Crypt Rats
Creature — Rat
: This creature deals X damage to each creature and each player. Spend only black mana on X.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Salvat 2005
- Price
- —
- EDHREC rank
- #5255
Crypt Rats is a repeatable board wipe and a win condition stapled to a 1/1 body — pay X, deal X to everything, repeat next turn if it survives. The cost is paying life alongside your opponents, which matters less when your deck is built to exploit the damage rather than survive it, as in Karumonix, the Rat King shells or infinite-mana Crackdown Construct lines.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Karumonix, the Rat King
Karumonix, the Rat King turns Crypt Rats into a one-card tribal board wipe that leaves your poison-laden Rats standing — the X damage triggers Karumonix's proliferate effect while killing non-Rat threats.
Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm
Crypt Rats synergizes with Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm by triggering its reanimation ability every time a small Rat dies to the X activation, refilling the board while the opponents' creatures stay dead.
Marrow-Gnawer
Marrow-Gnawer floods the board with Rat tokens, and Crypt Rats acts as the cleanup crew that clears blockers without needing combat — leaving a fresh army ready to swing unimpeded.
Totentanz, Swarm Piper
Crypt Rats feeds Totentanz, Swarm Piper's token-generation trigger every time a Rat dies to the damage, converting a symmetrical wipe into one-sided advantage as long as you control the activation size.
Vren, the Relentless
Vren, the Relentless copies spells and abilities, and pairing it with Crypt Rats means repeated or doubled X activations that scale the damage into lethal range far faster than a single use would allow.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is where Crypt Rats does its best work — four opponents and a critical mass of Rat synergies turn it from a utility card into a centerpiece. In Pauper it's a legitimate removal engine and finisher, legal at common and capable of going over the top of creature-heavy matchups where the life loss is manageable. Legacy and Vintage have it legal, but the competition from faster and more efficient interaction means Crypt Rats rarely earns a slot outside dedicated Rat strategies. Pioneer and Standard don't carry it, so the meaningful competitive homes are Pauper and Commander.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Crackdown ConstructCrypt Rats
Infinitely large creature until end of turn
View on Commander Spellbook ↗Price Context
Current price
unknown tier
Pricing data isn't available for Crypt Rats at the moment, so check Scryfall or your preferred retailer for a current figure. Historically it's been an inexpensive common with occasional spikes tied to Rat-tribal commander printings — it's worth picking up a copy before any new Rat commander drives demand.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Crackdown Construct
- Karumonix, the Rat King
- Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm
- Marrow-Gnawer
- Totentanz, Swarm Piper
- Vren, the Relentless
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.