making two or more Rats.
4. The Thornbite Staff will trigger due to a creature dying. This trigger will untap Marrow-Gnawer.
5. Tap Marrow-Gnawer to sacrifice a Rat, preferably a token you just made.
6. Make three-plus Rats. Untap Marrow-Gnawer for free. Repeat as many times as you wish for any number of Rats.

I thought that would come in handy. (Note that, although I usually come up with all of my combos myself, this was not my idea. I found it in the old EDH forums when looking for cool ideas with Marrow-Gnawer as a Commander. The idea was mentioned in several different threads by different people, so I do not know whom to credit.)

After getting all of the business cards in the deck, I focused on rounding out its mana. With a decent number of artifacts included, I felt free to add more in terms of mana. Sometimes, when your only artifacts are Signets and Medallions, they get killed from an Indrik Stomphowler that has no other targets. When people are going after Wheel of Torture and Thornbite Staff instead, I feel safer playing something like Guardian Idol in my mana base. Both Armillary Sphere and Mycosynth Wellspring can add card advantage. Feel encouraged to sweep them out.

I have already mentioned Leechridden Swamp’s ability to add to the little bites that this Rat deck does. I have also pointed out the value of Swarmyard here. I rounded out the deck with lands like Volrath's Stronghold. I wanted a few more creatures, so in addition to Guardian Idol, I added both factories—Mishra's Factory, Urza's Factory—plus the on-theme Mutavault.

Once I had those, I looked at some other options. There was too much self-discard for Reliquary Tower. I thought about Homeward Path. Only Nezumi Graverobber will take creatures from someone else, so unless you have it out and active, you can use the Path at will to protect your stuff from Stealey McGee. What I really liked was Tower of the Magistrate. Tons of artifact creatures are running around right now, so the land has great play value.

Unlike a lot of Black decks, this one does not have a “more Swamps” theme, and does not need Cabal Coffers, Mutilate, and so forth. In fact, it doesn’t require a lot of Black mana, other than a few activation costs (like Crypt Rats). Therefore, I felt that Wasteland, Dust Bowl, and Strip Mine could be played as ways to take out problematic lands my foes might have. Even Mystifying Maze is making an appearance. Note that you can use it to attack with an ETB creature, and then Maze it, popping it out and back in for another trigger. It’s expensive, but it works.

I have the cycling lands to help sift through my deck. It doesn’t have a lot of raw card-draw, so anything I can lend helps. I thought about the Dredge of Dakmor Salvage, but felt it didn’t have enough power to include. Bojuka Bog went in, but nothing else felt right, so I called it at that.

The result of this experiment is a fun little Marrow-Gnawer deck. Despite the randomness of the deck, I’m quite proud of the result. The themes work together, and the deck looks like it would be a blast to play. Anyway, I hope that you enjoyed this little experiment, and we’ll catch you next time!

See you next week,

Abe Sargent