Legendary Creature — Rat Warlock

Wick, the Whorled Mind

Mana value4EDHREC#8,590

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The Commander

Whenever Wick or another Rat you control enters, create a 1/1 black Snail creature token if you don't control a Snail. Otherwise, put a +1/+1 counter on a Snail you control.

{U} {B} {R} , Sacrifice a Snail: Wick deals damage equal to the sacrificed creature's power to each opponent. Then draw cards equal to the sacrificed creature's power.

Guide

Gameplan

Flood the board with Rats to grow a single Snail token with +1/+1 counters, then activate Wick's ability to sacrifice the Snail for a huge burst of damage to each opponent while refilling your hand. Repeat the loop — make a new Snail off your next Rat, pump it, and fire again. You win by chaining Snail sacrifices for direct damage while never running out of gas.

Strengths

Built-in card advantage engine — every Snail sacrifice draws cards equal to its power.
Hits all opponents simultaneously, making it strong in multiplayer and resilient to single removal.
Rat tribal gives access to cheap, recursive bodies that fuel both Snail creation and growth.
Grixis colors give premium removal, card draw, and combo support.

Weaknesses

Relies on Wick being on the battlefield; commander tax and repeated removal slow the whole plan.
The Snail is a single point of failure — edicts, theft, or counter removal stall you.
The activated ability is mana-hungry at UBR each use, capping how often you can loop per turn.
No built-in protection; you're vulnerable to board wipes erasing your Rats and Snail at once.

Key Cards

Pack Rat — Turns spare cards into a swarm of Rats, each triggering Snail growth and pumping your sacrifice payload.
Marrow-Gnawer — Mass-produces Rat tokens that snowball Snail counters every time they enter.
Throne of the God-Pharaoh — Converts your wide Rat board into extra damage each turn while you build the Snail.
Ashnod's Altar — Generates mana to chain multiple Snail activations or sacrifice Rats for value.
Anointed Procession — Doubles your Snail and Rat tokens, accelerating both the engine and the kill.
Cabal Coffers — Provides the heavy mana needed to repeatedly fire Wick's UBR sacrifice ability.

Upgrade Path

Add token doublers (Anointed Procession, Parallel Lives) and free sacrifice outlets (Ashnod's Altar, Phyrexian Altar) to enable explosive same-turn loops, plus mana rocks and Cabal Coffers to power repeated activations. Include protection like Heroic Intervention and Deflecting Swat to shield Wick and the Snail. For the highest power, lean into infinite Rat token loops (e.g., with cost reducers and recursion) to make an arbitrarily large Snail for a one-shot table kill.

Core Cards

The most-played cards for this commander, built from aggregated deck data (the Mythic Graph). Build public decks to seed it.

Win Conditions

▸Sacrificing a heavily-counter-loaded Snail to deal lethal damage to each opponent at once.
▸Chaining multiple Snail sacrifices in a turn using ramp and token doublers.
▸Grinding incremental damage with Throne of the God-Pharaoh or aristocrat drains alongside the Snail.
▸Beating down with a wide, buffed Rat army when the engine is disrupted.

Archetypes

Tribal Aristocrats — Rats feed Snail counters and the sacrifice outlet doubles as a drain-and-draw engine.
Tokens — Wick rewards going wide with Rats, each entry growing your payoff Snail.
Combo — Free or cheap Rat token loops plus the sacrifice outlet can drain the table in one turn.
Spellslinger Control — Grixis removal and card draw protect the engine while burst draw fuels reactive play.