Bubonic plague but better by user4597134

Format: Commander

Commander: Vren, the Relentless

Bracket: 3

Deck overview

This is a blue-black Rat-tribal attrition deck built around Vren, the Relentless. The core plan is to turn the commander's replacement effect into an engine: every creature an opponent controls that would die is exiled instead, and at each end step Vren makes a 1/1 Rat for each one, with those tokens scaling off the total Rat count. The deck feeds Vren with a heavy edict/sacrifice package - Fleshbag Marauder, Innocent Blood, Vona's Hunger, Make an Example, Dictate of Erebos - while also generating Rats independently through Lord Skitter, Sewer King, Chittering Witch, Piper of the Swarm, and Marrow-Gnawer. It wins through overwhelming combat damage from a self-pumping Rat swarm, with flying/fear evasion from Wonder and Cover of Darkness, plus reach from Mirkwood Bats and Valley Rotcaller. There are no infinite combos in the 99; this is a value-and-board-attrition deck.

Decklist (100 cards)

  • 1 Aphetto Dredging
  • 1 Arcane Signet
  • 1 Archfiend of Depravity
  • 1 Ashnod's Altar
  • 1 Assassin's Ink
  • 1 Attrition
  • 1 Azure Beastbinder
  • 1 Bident of Thassa
  • 1 Bojuka Bog
  • 1 Chittering Witch
  • 1 Choked Estuary
  • 1 Chronicle of Victory
  • 1 Combat Research
  • 1 Command Tower
  • 1 Counterspell
  • 1 Cover of Darkness
  • 1 Crippling Fear
  • 1 Curse of the Swine
  • 1 Dictate of Erebos
  • 1 Dimir Keyrune
  • 1 Dismal Backwater
  • 1 Dismember
  • 1 Distant Melody
  • 1 Drowned Catacomb
  • 1 Enduring Curiosity
  • 1 Fleshbag Marauder
  • 1 Force of Despair
  • 1 Harmonized Crescendo
  • 1 Imprisoned in the Moon
  • 1 Innocent Blood
  • 10 Island
  • 1 Karumonix, the Rat King
  • 1 Kindred Discovery
  • 1 Kindred Dominance
  • 1 Lord Skitter's Butcher
  • 1 Lord Skitter, Sewer King
  • 1 Make an Example
  • 1 Mandate of Abaddon
  • 1 Marrow-Gnawer
  • 1 Mire in Misery
  • 1 Mirkwood Bats
  • 1 Mistrise Village
  • 1 Mudflat Village
  • 1 Mystic Sanctuary
  • 1 Ogre Slumlord
  • 1 Open into Wonder
  • 1 Pack Rat
  • 1 Patchwork Banner
  • 1 Path of Ancestry
  • 1 Persistent Marshstalker
  • 1 Piper of the Swarm
  • 1 Rankle, Master of Pranks
  • 1 Rapid Hybridization
  • 1 Rat Colony
  • 1 Rat King, Pale Piper
  • 1 Rat King, Verminister
  • 1 Ratcatcher
  • 1 Reconnaissance Mission
  • 1 Reliquary Tower
  • 1 Revenge of the Rats
  • 1 Rogue's Passage
  • 1 Season of Loss
  • 1 Sheoldred's Edict
  • 1 Sol Ring
  • 1 Sunken Hollow
  • 14 Swamp
  • 1 Swarmyard
  • 1 Swarmyard Massacre
  • 1 Tainted Isle
  • 1 Temple of Deceit
  • 1 The Darkness Crystal
  • 1 Tithing Blade // Consuming Sepulcher
  • 1 Valley Rotcaller
  • 1 Vona's Hunger
  • 1 Vraska's Fall
  • 1 Vren, the Relentless
  • 1 Wasteland Raider
  • 1 Wonder