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by Aaron Benanav
Deck Design 101 #3 This month I went with an old favorite of mine. I always liked Necropotence because it is like living dangerously. If you go down too far in life you may not be able to draw ever again. On the other hand if luck (well you don't need too much luck with a deck like this =) is on your side, you can gain so much card advantage that your opponent has no chance. Though there was nothing like the old Necro, this deck can still be very competitive. Without the Hippy, Hymn, and Lake of the Dead Necro seems as dead as its name implies, but with the introduction of Bottle Gnomes in Tempest it has a chance to rise from the dead (bad puns intended). Bottle Gnomes are like Ansectral Recall to the Necro player, and as an added bonus the little parties in a can (bottle) can block protection from black creatures. Since they have a toughness of three they can block White Knights multiple times. I think the best way to take advantage of Necropotence is by using a combination of discard cards and reset buttons to keep your hand full and your opponent's empty. You don't need many creatures because with Necropotence you draw many more cards than you would with a normal deck, and because of reset buttons and discard, your opponent has a lot less to block with or use as creature control. For discard cards and reset buttons I have chosen:
Then Stupor should not be used with any dark rituals (I thought I'd point that out early). The point of Stupor is that your one card gets rid of two. When you use Dark Ritual, you are spending two cards to kill two cards. Better to keep the advantage, and the dark rituals are there to pump Drain Lifes. The Funeral Charms are great multi-function cards. First off they can be used to make your opponent discard. Since you are playing Necro it is like one life to make your opponent discard one card. Also, they can kill a creature that has one toughness (if you use the second ability which gives +2/-1), they can be used to make your creature bigger, or they can be used to make one of your creatures unblockable. The disks are pretty obvious. They can kill all of your opponents annoying creatures, enchantments, etc, and they can get rid of the Necropotence when your life gets too low. Now that you have your opponent sitting there with no hand, feeling very lonely, you need some creatures to comfort him. Creatures that are hard to block and have great special abilities are what you want here. For this I chose:
I know it seems a little odd to have just one Knight of Stromgald, but with all of the pinging creatures around (guildmages and firewalkers), you can't play with too many low toughness creatures. If in the late game you get him he rules. Other than that I would rather have a Black Knight as he has more toughness and requires no mana. The Abysmal (Abyssal if you must) Specters are more discard. Sure your opponent chooses what he discards, but if he has a good deck, than all of his cards should be equally important to him, so it isn't that awful. When I use this card people always have trouble choosing what to throw away. Another great thing is that if your opponent has no hand than every time he draws a card he has to use it that turn or discard it during yours. The next parts of a Necro deck are the life gaining cards. The more life you gain, the more cards you draw. For these I have chosen:
The Drain Lifes are really your main kill card. Always save the Drains for your opponent, unless you are about to die in which case you make the call. All of the life you gain becomes cards in your hand. Remember that these cards mean the game. You always want a full hand. The Dark Rituals power the Drains. They mean an extra two life. If you want to really get deep, you pay one card for two life which becomes two cards so it gains you advantage (The third mana you get from the ritual is taken away by the cost you paid to cast the thing. Drains get you two extra mana not three). The Rituals can also help against Counterspell players. If you see your opponent play an Island, you can ritual out a Disk or Necropotence before your opponent can counter it. I already praised the Bottle Gnomes earlier so there isn't much to say about them now. Another great thing is that they neutralize Incinerates. That makes the final deck:
The cards that I just added were the Necropotence, which are a no brainer, and Diabolic Edict. The Edicts are great creature control because the don't target a creature. They can kill anything. For land, I put in Wasteland because they kill those annoying Quicksands and the Multi-lands everyone depends on these days. For a sideboard I need something for the really fast decks and also something for control and Winter Orb decks. This makes my sideboard:
Please direct any comments or questions to s***a@m***a.com. Please write in and tell me what you would like to see from me in later issues. Do you like these deck articles? If so, any requests for a certain deck type in the future? Would you prefer a deck clinic? Or a strategy article? I write these for you and I would like you to get the most out of my work.
Aaron Benanav
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