![]() The only way to get good at this is to play the deck against other creature based decks.Ī lot of these points are "obvious" but it can be really challenging to consider all of them and to consistently make the right decision. To complicate matters you have access to the real broken rat in standard: mutavault! Mutavaults can attack with your rats, activate themselves midcombat to pump your rats, block and then tap to cast a spell or activate another mutavault, and on and on. Removal spells from your opponent are similarly effective. A loxodon smiter can block one of your rats and trade but it will also shrink the rest of your rats after the blocked rat dies so it is effectively doing seven damage to your team (4 to the first rat and 1 to each other rat). The crucial thing to understand is that the rats are a lot less tough than they appear. By the time you have four rats in play (or three rats and a mutavault) almost any spell would be better as a rat so I'm usually happy to discard them first while making my land drops.ĥ) How do I evaluate rat combat? Pack rats lead to some of the most complicated combat steps in standard. They allow you to activate mutavaults, make two rats per turn, hold up removal while still making rats, etc. It can be tempting to just discard all your extra lands but in some matchups the lands are more useful to your pack-rat plan than spells. This is especially important against decks with anger of the gods, supreme verdict, detention sphere, etc.Ĥ) What should I discard? Again this is gamestate dependent. Often your best move is to leave mana up to represent a rat while you attack but then wait to actually make a rat until your opponent's endstep. ![]() If you're attacking with three or four rats making a rat on your turn can really speed up your clock. If you're only going to attack with one rat then making another rat before attacks only nets you a single point of damage. ![]() Against very aggressive decks it can be rough because they can often remove a rat to shrink your whole team allowing them to continue with the beatdown.ģ) When should I make a rat? This is often a judgement call based on the boardstate and match up. If you playtest some games and try both strategies you can start to get a feel for when you have enough time to establish a pack-rat army. Against decks without sweepers packrat will end the game much faster. One of my most common mistakes when learning how to play monoblack was trying to play my heavy hitters like desecration demon immediately after playing a rat (a 6/6 flying is so good right?). However making your third or forth is very powerful and navigating the game in that direction is often your best plan. Waiting until you have five lands in play makes it much more likely for you to get a two for one or just win the game(Bile Blight makes this decision a bit more complex).Ģ)Should I discard a card to make a rat? Making your second pack rat is rarely your most effective play in the short term. The biggest exception IMO is the mirror where they are very likely to have immediate removal. Your deck has plenty of expensive spells to play later and as we all know the damage you can output with your rats increases dramatically as you produce rats on later turns. When do I play the rat? Most of the time you are just going to want to jam the rat into play. Here are the things I try to think about when playing monoblack. There are quite a few variables to consider - I think pack rat is an interesting card but many people don't agree. You need to be playing it to gain some kind of advantage, and usually "getting a removal spell out of their hand" is not that great because Pack Rat is (roughly) a billion times better than their removal spell. You don't want to give up the power of the Pack Rat in your hand by just running it out because you have nothing better to do. Even better, when you can play him on turn five and turn their removal spell into a 1-for-1 trade with the land you have in hand. Have you cleared the board already and drew too much removal? Play a Pack Rat and now the dead Devour Flesh and Ultimate Price in your hand are rats that is when Pack Rat is at its best. The beauty of the rat is that it turns all your top-decks after you play him into non-stop threats. Mono-Black Devotion is actually very threat-light, and it is important to save the Pack Rat until you can use it for what it is: a threat. It is actually extremely disadvantageous to play a Pack Rat as a "might-as-well" type play unless you are paving the way for an additional rat or for a different threat. ![]() I think this is a really common misconception about the turn two Pack Rat.
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