Powerful Rats for Your Commander Deck
Through the Lens - Rats, Foiled Again
There are…not a lot of Rats in Magic: The Gathering. One might think there would be, given the creature’s particular skillset: eat anything, repopulate exponentially. Still, like a boatman’s worst nightmare, a rat or two tends to sneak into most releases.
But is there value to be had from isolating the Rats from your bulk collection? If you have the time, absolutely.
Let’s get after it.
Rat Symmetry
So why Rats? Well, as with any underrepresented archetype, all it takes is one card to lift the value of them all. With the right printing, Rats could go from bench-warmers to starters overnight.
There’s power in the word “each,” and with Rats, we have a number of options at our fingertips to choose from. To start, we’ll take a look at the “discard” Rats within this sphere.
Burglar Rat , Nezumi Informant , Rotting Rats , Stronghold Rats , and Earsplitting Rats .
Burglar Rat is a 20 cent card that moves daily, with a single foil printing that sits around $4.50. Old-print foils have quietly grown in value over the years, staying under the radar thanks to the mass printing of newer, flashier versions of cards. I would look to Nezumi Informant, a card identical in function, as one to keep an eye on in foil as time goes by.
Rotting Rats is about $0.75 across both non-foil versions, with its single foil printing from
Stronghold Rats and Earsplitting Rats round out our offerings, with the former sitting comfortably above “bulk” prices. Stronghold Rats does have two foil printings, but the foil multiplier on each is holding strong. Earsplitting Rats falls victim to a higher MV (is the bane of many a card’s price ceiling), but with one printing from an older set, foil versions could see a boom in price given the right Commander deck.
If you’re a foil-speccing monster like myself, look to some of these Rats as a potential target.
| Burglar Rat | ||
| Nezumi Informant | ||
| Rotting Rats | ||
| Stronghold Rats | ||
| Earsplitting Rats |
Rats Matter, and So Does Killing Your Opponent
Our Rat friends will never gain value if they can’t be expected to win the game on their own, so let’s look at a couple cards that can help get our little vermin out. These are currently low in price, but might very well see a rise, or are on the way up, in the near future.
Lord Skitter's Butcher , Twisted Sewer-Witch , Skemfar Shadowsage , and Haunted One
Lord Skitter’s Butcher and Twisted Sewer-Witch are both from
Skemfar Shadowsage is currently climbing, albeit slowly. With a single printing and a somewhat niche effect, this card is the perfect example of what can slip through the cracks and into the “lost and forgotten” section of one’s collection of bulk and bulk foils.
While not quite a bulk card at $2.50, Haunted One is on the rise. And with a Rat commander at the helm, this card can come down and suddenly swing the game in your favor through damage alone, not to mention giving all your Rats Undying. That’s pretty good in a deck filled with creatures that are, to be kind, subpar after they enter the battlefield.
| Lord Skitter's Butcher | ||
| Twisted Sewer-Witch | ||
| Skemfar Shadowsage | ||
| Haunted One |
Where Are the Rats, Though?
Got to have Rats to win with Rats, right? Apart from
Tribute to Horobi , Song of Totentanz , Ogre Chitterlord , and Warehouse Tabby
Tribute to Horobi is interesting in that it can net you a large number of Rats all at once for the low price of two mana. I can go get a billion copies right now for $0.20 (I won’t), but this is the type of card that can jump up to $0.30 easily. For bulk pricing, that’s huge gains!
Turns out Wilds of Eldraine (and recent Standard sets in general) have been good to our Rat compatriots. Does this bode well for the future price of Rat cards? Who knows? But the latter three on our list all come from WOE, putting them purely in the realm of “wait and see.”
Now, someone might break Warehouse Tabby, causing it to skyrocket to $0.45, but it won’t be me. I will, of course, set the copies I have to the side.
| Tribute to Horobi | ||
| Song of Totentanz | ||
| Ogre Chitterlord | ||
| Warehouse Tabby |
Honorable Mention - Experimental Confectioner
A $1.50 uncommon from the most recent Standard set? Sign me up. Not only does it sell well and sell often, it has sleeper potential. Will Wizards go hard on the Food subtype one day like it did Treasure? Can this card be the next
| Experimental Confectioner |
In Closing
If there’s anything you can take away from my articles, it’s that no Magic card is worthless, and many of them can see a rise in value at any given time. If you’re a growing seller in the market, keep in mind that those $0.15/$0.20 cards you pulled from bulk can be the difference in locking down a sale in the post-five dollar, free shipping landscape of TCG. Especially if they’re popular creature types.
Thank you for reading! And continue to check out MTGStocks for articles concerning all aspects of MTG finance, from bulk to high-end collector’s pieces.
Check out these other articles:
10 Cards I Wish Were Modern Legal by Corey Williams
New Horizons - The Lost Caverns of Ixalan and Jurassic World by Matt Grzechnik
Hidden Gems from Fallen Empires by Adam Berg
Greg has been playing magic since 2003 and leans mostly towards Limited, with a tumultuous love for Constructed on the side. He's since taken interest in the financial realm of Magic, and has been hooked ever since. He lives in Savannah, GA, with his two, chunky kitty boys.
