Rats, Rats, Rats!!!

I thought that in my article, I'd have a look at a style of deck as opposed to a clan deck. There has been much arguement of late about the strengths and weaknesses of the Rat deck. Additionally there has been much discussion of which clan is best with 'em, I thought I'd try shed some light on the issue.

Though Unicorn, Shadowlands and Monk can play with At'tok'tuk Sensei, I can honestly say I have never seen one built with any of the available strongholds. I imagine however that the Monk Rat could be nasty (all of your rats can cast kihos!), but I will refrain from commenting much further on it.

With the new rats now in the environment most rat decks will be runing almost exclusively just the rats themselves, so there is little room for supporting clan characters. More and more rat decks of different clans are looking the same. But, appearances can be deceiving......

Crab Rat

The first rat deck. Inherent advantages include the cost reduction on Ratlings Nest from 4 to 3, the ability to play Dead Eyes on all of your personalities for free and the satisfaction of seeing a rat in your colours :-). Additionally you get Empty Crevasse for free on the Kaiu Walls box! The main advantage of this deck is the added speed of the free gold and the dead eyes. Can be very, very fast, but probably lacks that added something in the mid to late game. The gold chain in this deck is excellent and if you are willing to run low on events you can really pump out the force. With Small Farms, Merchant Caravans and Crevasses as free gold (some would consider playing Corrupt Iron Mines, but that leaves you exposed to anti-Shadowlands muck and the inability to bring out Rik'Tik'Chik) and the fact that Iron Mines and Crevasses pay for your Ratling Nests, things can build up very fast for you, peeking in cost for effect at around turn 4. Because you have a fair amount of effective gold, this deck can get away with playing more followers than the the other clans can. This leads to more permanent force and a nightmare for your opponent!!

Mantis Rat

Up until recently many regarded this as the strongest Rat deck. The 8 province strength is truly excellent and gives you that added defense you need against other fast military decks. The 5 gold production allows you to play Tchickchuck off the box even under Nio, and also allows you to play Ratling Bushis and Goheis' Daisho off the box normally. Additionally, though this is a rarity, you get to lay the smackdown with Da Man giving all of your Rats +2F!!!! Mantis rats tend to play with a very sparse gold scheme, relying on their 5gp and Tchickchuck to bring everything out. This is both a huge advantage and their greatest weakness. Most Mantis Rat decks run with only 10 gold producing holdings (2 MC, 2SW/JW, 3 SF & 3 RN). This allows them the advantage of playing all of those great military events that the other clans don't really have the room to fit in. Alternatively they can play with more clan personalities, like Da Man and Makashi (for dead eyes and other force boosters!). Mantis rats is naturally fairly shaky, capable of blistering starts or of falling flat on its face (a bit like METH really). When it gets those starts though it is truly worth watching.

What has really put the cat amongst the rats for the Mantis is the growing use of Doom of the Alliance. Intended as a hoser against Fox, it also makes all of your Rats unaligned again, causing your bonuses from your standard, and Yoritomo to stop working aswell as the added cost of bringing your personalities into play. The end of the world? No. But unfortunately it is probably still the best Mantis deck.

Naga Rat

Now, I have only seen Naga rats played in the New Akasha stronghold, and as we all know, that is a crab stronghold. I have been thinking for a while however, that Naga rats, played out of the Shinomen Forests stronghold could be something worth watching out for.

The Naga rat big disadvantage is of course that they don't get Tchickchuck off the box. And to be sure this is a pain in the nads. However, They can play an almost totally free gold scheme and have the added advantage of completely ignoring fear affects and honor requirements! Add in Purusha and Pearl Magic and you can see where I am going with this deck. As almost an afterthought they are also the only clan that can give +1C to their rats using Fortress of the Dragonfly!!. All of the new 5g rats have really added to this deck aswell. The near necessity of playing One Koku is a blessing in disguise. One Koku can bring out those Purushas (of which you can play 4!) & Tattered Ear Tribes. A hard deck to defend against!

Scorpion Rat

I am slowly, but surely coming to the conclusion that this is actually the best rat deck. The Towers of the Yogo ability really frees up your fate deck. Any, non-follower deck you play against is likely to be in big, big trouble. Add in cards like the Broken Sword of the Scorpion, dying effort and inner fire and you already have a lethal military deck. Now you can also add in lots of other tricks, like Plea of the Peasants and Martyr and other forms of dishonor which the Scorpion are so good at. Just enough to slow down an honor runner and to push another scorpion over the edge. Just think of all those military decks out there that  tend to ignore honor (corrupt lion, standard military scorpion, Shadowlands in a can etc..) Often your opponents are desperately trying to save themselves from both a military and a dishonor defeat at the same time! All of your shear force and speed comes from the Rats (which is essentially what they're best at). An excellent deck capable of supporting an enormous variety of play styles.

How do Rats fair in the environment as a whole?

Pretty good really. As military decks go, they are very consistent. In general, they are not as exposed to bad draws as METH, CTB or Lion. They also have the advantage of incredible late game force, for laying that final smackdown!! They are weak against military tricks decks, unless they can achieve the speed edge or are playing action denial, and are particularly weak against Personality denial decks (as all follower decks are.)

My idea of a typical Rat deck (played off the Mantis stronghold of course) is:

Dynasty

Yoritomo xp1

Aramasu x2

Tchick'chuck x3

Z'orr'teck x3

Mak'uck x3

Ropp'tch'tch

Mat'tck x3

Keda x3

Ratling Villages x3

Small Farm x3

Ratling Nest x3

Merchant Caravan x2

Silk Works x2

March of the Alliance

Winter Warfare

1st Scroll is opened

Doom of the Brotherhood

Imperial Gift

Kolat Dupe

Enlistment

Ascension of the Mantis

Fate:

3 Sneak Attacks

3 Deadly Grounds

3 Avoid Fates

3 Ratling Bushis

3 Tattered Ear Tribes

2 Ratling Archers

3 Ratling Scouts

1 Ratling Pack

2 Storms of War,

Kitsuki Kaagis Journal

Battle Standard of the Mantis

Goheis Daisho

3 Take the Initiative

3 Rallying Crys

2 Superior Tactics

2 Forced Marches

3 Tests of Courage

Ring of the Void

There you go, any comments, just write an article about it and I will gladly post it here. Alternatively post on the bulletin board!