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Marrow-Gnawer

Posted: Fri Nov 16, 2012 4:17 am
by Checkbox
This is my current decklist along with a list of cards I've identified as things I want to be able to play in this deck.

Commander: Marrow-Gnawer

[deck]//Rats (41):
1 Ratcatcher
40 Relentless Rats

//Tutors (6)
1 Expedition Map
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Diabolic Tutor
1 Brainspoil
1 Increasing Ambition
1 Liliana Vess

//Draw (9):
1 Sign in Blood
1 Gravestorm
1 Necropotence
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Underworld Connections
1 Ancient Craving
1 Necrologia
1 Null Profusion
1 Skeletal Scrying

//Utility/Other (5):
1 Dirge of Dread
1 Extraplanar Lens
1 Thrumming Stone
1 Caged Sun
1 Twilight's Call

//Lands (36):
28 Swamp

1 Barren Moor
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Cabal Coffers
1 Crypt of Agadeem
1 Deserted Temple
1 Everglades
1 Lake of the Dead
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Swarmyard
1 Thespian's Stage
[/deck]

More cards I'd like to be able to include:
[cards]Urborg
nVolrath's Stronghold

Night's Whisper
Patriarch's Bidding[/cards]

Possible cuts for the cards I want to include? The "generic blue" section is probably where I'll turn for most of the initial cuts when I put together some of the cards I have listed here. Anything I've missed?

Posted: Fri Nov 16, 2012 9:17 am
by Manasjap
Haha, this one is great :)

Am I right in assuming you play this many tutors to mainly find Thrumming Stone and lay down some serious rats?
Seems like you'd even be pretty resilient to boardsweepers if you just keep some rats (or a tutor or something) in your hand.

Posted: Fri Nov 16, 2012 2:11 pm
by Checkbox
Yessir. If I want to play a fair game, I can just tutor for Null Profusion.

Posted: Fri Nov 16, 2012 4:18 pm
by Azrael
This isn't my current decklist, but my ideal one, and I'd like to get some feedback with regards to how to make this deck better.

Commander: Marrow-Gnawer

[deck]//Rats (36):
36 Relentless Rats

//Other Creatures (2):
1 Magus of the Coffers
1 Ratcatcher

//Planeswalkers (1):
1 Liliana Vess

//Enchantments (5):
1 Gravestorm
1 Necropotence
1 Null Profusion
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Underworld Connections

//Artifacts (7):
1 Akroma's Memorial
1 Caged Sun
1 Expedition Map
1 Extraplanar Lens
1 Gauntlet of Power
1 Sol Ring
1 Thrumming Stone

//Sorceries (11):
1 Beseech the Queen
1 Brainspoil
1 Cruel Tutor
1 Decree of Pain
1 Demonic Collusion
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Diabolic Intent
1 Diabolic Tutor
1 Increasing
Ambition
1 Patriarch's Bidding
1 Plague Wind

//Instants (1):
1 Vampiric Tutor

//Lands (36):
1 Barren Moor
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Cabal Coffers
1 Crypt of Agadeem
1 Lake of the Dead
1 Miren, the Moaning Well
1 Polluted Mire
1 Swarmyard
1 Urborg
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Vesuva
1 Volrath's Stronghold
24 Snow-Covered Swamp[/deck]
Gravestorm, Plague Wind, are probably not very good. Rat Catcher seems very unexciting. Liliana Vess is a five mana, defunct Diabolic Tutor. Hasn't worked well in my experience, but maybe here, more important. Brainspoil and Null Profusion are creative touches for this list. Not sure how Null will pan out - whether it's better than some other options I may suggest. Magus of the Coffers seems like it will be a removal lightning rod without accomplishing much - but maybe if you run enough haste effects so that it's a free spell. Nirkana Revenant seems straight up better.

Cards I'd definitely recommend you add in are Necrologia, Deserted
Temple, and Thawing Glaciers. Temple doubles your coffers and glaciers, and Crypt. If you run Necrologia, then Reliquary Tower is a good idea. Also works well with your conventional Necro. Pack Rat seems pretty clutch.

Of lesser importance: possibly Hall of the Bandit Lord - wait a minute, where's the Lightning Greaves?? That one seems pretty important if you rely at all on Marrow Gnawer. In my metagame, Homeward path would be much more important than Swarmyard. Promise of Power. Skeletal Scrying. Night's Whisper, Ambition's Cost, Bargain in Blood - all those would be good ways to keep you fueled up. Nirkana Revenant. Scroll Rack might have some interesting interactions with Thrumming Stone, but probably not a first-tier choice. Probably. Desperate Research would be a decent way to find rats, early on but again, not a first-tier choice. Twilight's Call and Living Death if you want to go the reanimation route, but they tend to sit in hand dead a lot, so it wouldn't be my first recommendation. Nezumi
Graverobber, if there's graveyard decks in your area - otherwise, not critical. Crypt Rats are decent removal, which you don't have much of. Exsanguinate, maybe others, if you add enough life loss/draw. Diabolic Revelations. If you need to deal with countermagic, Mind Sludge, Persecute, Mind Twist plus Boseiju. I guess you probably don't need Cavern of Souls that badly? Maybe. Sad that the general doesn't seem more relevant - almost rather recommend Sheoldred for the immediate removal/recursion. As is, most of the time you're looking at giving your opponents two full turns before you could even swing with any rats it generates. An awful lot can happen in that amount of time.

Some of the other non-basics you're running, such as Miren, probably need to be trimmed out for more basics. Miren for sure, maybe the others will work out ok.

Posted: Fri Nov 16, 2012 5:20 pm
by Checkbox
I like Gravestorm, and I'd like to see it in action before I write it off.

Plague Wind might just cost too much.

Ratcatcher is slightly unexciting, but it does draw a card every turn in the most flavorful way possible.

I think the Pack Rat plan is usually just less good then the Relentless Rats plan. And the two are a non-bo together, essentially. (Pack Rat is big, sure, but wouldn't I rather just have another Relentless Rat?)

I don't think I need to rely on Marrow Gnawer at all for the deck to work - The rats get pretty scary on their own. the fear/making a metric ton of rats thing is just gravy.

Switched out Magus for Nirkana Revenant.

Made some land changes (keeping Swarmyard for flavor, and mine is already foil. :P )

Not sure how I feel about Necrologia, but I'll give it a shot with Reliquary Tower.

Posted: Thu May 09, 2013 12:43 pm
by Checkbox
Thread updated with my actual build along with a list of cards I want to obtain for the deck.