Relentless Rats

[Genju of the Wicked]

Is it possible, in Vintage format, to make a causal (yet competative) Relentless Rats deck? 

I've seen several older decks abusing the RR effect, however nothing as of recent.  I figured since its release there must have been something to give this deck-type further support....but my lack of knowledge of the game prevents me from answering my own question.

The reason I ask (in case you were wondering why, even as a newb, I would ask such a silly question) is that my friend recently threw a bunch of commons/uncommons (no foils and mostly crap, from what I can see, but who can complain about freebees) my way and there were 8 RRs in there.  So I figure I'm well on my way to a deck.....

RELENTLESS RATS
Creature — Rat
1bb
P/T: 2/2
Rules Text (Oracle): Relentless Rats gets +1/+1 for each other creature in play named Relentless Rats.
A deck can have any number of cards named Relentless Rats.

[Discozombie]

I think the only competative deck up could try to make with rats would be some sort of combo deck,


using hermit druid to dump a bunch of creatures into the graveyard by only running a few lands, using songs of the damned to get a bunch of mana to cast Living Death or Patriarchs Bidding and swing with an assload of pumped up rats.  You would need Krosan Reclamation for sure and possibly Reclaim.  Ghouls feast could be fun too.

something like this.

18 Rats
4 Hermit Druid
4 Song of the Damned
2 Krosan Reclamation
1 Living Death
1 Patriarch's Bidding
1 Yawgmoth's Will
4 Dark Ritual
7 SoLoMoxen
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Bayou
8 Fetch

this is just an idea, I haven't even thought it all out, but you get the idea.  Better and easier of course would be to get rid of all the fancy and just go for drain lifes. 

[Malhavoc]

In a relentless rat deck I've desperate research to be a good card:

Desperate Research
1B (2), Sorcery
Name a card other than a basic land card. Then reveal the top seven cards of your library and put all of them with that name into your hand. Remove the rest from the game.

If you run a big amount of rats, this will let you draw quite a lot of them. The problem however is having the mana to cast them all quickly.

[LotusHead]

I have a Mono-Black Mesmeric Orb deck with 15 Relentless Rats in the sideboard.

When I side in the Relentless Rats (and side out SkullClamp, Nether Shadows and Ashen Ghouls and 3 expensive fun cards), the Mesmeric Orbs let me Animate dead rats quicker.

Reanimator Rat Orbs with Gaea's Blessing.

From there you could get a deck started.

[Genju of the Wicked]

Thanks to all!  Please bear with my follow up questions, as I'm just getting into the game:

Discozombie - I'm currently looking at several of the cards you posted in that impromptu deck list.  However, as I am a complete and utter newbie, what did you mean by:

Better and easier of course would be to get rid of all the fancy and just go for drain lifes.

I understand Drain's effect, but how would it work/help in a deck of this sort?


Malhavoc - Thanks.  Is there any sort of black mana accelerator that would help the card along?  A hand full of rats would be nice, but without some way to accumulate mana quickly, I think they would just sit in hand until late game, correct?

LotusHead - Call me an idiot, but how would Gaea's Blessing work in such a deck?

And just out of interest, could I see a link to your orb deck?

[Malhavoc]

Malhavoc - Thanks.  Is there any sort of black mana accelerator that would help the card along?  A hand full of rats would be nice, but without some way to accumulate mana quickly, I think they would just sit in hand until late game, correct?

Yes, in fact. Don't know, maybe try using Aether Vial, but perhaps it's just too slow.

And just out of interest, could I see a link to your orb deck?

Go to http://magiccards.info to find text and scans of all cards.

[Genju of the Wicked]

Go to http://magiccards.info to find text and scans of all cards.

Thanks, but I know what the Card does, I was looking for an example of the deck (forum search didn't reveal much).

[LotusHead]

As requested

Mono-Black Orbs: By LotusHead

4 Mesmeric Orbs 
2 Gaea's Blessing

54 other Black Cards/Swamps
including:
4 Nether Shadows
4 Ashen Ghouls
4 Whithered Wretches
3 Ogre Mauraders

4 Hymm to Tourach
2 Diabolic Edict
4 Barter in Blood

4 Dark Ritual
4 SkullClamp
2 Life/Death or Reanimate
2 Animate Dead
2 Beacon of Unrest
1 Loxodon Warhammer

4 Lanowar Wastes (Bayou)
18 Swamp

Sideboard:
15 Relentless Rats

The concept of the original deck is to resolve a SkullClamp or a Mesmeric Orb.
The Mesmeric Orb makes everyone mill themselves if they untap stuff, and with 2 Gaea's Blessings in there, completely does not affect my deck. (Example, I mill for 8, so Mill, Mill, Mill, Mill, etc. Either I hit Blessing or I don't.  My opponent is usually not so lucky.). The Nether Shadows and Ashen Ghouls then randomly come into play w/haste if there are enough creatures on top of them. Hymns/Edicts and Barters hopefully stall long enough for my plans to work.
The concept of the SkullClamp (the only thing "Vintage" in MBOrbs) is to draw cards off my crap to get Mesmeric Orbs happening.
The Reanimator type spells are just additional support.

The Relentless Rat Connection is/was purely for fun (15 sideboard!), but I side out the 11 Non-Wretch creatures and the 4 SkullClamps to turn it into a Relentless Gaea Orbs deck.

If you want to know how to further abuse Mesmeric Orbs and Gaea's Blessing, look up Gaea Welders in the casual forum about 3 pages back by LotusHead. (will edit in link as soon as I figure out how...).

http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/index.php?topic=21504.0

[Discozombie]

What I was saying was just to use the mana from the songs of the damned to just hit them with a big drain life, but you would have to have at least 22 creatures then.