Subject: [DECK] 5c Necro (was Weird Necro) Date: Wed, 16 Sep 1998 02:23:25 -0400 From: John Casker To: MTG-STRATEGY-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM Okay, this deck has been under wraps, not because I think it's hot sh*t but simply because I have so far had 100% originality on my side. NOBODY has ever said to me "you got that off ____________" wherever. On top of that, it's competitive. Here's the deck, followed by notes on play. WHITE 3 Wrath of God 4 Gerrard's Wisdom 2 Disenchant BLACK 3 Necropotence 2 Vampiric Tutor 2 Volrath's Dungeon GREEN 2 Gaea's Blessing 1 Maro BLUE 4 Forbid 1 Ancestral Knowledge RED 2 Firestorm 3 Volcanic Geyser GOLD 3 Lobotomy ARTIFACT 4 Nevinyrral's Disk LAND 4 Undiscovered Paradise 3 Gemstone Mine 2 City of Brass 4 Reflecting Pool 6 Swamp 1 Plains 2 Quicksand 1 Wasteland 1 Volrath's Stronghold __________ 60 cards SIDEBOARD 4 Pyroblast 3 Chill 3 Abbeyance (I HAVE NO CLUE. :( Metagame? Prosbloom? WAAAAA) 1 Firestorm 1 Lobotomy 1 Disrupting Scepter 2 Funeral Charm Part I: Land I get asked "what do you do about Price of Progress/Ruination?" The answer: suffer, I guess. *shrug* I have had all of 1 Price of Progress cast against me, I took the hit as I was at 38 life at the time. This is in a couple /months/ of playing and revising. As for the mix of colors, I've tinkered with it a lot and this mix seems to do me juuuust right. Obviously this might change if the deck's color mix was altered, but as it stands it's been awhile since I died for lack of a color. Part II: Where's Peace of Mind?? The answer: for this deck, it bites. There are already a couple important uses for the cards in hand, and even with a great life-gainer, having to cycle TOO quickly can lead to problems. And frankly, Gerrard's plays better, equal in synergy to the PoM. You gain 10-12, you step on the gas again. No gradual anything, just keep on keeping on. Most important example? Against Red/Black speed. Top-decking a PoM does little to stop the flow of blood, but top-decking Gerrard's is a life-saver. Part III: THIS is Necro? Yep. Necropotence is still an important card to the deck, but for different reasons. This isn't blow out your hand, reload, do it again. Rather, the attempt is for the cost of some cards to be reduced to the point of, if not brokenness, real potence. A counterspell with the buyback of 2 life? Firestorm essentially reads "Destory X creatures for R and X+1 life." Again, hitting the gas (usually BEFORE casting, if possible) with a Gerrard's Wisdom is FAR better than needing to pitch cards (and have white mana available) for PoM. Part IV: What's that doing in there? *Ancestral Knowledge: Try it. Just for a couple days, try it. 2 mana, set the next 10 cards of your deck. And under Necro, you may pay the upkeep twice... once... maybe not at all. Watch: AK, then set 3 cards aside. Draw them up... next turn, during your upkeep, set 3 cards aside (or whatever was left that was any good) then resolve the AK, not paying the upkeep, it goes away and the deck is shuffled. Yes, best case scenario. The MODERATE case scenario is a 2-turn upkeep. Early game it's not so great. Thus, only 1 copy in the deck. *Volrath's Dungeon. As mentioned in an earlier post, this is against control. This is already getting long, so I'll simply refer you to it. *Maro. He's GREEN. Too many decks pack anti-red or anti-blue, which took away my #1 choice (Orgg) and blue flying fat (Ephemeron, or Ssssssibilant), and I decided that Maro/Necro cheese was fun. Plus, cheap. I'm not going for speed beatdown obviously, but I can cast him and still Forbid in the mid-game. *Volcanic Geyser. I've taken some heat for this call (har har har) but the Instant speed does a couple of things for me. 1) instigates a counterspell-check/battle on my opponent's turn, letting me untap and go for something else. 2) Let's me draw up additional cards in a "must-draw" situation, knowing that it can go off during the discard. 3) Against new opponents... well face it, they don't see it coming. *Lobotomy. Y'all, this card is capital-S Strong. Against a couple decks it may be a dead draw, but against most of the current field it is either a: an expensive Coercion, a not-great but not-horrible thing, or b: a major pain in the ass, which is a Good Thing(tm). I won't waste space with a bunch of best-case examples, but even in the moderate cases it's a good play. Part V: Well, so how does it do...? *WW/Cataclysm: kind of a luck-of-the-draw thing in my experience. If I can counter the 'clysm and/or disenchant the armor, I'm good to go. But yes, I die to a successful combo in many cases. :/ Not my best match-up. *Sligh. I'm sorry, but against good players I have a 75%+ record against Sligh. Gerrard's Wisdom is STRONG. They can kill the Maro, sure, but they can't remove him from game, he'll be back. Except for those games where their hand falls right into place (the games where almost nothing could stop them) I overcome the early hits, gain up my life, and off we go. *Living Death. Enh. I win more than I lose, but I can't quote numbers. Tough match-up, but this is the kind of match-up where Volrath's Dungeon shines. Buy back the Forbid no matter WHAT the cost. *Tradewind (TwAwakening). Need more practice. Play for the Wrath/Firestorm, back it up with a Forbid, that'd be my base strategy. Awakening is no fun, really, although it DOES speed up the Disk some. :) *Recurring Nightmare. Lobotomy, Dungeon, Forbid, these are key. 50-50 before the sideboard, and right now I probably lose MORE post-sideboard. Help? SOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooo... that's enough to work with, I hope. ;) Comments would be appreciated, I'd like to make my last stand at the Urza's Pre-release. John Casker, Sumter, SC.