Typhoid Rats
Creature — Rat
Deathtouch (Any amount of damage this deals to a creature is enough to destroy it.)
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Arena Beginner Set
- Price
- —
- EDHREC rank
- #5295
Typhoid Rats costs one black mana and immediately threatens any creature that blocks or trades with it — deathtouch on a 1/1 is a hard deterrent that punches far above its mana investment. In Karumonix, the Rat King builds it pulls double duty as a poison enabler and a cheap body that keeps bigger threats from attacking freely.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Karumonix, the Rat King
Karumonix, the Rat King wants every Rat it can find to stack poison counters, and Typhoid Rats is a one-mana body that contributes to that count while making opponents think twice about blocking into it.
Wick, the Whorled Mind
Wick, the Whorled Mind rewards you for copying creatures, and Typhoid Rats is an ideal target — a deathtouch body that gets genuinely threatening when you flood the board with multiples.
Totentanz, Swarm Piper
Totentanz, Swarm Piper cares about Rats dying and generating tokens, and Typhoid Rats is a cheap trigger waiting to happen that also deters attacks while it sits on the battlefield.
Marrow-Gnawer
Marrow-Gnawer wants a wide Rat board to go exponential, and Typhoid Rats is the kind of one-drop that fills that count early while making combat uncomfortable for any opponent who wants to race.
Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm
Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm pumps the whole Rat tribe, and Typhoid Rats with a +1/+1 bonus becomes a legitimate combat threat that kills anything it touches.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Typhoid Rats earns its slot almost exclusively in Rat tribal builds — outside that tribe, a 1/1 deathtouch for one is fine but not remarkable when you have 99 cards to fill. Pauper is where Typhoid Rats has historically seen the most competitive friction, since one-mana deathtouch is a real rate in a format where creatures are modest and every trade matters. In Modern and Legacy it's essentially invisible — those formats move too fast for a vanilla-statline deathtouch body to matter. Pioneer and Oathbreaker follow the same logic: playable in niche tribal contexts, cut everywhere else.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
unknown tier
Pricing data isn't available at the moment for Typhoid Rats, but as a common with multiple printings it's essentially always a bulk pickup — expect pennies at any local game store or card vendor. If you're building Rat tribal, there's no reason not to own a copy.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Karumonix, the Rat King
- Wick, the Whorled Mind
- Totentanz, Swarm Piper
- Marrow-Gnawer
- Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.