Commander is Magic: the Gathering’s most popular format today, and with access to virtually all cards in the game’s 30+ year history, you can either make a deck really expensive (and uber powerful), or actually spend very little and still make a highly competent and synergized deck.

In this edition we up the risk and reward quotient, featuring a new rat Commander that is both powerful in attack and defenccee – Vren, the Relentless! This is the first rat which comes with Ward, making it harder for opponents to deal with. For 1 blue, 1 black and 2 generic mana, you get a 3/4 meaty body that pumps out rats super easily.

These rats aren’t just ordinary ones though, they get +1/+1 for each other rat you control, so having 5 rats means each one of Vren’s babies is a 5/5. The fastest way to get those rats out without wiping your own board is by using sacrifice spells and abilities – a single one could kill 3 of your opponents’ creatures, netting you 3 rats. Take a look at the deck list:

Colors: Blue, black | Cost: $328 (CardKingdom) | Power Level: Low / Mid / High / Competitive

Why Did We Pick Vren, the Relentless?

All of the major rat commanders in the past have been mono-black. This creates consistency in the Land base but also limits what options that deck has to deal with different situations. Vren the Relentless adds a new twist to the classic rat deck. By having blue in its colour identity, you’ll have access to protective measure that blues afford you. Rats have always been vulnerable to board wipes, and having at least a few counter spells available to stop that is a nice upgrade from decks of old.

Vren also has a very nifty ability of exiling opponents’ creatures as they die. It’s a mini Leyline of the Void built-in (though it doesn’t affect all cards) that disrupts Commanders or decks that rely heavily on Graveyard manipulation. And there’s more and more of them out there as power level of the Commander format continues to get pushed.

The Game Plan

The game plan, fortunately or unfortunately, relies a lot on Vren, the Relentless staying alive to generate the special rats that get crazy big. Vren’s cost of 4 is manageable, so get him out immediately on turn 4 if you don’t draw any mana Artifacts. This deck list doesn’t include a ton of them, so it’s a very common trajectory.

Vren’s Ward 2 ability will protect is somewhat from targeted removal, and the 3/4 stats is rather chunky to survive attacks as a blocker. The next step is to start thinning the table by casting one of many sacrifice abilities or spells in the deck. A Plaguecrafter will kill at least a few creatures, maybe generating 2-3 rats for you at the end of that turn. Combined with Vren or any other rat you’ve cast, those rats are already 3/3s or 4/4s.

Cards such as Accursed Marauder, Demon’s Disciple and Gravelighter keep the opponents’ Commanders dead, especially if they have no other creatures on the board. With their Commanders offline, it becomes easier to stomp over them while your rat army grows bigger. That’s further proof that the deck’s success depends heavily on Vren staying alive. There are several counter spells included in this list, including Negate, An Offer You Can’t Refuse and Three Steps Ahead. If you’re willing to expand the budget and want to include more protection, there’s always Counterspell, Force of Negation and Fierce Guardianship.

Ways to Win with Vren (i.e. Rats)

Rats win by swarms, and Vren, the Relentless is no different. Vren rats grow so big and so fast that they could clear all your opponents a single combat. It’s also all about numbers with rats, so get as many of them on the battlefield, protect them with blue counterspells, and simply swarm over your opponents with superior numbers and stats.

The deck doesn’t come with viable alternative win conditions, unfortunately. There are ways to do classic black graveyard reanimation, but this is by no means the core focus of the deck. Stick with rat combat.

Weaknesses & How to Make Do

As the deck is reliant on Vren, the Relentless‘s ability to generate the rat army, that is also the vulnerability that opponents will exploit. Especially for those who have been seen and experienced first-hand what Vren can do in a short amount of time, it will be target number one for them to kill. It is so explosive that this simple rat falls under the same category of scariness as Eldrazi or Praetors (think Ulalek, Fused Atrocity. Thankfully, Vren has Ward 2 but to be safe you may also want to hold off tapping out to cast your Commander. Saving some mana for a counterspell could dictate how well you do for the rest of the game.

Rats also don’t do well against flying creatures. You may have the biggest creatures around, but if an opponent has a flying Commander that can swing in for Commander damage, you can only rely on your sacrifice spells. And since most sacrifice effects don’t target the creature, it’s hard to get rid of the most threatening if they have other sacrifice fodder to spare. The easiest solution is to keep those sacrifice spells and abilities constant, so as to ensure that every player’s board remains lean. That way, when it’s down to the Commander remaining, there’s nothing much the opponent can do to stop another sacrifice.

Advice from Real World Experience

In games where Vren, the Relentless has won, the deck has stormed out of the gate, casting the Commander on turn 4 or earlier and following up with sacrifice spells and abilities for every turn after that. If no one has a way to kill Vren in those few turns, we’ve had games where we have ten 12/12s or eight 10/10s beating down the table. Some games, we kill 3 players in one fell swoop. Whoever would have thought that a simple rat could be as big as a Ghalta, Primal Hunger?

However, there have also been games where Vren gets taken out every time it is cast. That leaves the deck very slow and clunky. The sacrifice cards will keep the other players back for awhile, but as the game drags on you’ll find yourself outvalued and outgunned. The hope then would be to leverage some of your other rat creatures in the deck. Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm is a rat powerhouse and a viable Commander in its own right, while Rottenmouth Viper and Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni can tip the scales to your favor.

That said, it really is all or nothing with Vren, as is the case with the other rat Commanders. That’s probably why rats are fun when they work in unison but become crippled against more flexible decks. The addition of blue here in the color identity does give it a leg-up in power level and versatility. Vren, the Relentless can definitely win games – just always go for the blitz and your chances of success will be better.