Necro

Standard* Aggro Competitive Mono-Black Necropotence Netdeck Suicide Black

sylvannos

Creature (10)

• 4x Hypnotic Specter
• 2x Knight of Stromgald
• 4x Order of the Ebon Hand

Instant (9)

• 2x Contagion
• 4x Dark Ritual
• 3x Demonic Consultation

Land (24)

• 4x Mishra's Factory
• 4x Strip Mine
• 16x Swamp

Sorcery (8)

• 4x Drain Life
• 4x Hymn to Tourach

Artifact (5)

• 1x Ivory Tower
• 3x Nevinyrral's Disk
• 1x Zuran Orb

Enchantment (4)

• 4x NecropotenceGC

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Sideboard

Enchantment (6)

• 3x Dystopia
• 3x Gloom

Artifact (4)

• 1x Nevinyrral's Disk
• 3x Serrated Arrows

Instant (5)

• 2x Contagion
• 3x Terror

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Maybeboard

Creature (3)

• 1x Black Knight
• 1x Blood Pet
• 1x Priest of Gix

Land (1)

• 1x Lake of the Dead

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Persecute

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This is the deck infamous for the "Black Summer of '96," so-called because it overran standard from around June 1996 to September. It would later re-emerge after Tolarian Academy and its friends were banned in 1999. It's said that true Necro players sleep with four copies of Necropotence under their pillows at night.

The deck works by playing a plethora of cheap, cost efficient creatures and disruption, then refilling your hand with Necropotence. Using Ivory Tower, you never lose life so long as you only draw three to four cards every turn.

Dark Ritual could easily dump a turn one Necropotence into play, or a Hypnotic Specter to cripple the opponent's hand. Drain Life and Lake of the Dead were used as finishers to push past those last few points of damage.

This deck wasn't possible until the banning of Black Vise in Type Two and its restriction in Type One. Once that happened, Necropotence was the final piece of the black puzzle that created one of the strongest archetypes Magic has ever seen.

Necropotence wasn't seen as much of a problem after people figured out Stasis and Kismet hosed the deck, hard. However, Necropotence found its home (where it remains today) in combo decks, namely Necro-Donate. Since then, it's been restricted in Vintage and banned in all other DCI sanctioned formats.

Date added	12 years
Last updated	2 years
Legality	This deck is not Standard legal.
Rarity (main - side)	12 - 4 Rares 20 - 5 Uncommons 12 - 6 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.28
Folders	History and Reference Decks