Here is a 1 win/2 loss match online. My opponent's deck is the very best (and, of course, extremely expensive) Bant (white, blue, green) deck possible.
Game 1 (lost). I gained a slight lead with the rats, but once a couple of Jace, Architect of Thought cards showed up, it was GG (good game).
I got one of my Underworld Connections to help me draw.
But Jace's second ability enabled my opponent to draw more and draw from a much better deck. Blue has long been the winning color in Magic, going back to the very first set, Alpha.
Here is the early game transcript.
And then comes Angel of Serenity to seal the deal by capturing my one remaining rat.
By this time, even though I had two Underworld Connections ready to draw for me, my life count was too low to use them effectively. This is where the Elixir of Immortality play set I added would have come in handy.
I won the second game. The stars were aligned for my rats in this game.
My opponent dropped a solid 1/5 defensive creature, but I copied my Pack Rats fast enough to get them pumped strong.
I lost the third game, a Thragtusk and Planeswalker affair.
I was able to boost my life count well with Elixirs.
But Thragtusk just kept on coming.
Two Thragtusks against my deck running out of creatures was too much, even after I played a Curse of Death's Hold to slow them down -1/-1. I only slowed down my loss at this point. This is one of the big failings of the Pack Rat deck: you have to pull them at the right time, and if you don't, you lose.
Here are two Detention Sphere with two of my cards, and a Jace. This deck is packing some serious heat (my opponent's, that is).
And to add insult to injury my opponent drew a Tamiyo and a core set Garruk! Please!
The good news is that I was able to win one game against this amazing deck. I think this Pack Rat deck is one of the best budget decks in the current format. Of course, tournament decks are NEVER budget decks in Magic. Budget:Lose::Money:Win.
