The Rack

Artifact

As The Rack enters the battlefield, choose an opponent.

At the beginning of the chosen player's upkeep, The Rack deals X damage to that player, where X is 3 minus the number of cards in his or her hand.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Oldschool 93/94	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Casual	Legal
Custom	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal

Discussion (46)

Ouroboros_47 on Discard Shenanigans Budget Competitive

1 week ago

There's lots of cheap legacy cards that you should consider. Dark Ritual, Hymn to Tourach, Smallpox, Blackmail, The Rack, and Shrieking Affliction to name a few. Tourach, Dread Cantor is pretty good to.

Chasmolinker on Rat Deck Wins

3 weeks ago

Any interest in The Rack or Shrieking Affliction?

Gentoo on Karn Rack Control

3 weeks ago

Bulldawg1310 I have 4 Urza's Saga and 3 Karn, the Great Creator which can fetch my 3 copies of The Rack in a timely fashion. That is effectively 9 The Racks with only having to commit 2 main deck and 1 sideboard slots to it. This deck does not lean on The Rack effects for its win cons. I have opted for diversified threats on the form of constructs from Urza's Saga, Mishra's Factory, and several Karn, the Great Creator fetch targets in addition to The Rack.

Bulldawg1310 on Karn Rack Control

3 weeks ago

Why arent you playing with Shrieking Affliction? Pretty much mandatory in any rack deck. You should also have a playset of The Rack.

heckproof on Will this 7-rack be competitive?

1 month ago

@StoryArcher:

Well, you play Urza's Saga and wait 3 turns for an artifact...but it also gives you mana the turn you play it, and a construct, which occasionally will actually win you the game even if you don't have a ton of artifacts, and then in addition the artifact you tutor on that 3rd turn is either The Rack, which is a win condition for the deck, or a random hate card so that you don't lose the game you're currently playing. It literally draws you a win condition for doing nothing.

Urza's Saga is so good precisely because it's all value at a pretty dang low opportunity cost.

heckproof on Will this 7-rack be competitive?

1 month ago

Seems fine at first glance, although I admittedly don't have a ton of experience with rack-type strategies. Some thoughts, though:

-why not the full playset of Shrieking Affliction? It seems like you'd want as much consistency as possible for a deck that needs critical mass as a win condition

-alternatively, you could run some Urza's Saga, which would essentially give you 4 extra copies of The Rack to draw. You could then also have some one-of artifact hate cards like Pithing Needle or Nihil Spellbomb

-I've always been a fan of Funeral Charm because it gives you options -If you're having trouble with card draw, it could be worth just running Ensnaring Bridge instead; you'd turn a disadvantage (no more cards in hand :( ) into an advantage - creatures can't attack you, which is good because most of your win conditions don't do anything to effect the board state.

-I do like Sign in Blood from a nostalgia standpoint, as I've definitely burned some people to death with it in casual play. But I'm not sure how well it still holds up in Modern.

Just my 2 cents, feel free to take it or leave it

Drestlin on Hexproof ramp n pump

1 month ago

Thank you, i tried a few changes (without completely redesigning the deck) but i've gone against a way pricier black discard/The Rack Liliana's Caress Nyxathid Shrieking Affliction deck (which i have learned is an 8-rack?). I'm unsure if i want to really make a stompy (i don't want a bunch of tiny creatures to pump up, i like to have mainly thick ones...so maybe i'll just start over with something else (like a white green enchantment/creatures) deck?

DreadKhan on Beefy Budget Pox

2 months ago

My issue with Mine would be giving people cards after a Hymn is really bad, a pair of lucky hits with that card can end a surprising number of games more or less on the spot, hitting 2 lands can be backbreaking with my Smallpox and Sinkhole pressure already present. Letting them draw extra would give them too much hope I think!

I think Howling Mine might be more interesting in a deck using Megrim and Liliana's Caress, there are quite a few versions, including a creature I think. I usually build discard around The Rack and Shrieking Affliction, but Megrims can work too. 12 Rack Diesel was what I came up with awhile back for Legacy Discard in a creature using Meta. It's less budget obviously, but with 2 discard enchantments out it's almost impossible to keep a full hand, though your 2 cards per Draw Step would change things a bit! I also have a Discard themed Commander deck, but that's a whole mess of weird, using effects to limit opponent's resources while they discard to death.