[[Rat King]] & pigs // Ratsty

Hello! If someone are reading this I want to preface everything in this "primer" as coming from someone who played Sorcery for the first time 1/1/2026. Another piece of information is that this is a mirror of how the deck looks like in paper for playing tabletop simulator and not an optimized version of the list. The reason I wrote this primer at all was to get my thoughts about the list down on paper and explain the deckbuilding choices (most of the slots are occupied by the idea of the deck i.e. the rats and pigs but I have been having a hard time choosing cards to fill the remaining slots).

A tip for all aspiring pilots of the [[Rat King]] is that [[Azuridge Caravan]] is NOT a rat, the rat king looks at the name and rarity of the 6 cards he searches. This is something that I embarrisingly discovered at a weekly and played the game out with 4 5 mana 4 power minions in my deck. [[The Inquisition]] is a recent edition and gets summoned by the pigs but NOT [[Rat King]], the king searches thus preventing your opponent from seeing it but the pigs reveal and the cards are technically still in the spellbook.

Updated 22/6/2026

A return! After cutting some albatrosses and including [[Return to Nature]] and having found 2 more unicorns the deck has gotten some new life. The most monumental change is that I have cut [[Cemetary Rats]], the other option was including some more ways of interacting with the cemetary. There is an argument for going the Magician route and trying to build towards only having hits in the deck after dumping it in the cemetary and using [[Rescue]] & [[Return to Nature]] but it feels way to slow. I tried including some rescues in the main, but the space felt very limited. The plan is still the same, get a bunch of critters onto the field and use [[Onslaught]] to push damage/trades. I also thought about including some artifacts for pushing damage, [[Book of the Dead]] has also been cut since it slots much better into some of my other decks.

Gameplan

The plan is simple we want to get hits off of [[Rat King]] and the pig chain, the rest of the deck is mainly just trying to survive or is loosely thematic/synergistic. With the inclusion of [[Hamlet]]'s and [[Sylvan Splendor]] we also have the option of storming off if we end up with the one cost beasts in hand. Something that took me a bit of losing to figure out is how to think about the positioning of [[Sylvan Splendor]], my current strategy is trying to leave a spot near my backline fora hamlet and then not playing sites in front of it in order to create a potential buffer for the splendor (once more I want to emphasize that this is the strategy of someone that does not really know anything).

A thought I have had is to change Avatar from Elementalist to Necromancer to have the power of pressing the skeleton button during the early turns and synergies with [[Pnakotic Manuscript]] and [[Bleeding Skull]].

Spellbook

[[Kettletop Leprechaun]] is the card that i most dislike in the deck, mainly due to it not being a beast, however if I am being honest because the draw a site smooths out the gameplan alot.

[[Onslaught]] is being run in order to have more payoffs for ending up with a big board. The dream is to be [[Sylvan Splendor]]ing in range of an enemy site with a [[Onslaght]] active and pushing a ton of damage.

A quick note about [[Feign Death]] is that it not only triggers the death rite of the king and rats, it also draws a card and gives stealth. My understanding is that it is fine to target a minion without a deathrite to cycle the card and set up for a potential killing blow with the stealth.

One of the bigger problems I have run into is the deck's lack of spot removal, about half the time the Avatar is too far away to reach the annoying minion with [[Apply Alkahest]]. Even with the [[Toolbox]]es this problem persists since most of the annoying minions are on a water site so bury does not work. Once again this is my anecdotal evidence and I am sure that there are plenty of targets that [[Bury]] actually hits.

[[Book of the dead]] is extremely helpful for getting through the grindy games or closing the games against aggresive match ups. There is some conflict with [[Wolpetinger]] and if you end up in that situation I would recommend you to enjoy it while it lasts.

[[Ruler of Thuul]] powerful card that helps the rats be more of a threat, sadly not a beast.

Atlas

There is nothing to fancy going on here and the explanation here is most likely overkill.

[[Pond]] does everything we want by casting our beasts ahead of schedule.

[[Elder Ruinns]] as mentioned is here to upcycle the rats and trigger the pig deathrites, preferably the [[Squeekers]].

[[Peculiar Port]] it feels really good to always be at (W)(W) by simply playing the site. Aside from just feeling good to top deck a recurring problem is wanting to hold the small rats in hand for [[Sylvan Splendor]] and not wanting to waste mana, these sites solves this problem.

[[Iceberg]] and [[Sinkhole]] are in here to help combat water decks playing forced movement + [[Thin Ice]]/[[The Void]]/[[Bottomless Pit]]. Being able to buy a turn by destroying their center site at turn 2 can also be huge.

[[Hamlet]] is in the deck for the combo with [[Sylvan Splendor]] and the ordinary one drops in the deck.

[[Haystack]] needed another earth site and it felt more powerful to turn of tutors rather than having 2-3 villages.

[[Rift Valley]] serves dual purposes by messing with bodies of water and creates an additional space for the rat king to spawn rats on at turn 3

Collection

[[Zap]] - for the finishing blow, not a new idea but gets the job done.

[[Common Sense]]] - a new edition for the ability of finding [[Squeekers]], [[Plague Rats]] and the [[Rescue]] in the spellbook. (Yes there is a [[Rescue]] in the spellbook but am trying the card out and this was a way of adding an additional copy at a "low" cost)

[[Disenchant]] & [[Unravel]] - need to be able to kill [[Ring of Morrigan]] and Omphaloses(?). Having both is to be able to punish [[Necromancer]]s and having an additional answer for [[Dapperyll Wampire]]s.

[[Bury]] - Found it the best spot removal spell to have in here. Very possible that there are better things to fill this purpose, water sites are a problem

[[Rescue]] - Expensive way of getting to replay key minions

[[Horrible Hybrids]] - [[Peculiar Port]]s, sometimes it is very nice to do something when we just have a bunch of rats in hand, have thought about going up one.

[[Shoggoth]] - [[Elder Ruins]], trying a way to upcycle the rats into something

Maybeboard

The maybeboard especially [[Pnakotic Manuscript]], [[The Pallid Bust]] and [[Plague of Frogs]] are cards that would push the deck to be almost competetive. Especially [[Plague of Frogs]] due to the interaction with [[Onslaught]]. Then there are some other obvious adds, particularly curious if [[Saintweald]] is as powerful in the deck as i think.

[[Salmon of Knowledge]] is probably one of the most enjoyable cards to me. It not only fits the theme of the deck of trying to highroll, you also have a bunch of random rats hanging around (if the game is going your way) and the deck is extremely card hungry (in my opinion more so than the average deck at the weekly, due to the card quality being a bit on the lower side). A note on the mathematics is that you have 25% of hitting with the fish (my interpretation of 14+ is greater than 14, tried finding info in the rulebook but was stumped) thus 1 minion - 25% of succeeding, 2 creatures - 44%, 3 creatures - 57%, creatures - 68%.

[[Lugbog Cat]] and [[Autumn Unicorn]] are just above rate and there is a strong argument for their inclusion, at the moment I am testing [[Accursed Albatross]] and [[Gnarled Wendigo]] and a future version of the list might play a full 3 copies of them both.

[[Questing Beast]] is a big beast and I really like the MTG version of questing beast.

[[Hounds of Ondaros]] a moving [[Watchtower]] coupled with the airborne and beast type feels like a potent combination and could take the place of [[Sacred Stag]]. It would be a bit awkward on the mana but at the same time would let the deck play the towers and [[Whirling Blades]].

[[Maidenn, Mother, Crone]] just a crazy card that does so many things.

[[Grasping Ground]] half of the rats have burrowing and this could lead to them doing something. However it feels like it will end up being a dead draw too frequently is my guess.

[[Gargantula]] Another big beast that also does somethinng the turn it hits the table. Being able to tutor for it with [[Assorted Animals]] is something that feels like it should be powerful. Currently testing one in the spellbook but should probably test 2 if I want to be able to play them.

[[Sir Yvain]] feels like it could add some additional top end to run over the top in the late game with the extra power.

[[Atlantean Fate]] The water threshold is virtually never a problem and it is extremely powerful but I do not own the card so...

[[Bleeding skull]] Usually we end up with a bunch of small creatures that get hunted down and the extra life loss might be what pushes the deck over the edge. However my copies live in my Necro deck so I have not tested it too much.

[[Drums of Doom]] Would make all rats to better versions of [[Plague Rat]] which consistently is the best rat the king pulls. In the non king games however it doesn't really help enough and the possibility of getting majorly run over by [[Murder of Crows]] has led to me cutting it for another minion.

[[Ring of Morrigan]] would be really good in this deck but not only do I not own the card but I would probably not play it out of protest because of how gross of a card it is.

-- Sites --

[[Boulevard of Bones]] - just a nice way to get free bodies

[[Brocéliande]] - giving all the beasts stealth can be huge and tapping mortals have potential upside

[[Elder Ruins]] and [[Gilman House]] are in consideration to be able to upcycle the rats once they hit play, the house might be a bit fanciful but the [[Elementalist]] helps with the threshold requirement. [[Elder Ruins]] on the otherhand I believe in fully due to the ability of also triggering the deathrites of the king and the pigs, just need to find another one.

[[Gilman House]] Another way to upcycle the Rats. Migth be too much of a conflict around the collection space

[[SaintWeald]] As mentioned above it feels like an addition that would enable more explosive early games and the idea of going [[Pigs of the Sounder]] -> [[Grand Old Boar]] on turn 3 is amazing.

[[Wormelow Tump]] would be nice to have in order to stop opponents from banishing beast for [[Book of the Dead]], [[Wopletinger]] and a potential [[The Pallid Bust]]

[[Tadpole Pool]] is a smaller free [[Plague of Frogs]] and I don't think I have to say much more than that

[[Rift Valley]] has really impressed me and I want to add the second copy

A thought is to include at least some additional fire sites in order to be able to hard cast [[The Inquistion]], maybe some deserts vs necro and helping the smaller rats trade up.

Rats & Pigs // Ratsty

@Stig