25 disgustingly powerful rat cards for your next Magic deck

Rat decks are an absolute nightmare, but they're pretty straightforward to get right 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 invol