Ichor Rats
Creature — Phyrexian Rat
Infect (This creature deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters and to players in the form of poison counters.)
When this creature enters, each player gets a poison counter.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Scars of Mirrodin
- Price
- $2.05
- EDHREC rank
- #3192
Ichor Rats enters and immediately poisons every opponent — three poison counters closer to the ten-counter kill before combat even begins. Two mana with infect is the full cost, and that rate is good enough that Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa runs it in nearly three-quarters of all builds.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa
Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa wants every opponent poisoned as fast as possible to trigger its corrupted payoffs, and Ichor Rats guarantees the table is poisoned the turn it resolves — no combat required.
Karumonix, the Rat King
Ichor Rats is a Rat, which means Karumonix, the Rat King can tutor it directly onto the battlefield — a free enters-the-battlefield trigger that poisons the table on your terms.
Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon
Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon is racing to ten poison counters on a single target, and Ichor Rats shaves one counter off every opponent simultaneously, letting Skithiryx close faster with less combat work.
Vishgraz, the Doomhive
Vishgraz, the Doomhive gets bigger the more poison counters opponents have, so Ichor Rats pulling the whole table to one counter on entry is a free stat boost the moment it hits play.
Agent Frank Horrigan
Agent Frank Horrigan rewards stacking poison counters on opponents, and Ichor Rats is one of the cheapest ways to spread that poison wide before Frank ever swings.
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 | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is where Ichor Rats earns its keep — poisoning three or four opponents simultaneously with a single two-mana body is a deal no other format fully rewards. In Legacy and Vintage it's legal but irrelevant; infect strategies there want faster, more explosive lines than a 1/1 that walks in and pokes the table. Modern is the same story: the card is technically playable but has never found a home outside fringe infect brews that prefer Glistener Elf and Blighted Agent. Ichor Rats is a Commander-specific role-player, full stop.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$2.05 cheap tier
At $2.05, Ichor Rats sits at the cheap end of staple pricing for a card that appears in over 13,000 Commander decks. That demand has kept the floor stable — this isn't a card that spikes or crashes.
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Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.