Rack effects appear to be few and far between, but it seems they aren't entirely off the table. Nothing against Davriel, but is there any room for the eponymous The Rack in Standard?

My gut is it’s stronger than we would want for Standard, but not a play designer, yada, yada.

Could we get a black discard pay off at common rarity? Something like a weaker The Rack or Nyxathid, or downshifted Megrim? Mono B Discard seems to be a classic mono b build, but not worth playing in pauper, because of no reward for getting rid off opponent's hand. How come blue have Jace's Erasure and Curse of the Bloody Tome at common...

We don’t tend to do build-around a at common. They usually start at uncommon.

How the interaction between The Grand Calcutron and cards with Rack effects, such as The Rack, Rackling, Wheel of Torture, etc work? If I have Calcturon in play and I play The Rack, do I subtract 3 minus 0, since their hands bacame a program or I still count the amount of cards in their program?

The hand is a program but is still your hand, you count the number of cards in it for effects that care about number.

How likely are we to see cards similar to The Rack or Shrieking Affliction printed in a standard environment? There doesn't seem to be much payoff for running discard effects anymore.

Discard has proven to be one of those things that a majority of layers dislike strongly enough that we moved away from easily enabling a whole deck dedicated to the theme.

Stuffy doll has been the star of many card arts including the rack, black vise, and wall of wonder. Is there any particular reason it was featured so commonly?

Richard Thomas was an artist who liked the Stuffy Doll and put in my of his paintings.

Hey Mark, it's finally my birthday. I want to try something different. Do you have any magic trivia about my home town San Jose, California? If not then tell me about Bonfire of the Dammed.

San Jose was the site of the 1994 US National Championships, the only Nationals I ever played in. As the event was about to begin, the man running the event, Steve Bishop for those that know their Magic history, got up on a chair and made the following announcement: “For those that might not have seen our announcement on the website, this tournament will not allow any card with an expansion symbol. For cards that exist on some cards with an expansion symbol and some without, you may only play the copies without it. I’ll give you fifteen minutes to fix your decks.” My dad ended up trading with Bo Bell, the eventual winner, giving him some core set versions of The Rack that he needed (Bo was playing a monoblack discard deck.) Happy birthday!

When say that creatures are core to the game and would lead to bad limited environment. Why couldn't the set have lot direct damage cards and milling cards. Codex Shredder, the rack, lightning bolt, mind skulpt, millstone, cursed scroll, Shivan Gorge.

Let’s take direct damage. Okay, you have a deck full of direct damage without creatures. What are you going to do? With only one target (well, there’s technically also yourself), you’ll just aim all the spells at your opponent and they will aim theirs at you. Where’s the interaction? Where’s the compelling game play? It becomes a race to see who can draw and cast their direct damage first. Maybe, the first time, there’s a little but of novelty but I guarantee it will grow boring very quickly.