Pack Rat – Return to Ravnica
Date Reviewed: January 18, 2024
Ratings:
Constructed: 3
Casual: 5
Limited: 5
Multiplayer: 3.5
Commander [EDH]: 4
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Pack Rat is another deceptively simple card with hidden depths, and threats. How dangerous could a simple copy token be, especially when it costs you an extra card to make it? It may be simple, but it makes the original (and any other copies) bigger and it means that actually getting it off the table and stopping the madness becomes progressively harder. Even just a single copy can stretch out the card’s lifespan by at least one to two turns, and it wins the game in swift and brutal fashion when there are more. It counts all rats you control and is thus the rat kindred deck’s equivalent of Tarmogoyf, thoughit also stands pretty well as the only rat in a deck, as in Theros Standard’s mono-black decks. Also like Tarmogoyf, come to think of it. It generally doesn’t have much impact in the kinds of games you see in Modern, but in many other setings, it’s devastating on both offense and defense.
Constructed: 3
Casual: 5
Limited: 5
Multiplayer: 4
Commander [EDH]: 4
While Pack Rat is in Ravnica Remastered, it is not available in the regular rare pool of the set. This is deliberate. Pack Rat might be, alongside Umezawa’s Jitte, one of the most brutal Limited bombs of all time. If you resolve one Pack Rat and you get a chance to untap with it, your opponent’s answers will suddenly evaporate as, turn after turn, you spew out an army of rats that get bigger and bigger.
The main secret to Pack Rat’s success is that the token it makes is a copy of itself. This means that it keeps the ability to make more of them, and so leaving even one rat alive can quickly spiral out of control. Absent a board wipe, there’s a surprisingly small amount you can do in response to a Pack Rat that’s entrenched. It does also have synergy with other Rats, since its power and toughness are equal to the number of Rats you control (and not just copies of itself), and so even decks that are aiming to rat out their opponents have another option to accomplish that goal with.
Pack Rat hasn’t quite mad it in the big leagues of Modern and deeper formats since scurrying out of Standard. It takes just a bit too long to get going unless you’re in a very late-game scenario, and Pack Rat dies to just about every removal spell known to man (and some spells thus unknown) until it has a chance to start multiplying. That said, it’s a phenomenal inclusion in any deck aiming to prove themselves the Vermin Supreme, and it’s a rare card that can, if you have three lands and just it, eventually win you the game on its own. That’s quite scary, even if it’s ultimately answerable.
Constructed: 3 (I do think it’s not bereft of promise, but Rat.dec hasn’t quite made it in deeper formats)
Casual: 5
Limited: 5 (like Umezawa’s Jitte, I’d rate this as a 6 if I could)
Multiplayer: 3
Commander [EDH]: 4 (Rat.dec is a thing here, and while Pack Rat isn’t inextricable, you really should not omit it)
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