Sewer Rats
Creature — Rat
, Pay 1 life: This creature gets +1/+0 until end of turn. Activate no more than three times each turn.
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Battle Royale Box Set
- Price
- $5.04
- EDHREC rank
- #21229
Sewer Rats drains each opponent for 1 life at the start of their upkeep — passive, repeating, and impossible to ignore over a long game. It's a cheap clock that does real work in any black deck that wants to grind.
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 |
In Commander, Sewer Rats punishes the longer games the format naturally produces — three opponents means three life drains per round, which adds up faster than it looks. In Pauper, the common slot is competitive, and a one-mana 1/1 with a relevant trigger can slot into mono-black attrition shells. Legacy and Vintage are legal but uninterested — the power ceiling in those formats leaves Sewer Rats well behind. Outside of Commander and Pauper, this card doesn't have a practical home.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
Sewer Rats does the same job as Plague Rats variants and similar passive-drain one-drops, but cards like Bloodthirsty Aerialist or Blood Artist redirect similar life-drain value through combat or creature deaths at comparable or lower price points. If the goal is pure upkeep drain, Suture Priest and Marauding Blight-Priest offer analogous slow-bleed effects in overlapping strategies.
Price Context
Current price
$5.04 mid tier
At $5.04, Sewer Rats sits in mid-tier pricing — steep for a one-mana 1/1 with a modest trigger. The price reflects collector or casual demand rather than competitive necessity, so expect it to stay flat rather than climb.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.