I will never forget that nightmarish story from October 2020 when, in the midst of a global pandemic, a hole opened up on the sidewalk in the Bronx and Leonard Shoulders plunged almost 15 feet into a chasm full of New York City rats. A single rat is a pest, and little more than a nuisance, but a swarm? That’s terrifying — and in Magic: The Gathering, conjuring a bunch of weak rats can make for a powerful strategy.
March 2026’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Universes Beyond crossover delivered a bunch of new rat cards, including a few iterations on Master Splinter and even a new Rat King from TMNT lore. According to data from Scryfall, 118 cards have the “rat” creature subtype. If you see Nezumi mentioned somewhere, that’s the name of a humanoid rat species that’s native to the plane of Kamigawa. Nashi is one such legendary creature who appears on a handful of legendary cards. The critter-filled Bloomburrow set also introduced its fair share of rats. But broadly speaking, rats have been spreading the plague since the beginning of Magic.
Since rats are predominantly black cards, strategies often involve generating a lot of weaker creatures and/or creature tokens so you can make a lot of sacrifices to fill up your graveyard. Not all rats lean into this strategy, however. There are a surprisingly large number of ninja rats, even without Splinter.
If you’re keen on making a rat typal deck, whether in Commander or another format, here’s a look at the best rat cards in Magic.
25
Freya Crescent
Okay, Final Fantasy 9’s dragoon is only a rat by technicality, but Freya Crescent is a solid one-cost red drop for equipment decks. She can tap to generate one red mana that can only be used to cast or activate the equip ability on an equipment artifact. Red is quite rare for rat strategies, but Freya is a solid include if Totentanz, Swarm Piper (more on him later) is your Commander — as long as you’re also focusing on equipment. Also, is there a cooler FF9 character? No, there is not.
24
Big Apple, 3 a.m.
If rats are your game, don’t sleep on this weird land from the TMNT precon. Paying five mana to create a rat creature token for each opponent you have is expensive, but in Commander, that could be up to three. If you’re ever in a position where you don’t have anything else to do with your mana, this provides a solid option.
23
Blightbelly Rat
There are a few rats like the Blightbelly Rat that build nicely into toxic decks, which essentially poison enemy players. Once a player accrues 10 poison counters, they automatically lose the game. Blightbelly Rat also proliferates when it dies, adding yet another poison counter. It’s a great card, and the only reason it isn’t higher on this list is because it sort of requires that you lean into the poison effect. And yet, if your rat deck also involves distributing any kinds of other counters, that proliferate can help a great deal.
22
Ichor Rats
Ichor Rats is essentially a different version of Blightbelly Rat, and maybe even a bit better. It has infect, so it deals damage in the form of -1/-1 counters to creatures AND to players in the form of poison counters. So if you buff it up with some +1/+1 counters, then it’ll dish out a lot more poison counters.
21
Typhoid Rats
A one-cost 1/1 with any added ability is usually a solid choice, particularly in a mono-colored deck. Typhoid Rats has deathtouch, which makes a disposable blocker at any stage of the game.
20
Infected Vermin
This one’s kind of a defensive measure. You can pay three mana to activate Infected Vermin’s main ability, which deals one damage to each creature and player. But with threshold activated (seven or more cards in your graveyard), that boosts up to three damage. Depending on the circumstances, that’s effectively a boardwipe. You don’t always want to use this, since it hits your creatures too. But it’s a solid way to whittle away at your opponent’s weaker creatures.
19
Voracious Vermin
Voracious Vermin is a bit expensive at three mana for just a 2/1, but it also creates an additional 1/1 black rat creature token. That token cannot block, but Voracious Vermin picks up a +1/+1 counter every time a creature you control dies. Since your core strategy will involve either directly sacrificing rats or using them to block opponents’ creatures and dying anyway, Voracious Vermin is bound to scale up in strength pretty quickly.
18
Rat King, Pale Piper
You could do worse than have Rat King, Pale Piper as your rat Commander. Assuming you’ve got a bunch of nontoken creatures, rat or otherwise, he’ll consistently create 1/1 rat creature tokens. He’s also got a useful draw engine that requires you to sacrifice tokens. That can be anything from a rat creature to a Mutagen token (he’s from the TMNT precon Turtle Power!). There are far better rat Commanders out there, but especially since he has the rat type himself, he slots nicely in as a supplemental include.
17
Persistent Marshstalker
This berserk rat gets an additional point of power for each other rat you control, so for two mana, Persistent Marshstalker can wind up very strong. Its one toughness is barely a drawback when threshold is activated, since you can pay three to drag him back to the battlefield tapped and attacking.
16
Tangled Colony
No card on this list captures the nightmare of that poor man who fell into the pile of rats quite like Tangled Colony. It’s literally a bunch of snarling rats in a sewer that got their tails tangled together. And nobody is happy about it! This creature can’t block, but has a lot of utility for a two-cost rat, creating X number of rat creature tokens based on the damage dealt to it. If you can force it to fight a powerful enemy somehow, that means you’re creating a lot of rats. Tangled Colony probably works best in multicolor decks where you have access to some direct damage spells, or at least spells that force creatures of your choice to fight.
