This is my take on Mono-Black 8-Rack. I'm trying some things out and will be doing the same with Davriel once WAR is released.
Guide is not accurate right now. Making changes to deck.
Discard
4x
Inquisition of Kozilek
, 4x
Raven's Crime
, 3x
Thoughtseize
, 2x
Wrench Mind
Inquisition of Kozilek
&
Thoughtseize
are great at taking away early plays and cantrips away from the opponent. This slows them down and allows you to survive longer and therefore give you a higher chance to win.
Raven's Crime
is cheap repeatable discard that can sometimes just machine gun down an opponents hand. Putting lands into the graveyard with this card also helps to consistently enable
Hostile Desert
, one of the new cards I'm trying out.
Wrench Mind
is a almost always a 2-for-1 play that actively works you towards your goal.
Removal
1x
Dismember
, 3x
Fatal Push
Dismember
is in to deal with any large threats that evade
Fatal Push
or a down tick from
Liliana of the Veil
.
Fatal Push
is a great one-mana removal spell and is really effective at slowing down aggressive creature decks allowing you to prolong the game. With the current build, you have 2
Field of Ruin
, 2 black fetches, and 4
Smallpox
to primarily turn on revolt along with other assorted ways to lose permanents.
Rack Effects
4x
The Rack
, 4x
Shrieking Affliction
The Rack
&
Shrieking Affliction
are your finishers and where the name of the deck comes from. It is usually in your best interest to hold onto these until they can begin lowering our opponent's life total to dodge removal that you may get rid of with your discard. You should also play
Shrieking Affliction
first if your opponent can be kept consistently at one card because the extra point of life can make a difference.
The Rack
should be played first if the opponent is consistently at two cards so it can chip in one damage each turn. Of course, if your opponent is consistently at zero cards then order does not matter. It is a reasonable consideration to play out these effects first if an opponent can threaten your hand with discard.
Versatile Cards
4x
Liliana of the Veil
, 4x
Smallpox
, 2x
Collective Brutality
, 2x
Surgical Extraction
Liliana of the Veil
does both things you want out of a card in this deck, repeatable discard and repeatable removal. Dropping a
Liliana of the Veil
on turn three and ticking down to clean any threats off the board that were missed by your other removal and then ticking up every turn can win a game. It is quite rare that you will reach her ult but it is devastating if reached.
Smallpox
does a lot to slow the opponent down. Removal, discard, and land destruction all in one package is a bomb when played correctly. I tend to wait for a creature to hit the board before playing this card but depending on the situation it can sometimes be better to fire it off as soon as possible. The more aggressive play is good against control decks since it puts them a turn further from casting
Cryptic Command
and attacks the valuable resources in their hand.
Surgical Extraction
is a tentative addition in the current graveyard heavy meta with Dredge and Arclight Phoenix decks taking center stage along with the threat light Grixis Death Shadow that can be rendered impotent by stripping out what threats they do have. I have 2 of this card currently in the mainboard but may reduce it to 1 if I find it isn't useful enough to warrant 2. This card also have the corner case of ripping out one of the three Tron lands and changing the Tron matchup from nearly unwinnable to even.
Lands
2x
Polluted Delta
, 4x
Mutavault
, 10x
Swamp
, 4x
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
, 2x
Field of Ruin
, 1x
Hostile Desert
Polluted Delta
can be replaced by any black fetch. It is in the deck to turn on revolt for
Fatal Push
and also to enable
Hostile Desert
.
Mutavault
is another way to pressure the opponent's life total and can block a lethal swing in a pinch.
Swamp
is a pretty obvious choice for a mono-black deck.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
turn
Polluted Delta
,
Mutavault
,
Hostile Desert
, and
Field of Ruin
into lands that tap for . Additional copies can be pitched to
Raven's Crime
& up ticks from
Liliana of the Veil
to in turn enable
Hostile Desert
. The land total is so high for a deck with such a low curve to turn on
Raven's Crime
and also for padding against the symmetry of
Liliana of the Veil
's up tick.
Field of Ruin
is an excellent utility land that helps to slow down Tron, prevent death by manland, stop Amulet Titan from doing Amulet Titan things, and force a shuffle after a 2 top scry from a
Serum Visions
or a 0, or Jacestorm, from
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
.
Hostile Desert
is some new tech I am trying out to help close games faster and keep up with the speed of Modern. I've mentioned throughout ways to enable this threat but I will give a comprehensive list here: Retrace from
Raven's Crime
, escalating
Collective Brutality
, sacrificing a land to
Smallpox
, pitching a land to a
Liliana of the Veil
uptick, activating
Field of Ruin
, fetching with a black fetch, and blocking something with a
Mutavault
. The infastructure of the deck can support this card but I am still uncertain if the card will make a large enough impact to prevent being replaced by a
Swamp
.
Sideboard
2x
Bontu's Last Reckoning
, 4x
Delirium Skeins
, 4x
Leyline of the Void
, 2x
Collective Brutality
, 2
Ensnaring Bridge
, 1
Liliana, the Last Hope
Bontu's Last Reckoning
comes in against creature heavy decks to extend the game.
Delirium Skeins
comes in against decks with Leyline of Sanctity since it dodges hexproof along with
Liliana of the Veil
. A more common use for this card is boarding it in for control in place of removal. Control is great a consistently drumming up card advantage and making them discard 3 cards is devastating for them. The same goes for combo decks.
Leyline of the Void
comes in against graveyard reliant decks like Dredge and Living End. I don't believe this should be brought in against Arclight Phoenix as Phoenix can be taken away with
Surgical Extraction
and the other threats can be dealed with by the means of standard removal.
Collective Brutality
comes in against Arclight Phoenix and Burn over Thoughtseize because it has the option to gain life instead of the certainty of losing it. It also has the ability to remove a creature from the board and strip a spell from the opponents all at the same time! (Also this spell still resolves if it is cast targeting legal targets and those legal targets go away before the resolution of the spell.)
Ensnaring Bridge
is a common 8-Rack card used to totally take away the ability to attack since 8-Rack can dump it's hand rather quickly. I am including it in the sideboard instead of the mainboard partially because it limits
Hostile Desert
and partially because it doesn't feel very impactful currently. We can still win games without it but it also is a good tool to have in the sideboard against decks that like to win with creatures and have a tough time removing artifacts.
Liliana, the Last Hope
is a great overall card and a nice piece to bring out of the sideboard. It effectively eliminates 2 power creatures and has the upside of killing 1 toughness creatures. I may stick a couple
Dark Confidant
in the sideboard to better utilize the downtick of this card.
Fulminator Mage
is also an option in this case.
Liliana, the Last Hope
is also a quasi-win condition if you can reach her ultimate. If you are concerned about Rack effects being removed this card can provide insurance in another form of victory.
