MTG rats run wild in Throne of Eldraine with Piper of the Swarm

Beware of the rat piper.
Magic The Gathering Throne of Eldraine and Brawl format combine
Image via Wizards of the Coast Magic: The Gathering

Rat tribal themes find a helping hand within the Throne of Eldraine set with Piper of the Swarm. 

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The newest MTG set, Throne of Eldraine (ELD), will feature themes of folklore and fairy tales. Black creatures have been the dominating color in today’s spoilers, with Piper of the Swarm being the most recent reveal prior to today’s livestream announcements.

Piper of the Swarm Twitter image MTG Throne of Eldraine
Image via Wizards of the Coast Magic: The Gathering

Rats in MTG once dominated with Rat Colony, but with rotation, this Dominaria card is out of Standard. Piper of the Swarm, though, has the potential to breathe life back into the rat tribal theme. 

As a one/three, Piper of the Swarm withstands attacks from cards like Shock while being able to defend early on the match. Piper also creates rat tokens for the cost of two mana, which might play a major role in ELD cards that have yet to be spoiled. 

Stacking rats has its advantages with Piper of the Swarm. Paying four mana and sacrificing three rats will destroy a target creature. Combining removal with token stacking is worth the two mana cost attached to Piper and will fit nicely into Mono-Black decks running a rat tribal theme. 

Piper of the Storm is worth the hype due to it giving all rat creatures and tokens menace. Burglar Rat, however, is the only rat surviving rotation, so the ELD set will need to have additional rats joining the fray for Piper of the Storm to truly dominate. 

The Throne of Eldraine set releases on Oct. 4 via tabletop and Sept. 27 via MTG Arena and MTGO. The pre-release event for the MTG set will take place from Sept. 27 to 29.  


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Danny Forster
Lead Magic: The Gathering/Teamfight Tactics scribe and staff writer for Dot Esports. Danny is a gamer beach bum residing in Spacecoast Florida and has been a journalist for seven years, of which five have been at Dot Esports. Prior media outllets Danny wrote for were Screen Rant and TheGamer. You can typically catch Danny playing TCGs and a variety of strategic games. He also hangs out on Twitter @Dannyspacecoast.