I think I decided that for my first cycle of Card Spotlights I will be picking my favourite cards from each colour. Since I kind of already messed up in making this series in WUBRG order, it is better late than never. Thus, today’s colour of choice is Black! Black is a very powerful colour in Magic: The Gathering due to the sheer versatility that Black can offer at the cost of sacrificing creatures or paying life.

However, black’s versatility never had a place in my playstyle while playing EDH. However, that shouldn’t stop me from talking about my favourite Black card, a Standard staple during its time… Pack Rat!

Note: (W)=White, (U)=Blue, (B)=Black, (R)=Red, (G)=Green, (C)=Colourless, (t)=Tap

Flavour

Pack Rat’s first printing is in the Return to Ravnica set. Ravnica is a bustling megacity of a plane with dual-colour guilds ruling it. Because of the sprawling nature of the metropolis, there are sewers where Pack Rats can grow and flourish, feeding on the waste of the masses and growing in numbers and in power.

Power

Pack Rat at its very worst is a 2 mana 1/1 Rat creature. This is somewhat subpar. However, its second ability is what makes Pack Rat shift into overdrive! For only (2)(B), players can create a token that is a copy of Pack rat by discarding a card. This is insane! As long as the controller of Pack Rat has 3 mana up and a card in hand, they can respond to any removal to their Pack Rat by creating another token!

Oracle Text:
Pack Rat (1)(R)
Creature – Rat
Pack Rat's power and toughness are each equal to the number of Rats you control.
(2)(B), Discard a card: Create a token that's a copy of Pack Rat.
X/X

Pack Rat also serves as a mana sink towards the mid-to-late game as you do not need to tap the Pack Rat to make Pack Rat tokens. During its time in Standard, Black had access to Underworld Connections, a powerful draw effect attached to a land that allows players to draw a card at the cost of 1 life once per turn. This made it so that Mono-Black Decks could really quickly flood the board with Rats that grow with each activation of the ability. For example, when you have one Rat, you have a 1/1 on board. When you have two Rats, you have two 2/2s on board. Then, when you have three… you get the idea! It will get out of hand very quickly unless the opponent had a board wipe.

Oracle text:
Underworld Connections (1)(B)(B)
Enchantment – Aura
Enchant land
Enchanted land has (t), Pay 1 Life: Draw a card

Synergy

There are many cards that synergise with Pack Rat. Let’s discuss some synergy with some commander decks you’d put Pack Rat in.

The most powerful Rat tribal commander would probably be Marrow-Gnawer. Its ability to give all Rats fear makes all your rats hard to block as Fear means that creatures with Fear can only be blocked by artifact creatures or black creatures. It’s second ability is where it takes the cake as by sacrificing one creature, you can get a whole swarm of creatures that will help Pack Rat grow to an insane Power and Toughness.

Much like any Tribal decks, Anthem effects with upsides like Vanquisher’s Banner or Coat of Arms are really good to slot in next to your Pack Rat. Vanquisher’s Banner keeps all your Pack Rats healthy with an extra +1/+1 and also allows you to draw cards whenever you cast another Rat spell. Coat of Arms is the most powerful tribal artifact due to its ability to make all Pack Rats twice as exponential. Two Pack Rats with Coat of Arms on board makes them both 3/3s. However, have 5 on the board and now each pack rat is a 9/9!

Relentless Rats is also a really synergistic card to fill up your commander deck due to its rules text bypassing the singleton rules.

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While it was in Standard, one of the best cards to synergise with Pack Rat was Gray Merchant of Asphodel due to Pack Rat tokens retaining their devotion as copies copy everything including the mana cost. So, a Gray Merchant thrown down with a board full of Pack Rats can sometimes be the burst of life loss or life gain that turned games around.

Oracle Texts:
Marrow-Gnawer (3)(B)(B)
Legendary Creature — Rat Rogue
Rat creatures have fear. (They can't be blocked except by artifact creatures and/or black creatures.)
(t), Sacrifice a Rat: Create X 1/1 black Rat creature tokens, where X is the number of Rats you control.
2/3

Vanquisher's Banner (5)
Artifact
As Vanquisher's Banner enters the battlefield, choose a creature type.
Creatures you control of the chosen type get +1/+1.
Whenever you cast a creature spell of the chosen type, draw a card.

Coat of Arms (5)
Artifact
Each creature gets +1/+1 for each other creature on the battlefield that shares at least one creature type with it. (For example, if two Goblin Warriors and a Goblin Shaman are on the battlefield, each gets +2/+2.)

Gray Merchant of Asphodel (3)(B)(B)
Creature – Zombie
When Gray Merchant of Asphodel enters the battlefield, each opponent loses X life, where X is your devotion to black. You gain life equal to the life lost this way. (Each (B) in the mana costs of permanents you control counts toward your devotion to black.)
2/4

Last Words

I doubt I will be playing Black in EDH or tribal Rats any time soon. But with the reprint of Relentless Rats in the 25th Anniversary Master set, it was an opportunity that I couldn’t pass on! If you have any favourite Rat creature cards, let me know in the comments below! If not, tell me your favourite Black Magic: The Gathering card, it doesn’t have to be limited to any set or anything. I just really want to know!

Have you heard its call? That is the call of the Planeswalkers of Steemit Discord Server! I am currently trying to build a community for Steemians who play Magic: The Gathering. On our server, we have a post-promotion channel for people to share their MTG-related Steemit Content. We also have an arena for people to suggest challenges through Skype, Facetime or any online app. Finally, we have the Bazaar of Baghdad where players may engage in trades that are transparent for all members of the community (with Steem/SBD transactions encouraged). In the near future, I am hoping to start up competitions to encourage creativity in deckbuilding, card alters or custom card design. So, stay tuned!

Come join us here: https://discord.gg/b6ThDYT

We are using the tag #magictcg. Anyone who uses the tag (at least for now during the early adoption stage) will have our support!

This is part of the TS Gaming Series. Feel free to check out my other posts in this series:
Beginner’s Guide to EDH
Bioshock Remastered
Bioshock Infinite
Loot Boxes and Crack Addiction
Shadow of Mordor

Magic: The Gathering Card Spotlight #01: Teferi, Temporal Archmage
Magic: The Gathering Card Spotlight #02: Archangel of Thune

Note: All images portraying cards are owned by Wizards of the Coast.