The Commander
Menace
Whenever Rat King or another nontoken creature you control leaves the battlefield, create a 1/1 black Rat creature token.
, Sacrifice a token: Draw a card.
Guide
Gameplan
Rat King turns every creature death or departure into a stream of 1/1 Rat tokens, which you then sacrifice for cards or feed to aristocrats and drain effects. Play out cheap creatures, blink/sacrifice them to flood the board with Rats, and convert that bottomless army into card advantage and incremental damage. Close games by going wide with token anthems, swarming via menace, or looping sacrifice payoffs.
Strengths
- Relentless card advantage by sacrificing the Rats it makes for itself
- Excellent grindy resilience—boardwipes and removal just refill your token count
- Synergizes with aristocrats, blink, and any sacrifice payoff in mono-black
- Mono-color consistency means smooth mana and access to powerful black staples
Weaknesses
- Slow to close without a payoff—tokens are tiny 1/1s on their own
- The draw cost is mana-hungry and clunky in a single-color deck
- Vulnerable to graveyard hate and token-hate (Cursed Totem, Torpor Orb effects don't stop it, but Suncleanse/board sweepers slow it)
- Relies on having creatures to lose, so creature-light openings stall the engine
Key Cards
- Blood Artist — Each Rat or creature you sacrifice drains every opponent, turning the token engine into a wincon.
- Zulaport Cutthroat — Stacks with Blood Artist so mass sacrifice loops chip everyone out simultaneously.
- Pitiless Plunderer — Generates Treasure on death, paying for Rat King's draw and sac-fueled engines.
- Skullclamp — Equip a 1/1 Rat, draw two on its death, then make another Rat—absurd card flow.
- Phyrexian Altar — Free sacrifice outlet that ramps and combos with the steady stream of tokens.
- Pawn of Ulamog — Doubles up token production alongside Rat King whenever creatures die.
- Reassembling Skeleton — A recurring sacrifice fodder that triggers Rat King every time it leaves play.
Upgrade Path
Add free sacrifice outlets (Phyrexian Altar, Ashnod's Altar, Viscera Seer) and stacked drainers (Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat, Bastion of Remembrance) to assemble compact aristocrat kills. Lean into recursion (Reassembling Skeleton, Gravecrawler, Carrion Feeder) and free creatures, plus Skullclamp for card flow, then tighten mana with Cabal Coffers, Nykthos, and fast rocks. For the top end, include reanimation and tutors (Demonic Tutor, Razaketh) to find your combo pieces reliably.
Core Cards
The most-played cards for this commander, built from aggregated deck data (the Mythic Graph). Build public decks to seed it.
Win Conditions
- ▸Drain the table with Blood Artist/Zulaport-style effects via repeated sacrifices
- ▸Go wide with Rats and finish through anthems or Coat of Arms/Overwhelming Stampede
- ▸Aristocrat sacrifice loops (Phyrexian Altar + a recursive creature + drainer) for infinite damage
- ▸Grind out card advantage until you out-resource the table and beat down with menace
Archetypes
- Aristocrats — Death and sacrifice triggers fuel Rat King's tokens and pair perfectly with drain payoffs.
- Tokens — It manufactures an endless Rat army that anthems and overrun effects can weaponize.
- Blink — Flickering nontoken creatures triggers the leaves-the-battlefield clause for free Rats and ETB value.
- Combo — Free sac outlets plus drainers and a Rat generator enable death-loop kills.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (B), by popularity.
