Ratcatcher Trainee // Pest Problem
Creature — Human Peasant // Instant — Adventure
During your turn, this creature has first strike.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Wilds of Eldraine
- Price
- $0.17
- EDHREC rank
- #15215
Ratcatcher Trainee // Pest Problem is a two-for-one that pulls real weight: a 1/1 deathtouch blocker on the front and a token-generating enchantment on the back, all for two mana. Totentanz, Swarm Piper is the obvious home — the Rat and Mouse tokens Pest Problem produces feed his sacrifice and power-counting engines directly.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Totentanz, Swarm Piper
Totentanz, Swarm Piper wants a steady stream of small creatures to drain opponents and fuel his activated abilities, and Ratcatcher Trainee // Pest Problem delivers both a deathtouch body and an ongoing token producer on a single card — nearly half of Totentanz decks run it for exactly that reason.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Ratcatcher Trainee // Pest Problem earns its slot in any black token or aristocrats deck that can flip it consistently — the enchantment side scales well over a long game. In competitive 60-card formats like Modern and Pioneer, a two-mana 1/1 with deathtouch is baseline playable but the back half is too slow to matter; aggro and midrange have no patience for it. Pauper is where it has the most legitimate upside outside Commander, since card advantage on a common is always worth examining in that resource-tight format.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.17 bulk tier
At $0.17, Ratcatcher Trainee // Pest Problem is deep bulk — pick up as many copies as you need without a second thought. Bulk rares with narrow homes rarely climb unless a new commander breaks them out, so treat this as a throw-in, not a spec.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Totentanz, Swarm Piper
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.