Thursday, October 18, 2018

Beliefs Contagious

Multiple games against Fuz allowed me to morph Rats on the fly, changing between matches to get a sense of what worked.

Eliminate the Competition, as neat as that card is, just doesn't help me enough. It's expensive and slow: as a board sweeper in a deck full of cards like Doomed Traveler, Doomed Dissenter, Penumbra Bobcat and the like, this would be great. Those cards already replace themselves.

But I only gain an advantage here if Ogre Slumlord is in play.

Rats vs a Demon deck
So why not just run something straight up like Murder? Fatal Push is also a consideration but I don't really want to put that in a deck where I have almost no control over maximizing it.

That might not matter though, since, as I've noted before, Rat Colony has a glass jaw. Just swing for the fences, see what they block and kill the best creature I can, Fatal Push trigger or no.

That said, some removal has been helpful, shining in matchups where my opponent has creatures that either overpower or evade mine.

I've also found that Alesha is a house. It's a must answer card for this deck, with even one activation being really beneficial, since bringing back any rat boosts at least some, if not all, of the rat tribe. If an Ogre Battledriver is out, that's even better.

I'd cut down to two Ogre Slumlord: it's expensive and without Eliminate the Competition, was it really worth it?

Every time Slumlord came down though, it turned my glassjaw rats into combat problems. Deathtouch is a real pain and extra tokens no matter what dies boosts my deck in ways opponents do not like. It's another reason to add in some targeted removal, too: kill their best creature, get a rat. Again, if a Battledriver is out, that's even better since it'll be a 3/1 rat for a turn.

I'll need to figure out a way to up Slumlord to three: now that Eliminate has been cut, three copies of the highest end card shouldn't break the deck.

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