8 Rack Budget

This is my budget version of 8 rack. I would appreciate it if anyone has any suggestions on this deck as I am really looking to improve it. Any advice about any aspect of the deck is welcome. Thanks in advance. Suggestions are welcome.

8 Rack Modern Budget https://deckstats.net/mana/m/w.gif https://deckstats.net/mana/m/b.gif

Lands
3 Bojuka Bog
4 Caves of Koilos
6 Plains
7 Swamp

Artifacts
4 The Rack

Enchantments
4 Ghostly Prison
4 Necrogen Mists
4 Shrieking Affliction

Instants
4 Condemn
3 Extirpate
3 Hero's Downfall

Sorceries
3 Day of Judgment
4 Duress
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Raven's Crime

Sideboard
4 Fragmentize
3 Infinite Obliteration
3 Rain of Tears
3 Relic of Progenitus
2 Stony Silence

https://i.hbtronix.de/chart_pie.png Display deck statistics

What are your intentions with the deck? Are you currently (or planning to) taking the deck to tournaments and FNMs? Are you just playing casually and chose the Modern card pool? Are the decks you will be playing against casual or competitive? And if competitive, are they optimal or budget builds? Is it important to you that you win games or is participating enough?

I get a bunch of your substitutions:
- Necrogen Mists is a budget Liliana of the Veil
- Ghostly Prison is a budget Ensnaring Bridge

I would immediately cut Bojuka Bog. Many decks can ignore the effect, and it's a non-bo with Extirpate (which I also feel needs to be cut, or at least moved to the sideboard). If it came into play untapped, then who cares... play 4. But I believe you'll find you're going to need your lands to be usable immediately.

I'll wait to hear your answers to the questions in my first paragraph before commenting further!

What's your budget? Is a 10 dollar card too much?

Can try to give suggestions when we know which suggestions have a chance of happening. Otherwise it's nearly impossible to give any advice.

I agree with what Phoenix Ignition has posted, but have some additional thoughts.

First and foremost, I don't really see the reason to include White in the deck. If you were going the Smallpox route, with Flagstones of Trokair, I'd be on board, but as is, it seems like you're primarily compensating for Ensnaring Bridge with Ghostly Prison. I think you could probably cut White. If you're not playing fetchlands, Fatal Push isn't quite as good, but Dismember is still solid as a replacement for Path to Exile. I also think Wrench Mind is a powerful card that is generally really solid, unless your meta is full of Affinity. While Necrogen Mists seems like a Liliana of the Veil substitute, I think the edict ability is really important, and as such, I'd suggest running Doomfall in that slot.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CaptainTwiddle

If you were going the Smallpox route, with Flagstones of Trokair, I'd be on board, but as is, it seems like you're primarily compensating for Ensnaring Bridge with Ghostly Prison. I think you could probably cut White.

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From what I've seen, the deck you are describing is Pox (no Rack effects). The 8 Rack lists I've seen that splash white typically do so for the sideboard options and usually maindeck Lingering Souls.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CaptainTwiddle

If you're not playing fetchlands, Fatal Push isn't quite as good, but Dismember is still solid as a replacement for Path to Exile. I also think Wrench Mind is a powerful card that is generally really solid, unless your meta is full of Affinity.

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Totally agree on both points.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CaptainTwiddle

While Necrogen Mists seems like a Liliana of the Veil substitute, I think the edict ability is really important, and as such, I'd suggest running Doomfall in that slot.

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I think we can agree that both Necrogen Mists and Doomfall are poor substitutions for Lili. The upside to Necrogen Mists (and why it is always chosen in budget lists) is that it is a repeatable effect.






The reason I lead my initial post with all those questions is because I feel 8 Rack is already a fairly budget deck when you look at the price of most Modern decks... So further weakening it really gives you no chance in a competitive environment. :rolleyes:

Dismember - $3.50
Smallpox - $0.25
Shambling Vent - $6-7
Concealed Courtyard - $6-7
Sorin, Solemn Visitor - $5
Lingering Souls - $0.50
Souls of the Faultless - (couldn't find a price, maybe $1 each?)
Disfigure - $0.25
Mortify - $0.75
Anguished Unmaking - $3
Wrench Mind - $1


You could spend about $30 and get a set of Dismember, Smallpox, Lingering Souls, a Sorin, and a Shambling Vent.

My current version of 8 rack is worth 126.73$ on MTG Deck Pricing Tool. My budget is 130$.

Updated version: 8 Rack Modern Budget https://deckstats.net/mana/m/w.gif https://deckstats.net/mana/m/b.gif

Lands
4 Caves of Koilos
4 Ghost Quarter
5 Plains
7 Swamp

Artifacts
4 The Rack

Enchantments
4 Ghostly Prison
4 Necrogen Mists
4 Shrieking Affliction

Instants
4 Condemn
3 Extirpate
3 Hero's Downfall

Sorceries
4 Blackmail
3 Duress
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Raven's Crime

Sideboard
2 Fragmentize
2 Disenchant
3 Lost Legacy
3 Solemnity
3 Relic of Progenitus
2 Stony Silence

https://i.hbtronix.de/chart_pie.png Display deck statistics

Lingering Souls and Wrench Mind won't break the bank. You can squeeze both in, taking out Necrogen Mists. Two of each would be fine, but honestly I would do this:

-4 Necrogen Mists
-1 Extirpate
-1 Duress

+3 Wrench Mind
+3 Lingering Souls

Oblivion Ring is also a very solid, affordable removal.

With a budget like this I think 2 colors is going to be a bad choice. You don't get a lot of options in decent dual lands and it won't be uncommon to get games with only Plains when you need Swamps if you keep the current land configuration. I would switch to an exclusively Swamp manabase (even if it didn't save you money). You could even throw in a couple utility lands if you felt like it like Blighted Fen or Bojuka Bog.

Instead of Ghostly Prison you could try something like Night of Souls' Betrayal or Curse of Death's Hold, or a mix, to keep out hordes of creatures (and it's extremely effective in Modern against stuff like Affinity, Boggles, Coco combo decks, elves, infect, etc.) and then some sacrifice effects like any of the edicts or Gatekeeper of Malakir for anything big. I agree with taking out Extirpates, if you need graveyard hate go with Bojuka Bog, and if you wanted it for hand hate just use other discard effects. I agree with Doomfall being nice in this type of deck. It'd be a little bit more of a control style deck, but with Necrogen Mists you wouldn't have a hard time of keeping the opponent short on cards in hand so all you need to do is prevent them from killing you.