I can remember when THE RACK was THE CARD! Back
in the day, almost every deck had some black in
it. And if you had black, you were playing some
discard strategies in your deck, most likely,
and if you were playing discard, you probably
played The Rack. I think The Rack would be
somewhat popular in limited play in the current
limited formats. Of course, The Rack IS in the
current format, more or less, when you manage to
flip Shortfang from Champions of Kamigawa. I
think Shortfang's flipped ability is a great way
to honor and sort of bring back old cards like
The Rack. In discard decks, two or three copies
of The Rack might be The Winning Condition for
your deck. Today, if The Rack was available for
Type II (Standard) constructed play, I doubt it
would be impressive enough to be used much.
Today's decks have to be more focused, and there
simply isn't enough powerful discard spells (or
ARE there?) to make The Rack really great.
This card saw a ton of play when discard decks
were all the rage back in the day. I bet this
card would see a lot of play today if it were
legal in Extended and Standard. It's an easily
abusable card and I'm sure that goes a long way
toward making sure a card doesn't get reprinted.
I was a little depressed about Power Leak
yesterday, but this card sorta makes up for it.
I have to confess, I got halfway through my
review before I figured out that this card
wasn't Black Vise, meaning that you only get to
punish your opponent for emptying his or her
hand. This can be a huge benefit, especially
against any deck that likes to pump out a lot of
threats and not sit back for any tricks. Recent
examples would be Goblins, Affinity, White
Weenie, or Red-Green Beats. Unfortunately,
against control-style decks, The Rack takes a
bit of a hit in its effectiveness. Don't forget
the possibilities this card has with any form of
discard.
Overall, I have to give The Rack some credit,
but it will rarely make the cut into any of my
decks. You can pump out some damage, and it can
be good in the right match-ups (and definitely a
bit moreso in Limited), but in the end, it just
can't do enough.
Meh...An interesting card usually only when you
cheese combo it with Black Vise and then you can
consider it a fun casual thing at best. Luckily
both spells are relatively cheap to cast, and if
you get them both down, you will drove your
opponent a bit mad. Frustrates opponents in
limited, too.
Constructed - 2
Casual - 4 (The Power of Cheese!)
Limited - 2.5
