MTG Salvation

I've always thought of scroll rack as more of a combo card than a strict 'control card'. I'm only playing it if I can really abuse it and do absurd things that generally win on the spot.

I'm glad you asked! From the previous page in this thread:

Quote from asmallcat »

it's not card parity like brainstorm and is in fact card disadvantage (although you can make up for this in card quality with enough shuffle effects), there aren't a lot of shuffle effects in most cube lists, meaning what it is a lot of the time is a 3 mana brainstorm for 5 that puts you down a card.

The list was an effort to both answer the above statement and to track the number of playable shuffle effects in Cube, which is germane to discussions about Sensei's Divining Top, Scroll Rack, Brainstorm, and any other past or future cards that involve manipulating the top of the library.

-AA

Bump. This is a card I see in lots of lists, and there's almost no chatter about it these days.

Too slow? Or nice redundancy for decks that want Top?

I like Scroll Rack a lot. For all the same reasons steve_man mentioned, and it's crazy how much you can change the construction of your hand with a single shuffle effect. I also like it in decks that play from the library; Tinker, Natural Order, Oath/Stampede, etc. because it allows me to put cards from my hand back into my library that need to be there.

I just barely don't have room for this at 450. It would come back in a flash if my cube were even like 10 cards bigger.

Cheers,
rant

Scroll rack is a difficult card to play well. It's got a lot of cool synergies though (tinker, oath, miracles). It also rewards good players that know their decks and can think several plays ahead. On the flip side, it also causes some durdling, but less durdling than top for some reason. I think maybe that is true because you have to think more before you activate rack and people don't tend to want to spam it versus top where people just enjoy over using it for some reason. I think top is a great card but also one of the most annoying cards to play against.

I agree that there's less durdling, and I think it's in part due to the fact that you're actually drawing the cards. You can often draw yourself into a position where you have the tools you need to win and you no longer need to scroll rack. When you're essentially drawing 4-7 cards for 1 mana, the game tends to swing in your favor drastically to a point where you won't need to do that too many more times. There are of course games where you get Scrolled In and you are just picking at the next card after the 3-4 you keep on switching, but a deck built to use Scroll Rack shouldn't need to use it too many times.

Top goes the other way, as you never really have access to what you're seeing. Not only do you not get the cards, but you have to consider every scenario that could play out over the next ~3 turns every time you take a look. When both are hitting their stride, Top feels like a super cantrip whereas Scroll Rack feels like Ancestral Recall on steroids, and the latter requires less long-term necessity.

Good explanation and it makes sense.

It's not as troublesome as Top from a time perspective because Rack doesn't need to activate as many times in a given game.

So, Scroll Rack for current cube lists. Too durdly?

Wow this was a blast from the past!

I think cubes have gotten faster since 2014 and scroll rack is even worse now. Unless it was specifically to help an archetype you were trying to build, I wouldn't bother. That being said, it and top are pretty unique effects, so if your group likes the cards, they're pretty close to good enough that they aren't bad includes IMO. I just don't miss them at all.

I think you should run top first, though, if you want something like this. Scroll rack is worse.

I am still running Scroll Rack, but it's days may be numbered in my cube. I cut all Miracle cards, so there's no longer that interaction. I still like the Land Tax + Scroll Rack combo, but I could see both those cards leaving one day. I'm not running God-Eternal Kefnet, but I could see Scroll Rack's value going up for anyone that is.

I don't run this any more and I don't miss it. I still run Top, and it's definitely the superior option to this.

We love Scroll Rack! We also highly value miracles like Entreat and Bonfire, and our players prioritize shuffle effects in deckbuilding when they take Scroll Rack, so it usually performs well in most decks that want it.

Quote from Patrunkenphat7 »

We love Scroll Rack! We also highly value miracles like Entreat and Bonfire, and our players prioritize shuffle effects in deckbuilding when they take Scroll Rack, so it usually performs well in most decks that want it.

Yeah if you're running a miracles package you definitely want rack and top.

You probably want top anyway on power level TBQH, but I find it an annoying card still so it's still not in my cube

I like Scroll Rack still. It can have a huge impact on your hand, it pairs amazingly well with Land Tax, and it can put critical cards back into your library for Natural Order/Tinker/Polymorph etc.

Just because a lot worse than Brainstorm, Sensei's Divining Top and Jace, the Mind Sculptor doesn't mean it should be played IMO. I think the Top of the deck manipulation is incredibly important and we shouldn't skim on these type of effects.