The Rack
Artifact
As this artifact enters, choose an opponent.
At the beginning of the chosen player's upkeep, this artifact deals X damage to that player, where X is 3 minus the number of cards in their hand.
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- C
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Pro Tour Collector Set
- Price
- $4.17
- EDHREC rank
- #16290
The Rack drains one to three life every end step from any opponent holding fewer than three cards — zero mana, zero effort after you resolve it on turn one. In a dedicated discard shell, it's one of the highest-damage-per-mana artifacts in black.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Legacy, The Rack anchors 8-Rack alongside Shrieking Affliction, punishing the empty hands that Thoughtseize and Hymn to Tourach create — it's a genuine pillar of the archetype. Modern supports the same shell at a slower rate, though the format's speed tests whether draining one or two life per turn closes games before opponents stabilize. Commander is where The Rack gets complicated: it pings one opponent per trigger and requires a discard-focused build to keep hands reliably empty, making it narrow rather than bad, but you're working harder for a payoff that Shrieking Affliction often delivers more efficiently in multiplayer. Vintage and Oathbreaker are legal but essentially irrelevant contexts — too slow for the former, too niche for the latter.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$4.17 cheap tier
At $4.17, The Rack sits at the high end of cheap — reasonable for a Legacy-playable artifact with decades of demand behind it. The price is stable; this isn't a card that spikes or crashes, and foil or older printings won't break a budget if you want the aesthetic.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.