Bathsheba by Jean-Leon Gerome (1899). Arch-Fiend of Ifnir (promo art) by Slawomir Maniak.

Happy Monday and Happy Holidays!

If you've opened many Jumpstart 2022 packs, you may have come across today's commander. It's the answer to a possibly unasked question.

How do you make Rat tribal even better in EDH?

Today's commander makes a deck full of random Rat cards viable in EDH, and possibly even good. It might replace Marrow-Gnawer as the new go-to for a Rat Tribal General, and if it isn't in the command zone, it most assuredly belongs in the 99 of any Marrow-Gnawer deck. It also takes your Relentless Rats or Rat Colony deck and should take it to an entirely new level. You'll be able to present a threat even if you don't draw into your Thrumming Stone!

What are all these cards I'm bandying about, and who is this furry new commander I'm so excited to build a deck around? If you read this column's title, you already know.

Let me introduce you to... Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm!

This Rat Warlock costs four mana, one of which must be Black, and has a couple of very useful abilities. When he attacks or blocks, other Rats I control will get +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the number of Rats I control. At the beginning of my end step, I may mill four cards. If I do, I can return up to two Rat creature cards from my graveyard to my hand.

His combat ability is so dangerous that I'm going to want to protect him, so this deck is absolutely going to want Swiftfoot Boots, Lightning Greaves and maybe even Mask of Avacyn. Ashcoat is going to have to attack (or block) to boost his furry little friends, so I would do well to make sure he can survive combat. That means I might also want to include Hammer of Nazahn and Darksteel Plate to make him indestructible, along with ways to make Ashcoat unblockable like Whispersilk Cloak and Trailblazer's Boots. I don't want to be in a position where I'm re-casting Ashcoat every other turn.

Ashcoat's end step ability will help load up my graveyard, both giving me more Rats to play and setting me up to focus on recursion and graveyard strategies. I might even run a pet card that I still haven't been able to use to win a game: Mortal Combat.

The biggest question for this build is an unexpected one. How can I make this deck interesting?

Don't get me wrong, Rat tribal can be fun, but when you're building around cards that allow you to play any number of them in a deck, the deck ends up building itself. There are decisions to make, but half of your non-land cards are auto-includes. Today I'm going to try to share two lists with you. One will be a straightforward Thrumming Stone Rats list and the other will be... something unexpected.

Rats!

If I'm going to build around Rats I need to decide if I'm going to build Rat Colony, Relentless Rats, or Random Rats.

Rat Colony and Relentless Rats both allow me to play any number of them in a deck. The former costs 2 mana, the latter 3 mana. Rat Colony is a 2 power, 1 toughness Rat that gets +1/+0 for each other Rat I control. Relentless Rats is a 2 power, 2 toughness Rat that gets +1/+1 for each other creature in play named Relentless Rats. They are different, but also very similar and they each work really well with today's commander. Ashcoat gives them +X/+X where X is the number of Rats I control, so the lack of a toughness boost for Rat Colony won't hurt quite as much when he's attacking or blocking.

Thrumming Stone will give my spells ripple 4, which is useless in a singleton format outside of decks that run cards like Rat Colony and Relentless Rats. With Thrumming Stone on the field, I could realistically cast one of these Rats and end up with all of the Rats in my library on the battlefield! I've seen it happen and it works like a charm if you have enough of them in the 99. I'd suggest running over thirty, but I'm far from an expert on building decks around Thrumming Stone.

I like variety, so playing a deck where I'll have 30 or more of the same card is a bit of a hard sell. If instead I wanted to go with an assortment of Rats, or as I called it, "Random Rats," I could pull in some interesting choices.

Typhoid Rats is the kind of one-drop deathtouch blocker that can join in a Rat alpha strike in the mid or late game quite nicely. Crypt Rats is a three mana Rat that can win the game for me if I'm at the highest life total and have enough mana to kill everyone else just by paying into its activated ability. Ogre Slumlord not only gives my Rats deathtouch, but also gives me a way to slowly grow my Rat army as other nontoken creatures die over the course of the game. I enjoy being able to play cards that have interesting abilities and make me think, so the idea of just playing Random Rats is a tempting one.

Ashcoat Rat Colony

I ended up building the first of today's lists around Rat Colony. My basic premise was that they're cheaper and the pump I'll get from Ashcoat will be more than enough to make up for the fact that unlike Relentless Rats, they don't have any native toughness boost. They're also a little easier on your wallet.

I didn't load this deck up with much of an equipment package, mostly because I won't be swinging with Ashcoat until I'm ready to close out the game. Boots and Greaves are in the mix, but I didn't want to remove anything else. I'm sure I'd end up refining this list after playing it a few times. I threw in Crypt Ghast and Nirkana Revenant but without any big X spells in the list it's possible there isn't as much of a need to make big mana. The real focus is on getting my Thrumming Stone, which explains all the tutors. The deck will function without that key piece, but it's very, very powerful in this kind of list.

Ashcoat Rat Colony | Commander | Stephen Johnson

• Commander (1)
• 1 Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm

• Creatures (41)
• 32 Rat Colony
• 1 Crypt Ghast
• 1 Magus of the Coffers
• 1 Marrow-Gnawer
• 1 Massacre Wurm
• 1 Nirkana Revenant
• 1 Ogre Slumlord
• 1 Piper of the Swarm
• 1 Ratcatcher
• 1 Sidisi, Undead Vizier

• Spells (6)
• 1 Sudden Spoiling
• 1 Vampiric Tutor
• 1 Demonic Tutor
• 1 Echoing Return
• 1 Grim Tutor
• 1 Patriarch's Bidding

• Enchantments (1)
• 1 Phyrexian Arena

• Artifacts (13)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Bolas's Citadel
• 1 Bontu's Monument
• 1 Conqueror's Flail
• 1 Expedition Map
• 1 Jet Medallion
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Skullclamp
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 Thrumming Stone
• 1 Wishclaw Talisman

• Lands (38)
• 33 Swamp
• 1 Cabal Coffers
• 1 Cabal Stronghold
• 1 Myriad Landscape
• 1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1 Swarmyard

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You could swap out your Rat Colony card for Relentless Rats or even pivot to a build without Thrumming Stone or either of those Rat cards and just play big piles of random Rats. You could even focus on Changelings and Kamigawa Ninja Rats and have a good time with this list. I would advise that you not drop your Rat count down by much if you are going to play Thrumming Stone. You want the chance to just dump a couple of dozen of them onto the field, and if you drop that count down too far, you'll find yourself failing to ripple into more Rats with the same name as the one you cast.

Not Rats!

I can understand why you would think it's crazy to suggest building Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm without including any Rats, but if you really like to think outside of the box, there's a Thrumming Stone build that can work with Ashcoat in some interesting ways.

The first step is to admit that I'm still going to be struggling with the issue of having 30 or more of the same card. This time, instead of Relentless Rats or Rat Colony, I'm going to suggest something else that lets me run as many of the same card as I like.

Shadowborn Apostle is a 1-drop Human Cleric with an interesting ability. For one black and the sacrifice of six creatures named Shadowborn Apostle, you can search your library for a Demon creature card and put it onto the battlefield.

Losing six of your creatures is a pretty big hit, but if you've managed to spam out a decent army with Thrumming Stone, you should have plenty to spare.

This deck might have a few other Demons in the mix, but if you can untap with Ashcoat and an army of 1/1 Human Clerics, it shouldn't take much to threaten a win. Just sacrifice six unlucky Apostles, tutor out Rune-Scarred Demon, and when it enters the battlefield use its tutor ability to search up Maskwood Nexus or Conspiracy. Either of those cards can be used to turn all of your Shadowborn Apostles into Rats. From there you should just be able to swing for the win.

Is this a good plan?

Not at all.

Is it a goofy, out of the ordinary, convoluted path to try to nail down a victory that most of your tablemates will never have seen before?

I think so, and that's why I like it enough to include it in today's column.

If you're serious enough about this janky idea, you'll want to run a way to protect your win. Conqueror's Flail should take care of that. You'll also want some other interesting Demons that might help you close out the game. Razaketh, the Foulblooded will let you tutor for a card at the cost of 2 life and a creature. From there you should be able to cobble together something to threaten a win. Dreadhound is a Demon Dog that will have each opponent lose 1 life whenever a creature dies or a creature is put into a graveyard from a library. If an opponent has enough creatures out and you're able to wipe out your opponents' creatures with Dreadhound on the field using In Garruk's Wake you might find yourself in the winner's circle - or at least close to it.

Sadly, lots of Demons are built around slower effects, Archfiend of Depravity will force your opponents to sacrifice down to two creatures on their end step. Slower, once-a-turn effects can still be powerful and can still win games, but with dozens and dozens of Shadowborn Apostles in the mix there's only so much room for Demons. My own choices are just that, my own. If you're going to play around with this silly build you should feel free to run what makes sense to you.

Ashnod Apostles

This list has a few notable changes from the Rat Colony list. I care about Maskwood Nexus and have far fewer creatures that are actually Rats, so I dropped out Swarmyard and threw in Buried Ruin. I also noted that Shadowborn Apostles only cost one black mana to cast, so Jet Medallion could drop out in favor of another Demon for my Apostles to tutor up.

I'm still not sure this will work, but if you're looking for a different kind of Apostles deck, or an Ashcoat list that nobody will have seen before, this might be fun to try. I'm not sure I'd urge you to buy nearly three dozen Shadowborn Apostles just to take this deck for a spin, but lots of people play online where they can build whatever they like, some players already have a pile of Apostles, and I'm sure a few of you even proxy cards before you decide to buy them. Whatever your situation, I do love the idea of building decks that nobody in my meta will ever have seen before. This might be just that kind of list.

Ashcoat Apostles | Commander | Stephen Johnson

• Commander (1)
• 1 Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm

• Creatures (41)
• 32 Shadowborn Apostle
• 1 Crypt Ghast
• 1 Dreadhound
• 1 Massacre Wurm
• 1 Nirkana Revenant
• 1 Razaketh, the Foulblooded
• 1 Rune-Scarred Demon
• 1 Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker
• 1 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 1 Taborax, Hope's Demise

• Spells (6)
• 1 Sudden Spoiling
• 1 Vampiric Tutor
• 1 Demonic Tutor
• 1 Echoing Return
• 1 Grim Tutor
• 1 Patriarch's Bidding

• Enchantments (2)
• 1 Conspiracy
• 1 Phyrexian Arena

• Artifacts (12)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Bolas's Citadel
• 1 Conqueror's Flail
• 1 Expedition Map
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Maskwood Nexus
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Skullclamp
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 Thrumming Stone
• 1 Wishclaw Talisman

• Lands (38)
• 33 Swamp
• 1 Buried Ruin
• 1 Cabal Coffers
• 1 Cabal Stronghold
• 1 Myriad Landscape
• 1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx

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Your own take on this list may well include other Demons than the ones I chose. I wouldn't swap out the ones that tutor, but you may have your own favorite Demon cards that you'd want your Apostles to be able to tutor up.

Final Thoughts

I don't usually include two decklists in my columns, but for Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm it just felt wrong not to include at least one Rat Tribal list and it felt boring to not also include something else. I've had many frustrating games trying to get my goofier deck concepts to actually do their thing in a game of Magic, so don't kid yourself. Any time you're thinking outside the box and trying something weird or off the beaten track, it may take a while before you're able to get it to really work.

I should note that both lists are prime candidates to run Mortal Combat, a wincon that I'm still chasing. I may finally have the deck to try to nail down my first Mortal Combat win. I recently built Maralen of the Mornsong. Just last week I finally used my foil Peer Into the Abyss for the first time and was able to use Skirge Familiar to discard cards and make enough mana to close out a game with Exsanguinate. That might not sound like a big deal, but I've had that foil Peer in a binder for a long time and it felt great to finally play it in a game and notch a win.

That's all I've got for today. If you'd like to see a write-up on that Maralen list, let me know. Either way, I hope your holidays are great and I'll see you back here next week!