Arcane Foundry › Commanders › Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm
Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm
Legendary Creature — Rat Warlock · {3}{B} · Black commander
What Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm actually does
Read off the card by the same engine the Forge and Analyzer use — this is the mechanical classification, not a summary.
- Triggered ability · attackWhenever Ashcoat attacks or blocks, other Rats you control get +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the number of Rats you control.
- Triggered ability · end_stepAt the beginning of your end step, you may mill four cards. If you do, return up to two Rat creature cards from your graveyard to your hand.
What an Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm deck needs
Plays as rat typal. What the commander asks of the other 99 — read from the card and checked by hand.
- self-mill, discard and recursion (the graveyard is a resource its text reads)
- rat creatures (its text counts them)
- haste, evasion and protection for the commander, and extra combats (its own attack is the engine)
The Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm deck plan
The roles the Forge fills for this commander, and how many cards of each.
- 6× Put haste on the commander the turn it resolves — a tap ability is unusable otherwise
- 26× A body of the exact type the commander's trigger requires — the wrong type is worthless here regardless of quality
- 4× Make the commander connect — a body that never deals combat damage never triggers
- 6× Put your own cards into your graveyard as a resource
- 5× Actually remove one problem permanent — preventing its damage is not removing it
- 9× Find the exact card the plan needs
- 1× Answer a whole board at once
- 7× Refill your hand
- 2× Keep a permanent you control alive through removal
Best cards for Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm
Ranked by an engine that reads what each card does — its real cost, its delay and how reliably it works — rather than counting how often other people play it.
Put haste on the commander the turn it resolves — a tap ability is unusable otherwise
- Thousand-Year Elixir3 mana
- Lightning Greaves2 mana
- Swiftfoot Boots2 mana
- Akroma's Memorial7 mana
- Lavaspur Boots1 mana
- Sting, the Glinting Dagger2 mana
- Haunted Cloak3 mana
- Sword of Vengeance3 mana
A body of the exact type the commander's trigger requires — the wrong type is worthless here regardless of quality
- Greedy Freebooter1 mana
- Blightbelly Rat2 mana
- Burglar Rat2 mana
- Gnat Miser1 mana
- Typhoid Rats1 mana
- Pitiless Plunderer4 mana
- Deadeye Tracker1 mana
- Drainpipe Vermin1 mana
Make the commander connect — a body that never deals combat damage never triggers
- Piper of the Swarm2 mana
- Eldrazi Monument5 mana
- Falthis, Shadowcat Familiar3 mana
- Akroma's Memorial7 mana
- Ninja Teen3 mana
- Shadowspear1 mana
- Bilbo's Ring3 mana
- Cliffhaven Kitesail1 mana
Put your own cards into your graveyard as a resource
- Takenuma, Abandoned Mire0 mana
- Stitcher's Supplier1 mana
- Ripples of Undeath2 mana
- Eden, Seat of the Sanctum0 mana
- Tomb Fortress0 mana
- Millikin2 mana
- Perpetual Timepiece2 mana
- Syr Konrad, the Grim5 mana
Actually remove one problem permanent — preventing its damage is not removing it
- Defile1 mana
- Tragic Slip1 mana
- Infernal Grasp2 mana
- Fatal Push1 mana
- Bitter Triumph2 mana
- Black Sun's Twilight1 mana
- Cut Down1 mana
- Erebos's Intervention1 mana
Find the exact card the plan needs
- Entomb1 mana
- Demonic Tutor2 mana
- Diabolic Intent2 mana
- Vampiric Tutor1 mana
- Imperial Seal1 mana
- Demonic Consultation1 mana
- Grim Tutor3 mana
- Tainted Pact2 mana
Answer a whole board at once
- Toxic Deluge3 mana
- Damnation4 mana
- Bontu's Last Reckoning3 mana
- Sickening Dreams2 mana
- Crypt Rats3 mana
- Extinction Event4 mana
- Endemic Plague4 mana
- The Meathook Massacre2 mana
Refill your hand
- Skullclamp1 mana
- Black Market Connections3 mana
- Braids, Arisen Nightmare3 mana
- Herald's Horn3 mana
- Morbid Opportunist3 mana
- Phyrexian Arena3 mana
- The One Ring4 mana
- Vexing Bauble1 mana
Keep a permanent you control alive through removal
- Lightning Greaves2 mana
- Swiftfoot Boots2 mana
- Eldrazi Monument5 mana
- Commander's Plate1 mana
- Mithril Coat3 mana
- Akroma's Memorial7 mana
- The Walls of Ba Sing Se8 mana
- Brotherhood Regalia2 mana
Combos with Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm
Known combos from Commander Spellbook that Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm is a piece of, and how many decks list them.
- Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm + Mind Over Matter + The Peregrine Dynamo
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