One of the biggest appeals of Modern is the ability to play whichever kind of deck you like. Modern boasts a deep card pool that allows for a myriad of strategies. A reoccurring theme of Modern is resource denial, and there are numerous ways to achieve this effect, from destroying lands to disrupt their curve, or deploying spells to slow your opponent down, such as
Chalice of the Void
or
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
.

Playing a resource denial strategy is all about making your opponent play to your rhythm until you can find a win condition. While it's an approach that may not be for everyone, there are times where it can succeed due to a lack of preparation from various opponents. Over the years, we have seen strategies such as Lantern Control, Death & Taxes, and Humans see success by offering a disruptive package, so there is merit to running interaction in your lists. While most lists offer disruption as an alternative, some strategies adopt disruption as their core approach.

MODERN

8 Rack
By Emma Partlow



Buy Deck
Main Deck ·

60 cards

Creatures | 1 cards

1 Nether Spirit
Spells | 36 cards

4 Collective Brutality
1 Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage
4 Defile
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Liliana of the Veil
3 Raven's Crime
4 Shrieking Affliction
4 Smallpox
4 The Rack
4 Thoughtseize
Lands | 23 cards

2 Castle Locthwain
4 Mutavault
13 Swamp
4 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Sideboard ·

15 cards

2 Bontu's Last Reckoning
3 Death's Shadow
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Pharika's Libation
2 Plague Engineer
2 Waste Not
SHOW DECK

The RackShrieking Affliction

8-Rack aggressively attacks an opponent's hand size until finishing them off with
The Rack
or
Shrieking Affliction
.
The Rack
is a cheap artifact that punishes opponents for not having cards in their hand, which is the ideal complement alongside spells like
Raven's Crime
and
Wrench Mind
. Although it takes serious commitment to meet the criteria of
The Rack
, the payoff is huge, especially with multiples on the battlefield.

8-Rack employs plenty of powerful cards that see frequent Modern play. Over half of the value comes from
Thoughtseize
and
Liliana of the Veil
, which see extensive play in Modern—thus, they maintain their value. Despite these hefty price tags, we can incorporate budget alternatives that allow you to play the strategy at a more affordable rate. Since the release of War of the Spark, we have seen another "Rack" effect in
Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage
. Despite being somewhat narrow for general application,
Davriel
is a shot in the arm for the discard strategy. A discard outlet that also punishes opponents for having too few cards in hand is ideal, which can pile on damage with
The Rack
and
Shrieking Affliction
. Eventually, you will want to invest in
Liliana of the Veil
, the ideal card in the strategy; she removes a threat and provides continuous discard that is tough for opponents to beat. If you reach
Liliana
's ultimate, then it's game over.

Mutavault

Magic: The Gathering

Rare

Market Price:

$15.54

Buy on TCGplayer

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
and
Mutavault
are potent lands that provide mana fixing and chip damage throughout the game, respectively. Since Pioneer's debut,
Mutavault
and
Urborg
have soared in demand. Fortunately,
Urborg
is only necessary alongside
Mutavault
since the rest of the lands are Swamps. I would focus on picking up
Mutavault
s first and then looking at acquiring
Urborg
later on.

There are options for flexibility with the removal suite; since
Smallpox
will keep opposing land counts low and trigger revolt,
Fatal Push
could be an alternative for
Defile
. While
Defile
is not a staple by any means, it provides the highest ceiling in terms of the threats it dispatches. I'm a big fan of
Defile
due to its versatility and the fact that its "drawback" is easier to mitigate than it is to trigger revolt. Even
Dismember
and
Murderous Rider
have cropped up in 8-Rack lists. Once you are comfortable playing the strategy and have identified what your metagame is, you can tinker with the removal, but
Defile
is a fine starting point.

Nether Spirit

Magic: The Gathering

Rare

Market Price:

$0.19

Buy on TCGplayer

While
Nether Spirit
may seem odd, its application makes a ton of sense contextually.
Nether Spirit
is a recursive threat that is happy to be sacrificed to
Smallpox
or discarded to
Liliana of the Veil
. The creature acts as an alternative win condition if damage through
The Rack
or
Shrieking Affliction
is not enough, and chipping away two damage a turn may be enough in some cases.

Spawning Pool
serves as a fine
Mutavault
replacement in a pinch. Furthermore,
Nurturing Peatland
or
Silent Clearing
are good if you are concerned about running out of gas. I recommend
Castle Locthwain
instead, which is slower compared to the Horizon lands, but the deck is slow and aims to grind opponents out.