(Gollum, Patient Plotter | Art by Lorenzo Mastroianni)

Rata Redeux

Hello, fellow brewer, and welcome back to Brew for your Buck, where we swap out the top 10 most expensive cards in a deck with 10 budget cards that add a unique twist. Based on our poll from last time, you all overwhelmingly wanted to revisit the very first Brew for your Buck (BFYB) commander, Ratadrabik of Urborg. It's no secret that outside the almighty amphibian, Ratadrabik is my favorite commander. The lines of play with token doublers, additional death triggers, sacrificing, and reanimating things are right in my wheelhouse. I play him in paper, on Arena in Historic Brawl, and even submitted a cEDH brew to the decklist database. I'm only a little obsessed.

The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle Earth introduced the Ring tempts you mechanic which is really fun for Limited, where the first mode is often a throwaway/flavorful line of text. However, it's wildly important for what we're going to look at today. When you choose a creature as a Ring-Bearer, it becomes legendary. It. Becomes. Legendary. This means that if we can consistently be tempted by the ring, we can turn any non-legend into something that will trigger Ratadrabik when it dies - including the nonlegendary token that is the result of said trigger. Combine with a sacrifice outlet, and we now have infinite death and EtB triggers. Throw in a Blood Artist, and we're winning the game.

So, let's take another look at Ratadrabik's list, and give in to some temptations! Currently, the average deck comes it at $446.84, so we have plenty of room to work with. Here's what we'll cut:

1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. Anointed Procession ($39.42)
               2. Demonic Tutor ($28.34)
               3. Mondrak, Glory Dominus ($22.48)
               4. Phyrexian Altar ($20.87)
               5. Smothering Tithe ($18.47)
               6. Kokusho, the Evening Star ($17.40)
               7. Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite ($11.85)
               8. Yawgmoth, Thran Physician ($11.56)
               9. Reanimate ($10.52)
               10. Elenda, the Dusk Rose ($9.63)

Total Value of Cuts: $190.54

Swapping out the four expensive lands would save an additional $75.14, bringing our total savings to $265.68.

Included Highlights

As expected, Ratadrabik's list has been updated with some of the new cards that I wanted to talk about this time, so let's talk about the highlights already included in the ninety card list before we add the last ten. First and foremost, we have Boromir, Warden of the Tower and Samwise the Stouthearted. These two are key combo pieces, because they're legendary creatures that have a ring-tempt ability stapled to them. With Ratadrabik out, sacrificing either of these (Boromir to himself or Sam to something else) will create a token copy and put a ring-tempt trigger on the stack. If you choose the token as your Ring-Bearer, you can repeat that loop over and over again.

We also have Nazgûl, though just one. Adding the other eight for flavor purposes is up to you, though we will pass today since they're almost $9 uncommons. Nazgûl functions in basically the same way as above, but you have to choose itself to be the Ring-Bearer with its initial EtB trigger. Call of the Ring is another way to repeatedly ring-tempt, and on top of the card advantage, it can make any of your other creatures into a Ring-Bearer for additional shenanigans. While not part of our primary combo gameplan, we also have Gandalf the White, which is yet another way to double up on Ratadrabik triggers.

Additions

Precious Win-Cons

First, we can add the fourth ring-tempting creature, everyone's favorite stinker or sneaker, Gollum, Patient Plotter ($0.04). In addition to being able to recur himself and be a sac outlet from the graveyard, Gollum's leave the battlefield trigger functions much in the same way that Sam's EtB trigger does, meaning you'll need a sac outlet and a pinger to win the game. But what if we could remove the need for two separate pieces and combine the sac outlet and pinger into one card? Altar of Dementia ($4.54) and Blasting Station ($5.32) are our not-so-budget cards for this time, but I can assure you that they're worth the inclusion to make our combos with Sam and Gollum that much more compact. With Altar you can mill out the table, and with Station you can repeatedly untap it when the token enters to machine gun everything. Take that Sauron! Just note that these can't be used with Boromir, since he has to sacrifice himself in order to get the ring tempt.

Searching for the Ring

Now we need to find our key pieces. I will resist the urge to call out Mausoleum Secrets two articles in a row (but seriously, play more of that card) though we do have two other tutors can find the combo pieces that also match the flavor of the deck. War of the Last Alliance ($1.71) is another LTR card that can grab Boromir and a pinger like Elas or Syr Konrad to have the win in hand right after the second chapter. Search for Glory ($0.60) is one I missed in the first article. An important distinction with the wording here is that it finds any legendary card, not just a creature. It's hard to overstate this utility. Need to permanently deal with a threat? Grab Kaya. Want to reanimate your graveyard? Primevals' Glorious Rebirth. Really desperate to make a land drop? Takenuma and friends.

Resist and Recur

After a while, your opponents will probably catch on to what's going on and might try to snipe your combo pieces before you can assemble a game-winning engine. Adding some more recursion to the deck will certainly help us be more resilient. We can give some love to the most nightmarish Cat around, Lurrus of the Dream-Den ($0.45). Even though we can't Companion it, Lurrus can recur nineteen of the cards in our final list, including most of the combo pieces. The recently reprinted Sevinne's Reclamation ($0.27), can recur all of the combo pieces and maybe even two at once!

Shortcut to Synergy

One of the things I really like about Ratadrabik is that there are SO MANY synergistic cards for the deck. I'm confident that we could fill 200 slots if we ever get double-stuffed EDH as a sanctioned format. Here are some choices from my personal list that have proven to be great additions to the deck. Relic of Legends is an awesome card, so let's include its now power-crept little sibling, Honor-Worn Shaku ($0.23). Wernog, Rider's Chaplain ($0.50) or Will the Wise ($0.47) for my Stranger Things fans is sneakily one of the best creatures to use in conjunction with Ratadrabik. Since Wernog triggers when he enters or leaves the battlefield, the life loss and Clues add up really quick! So many of my opponents have said "I'll just lose the life" and before they know it, they're close to dead and I'm sitting on a stack of Clues anyway. In a similar vein, Daxos, Blessed by the Sun ($0.18) is our final addition to the list. I'm always a fan of incidental lifegain, especially when I need time to set up a combo. Daxos can gain us a ton of life, and his butt can get so big that he's impossible to attack through on the ground.

Wrap Up and Savings

As we usually do when adding combo packages, let's recap our lines to victory:

1. Ratadrabik and one of Boromir, Gollum, Sam, or an already tempted Nazgûl on the battlefield.
2. Sacrifice one of them to an outlet of your choice, trigger Ratadrabik.
3. Create the token, then choose it as your Ring-Bearer.
4. Repeat for infinite enters, leaves, dies triggers.

Now we can take a look at the savings:

We managed to save just over half the cost of the deck, which is a bit better than our first time with Ratadrabik. The new price is still close to $200 though, so if you want to save some more while maximizing the cards in your list, just continue the BFYB process that I know you've come to love. There are a ton of options that we could have put into the list, and I'd love to hear from fellow Ratadrabik enthusiasts on their sweet pieces of tech, so let me know in the comments below!

We've done a lot of combo packages lately, and we've had the Orzhov color pair featured twice in a row, so be on the lookout for some Temur-ish fun the next time that we brew for your buck!

Follow me on Twitter @BrewForYourBuck

Please note: card prices listed in this article are accurate at the time of writing, but prices can vary over time and between locations.

Read more:

• Brew For Your Buck - The Legend Persists
• Nearly Identical - Edgar or Edgar?
• Solve the Equation - Can You Play "Legendary Matters" Cards in Any Deck?

Brian Cain

Brian played Magic intermittently between 2003 and 2017 when he fully embraced his love for Commander. Finding ways to maximize the value of each piece of cardboard in the deck is one of his favorite things to explore, especially if it involves putting lands in the graveyard! Outside of Magic, Brian works as a consultant in the marine industry, turning his passion for boats and ships into a career.