Plague Rats
Creature — Rat
Plague Rats's power and toughness are each equal to the number of creatures named Plague Rats on the battlefield.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Summer Magic / Edgar
- Price
- —
- EDHREC rank
- #25292
Plague Rats is a win-more card that scales entirely with how many copies you control — it's a 1/1 for three mana until you have a critical mass, at which point the game is already decided. Outside of dedicated Rat tribal with reliable copy effects, it's too parasitic to justify the slot.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Plague Rats is legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, Pauper, and Oathbreaker, but the only home where it meaningfully competes is Pauper, where Rat tribal has enough common-legal support to stack multiples. In Commander, the four-of restriction doesn't exist, but the card still demands a deck built around it — without five or more copies in play, Plague Rats is just an underpowered three-drop in a format full of efficient threats. Legacy and Vintage are non-starters; no competitive deck wants a 1/1 for three. Oathbreaker gives it a narrow window if the signature spell is something that floods the board with tokens or copies, but that's a niche build, not a general recommendation.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
unknown tier
Pricing data isn't available for Plague Rats at the moment, but given its age and the volume of reprints across core sets and supplemental products, expect to find copies for under a dollar without much effort. It's not a card you need to hunt down — any local game store's bulk bin is the right place to start.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.