jrsthethird
10-10-2015, 03:13 AM
With the recent huge price spike of Storm World, I remembered the 8-Rack deck (http://www.starcitygames.com/article/31178_8-Rack-In-Modern.html) that scored a 1st place finish at a SCG Modern IQ in July. What are the 8 Racks in Modern?
4x The Rack
4x Shrieking Affliction
Storm World gives us a possible 12 Rack effects to play, although it does come with some caveats. First of all, the Enchant World means that we can only ever have one in play at a time. This is a little annoying, but we run symmetrical discard effects (Smallpox, Liliana) where we will need excess cards to pitch. Second, unlike the Modern Racks, Storm World is a symmetrical effect, so we need to be aware of this when running it out. If we have multiple Racks out, we can race it, but with just Storm World, it's hard to get ahead using only one-for-one discard.
That said, Storm World is also the most powerful Rack effect, as it can do up to 4 damage in one shot on an empty hand, and it still effects a player who is sitting at 3 cards.
Using Tom Ross's list as inspiration, I played a few matches of the deck online tonight. After a few changes, here is the list I'm at right now:
4 The Rack
4 Shrieking Affliction
3 Storm World
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Liliana of the Veil
4 Smallpox
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Thoughtseize
3 Dark Ritual
1 Raven's Crime
1 Blightning
5 Swamp
4 Badlands
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Mishra's Factory
Sideboard:
3 Nyxathid
3 Chains of Mephistopheles
2 Dismember
2 Kolaghan's Command
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Blood Moon
1 Nihil Spellbomb
Most of the deck is pretty obvious. A few individual card choices:
Dark Ritual - I'm on the fence with this. It gives us explosive starts, but a terrible late-game draw. I went back and forth on the numbers, but even at 3 I really didn't draw it much, if at all.
21 lands - I can't see running less than this. Still might be too few for 4 Smallpox. This is one reason I'm on the fence about Ritual.
1 Raven's Crime - Flex spot. Started at 2, down to 1. It's been ok. I feel I've been pitching lands too early to it, so it might be user error. Never felt great, just kinda good.
1 Blightning - I personally love this card. It fits well in the deck, but I'm wary of running too many because of the casting cost, and the card selection. I might drop the Raven's Crime for a second one though. It's important to remember that it can kill planeswalkers, and can 3-for-1 a Jace/Liliana player who isn't prepared for it.
Nyxathid - Only got this guy out one game, but I did win it. People will side out their creature removal for artifact/enchant hate, so this guy can do some work.
Chains - I forgot about this card during testing, but playing a couple blue matches in a row brought it to my attention. If there ever was a home for this, it's here.
Blood Moon - This card wins games by itself. Having our opponent keep cards in their hand by being unable to play spells might seem counterproductive, but we can always win with Factory or Nyxathid, or in conjunction with Liliana.
Some notes about matchups that I played:
I think I confused a lot of people by offering to be on the draw every game, but it's probably the way to go with this strategy. There are probably some matchups where we'd want to play first anyway, but that would have to be found through testing.
Sultai Delver: This match was fun as hell to play. Smallpox is our best friend here, unless they get Pyromancer going, which should never happen against us. Maybe I got lucky, but staring down a Delver at 2 life and dropping 2 Racks with a Storm World on board with him at 9 life and an empty hand was great. Nevertheless, this is a pure damage race.
Miracles: They don't have early threats, so the plan is to drop a rack early and try to keep their hand size down. Top is annoying; they can tap EOT to draw a card and replay it after the upkeep.
Shardless Sultai: Turn 1 suspend Visions is absolutely terrible. If we can dodge that, we're not in too bad of shape. They only run Force as a counter, which almost helps us with the extra card and -1 life. I think keeping them off of Visions is the biggest thing here. It might be one of the matches where playing first is actually helpful (but still draw first game 1 if you haven't scouted).
I tested a couple other matches and don't remember, but I was happy with how they started. They ended early but I got through the early game satisfied.
All in all, I think if this was tuned up it might be a decent Tier 2 choice, depending on your meta. In a blue-heavy meta, it might be worth playing with some number of Chains maindeck. As far as practicality, the price of Chains is prohibitive (Storm World much less so in the future), but everything is available on MODO for rather cheap I believe.
4x The Rack
4x Shrieking Affliction
Storm World gives us a possible 12 Rack effects to play, although it does come with some caveats. First of all, the Enchant World means that we can only ever have one in play at a time. This is a little annoying, but we run symmetrical discard effects (Smallpox, Liliana) where we will need excess cards to pitch. Second, unlike the Modern Racks, Storm World is a symmetrical effect, so we need to be aware of this when running it out. If we have multiple Racks out, we can race it, but with just Storm World, it's hard to get ahead using only one-for-one discard.
That said, Storm World is also the most powerful Rack effect, as it can do up to 4 damage in one shot on an empty hand, and it still effects a player who is sitting at 3 cards.
Using Tom Ross's list as inspiration, I played a few matches of the deck online tonight. After a few changes, here is the list I'm at right now:
4 The Rack
4 Shrieking Affliction
3 Storm World
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Liliana of the Veil
4 Smallpox
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Thoughtseize
3 Dark Ritual
1 Raven's Crime
1 Blightning
5 Swamp
4 Badlands
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Mishra's Factory
Sideboard:
3 Nyxathid
3 Chains of Mephistopheles
2 Dismember
2 Kolaghan's Command
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Blood Moon
1 Nihil Spellbomb
Most of the deck is pretty obvious. A few individual card choices:
Dark Ritual - I'm on the fence with this. It gives us explosive starts, but a terrible late-game draw. I went back and forth on the numbers, but even at 3 I really didn't draw it much, if at all.
21 lands - I can't see running less than this. Still might be too few for 4 Smallpox. This is one reason I'm on the fence about Ritual.
1 Raven's Crime - Flex spot. Started at 2, down to 1. It's been ok. I feel I've been pitching lands too early to it, so it might be user error. Never felt great, just kinda good.
1 Blightning - I personally love this card. It fits well in the deck, but I'm wary of running too many because of the casting cost, and the card selection. I might drop the Raven's Crime for a second one though. It's important to remember that it can kill planeswalkers, and can 3-for-1 a Jace/Liliana player who isn't prepared for it.
Nyxathid - Only got this guy out one game, but I did win it. People will side out their creature removal for artifact/enchant hate, so this guy can do some work.
Chains - I forgot about this card during testing, but playing a couple blue matches in a row brought it to my attention. If there ever was a home for this, it's here.
Blood Moon - This card wins games by itself. Having our opponent keep cards in their hand by being unable to play spells might seem counterproductive, but we can always win with Factory or Nyxathid, or in conjunction with Liliana.
Some notes about matchups that I played:
I think I confused a lot of people by offering to be on the draw every game, but it's probably the way to go with this strategy. There are probably some matchups where we'd want to play first anyway, but that would have to be found through testing.
Sultai Delver: This match was fun as hell to play. Smallpox is our best friend here, unless they get Pyromancer going, which should never happen against us. Maybe I got lucky, but staring down a Delver at 2 life and dropping 2 Racks with a Storm World on board with him at 9 life and an empty hand was great. Nevertheless, this is a pure damage race.
Miracles: They don't have early threats, so the plan is to drop a rack early and try to keep their hand size down. Top is annoying; they can tap EOT to draw a card and replay it after the upkeep.
Shardless Sultai: Turn 1 suspend Visions is absolutely terrible. If we can dodge that, we're not in too bad of shape. They only run Force as a counter, which almost helps us with the extra card and -1 life. I think keeping them off of Visions is the biggest thing here. It might be one of the matches where playing first is actually helpful (but still draw first game 1 if you haven't scouted).
I tested a couple other matches and don't remember, but I was happy with how they started. They ended early but I got through the early game satisfied.
All in all, I think if this was tuned up it might be a decent Tier 2 choice, depending on your meta. In a blue-heavy meta, it might be worth playing with some number of Chains maindeck. As far as practicality, the price of Chains is prohibitive (Storm World much less so in the future), but everything is available on MODO for rather cheap I believe.