This Is an awesome card like everyone says with Thrumbling Stones and Coat of arms, and corrosive mentors and MArrow Gnawers, and stuff, but the reason i put 4 stars is because it can be ruined easily. People might not use a lot of Cranial extractions and extirpirates but it can be ruined very easily. For Ex. You used ur thrumbling stones and marrow gnawers and etc. You got all ur lil rats out then all of a sudden, What?! Someone uses consume the Meek. Then ur apponent goes "GF". Other than that common instant that people run in their decks, yea, noone uses cranial extractions usually... So whatever.

  -- By jong p. from NJ on August 22, 2010

Relentless Rats is a decent card. The worst part of it is probably the cost - gathering enough Rats to make a deck out of them can be expensive.. People who are afraid of Cranial Extraction are small minded - sure, the deck can be doomed by a Cranial, but how many players are running those in main nowadays? - I haven't seen Cranial Extraction being cast for years, so I don't see why the existence of that one card should be a problem. You should worry more about Thought Hemorrhage and Extirpate, but even counting those, it's not a big deal. In my opinion, the Rats' biggest weakness is the casting cost. With a cc of 3, the deck can be really slow during the early turns. 3.75/5 (4/5) People playing Relentless Rats decks should consider playing Ratcatcher from the Dissension expansion - being able to tutor a Rat during each of your upkeeps is a huge advantage when you want to be agressive.

  -- By Jens from Denmark on April 11, 2010

x4 protean hulk x4 flash x4 gemstone caverns x4 elvish spirit guide x2 island x2 forest x40 relentless rat

  -- By Anonymous from anywhere on January 10, 2010

just imagine this combined with coat of arms. then they would be never ending and powerful as hell.

  -- By steven nowlan from USA on September 28, 2009

4x dark ritual 4 x thrumming stone, 4 x coat of arms, 20 relentless rats, 20 lands, and couple surprises of your own nice cheap kill deck.

  -- By OG/original gamer from rainsville al on August 30, 2009

ive won tournys with my relentless rat deck its easy run one or two minion reflecters a soul foundry and a couple of thrumbing stones makeing sure not to play more than one at a time as they are legendry then u play one rat for three mana look at the four cards of ur deck and pull out for free any card with the same name as u just played and minion reflector doubeling your rats for 2 mana per rat im set up by turn 3 and throw in a couple of sewer rats and your laughing

  -- By dave from england on June 27, 2009

Bloodbound March helps against board wipers. Just drop another rat and all the graveyard rats come back.

  -- By Anonymous from Waldorf, MD on May 14, 2009

It's like any creature themed deck: extirpate, wrath, damnation, extinction, etc. will all ruin your day. Just have to hope you draw luckily and get them out before your opponent gets a card out that can wipe out your furry tide. It's a definitely a case of 'putting all your eggs in one basket'. When it works, however, it's very effective, especially with Thrumming Stone, as everyone else has already said.

  -- By Swain from :Someone With An Interesting Name on December 30, 2008

Extripate Damnation Wrath ... GF

  -- By Anonymous from somewhere on August 30, 2008

run these bad puppies w/ door of destinies in my all rat deck, still need a coat o arms though :(

  -- By Jason Polo from Jordan, MN USA on August 26, 2008

Useful, but... Tsabo's Decree?

  -- By Anonymous from hell on August 10, 2008

This is definitely a fun deck, about 30 rats a playset of terror and a play set of thrumming stone for the win! Oh duh and the chrome mox :D

  -- By Patrick Iverson from Freeport Illinois on July 30, 2008

This card feels like it was made for echoing courage, too bad it's a green spell

  -- By Geckle from RI on February 17, 2008

THRUMMING STONE! FEAR THE RATS!

  -- By John from DEath valley on January 04, 2008

thrumming stone thats the combo!

  -- By Peter from east bumf on November 30, 2007

It would work okay, but if you played a bounce/discard deck or even a good burn deck, it wouldnt be hard to ditch the rats, the three mana is pricey enough that (IMO) they dont come out fast enough to be an entire deck... I think if this was so, everyone would play rats and youd see them winning tourneys all over.... but you dont.

  -- By Kyle from JC, NY on September 26, 2007

what if someone plays extirpate?

  -- By LAR from iowa on August 05, 2007

relentless rats with urborgs tomb and coffer magus theres plenty of mana and put in about 50 lands and put in about 80 relentless rats and you got some strong rats

  -- By Anonymous from clevland,OH USA on July 27, 2007

All I hafta say is put like 38 Relentless rats, 4 Thrumming stones and 18 swamps in a deck and you have ownage. get the thrumming stone out and play a rat and you get every rat in your deck into play. with the +1 +1 it is an evil combo.

  -- By Rodello from Voorhees NJ on July 20, 2007

Damnation FTW?

  -- By Anonymous from Jurai on May 04, 2007

lobotomy, cranial extraction

  -- By Anonymous from hihkph;oh;o on March 03, 2007

One Coldsnap card makes this card awesome and/or hilarious. Thrumming Stone. Yeah, Relentless Rats with Ripple. Now that's a rat boom.

  -- By Xanthier from United Kingdom on January 19, 2007

While this does break the rules of magic, one of the main rules of magic is "when there is a card that would be breaking the rules, what the card says is more important than what the rules say" (or something like that). Rules were made to be broken!

  -- By Anonymous from MA on December 07, 2006

I think most people miss the point. It let's old-time Magic players bring out their "Plague Rat" decks once again.

  -- By John from Phoenix, AZ on December 06, 2006

OMG, AWESOME CARD! throw in a few thrumming stones and about 50 rats and watch as you have 30 30/30s

  -- By Anonymous from Vic australia on October 06, 2006

Relentless rats and Thrumming stone... priceless

  -- By J05h from Rising Sun, MD on October 03, 2006

out of a 5 star rating effectiveness:5 worth:5 cost:5 strength:4 weakness:10 with 5 mana...guilded lotus tap it put out relentless BIGGEST WEAKNESS: CRANIAL EXTRACTION

  -- By Paradox from behind you, foolish mortal on September 30, 2006

My deck has 21 Relentless rats, 20 swamps, 3 mirror galleries, 4 marrow-gnawers, 4 dark rituals, 4 chrome mox, and 4 coat of arms (doubles the +X +X and helps the rats from the marrow-gnawers). It is terrific. I was thinking of putting in a mindslaver and white bringer because I can own them endlessly. But that would mean I would have to have a couple gilded lotuses to play the bringer and can use it for a relentless rat. Then I thought this isn't that kind of deck. Then I though pithing needle or cranial extration to prevent destruction but then I thought I shouldn't waste my money because it is a super fast deck and they can be done in fairly quickly because they are so cheap to play in a sense. You can literally make a deck of just relentless rats and it wouldn't do that badly (25 lands 35 Rats). You just have to know what to put in the deck to make it most useful.

  -- By Devon from New York on July 05, 2005

My Relentless Rats deck is still crying after that cranial extraction I ran into last game, I'm thinking about running cranial extraction to get rid of opposing cranial's I run 36rats 4 aethervial 4 chrome mox and 16swamp. It can be a bit predictable but still a fun casual deck.

  -- By Anonymous from Sweden on June 01, 2005

This card looks unstoppable. (except mabye by those annoying creature destroying red or black decks)

  -- By Anonymous from Atlanta,GA on April 30, 2005

Beware of the swarming rat army!

  -- By Anonymous from Atlanta,GA on April 30, 2005

This is a great and underrated card. Watch out for my rats!

  -- By Anonymous from Espoo, Finland on April 06, 2005

I d'ont find that this is a great card, the reason why is because it XXXXX XX the rules of magic (max 4 of each except for restricted card's)

  -- By Vincent Deslauriers from MTL,QC on March 14, 2005

This card is great as a main focus for any deck as you can have as many as you want in your deck Plus they get +1/+1 for each other Relentless Rats in play This card works great in a blitz style game if you have enough of them get about 20 lands and 40 of these rats and any other spells you see fit and you have a pretty powerful deck

  -- By Anonymous from Liberty, MO USA on February 17, 2005

'Cranial extraction' really crack up these rat brains!

  -- By Anonymous from Sydney, NSW, Australia on December 15, 2004

This is a great card in a deck if you have enough. I run a deck with 33 of these, 4 marrow gnawers (Fear my rats!) and 4 chrome mox. With chrome mox you can play a rat on the first or second turn which makes it a very fast deck. This card may never reach tier 1 but its fun in type 2 and is worthy for some recognition wich many do not give it. If you can get enouph of these then i strongly suggest you make a deck of the rats.

  -- By Paul T from NJ USA on November 02, 2004

This card is a great card, because for 3 mana, being able to put out as many and getting +1/+1 for every other makes it awesome!

  -- By Anonymous from Worcester, MA USA on August 26, 2004