This is a deck built around this very powerful card: Crypt Rats. It's ability to deal damage to every creature and every player at instant speed and without a limit but for your available mana is incredibly powerful. Then put it in a shell that enhances it's ability and protects you and your deck from that same ability gives you an engine of destruction that never stops.
Add a Lashknife Barrier to your Crypt Rats and you now have repeatable damage that does nothing to your creatures as long as you do it in 1 point of damage increments. Add in something like Eternal Thirst and then you yourself will survive your rat's ability. And the rats will begin to grow as your opponent's creatures die. Put out an Ogre Slumlord and then your Crypt Rats's ability is lethal for 1 black mana. And if any non-token creatures die you just get more deathtouching rats!
Fill out the rest of the deck with redundant versions of these cards and throw in some utility and you then get a deck that is very good at winning games without large investments in cards or mana. Add good answers to your sideboard and you are ready to unleash these hideous creatures that were Born Among The Dead!
Here is the card breakdown:
The Creatures:
Crypt Rats: Centerpiece of the deck and they are a wonderful card. Summoning sickness does not even stop you from using their ability because they do not tap to activate it. At any time at instant speed you can spend 1 black mana to deal 1 pt of damage to all creatures and players. Or tap 5 or 10 or whatever you have available. But if you wait until you have a Lashknife Barrier or Hedron-Field Purists with a level in play then you will not lose any creatures at all. While your opponent begins to lose theirs.
Ogre Slumlord: This card gives deathtouch to your rats which is amazing. And since you are going to kill everything that is not yours anyways, you might as well get some free rat tokens out of it. Very strong support for your "Rat Strat".
Thrashing Wumpus: A bigger version of your Crypt Rats. These are in the deck to help the deck survive "Named" hate cards and give additional slots for your win condition. Bigger is better. And the name is awesome!
Typhoid Rats: An excellent 1 drop for an early attack or blocker. Deathtouch just makes for bad trades for your opponents or helps you force through more damage.
Vizkopa Guildmage: The guildmages are here to add another lifelink source to the deck and to add a kind of "Ultimate" win condition in the deck. Say you have some Crypt Rats in play and they already have life link, then you activate the guildmage's second ability. Tap 1 black, activate the rats and all creatures and opponents take 1 point of damage. You gain a ton of life. This triggers your guildmage and your opponents then lose another life. So in effect you can double the damage you do to your opponents in this way.
The Other Spells:
Eternal Thirst: This card does 2 things. Gives lifelink to your Crypt Rats. And grows them whenever a creature controlled by your opponents dies. Amazing in this deck and will push your rats ever further away from any removal your foes may have. And shove your life total into outer space in big multiplayer games.
Gift of Immortality: These make sure your Crypt Rats keep coming back for more. Or can be used on any support creature to make sure they continue to support the deck in spite of enemy removal.
Lashknife Barrier: This card is fantastic in this deck. First, it replaces itself so it causes minimal disruption to your tempo. Secondly, It stops any kind of "weenie" burn. Anything doing one to all creatures like Electrickery are now harmless to your creatures. Finally, It lets your Crypt Rats actually survive their own ability. Along with all of the rest of your creatures. As long as you activate them 1 point at a time and let it resolve. Amazing card for this deck.
Lifelink: Playing this on your Crypt Rats will usually lead to you having a giant life total. Remember, even if it kills your rats, you can do like a 5 point activation dealing 5 points to all creatures and all players. If you are in a 4 player game with say 8 creatures on the table when this happens then you are going to gain 60 points of life after taking 5! Then your rats will die but this is huge. Now, if instead, you have a Lashknife Barrier in play and do it 1 point at a time. And say there are 6 enemy creatures. Then for 5 points of activations you will gain 50 lives after taking 5! And you can keep doing this over and over again until you win.
Diabolic Tutor: These are here to help you get past a stall during a game. Sometimes you do not see everything you need and this card helps take care of that.
Disturbed Burial: This great little card helps you get creatures back when you lose them. And if you can afford the buyback you will be able to keep using it over and over again. An excellent way to insure the long game goes your way.
Sign in Blood: Another way to give your deck a little gas when it needs it. And the lifeloss is trivial in a deck that has some much lifegain.
The Lands:
Pretty regular cards here. Basics for mana and duals to fix the colors you need. Sadly they cannot all be swamps.
The Sideboard:
Devour Flesh: It is possible that during a game you will come across creatures you cannot kill with your rats and then you use these to take care of them. It does not target the creature or damage it but will get rid of it.
Hedron-Field Purists: These are great to bring in as redundancy for the card:Lashknife Barriers. Or you can replace something non-essential with them when facing burn decks. At max level these cards will prevent 2 points at a time instead of 1.
Seal of Cleansing: Great waiting removal for artifacts or enchantments that does not cost you mana once you get them out on the table. They can be activated at any time at instant speed. And they will also sometimes make your opponents play poorly by making them decide if they want to play into your card or hold their cards until your removal is used.
Seal of Doom: Another way to get rid of creatures if straight damage will not do the trick. Like the other seal, these do not even cost mana once you get them into play.
That is it for the deck. Please leave any comments here.
