[Strategy] Necropotence - History and Concepts (Updated)

[Frank Kusumoto]

Necropotence: The power of Card-Drawing
Edited/written by Frank S. Kusumoto - 12 Dec 1996.
With thanks in no particular order to Paul Pantera,
Chris Pikula, Robert Hahn, Jeff Sternal, Dan Lewis,
Chris Pantages, Paul McCabe, Gael Jacquot and
Tom Guevin.

The following is a compilation of writings from the
magic strategy newsgroup and the mtg-l-strategy list.
The majority of this writing has been posted before
by other writers, but has been either edited
(somewhat poorly) or annotated by Frank Kusumoto
in the hopes that this extended format, chronological
focusing, editing and narration will help more fully
explicate and more cohesively present this deck type
in full. It is also hoped that this will more fully show
how deck types have evolved and changed with the
environment through the last 12 months

When Ice Age was first released there was quite a
flurry of speculation as to which cards were going to
change the tournament scene, and what deck types
would emerge from the new card set. The Vise-Age
deck aside (most of which the DCI has now banned),
no other deck was made quite as viable by the Ice
Age set than the NecroDeck. One card, three mana,
and you too can draw as many cards as you have life
to spend! During the summer and autumn of 1995,
many players experimented with this neglected card.
First it was added to black weenie decks as a quick
way to end a mid-game stall. Then came the fine
tuning. In the hands of various players such as
Lindback, Immordino, Weissman, Justice, Stern,
Bentley and McCabe, the NecroDeck has evolved
from its black weenie deck beginning into a shrewdly
crafted control deck, stressing obscene
card-advantage and lightning quick “controlled”
mayhem, i.e., severe game disruption

The Necro deck can be viewed as an off-shoot of the
Type I Handelman School (offensive
overkill/anti-card advantage), but has it’s own
important branch in Type II because of the Necro’s
uncontested card drawing power in Type II. Since the
split of Type I/II and the loss of cards such as
Ancestral Recall, Timetwister, Wheel of Fortune and
Braingeyser to the Type II environment no other card
offers card drawing power like Necropotence. That
NecroDecks are an off-shoot of the Handelman
School is an important point, since the Handelman
School’s initial impetus to genesis was fighting the
“Weissman” deck a.k.a., “The Deck”. That
Necropotence would be recognized as a worthy Type
I card to offset the card-denial of ‘The Deck’ speaks
well for its power, and helps in part explain why the
Necro Deck dominated Type II tournaments between
Feb-Sep of 1996, affectionately known as “The Black
Summer of ‘96”. With the restriction of the “Hymn to
Tourach” and the “Strip Mine” the NecroDeck lost 6
of its core cards. Fortunately for the Necro-Player -
and unfortunately for everyone else - the Mirage
expansion has mitigated this loss by the addition of
“Stupor”, a reasonable replacement for the Hymn.
So Necro lives on, and has done well in the last
major Type II tournament it will be seen in, PT
Dallas. Sadly - or happily - the Ice Age set will leave
Type II play on the 1st of January, 1997, as will the
NecroDeck. In honor of its imminent demise let us
now look back and delve into the history and
evolution of this Type II power deck, starting with Pro
Tourney 1 (NYC, February 1996), as described by
Chris Pikula:

There were three types of NecroDecks present at
PT1:

Leon Lindback/Thomas Andersson: This deck was
the best of the PT1 Necrodecks and is built on the
card-advantage school of thought. This deck was a
blatant attempt at using the card Necropotence in a
deck designed to use it to its greatest effect, rather
than merely adding Necropotence to a previously
constructed deck. Cards such as Soul Burn and
Jalum Tome are perfect examples of this deck's card
drawing obsession. This deck is also the most
similar to the classic NecroDeck.

David Price: David Price's PT1 deck was simply a
modified black weenie deck- modified by the addition
of 4 Necropotence. The deck featured Bad Moons
and tons of creatures (even Wisps) and had no
Strips and no Disks. Even the Hymns were a late
addition to the deck (at the urging of David Bartholow
and me). This deck was very effective (5-2 with
losses to Andersson and Andrea Redi). The
interesting thing is that Necropotence was somewhat
of a side consideration, it was simply a black weenie
(this concept was revived by Brian Hacker at PT5).

The PCL deck: This deck featured only 1
Necropotence in the main deck, but it was built on
the theory that Necro would live by for the next few
months: disruption. This deck had 4 Strips, 4
Icequakes, and 4 Hymns along with a variety of
strong creatures. I've been told that midway through
the tourney they figured out that they really should be
sideboarding in the extra Necros. The deck also had
no Drain Lives.

- C.Pikula

After Pro-Tour 1, an archetype deck, frequently
referred to as “Classic Necro” evolved (before the
Hymn and Strip Mine restrictions and the introduction
of Alliances)...

Archetype: Necro
Circa June ‘96

4 Order of Ebon Hand
4 Knights of Stromgald
4 Hypnotic Specter
2 Sengir Vampire

4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Dark Ritual
4 Drain Life
3 Necropotence
2 Demonic Consultation

3 Nevinyrral's Disk
2 Aeolipile
1 Zuran Orb
1 Ivory Tower

4 Strip Mine
18 Swamp

Sideboard:

1 Necropotence
3 Serrated Arrows
1 Nevinyrral’s Disk
3 Gloom
2 Meekstone
3 Dark Banishing
2 Stromgald Cabal

The standard Necro-deck (which the above typified)
can be broken down into five components:

1. Early Disruption (Hymn, Stupor, Hypno Specter,
Strip Mine)
2. Fast-Powerful offense (Knights/Orders)
3. Mid- to late-game threat neutralization (Disks,
Serrated Arrows, Drains, Terror/Dark Banishing)
4. Life-gaining (Drains, Zorb, Ivory Tower)
5. Card-drawing (Necro, possibly Tomes)

Another way to look at the Necro Deck is;
What must be put in? (Fill to Taste)

Mostly Core Necro Cards:

16-18 Swamp
3-4 Strips
0-4 Mishra
4 Dark Ritual
4 Hypnotic Specter
4 Hymns
4 assorted Knights (pumpers or 2/2s)
2-4 N. Disks
3-4 Drain Life
2-3 Necro
1-3 Demonic Consultation
2 Sengirs or Ihsan's
1 Zuran orb
1 Ivory Tower
------------------
47-62 cards.

These are the core cards you'll find in pre-alliance
Type II Necro decks. The other 3-14 cards are
where the variety shows up. The "LA Necro" adds in
4 Icequakes. (Ed. Note - this became the standard.)
Brian Weissman came up with the idea of using a
Dancing Scimitar or two. Some liked to return the
deck to its weenie origins and max out on
pumpknights. A 4th Necro shows up in the main deck
if you expect to see a lot of other Necros in the
tournament. (Necro vs. Necro - he who plays the first
Necro... wins). If not, it's in the sideboard. Four
Glooms in the sideboard. After Alliances, Dystopia
and Contagion became standard. Dystopia generally
replaced the Glooms. Contagion replaced the
Banishings or Serrated Arrows, and proved itself as
one of the key cards that a NecroDeck player would
sideboard in against another NecroDeck.

A typical choice for a Necro Sideboard would look
like:

4 Dystopia
3 Infernal Darkness
3 Icequakes
1 Serrated Arrow (two in main deck)
1 Necropotence (versus other Necro Decks)
3 Contagion (versus other Necro decks)

Some thoughts and notes from Paul Pantera:

This weekend I won the final Long Beach Pro
Tourney Qualifier in our area. It was a great
tournament with many top players. This is the deck
that I played (keep in mind that this was a PT1
tourney with the ‘five’ of each expansion minimum
deck construction rule) circa July ‘96:

4 Hypnotic Specter
3 Order of the Ebon Hand
2 Sengir Vampire
2 Ihsan's Shade

4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Dark Ritual
3 Necropotence
3 Drain Life
2 Demonic Consultation

2 Dancing Scimitar
1 Icy Manipulator
4 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Zuran Orb
1 Ivory Tower

4 Mishra's Factory
4 Strip Mine
17 Swamp

Sideboard:

2 Weakness
3 Serrated Arrows
3 Gloom
1 Dark Banishing
1 Necropotence
4 Cuombajj Witches
1 Fallen Angel

I started playing an all black discard deck a long time
ago, and it's really the only type II deck I've ever
played. But it took the next step when Necropotence
was added. Then it became the standard
"NecroDeck" that is so popular right now.

John Immordino, a top player from Sacramento,
claims to be the first person to put four Nevinyrral's
Disk in an all-black Necropotence deck to change it
from an "if I get really lucky then I win" type of deck to
a control deck. He describes it like "it's just like The
Deck except it has Disks instead of Counters and
Hymns instead on Scepters." When you look at it
like this, it changes the way you think about the deck,
and how you play it. (John is one of the top players
of The Deck style, and is the one who convinced
Brian Weissman to add Mirror Universe to his
version.)

Most players of these decks think of the Disk as a
"save my butt" card, but it's not. The Disk gives you
control over the field of play. Put it out and leave it
out, and you have control.

The next generation came after the New York Pro
Tourney where the strong deck style was the Land
Tax/Armageddon/Erhnam Djinn style deck. Preston
Poulter knew this going into a Long Beach qualifier in
New York, so he added two Gloom to his main deck,
and won. Here's the deck Preston played (same PT1
deck construction rules) circa February ‘96:

2 Orders Of Ebon Hand
2 Knights Of Stromgald
4 Hypnotic Specter
2 Sengir Vampire

2 Drain Life
3 Necropotence
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Dark Ritual
2 Demonic Consultation
2 Gloom

1 Zuran Orb
1 Ivory Tower
3 Nevinyrral's Disk

4 Mishra's Factory
4 Strip Mine
20 Swamp

Sideboard:

2 Aeolipile
3 Serrated Arrows
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Feldon's Cane
2 Gloom
2 Apocalypse Chime
2 Jalum Tome
2 Tormod's Crypt

This style because popular, along with the addition of
Dancing Scimitar by Brian Weissman. The Scimitar
is the perfect addition for the deck because it can
block Erhnam, Order of Leitbur, Autumn Willow, and
Serra Angel. Brian Smith was playing a 2 Gloom, 2
Scimitar version when he won the Long Beach
Qualifier in San Jose 2 weeks ago. I did not do so
well. I was playing a modified version with no big
creatures, Animate Dead, and no Scimitars. I went
3-2, losing to another NecroDeck and a deck with 12
Protection from black white weenies. You needed to
go 4-1 in the Swiss rounds to get into the final 8
single elimination bracket.

By now everyone was playing the NecroDeck. It
could consistently beat all other deck types. I knew
that if I added the Scimitars and the all-important
fourth Disk that I could have made up for my loss at
the previous tournament, but it wasn't enough. What
I needed to do was set my deck up against itself. In
other words, I had to find a way to beat all-black.

I knew that the single most important card in Necro
vs. Necro is Drain Life. It's equivalent to "take X
cards from your opponent's hand and put them in
yours." I experimented with four Drain Life, but I
found that it was too many. I would always end up
with one at the beginning of the game, which I
couldn't use. Also, it's a less useful card in low mana
situations, like if you're playing against an
Armageddon deck. So I decided on three Drain Life,
all in the main deck.

The next is the Icy. Straight black has no way to get
rid of big creatures. When I'm playing Black vs.
Black, I want to use my Drain Life on my opponent,
and use my disks for his creatures. The Icy is the
perfect way to take care of a big creature, and it's a
welcome addition because it's also useful in many
other ways (Dervish, Order, etc.).

The night before the big tourney I played with my
friend Chris Pantages for about 5 hours, black on
black. He had modified his deck to add four blue
sources and two Recalls. The theory is to use the
Recalls to get back the Zuran Orb or Ivory Tower, or
just Hymns or Strip Mines. This strategy has the
added advantage of using up three Chronicles spots,
freeing up space in the sideboard.

Chris convinced me that adding 2 Weakness to the
sideboard was a great idea. Black has no way of
getting rid of a first turn Specter, and this can cost
you the game. The other important strategy note in
black on black is Necropotence - almost always the
player who plays it first will win, so you want to make
sure it's you.

After hours of practice I finally figured out a
sideboard strategy against all black. I decided I
could take out the 3 Orders and a Disk (you don't
need 4 disks if your opponent can't disenchant
them). I put in another Necropotence, 2 Weakness,
and an arrows. I figured I had a winning strategy...

- P.Pantera

(Paul went on to win the tournament the next day.)

Bentley Necro (Winner US Nationals ‘96) -
Diskless Necro B/r
Circa July ‘96

Dennis Bentley won the U.S. Nationals with this B/r
NecroDeck. The inclusion of red in this and the
following deck (Justice) is interesting, red giving
Necro bolts, shatters, fireballs, etc., to make up for
it’s lack of selective permanent removal abilities. Of
note in this deck is the absence of the Nevinyrral’s
Disk, which threw the runner-up in the tourney for
quite a loop (G. Baxter). Baxter ended up holding
useless disenchants in his hand... just waiting for the
Disks to show up. Also of note is Bentley’s decision
to use no “Drain Life’s”... almost unheard of at this
time in a tourney level NecroDeck. Bentley gambled
a bit in taking the deck in this direction, but this is
partly offset by the already mentioned permanent
removal capabilities that the red suit offered. It has
been noted by Chris Pikula and Robert Hahn that a
“Classic Necro” should have an even - or better than
even - chance at beating this deck. Fortunately for
Bentley, he only had to play one NecroDeck, his only
loss for the tournament (at the hands of Mark Justice).

4 Hypnotic Specter
4 Black Knight
4 Order of the Ebon Hand
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Icequake
4 Dark Ritual
3 Necropotence
1 Dystopia

4 Lightning Bolt
1 Fireball

1 Black Vise
1 Ivory Tower
1 Zuran Orb

4 Strip Mine
2 City of Brass
4 Sulfurous Springs
14 Swamps

Sideboard:

1 Contagion
2 Dance of the Dead
2 Dark Banishing
3 Dystopia
1 Infernal Darkness
2 Stomgald Cabal
1 Shatter
1 Jester’s Cap
2 Serrated Arrows

Notes on the Bentley Necro from Tom Guevin:

Dennis Bentley won the (U.S. National)
championship with what I consider to be a rather
weak red/black Necro deck. The deck had many
sound ideas, like 8 LD spells in the main deck (no
Land Tax!) and lots of fast creatures, but he had so
little life gaining that it's a wonder the Necro and the
damage lands didn't kill him before he killed his
opponent! I'm also very suprised that he had no
disks and only one shatter as things like serrated
arrows and combos like Icy/pyroclasm would wreck
him.

The real key to his deck was Dystopia - you can
argue that you don't need disks with dystopia - the
only things that Necro needs to disk are white
knights, dervishes and COP's and Dystopia is more
efficient than the disk in that aspect. My personal
opinion is that Dystopia is too powerful and way out
of control - the life loss is minimal compared to the
destructive capability. I can't see it being restricted
but I can see a possible end to the classical
white/green creature days.

- T. Guevin

B/r Necro (‘96 World Champion 2nd Place - M.
Justice)
Circa August ‘96

Mark Justice took this deck to second in the world,
where he met Tom Chanpheng’s WW deck with 12
protection/black knights. Mark was at a definite
disadvantage and it showed in the score. Mark was
swept 0-3. Still this deck is an good example of a
(slightly tweaked) “Classic Necro”.

4 Hypnotic Specter
2 Black Knight
2 Order of the Ebon Hand
2 Ihsan's Shade

4 Necropotence
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Dark Ritual
3 Drain Life
3 Contagion

1 Fireball

3 Nevinyrral's Disk
2 Serrated Arrows
1 Zuran Orb
1 Ivory Tower

4 Strip Mine
3 Mishra's Factory
1 City of Brass
1 Lava Tubes
4 Sulfurous Springs
10 Swamps

Sideboard:
4 Dystopia
1 Contagion
3 Shatter
2 Demonic Consultations
2 Infernal Darkness
2 Pyroblasts

Post Oct ‘96 “New” NecroDeck

After the Oct 1st restriction of the Hymn to Tourach
and Strip Mine, many predicted the downfall of the
NecroDeck. It was not to be, evidenced by this
“New” NecroDeck that won a tournament at Costa
Mesa (strong field of players). In the finals this
NecroDeck faced one of its banes, a Winter Orb
Deck, and won 2-1. Here is the deck:

4 Knights of Stromgald
4 Order of the Ebon Hand
4 Hypnotic Specter
2 Ihsan's Shade

3 Necropotence
4 Icequake
1 Hymn to Tourach
3 Drain Life
3 Contagion
4 Dark Ritual

4 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Zuran Orb
1 Ivory Tower

4 Mishra's Factory
1 Strip Mine
15 Swamps
2 Ebon Strongholds

Sideboard:
4 Dystopias
2 Serrated Arrows
2 Bad Moons
1 Contagion
2 Infernal Darkness

The main reason why this deck is still strong is the
immense speed of the pump knights and the still
potent card drawing power of Necropotence.

NecroDrain
circa Nov ‘96

The short-lived beginning of a new dark age. With
the introduction of Mirage the NecroDeck gets back
half of its random discard for a small price (one extra
generic mana). This deck won a smaller (50 ppl)
tourney in France.

4 Knight Of Stromgald
4 Hypnotic Specter
2 Ihsan's Shade

4 Dark Ritual
3 Necropotence
1 Hymn to Tourach
4 Stupor
1 Demonic Consultation
4 Drain Life
2 Contagion

1 Ivory Tower
1 Zuran Orb
3 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Serrated Arrows

4 Mishra's Factory
1 Strip Mine
2 Lake of the Dead
2 Ebon Stronghold
16 Swamps

- Gael Jacquot

Chris Pikula’s Dallas NecroDeck

After much discussion on the magic strategy NG about
whether a NecroDeck would win another big tourney,
Chris Pikula took this deck to the Quarter finals of the
Dallas PT (not bad for a guy from Indiana). This is a
NecroDeck, but is certainly a hybrid form, with the
inclusion of 10 red spells in the main deck. This
deck, like Bentley's, includes no Disk’s in the main
deck or sideboard, leaving the job of permanent
control to the red spells - and creature on creature
combat. Pikula’s deck, oddly enough, only features
one discard spell - the lone hymn. This deck then, is
perhaps testament in itself to the power of
“Necropotence”, and the power of the best
card-drawing machine in Type II, soon to be gone.

4 Order of the Ebon Hand
2 Knight of Stromgald
4 Black Knight
4 Hypnotic Specter

4 Dark Ritual
3 Drain Life
3 Necropotence
1 Hymn to Tourach

4 Bolt
3 Incinerate
1 Fireball
2 Shatter

1 Zuran Orb
1 Black Vise

12 Swamps
4 Sulfurous Springs
4 Mountain
1 City of Brass
1 Lava Tubes
1 Strip Mine

Sideboard
4 Dystopia
4 Anarchy
1 Shatter
1 Infernal Darkness
1 Contagion
1 Ivory Tower
1 Necropotence
2 Pyroblast

Notes from Chris Pikula:

Mirage gives us the new Hymn, Stupor. Well, very
simply, Stupor ain't Hymn. Hymn is disruption,
Stupor is moderate card advantage. I decided early
on I would not play mono-black Necro- I knew Stupor
would not "protect" the Disk like Hymn, and I didn't
consider mono-black, Diskless Necro to be an
option. I decided on B/R, due to Red's ability to
wreck WW, Stasis, and Whirling Dervish. My
original B/R had only 6 Knights, only 4 bolts, and 4
Stupors. I developed a dislike for Stupor from the
beginning- Stuporing someone after they had cast an
Ernham seemed ineffective. I also developed a
theory that discard was not nearly as strong in a
single-minded deck like mine. Many of my Stupors
would simply remove anti-artifact cards from my
opponents hand. I was basically making my cards
"dead" cards instead of their's. So, as an
experiment, I simply yanked the Stupors for
Incinerates at 3 AM while lying in bed. The next day,
I started murdering everything. After losing to
another NecroDeck in NYC the week before the PT, I
decided I needed more creatures. Originally, I added
Factories, but I ended up just adding Knights. My
final deck was something I was very happy with.
Going into the tourney, my biggest fears were
Hammer of Bogardan and COP:Black. I didn't see
much of these. One more thing, my deck once again
did not contain Ivory Tower. I did have a much better
reason this time- against most decks, the tower
would simply get blown up before I gained any life. I
had no artifacts, not even Factories to suck up
Disenchants. Black Vise does its damage before the
game starts, and, as we say on the Pro Tour, Zuran
Orb is a sorcery. It should also be noted that 2 of the
other top 4 decks at Dallas were also Necrodecks.
Brian Hacker played a black weenie very similar to
Dave Price's PT1 deck. Brian didn't even use a
Zuran Orb! (In his match against Marc Hernandez,
Hernandez spent 5 minutes trying to Grinning Totem
Hacker, because he was convinced he was
somehow missing the Zorb every time through the
deck.) Paul McCabe played a discard/big
creature/Lake of the Dead deck and won the whole
tourney. I beat this deck earlier in the tournament
(played by Eric Tam). The most interesting thing
about these decks is that they have almost nothing in
common other than Necropotence and Hypnotic
Specter. This, more than anything, shows the power
of Necropotence.

- C. Pikula

Thus ends the story of the NecroDeck in Type II play.
The NecroDeck will continue - with minor alterations
- to exist in the Type I environment (beats ‘The Deck’
2 out of 3). Still, the Necro strategy will remain in
Type II and the strategy will remain the same; severe
disruption, fast-powerful creatures, and card
advantage, it is just not apparent what cards it will be
based on. How this strategy will be implemented at a
maximal level is anybody’s guess.

With thanks to Robert Hahn for his ‘Schools of
Magic’, and the fine example he and his writings
have represented. Please send comments,
criticisms, and suggestions to
fkus...@ix.netcom.com

-Frank Kusumoto

[Scott Lewis]

One simple question:

Has anyone REALLY messed around with Misinformation and Stupor? I think
this would be a killer combo with other forms of hand destruction, but I
haven't seen anyone try it out. (I'm having a tough time getting my hands
on Misinformations, that's why I haven't tried it. . .)

-Scott-

[ka...@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca]

Scott Lewis (gt3...@prism.gatech.edu) wrote:
: One simple question:

: -Scott-

Could be that people _are_ trying to break misinformation, and that's why
they're so hard to get.

--
---
I want to know everything; nothing more, nothing less.
I can be reached at ka...@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca