The Rack

Artifact

As this enters, choose an opponent.

At the beginning of the chosen player's upkeep, this deals X damage to that player, where X is 3 minus the number of cards in their hand.

Legality

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

Discussion (46)

SufferFromEDHD on Mindskinner Ability Loss

1 month ago

Ipnu Rivulet

Mind Bomb discard or mill

Black Vise and/or The Rack depending on your meta

Ankh of Mishra value

Crumbling Sanctuary commander #2

legendofa on Any discard payoffs on mono …

2 months ago

Waste Not and Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal  ^Flip are probably the best ones, and Liliana's Caress and Geth's Grimoire are worth considering.

Keep in mind that if you want to ensure that your opponents keep discarding, you need to make sure they have cards to discard. That Waste Not doesn't do anything if your opponents aren't moving their hands. If you want to keep your opponents' hands empty so they can't do anything, Shrieking Affliction and The Rack are the win cons of the 8-Rack deck.

So my next questions are, do you want to punish discarding and gain tempo and resources, or do you want to enforce empty hands and play control? Commander has room for overlap, but it's common to lean toward one or the other. And how competitive do you want this to be?

legendofa on no hand ever

7 months ago

Once you get your opponent's hand empty, they're probably going to be drawing and playing one cards a turn, so there's no actual discard for Liliana's Caress. Caress wants your opponent to be discarding a lot, which means your opponent needs to refill their hand once in a while. Since this deck looks like it's trying to get the opponents hand empty, rather than constantly discarding, The Rack or Shrieking Affliction would probably be more reliable. If you want to build around Caress, cards like Dark Deal or Baleful Mastery might help here.

Acquisitions Expert is slightly better than Corrupt Court Official, if you want to keep the creature base the same.

Depending on budget, Liliana of the Veil is more reliable discard than Dreamstealer here, and the Orcish Bowmasters in the maybeboard are a good deterrent for, hmm, pretty much everything. Still $60+ each, though.

Blackerhawk on Teenybones steels ur tings >:)

8 months ago

How about a The Rack (but it's only one target), a Skullcage and a Nezumi Shortfang  ^Flip for added damage based on hand size? And a good old Hymn to Tourach to replace one of the other discard cards.

legendofa on Reinvented wheel

8 months ago

One thought about Hullbreacher here is that it almost totally negates damage from Underworld Dreams and Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, and quickly gives Liliana's Caress and Waste Not nothing to do.

All these cards want the opponent to be continually drawing and discarding, which Hullbreacher shuts down. It works better as part of a lockdown prison or 8-rack deck alongside cards like Shrieking Affliction or The Rack.

It's still a viable card, and does good things with Sphinx's Tutelage and creates a lock with wheels in general, but I would move it to the sideboard or use it as part of a different deck. If nothing else, this deck should have a way to sacrifice it or get rid of it quickly when you have a bunch of the other payoff cards out.

Icbrgr on MBC: Classic 8-Rack

9 months ago

@capwner I actually just had a FNM tonight and played this deck (but my Shriekmaw/Slaughter Pact/Sudden Spoiling/Grim Discovery are still in the mail... so instead I was running a playset of Bloodghast and some ratio of Liliana's Triumph/Sheoldred's Edict/Augur of Skulls... I will update this deck with the matchup results next week when I get the missing cards in.

Tonight I played against yawg and Rhinos and had a bye.... In the yawgmoth matchup One of the games I just got absolutely blown out by Force of Vigor getting rid of my both The Rack/Shrieking Afflictions and both of us were in topdeck mode but I ended up losing. I went 1-2 for both the games I played tonight; granted I lost but they were close/winnable I swear!

I have been toying with the idea of Cabal Coffers but The real monkey wrench of the deck is Smallpox and Liliana of the Veil... some games I can get 5 lands in play but other times its a struggle to get/keep 3; I think thats why I like Ghost Quarter simply because there isn't any investment to use it.

legendofa on MBC: Classic 8-Rack

1 year ago

Waste Not wants the opponent to be discarding regularly, not just topdecking with an empty hand. Effects that draw before discarding give it the most juice--Burning Inquiry is probably the best option, but cards like Prismari Command or Lore Broker also could work.

Basically, when you get your opponent's hand empty, do you want to play more restictively or more dynamically? Shrieking Affliction and The Rack want an empty hand, Liliana's Caress and Waste Not want discarding.

Icbrgr on MBC: Classic 8-Rack

1 year ago

Ok today I have been jamming in a crap ton of games with Waste Not.... It's exactly how I remember it and I have such a love/hate for this card. SOMETIMES it works and can draw into the spell that wins the game or provided that life saving/game winning 2/2 token; but when its bad its just terrible... and im assuming Liliana's Caress is worse.

My Issue that I have with it is that I only get 1 or 2 triggers off of it when its in my opening hand and having enabling discard spells to cast. And If I ever find myself in a game state where I have stabilized and topdeck it on Turn four or later... its just a brick whereas drawing into The Rack/Shrieking Affliction either begins the clock of 3 damage/life loss a turn or just greatly accelerates an already existing clock.

Does anyone else have a different experience using these cards? Because I really want to use them but I just feel like either im doing it wrong maybe or just need to move on from them.