Sewer Rats Is G.O.A.T.ed in Immortal Throne Magician

Since trying to break The Immortal Throne in Magician, I've tried many different packages to draw as many cards as possible to assemble the pieces to scale the throne and sit atop it alone. While cards constantly move in and out of the list, the Sunken Treasure package has remained constant.

A quick recap: the best opening sequence is Croaking Swamp on turn one, a two-mana generating site (e.g., Dark Tower, Lone Tower, Gothic Tower, City of Plenty) on turn two to cast Sunken Treasure, which can only conjure under Croaking Swamp where the frog token is.

This opening led to so much velocity that I'd have played eight Sunken Treasure if it were possible. It took me eight months, but I've finally found the way: Sewer Rats.

Sewer Rats???

That's right. Sewer Rats was the hidden gem in the Realm I was hunting for. Turn one: play any site, cast Sewer Rats to its subsurface. Turn two, play a two-mana generating site, cast either Sunken Treasure or Buried Treasure, and the Sewer Rats is guaranteed to surface it to start turn three.

Sewer Rats is the bridge between both treasures and allows for much more consistent mulliganing to the best openings. Sewer Rats and Buried Treasure also pave the way for City of Glass to match the potency of City of Plenty on turn two for purposes of deploying a treasure; a tower or Mountain Peaks on turn one will turn on City of Glass on turn two to cast a Buried Treasure.

Immortal Magician by ForceofPhil

Of course, the list is a work in progress, and the upcoming Frostmage vs. Lavamancer set is likely to shake things up (excited to add Tundra!),

Minions (10)

4 Sewer Rats water
1 Highland Princess air air
2 Salmon of Knowledge water water
1 The Lady of the Lake water water water
2 Grandmaster Wizard air air

Magics (13)

1 Plague of Frogs water water water
1 Browse air air air
4 Gift of the Frog water water
2 Return to Nature water
2 Four Fat Frogs water water
2 Dhol Chants air air
1 Chaoswish air air

Artifacts (19)

1 Aquamarine Core
1 Amethyst Core
1 Ruby Core
1 Key to the City
1 Kythera Mechanism
1 Ring of Morrigan
2 Silver Bullet
1 Shrine of the Dragonlord
1 Four Waters of Paradise
1 Pnakotic Manuscript
3 Sunken Treasure
2 Buried Treasure
1 Panpipes of Pom
1 The Immortal Throne
1 13 Treasures of Britain

Auras (1)

1 Atlantean Fate water water

Collection (10)

1 Ferryman's Coin
1 Exhume earth
1 Dredge water
1 Swap water water
1 Scatter air water
1 Buried Treasure
1 Four Fat Frogs water water
1 Poison Nova fire
1 Gnarled Wendigo water
1 Muirid Formorians water water

Opens TCGPlayer Mass Entry with the full decklist pre-loaded.

Select Sorcery: Contested Realm as the Product Line, then click Add to Cart.

Collection Considerations

I am trying to find space to get the Onyx Core back into the deck, but earth is the least important splash, and Key to the City has more text against problematic hate sites like Garden of Eden or the new Court cycle.

Speaking of, Sewer Rats first ability to be cast to any site is potent against hate sites because it'd be much easier to convert Raze. I've played Raze in my collection of previous builds (using Fey Changeling similarly), but would need to adjust the thresholds to support fire fire without Wiccan Tools.

The spread in the collection is meant to let Silver Bullet function as a modal spell for any mana cost needed to trigger it. I like Ferryman's Coin in the one-drop slot since it pays for itself. I have thought about Fourberie Knot to help defend against thicker minions while at Death's Door, but haven't tested that yet.

Depending on what you expect to face, Fey Changeling or Invigorate are reasonable inclusions. To help combat aggression, I've previously played Poisonous Dagger to combo with Ring of Morrigan. My current theory is that Panpipes of Pom can help frog tokens trade for opposing minions.

Going Full Frog

I have been impressed by the full frog package as a means to create power engines. Pnakotic Manuscript, Dhol Chants, and 13 Treasures of Britain all reward copious allies in the Realm.

I played Gift of the Frog in earlier builds but found it inconsistent because I wasn't playing many minions. Getting the frog on turn two only happened if I also opened Croaking Swamp. Sewer Rats is, however, so good and enables full value Gift of the Frog on turn two.

The Math of Card Draw

The only card in the game at the time of this article's publication that draws a card for is Pendragon Legacy. That's an outlier. There are a plethora of cards that draw a card for , including the Gift cycle and Wiccan Tools. To me, that suggests the reasonable rate to draw a card is ; anything more than that is overpaying.

As a result, I wouldn't consider drawing a single card for — no Apprentice Wizard or Deep-sea Mermaids. Grandmaster Wizard is exactly on rate: three cards for is per card.

Through this lens, Sunken Treasure, Buried Treasure, and Salmon of Knowledge are above rate, even if they require a hoop to jump through. I'd rather jump through hoops than pay more mana.