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8 Rack Variations

Modern*

raefgall

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Sorcery (43)

Planeswalker (6)

Instant (33)

Land (13)

Creature (23)

Enchantment (17)

Artifact (13)

Making a list of cards to brainstorm which cards could be used in different variations of modern 8-rack.

Traditional 8-Rack uses The Rack and Shrieking Affliction (more recently, Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage) along with a suite of powerful black discard effects to strip your opponent's hand and deal a bunch of damage once they are hellbent. You generally spend the first turn or two taking key pieces out of your opponent's hand with something like Inquisition of Kozilek, then protect yourself with Ensnaring Bridge and/or removal like Smallpox and Liliana of the Veil.

By this point, you generally either have a solid lock on your opponent and both of you top deck until you kill them with your Rack effects, or they find an answer (which you can potentially prevent with instant speed discard like Funeral Charm or Kolaghan's Command).

The base mono-black shell hasn't changed much despite recent additions to the modern pool: Liliana of the Veil and Smallpox are both discard and removal effects. Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek are common for discard effects (I like Blackmail as well). Raven's Crime provides late game recursion by making your land draws into discard. Funeral Charm gives a source of instant speed discard (and a weak removal option). Add a few sources of removal like Fatal Push or Defile.

Sideboards typically include something like Leyline of the Void, Pithing Needle, Break the Ice, Surgical Extraction (I like to run at least a few Surgical in the main), and some kind of mass removal like Engineered Explosives or Damnation. I've looked at Shadow of Doubt or Ashiok, Dream Render as another way to look your opponent down.

Major downsides of the deck are it can be slow to start, it requires some degree of luck (being able to remove the right pieces at the right time, top decks late game), and it can be very weak to certain kinds of removal. (Mass artifact removal like Hurkyl's Recall, Vandalblast, or Kataki, War's Wage. Chalice of the Void or Engineered Explosives on 1. Leyline of Sanctity negates a lot of your discard spells.) Also, it's one of those decks that people really hate to play against because it stops them from playing Magic.

A simple variation I've looked at is using snow-covered swamps for Dead of Winter. This works great for mono-black, but less well with multi-colored variations, utility lands, and creature variations.

A common variation I had seen before involved Pack Rat in the sideboard and Mutavault in the land base, giving you another line of attack after the opponent has (presumably) sideboarded their creature removal out. I've also see a few recent lists with Dauthi Voidwalker and a couple Tourach, Dread Cantor or Tergrid, God of Fright  . A lot of these versions cut out Ensnaring Bridge so you can be more aggressive.

One recent variation I'm looking at is including Karn, the Great Creator as a way to find a copy of The Rack, Ensnaring Bridge, along with its normal toolbox. I also considered that God-Pharaoh's Statue gives a way to speed up your clock and slow your opponent down late game.

Urza's Saga gives you a way to generate creatures and fetch The Rack. Packaging this with Mishra's Factory and a few more mainboard artifacts could be an interesting variation with a few more answers.

The main variation I have played in the past is a Rakdos build, which enables powerful mainboard cards like Blightning and Kolaghan's Command, good removal from Bedevil, Terminate, or Dreadbore, along with sideboard options like Abrade, Crumble to Dust, Boil, Ricochet Trap, and Pyroclasm. In addition, Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace gives a source of recurring discard that is surprisingly effective. Recent additions like Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger and Lightning Skelemental feel like they could also be added to a creature build.

The other variation I've looked at recently is an Orzhov build, which allows the Grief + Ephemerate combo, which gives you free discard and a turn 1 3/2. White gives you artifact and enchantment removal, efficient creature removal, and lots of prison/hate cards.

An extreme/budget variation may be to go for a rat tribal theme using Nezumi Shortfang   as an additional copy of The Rack once it flips and other minor additions like Burglar Rat that force discard while putting more bodies on the board to pump up your Pack Rat. I don't think this is practical, but it amuses me.

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80% Casual

20% Competitive

Revision 5 See all

(4 years ago)