Rack and Slash

Modern 8-Rack Mono-Black

RobertFischer

8 drop (3)

• 3x Avatar of Woe

0 drop (20)

• 4x Field of Ruin
• 4x Ghost Quarter
• 4x Howltooth Hollow
• 8x Swamp

3 drop (11)

• 4x Hypnotic Specter
• 3x Necroplasm
• 4x Stronghold Rats

1 drop (16)

• 4x Inquisition of Kozilek
• 4x Shrieking Affliction
• 4x The Rack
• 4x Thoughtseize

2 drop (8)

• 4x Miasmic Mummy
• 4x Rotting Rats

4 drop (2)

• 2x Mindslicer

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Sideboard

3 drop (4)

• 4x Crypt Incursion

1 drop (7)

• 3x Elixir of Immortality
• 4x Surgical Extraction

4 drop (4)

• 4x Memoricide

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The Beauty of the Rack

I love the 8-racks, because players will slow down their own tempo for fear of running their hand down, which is a delicious kind of psychological control. Unfortunately, the standard 8-rack approach seems dodgy: there's simply no Plan B in that deck, and a long tail for the opponent to try to pull themselves out. It's made worse by the self-discard leaving the player in the same locked-out, helpless position as their opponent...and drawing all those discard-enabling cards are pointless when your opponent already has no cards. So I've been exploring alternatives. One was 8Rakdos. This is another.

Rack and Slash

The theory here is to force discard while also doing damage. The point of the racks themselves is twofold: first, to damage the opponent when they have no (few) cards in their hand; second, to discourage the opponent from casting spells and playing land. That's the core of the deck.

Vanilla 8-Rack combines this with discard-based control, often with something like Ensnaring Bridge to prevent threats that manage to get cast.

This deck takes a more aggressive approach: it fields creatures that will force discard while also doing damage in their own right. The theory is that your opponent has to respond to the threats you are playing out, because they will force discards and do damagebut responding also means playing out precious cards from the hand. Either way, the racks win.

Date added	9 years
Last updated	6 years
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	7 - 0 Mythic Rares 17 - 8 Rares 20 - 3 Uncommons 8 - 4 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.42