So, I’m trying to figure out why dirty rat is hailed as the great champion of hand disruption. Is it because you could run two or was it’s cost great for the disruption it creates?
Do you think hand disruption is better or worse now with the new legendaries: Mutanis and the the other homie.
Well its cheap and it pulls a minion out of opponents hand. Sometimes it can backfire, most of the time though its pretty good. It usually runs well with reno decks and if you have brann can really punish opponent.
I think hand disruption has gotten a lot better. Now that you can really take out an opponents hand if they are holding it for the entire game, or if they are saving a minion, you can take it from them. It promotes more thought out plays which is always good.
People just have rose coloured glasses. Dirty rat was the most powerful disruption in its time (and a long while after). We have a ton of other disruption now, but everything is a lot more powerful or synergistic in general.
Not really power crept. Although Mutanus is a better effect it also costs 5 more mana. What makes Dirty Rat desirable is it’s low mana cost that leaves room to do other stuff for your turn and also allows you to use it just about anytime you want as opposed to only if you can spare 7 mana on something that does not Taunt, Add to your Health total, or remove threats from the board.
One quick example of Dirty Rat being better is Dirty Rat + Brawl for 7 mana vs just a Mutanus when the opponent has a large board. You get your disruption and deal with the board vs just a Big Mutanus the opponent can just ignore while they continue Punching your Face. You can come up a number of scenarios for 7-10 Mana where Dirty Rat + Something is better than Mutanus + Whatever you have for 3 mana or less.
So, why hasn’t a Dirty Rat been printed again? Was it too disruptive or did they just lean away from hand disruption altogether?
They probably feel there is enough hand disruption as is.
It wouldn’t surprise me to see Dirty Rat 2.0 but something more along the lines of a 4+ mana cost in the future.
As far as disruption goes, Dirty Rat is more balanced than Mutanus, but the way the power creep is going I am sure a more broken Mutanus will be printed.
I dont believe Dirty Rat and Mutanus are comparable. One is 2 mana and can be used much earlier than Mutanus, while Mutanus is a legendary that gains stats of the minion eaten, but you usually have to spend your entire turn playing it.
Why do you say it’s balanced over the current hand disruption?
Just curious.
Also, was Bran in the meta with Dirty Rat at any time or no?
Dirty Rat + frog or devolve or sheep or any removal really…
That is why I find it overall better than Mutanus. And you can have 2 in your deck.
The rat was simply more flexible disruption that you can have two in deck. You could play it early to disrupt aggro or you can wait for mid to late game and hope to hit the minions with big effects when played to stop them.
Mutanus strictly for what it does on paper has the more powerful BC effect. However the Rat is more powerful overall in subtle ways. At two mana there’s so much more you can do after you pull the minion from hand with your excess mana.
Being two mana, and a taunt, are pretty important.
Because:
Bolner
Rat
Flurgl
Toxfin
Kill 3 minions from hand and the current board.
It’s one of the most beautiful plays in Hearthstone. I am 
every time.
Dirty Rat can backfire. The worst thing that can happen with Mutanus is that it whiffs out and eats nothing.
Brann was printed in The League of Explorers, Dirty Rat in Mean Streets.
Rat + Sheep, rat + frog, rat + devolve, rat + devolving missiles, rat + plague of murlocs, etc.
This is why !Rat on 2 is often a really bad and hilarious play.
i want Rat King hunter to be a thing so i welcome this for wild
What do you guys mean by backfire? The card was perfect, all you had to do was Brann>Dirty Rat>MC Tech their minions. Now they are yours!
On a more serious note, Dirty Rat hasn’t ever truly been power crept. In wild some decks still include it, which means that to this day it still is a powerful disruption tool.
Other cards tried to achieve the same power level, but they were utterly useless vs aggro, while Dirty Rat is literally a dream come true vs them (2/6 Taunt for 2 Mana is simply amazing). The drawback occasionally hurt, but the odds were low considering most aggro decks run mostly low cost cards and the occasional high cost powerhouse.
In other scenarios, you ran him with removal cards ready in case you got a big hit. Sure, it was 2 for 1, but the occasional 1 was the difference between a win and a loss. And the mana cost is a huge difference, Mutanus is 7 while a Warrior with Shield Slam could do the work at 3 (granted they have armor).
You can also squeeze it with Brawl/Twisting Nether cards. 2 Mana to remove an enemy card from hand is pretty good.
Oh, and Brann definitely had some naughty combos with it. If you reduced their cost with Thaurissan, you could empty hands and clear the board.
I prefer the rat way more, if the card was Standard I will never run Mutanus, how many times the opponent play the quest reward and you have an useless Mutanus in hand and only 6 manas?
Greeting emote. Play a Scargill that’s been cost reduced by Clownfish. Play Bolnar. Play Mutanus. Then play as many battlecry minions, especially 1 cost murlocs, as your remaining mana and cards in hand will allow. Threaten emote. Wait for your opponent to concede.
Disgusting.