Plague Rats

Plague Rats was originally released in the 1993 Alpha set, serving as an early example of a mechanical design that scales in power based on the number of copies a player includes in their deck. By the time the card appeared in the 1995 Fourth Edition, it had become a staple of the common rarity slot, representing the core aesthetic of Magic: The Gathering's early years. This version of the card features the distinct, gritty illustrative style of Anson Maddocks, whose work defined the dark and visceral tone of many black-aligned creatures during the game's formative period.

The design of the card reflects the influence of classic fantasy horror, focusing on a swarm mechanic that encourages players to abandon traditional deck-building variety in favor of redundancy. When Fourth Edition was released, it served as a foundational base set that consolidated many popular cards from the game's initial expansions. Maddocks' illustration for this iteration emphasizes a claustrophobic, teeming composition, a hallmark of his contributions that resonated with players who favored the thematic depth and visual cohesion of the game's first few years.