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By: Adam_the_Mentat, THE WOTC TOOK MY BABY AWAY
Jul 22 2015 12:00pm
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CJB: Thrumming it with Marrow-Gnawer


Excelsior, and thanks for joining me for another edition of Commander Johnny-Boosh!

Today we are going to go Tribal, as well as rule-breaking and potentially-infinite (or at least, a very long time indeed).


“Ultimate horror often paralyses memory in a merciful way.”
― H.P. Lovecraft, The Rats in the Walls


Yep, that's right: We is talkin' Rats!

And, here are the combo pieces that cause the main threat!

Relentless RatsThrumming Stone

They are not the entirety of your strategy, but there sure are fun! Also, it's always amazing putting in 22 Relentless Rats in a singleton deck.

Marrow-Gnawer



Creatures 
Pack Rat 
Swarm of Rats 
Crypt Rats 
Crypt Ghast 
Nirkana Revenant 
Nezumi Graverobber 
Ratcatcher 
Relentless Rats 
Ogre Slumlord 
Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni 
22 Relentless Rats 
Adaptive Automaton 
33 cards

Lands 
Dust Bowl 
Encroaching Wastes 
Strip Mine 
Ghost Quarter 
Swarmyard 
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx 
Mishra's Workshop 
Evolving Wilds 
Terramorphic Expanse 
Thawing Glaciers 
Maze of Ith 
Thespian's Stage 
Vesuva 
Cabal Coffers 
1 Tectonic Edge
Volrath's Stronghold 
19 Snow-covered Swamp 
36 cards

Other Spells 
Thrumming Stone 
Mimic Vat 
Sol Ring 
Mana Crypt 
Expedition Map 
Phyrexian Arena 
Caged Sun 
Gauntlet of Power 
Damnation 
Unstable Obelisk 
Liliana of the Dark Realms 
Karn Liberated 
Ugin, the Spirit Dragon 
Dark Ritual 
Demonic Tutor 
Vampiric Tutor 
Imperial Seal 
Necropotence 
Lab Rats 
Hero's Downfall 
Gild 
Silence the Believers 
Sever the Bloodline 
Coercive Portal 
Staff of Nin 
Patriarch's Bidding 
Living Death 
1 (Day of Destinies)
All Is Dust 
Lightning Greaves 
30 cards

Commander
1 Marrow-Gnawer



Lab Rats

 

As I said up above, I got to Thrum off 14 Relentless Rats, but could not grab a screen capture in time, and hunting through my games history to grab a still has proven fruitless.

Rats_screenshots

The above screenshot is just a great board position. As you can see in this game (well, you can't see my hand, but I had the Thrumming Stone in it the whole time) I never got to Thrum, or Gnaw anything, but I did get to keep casting Rat after Rat until I overwhelmed my opponent.

This partial screenshot shows the stone in my hand, with the ability to cast it and roll off the combo shortly after. My opponent was playing a monogreen build, and couldn't stand up to the Fear granted by Marrow-Gnawer.

I wanted to share this with you to expose this weird bug I found. It may be known, I didn't double check the bugblog, but look at my flipped Nezumi!

After flipping him, it acts like an enchantment rather than a creature, even though it's a creature. It's lined up right next to my Arena, and attacking with it taps it under my other creatures. Just visually weird, not a gameplay-breaking bug. I shot off a "hey there's a bug" email to the mothership through their unnavigable forums.

So really, the strategy here is to bash people's faces in with an ever-growing amount of rats.


 
Grenzo the Relentless

Creatures 
Ratcatcher 
1 Crypt Rats
Junktroller 
Marrow-Gnawer 
Purphoros, God of the Forge 
Avalanche Riders 
21 Relentless Rats 
Duplicant 
Fulminator Mage 
29 cards

Grenzo, Dungeon Warden
Shared Animosity

Other Spells 
Conjurer's Bauble 
Crystal Ball 
Darksteel Pendant 
Goblin Charbelcher 
Thrumming Stone 
Reito Lantern 
Shared Animosity 
Witches' Eye 
Lash Out 
Magma Jet 
Riddle of Lightning 
Bolt of Keranos 
Hoarder's Greed 
Read the Bones 
Titan's Revenge 
Damnation 
Necropotence 
Chaos Warp 
Mana Crypt 
Phyrexian Arena 
Chaosphere 
Demonic Tutor 
Imperial Seal 
Vampiric Tutor 
Ugin, the Spirit Dragon 
Karn Liberated 
All Is Dust 
Dreadbore 
Hero's Downfall 
1 Akroma's Memorial
Patriarch's Bidding 
Sol Ring 
Soldevi Digger 
33 cards

Lands 
Volrath's Stronghold 
Spinerock Knoll 
Temple of Malice 
Bojuka Bog 
Mishra's Workshop 
Maze of Ith 
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 
Buried Ruin 
Graven Cairns 
Flamekin Village 
Thespian's Stage 
Miren, the Moaning Well 
Haunted Fengraf 
Shadowblood Ridge 
Dragonskull Summit 
Bloodstained Mire 
Blood Crypt 
Badlands 
Command Tower 
Opal Palace 
Reflecting Pool 
Swamp 
Mountain 
Strip Mine 
Ghost Quarter 
Encroaching Wastes 
Dust Bowl 
Vesuva 
Howltooth Hollow 
1 Tectonic Edge
37 cards

Commander
1 Grenzo, Dungeon Warden

Soldevi Digger
Necropotence
Chaosphere
  • That's right, Grenzo is back! I may have teased that I was working on a Goblin Tribal Grenzo Commander deck in Freed From the Real episode 329, but I wound up making a Relentless Rats version instead.
  • So I discovered that Thrumming Stone needs to go into my original Grenzo deck, as every spell then allows you to manipulate 4 cards onto the bottom of your library. In Fact, this amalgam of two decks I love allows Grenzo to either Grrenzo in Relentless Rats, or if we cast them, we can Thrum them in. The deck pulls double duty to load up your board with rats.
  • Ratcatcher joins Purphoros, God of the Forge in being a creature over power 2. All the other creatures-- all the Relentless Rats, and Marrow-Gnawer as well, are power 2 and so Grenzo can still be cast for only two mana. The Rats are 2/2 until they hit the field and get the Sliver-esque bonuses, so Grenzo will always snag them with his ability.
  • No Tel-Jilad Stylus in this build. Replaced by Soldevi Digger. The Stylus doesn't make sense here because nothing in this deck is an Enters-the-battlefield trigger.
  • Revive the Fallen replaced by Patriarch's Bidding.
  • Necropotence and Phyrexian Arena added to draw into the Stone and more rats easier.
  • Chaosphere was added since this thing is lacking in flying.
  • Since you are likely to be Grenzoing half of your Rats onto the field, I opted not to put in Door of Destinies but instead, Shared Animosity.
  • This deck managed to fit in the awesome combo of Crypt Rats and Akroma's Memorial. Both are good cards on their own, but really work out nicely when they're together.

Thanks for joining me again, I had a lot of fun exploiting the Relentless Rats loophole in singleton.
Did I miss anything you would've included? Lemme know in the comments below, or maybe shoot me a message in Twitter: @CmdrJohnnyBoosh.

Pestilence Rats
WHY AREN'T YOU ONLINE, PESTILENCE RATS?????  

1 Comments

I remember when thrumming by Paul Leicht at Sun, 07/26/2015 - 18:57
Paul Leicht's picture
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I remember when thrumming stone + rats was a fun idea in old extended. (At least I think it was old extended) Back in early 2007 I had a friend who loved that deck idea so much that it was all he played. Love this take on it with Marrow Gnawer. Nicely done once again, Adam.

PS: sorry for the delayed comment, its been a hot horrible week so far and I am lagging behind in getting stuff done.