Rack City

Modern 8-Rack Mono-Black

danman5550

Look Ma, No Hands! (13)

• 4x Inquisition of Kozilek
• 4x Raven's Crime
• 2x Thoughtseize
• 3x Wrench Mind

I Ship It (7)

• 3x Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage
• 4x Liliana of the Veil

Manabase (24)

• 4x Mutavault
• 1x Snow-Covered Swamp
• 18x Swamp
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Rack (8)

• 4x Shrieking Affliction
• 4x The Rack

Removal (8)

• 3x Fatal Push
• 1x Murderous Cut
• 4x Smallpox

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Sideboard

Other (15)

• 2x Bile Blight
• 1x Cry of the Carnarium
• 2x Dismember
• 1x Flaying Tendrils
• 2x Pack Rat
• 1x Pithing Needle
• 4x Ravenous Trap
• 1x The Elderspell
• 1x Waste Not

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The rack is back!

I've been playing 8-Rack ever since I saw SaffronOlive's Budget Magic series. I went through every decklist on there, and when I found the article on The Rack , I fell in love. I picked up a couple of cheap pieces and a single Liliana of the Veil as all I could afford, and took the deck to GP Vegas 2014 to play in side events.

I got slapped by Burn in the only Turbo Town event I tried, and then moved on to playing fun sealed events instead. I got my Lili signed by Steve Argyle before I left the GP, and returned home humbled by real Modern. But I kept the list as my sole Modern deck for the longest time.

I recently got back into Magic in a big way, and my old 8-Rack list looked as fun as ever. I found a new LGS with a thriving Modern scene, and then after a poor showing with Merfolk (Merfolk in 2019?) I broke out the trusty ole' Racks.

I've played the deck at FNM for 5 weeks now, and last week I finally picked up my three remaining Lilis as well as three new Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage s. The list felt great, and I was so excited to finally be there. I think I'll continue playing with it for a while longer, so I wanted to start writing up my FNMs (as the main event that most other people play the deck), making changes and discussing options along the way. Last week with my "full" list I picked up my second 3-1, and was a "blind cantrip into blind cantrip into spell" Phoenix streak away from going 4-0, so I'm excited to see what the deck can do in the future!

Card Choices:

Ensnaring Bridge

Ensnaring Bridge

Well, since my list started as a budget list, these were a bit out of reach for me at the time. But I never added them in, and I really never notice that they're missing. My list is a bit removal heavy, and I have a lot more to side into as well, but maybe a Bridge or two could hold back some troublesome matchups. I would need to test with it to reverse the years and years of Bridge-less experience, but I'm open to it.

Thoughtseize vs Inquisition of Kozilek

Thoughtseize vs Inquisition of Kozilek

A large majority of Modern is situated at or below 3CMC, and many games end up being a slow, bleeding limp to the finish line. Keeping that extra two life and having the painless manabase has been the difference between The Rack getting there in time, and being one tick away while facing down lethal. Both of these cards are amazing in your opening hand, but terrible topdecks, because many times your opponent is holding a land. Inquisition doesn't shock you when your opponent reveals a land, so I cut a couple Thoughtseizes to keep my head above water.

Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage

Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage

Flexible cards are great (I ran Funeral Charm in the deck for the longest time because I had so many options with it), and a two-in-one of a smaller Shrieking Affliction and a slower Wrench Mind was just too good to pass up. Some lists have been cutting Rack effects, but I think that when three of your Rack effects also make your opponent discard, you have enough gas to keep in the set of 8. Post-board, Racks come out before Davriel, but I don't think I'd ever dip below 8-9 total MB Racks.

Murderous Cut

Murderous Cut

1-mana removal is sweet as hell, and since you're either playing cheap spells or discarding to your own Lili/Raven's Crime, it's going to be unconditional 1-mana removal a large percentage of the time. Just make sure not to Delve away your Raven's Crime unless absolutely necessary!

Raven's Crime

Raven's Crime

This one is less of a card choice (because every list runs 4x) but more of a praise paragraph. This card is absolutely bonkers. You can keep the worst hands on the strength of Raven's Crime (I have legitimately kept 6x lands, 1x Raven's Crime before). Retrace makes players cry when they realize it's repeatable for as many lands as you have to discard. Your opponents typically make poor choices when this card is threatening them, and while your opponents are miscalculating, The Rack is ticking for three more damage.

Liliana's Triumph

Liliana's Triumph

As you can probably tell by my love of Murderous Cut, this 2-mana removal spell doesn't do it for me. I think the biggest reason is that it's too swingy. The reason that 8-Rack is a deck is because there are 8 Racks. If Shrieking Affliction wasn't printed, there wouldn't be a consistent enough finisher and you'd lose games if you didn't draw one. With only 4 Liliana planeswalkers in the deck, depending on having one and then drawing Triumph seems a little iffy. I feel like Edict effects could have a place in the MB if your meta is heavy on single creature decks, but the additional strength of the Lili synergy doesn't bump it to snap-include in my mind.

Date added	5 years
Last updated	5 years
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 0 Mythic Rares 9 - 9 Rares 19 - 6 Uncommons 7 - 0 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	1.69
Tokens	Copy Clone, Zombie 2/2 B