This has been a journey in card tactics the likes of which has never been experienced. Seriously, they should make a full length feature film out of what I had to go through to make this deck.
Its first iteration was some sort of draw-type deck, with Necropotence to get big numbers of cards in hand so that I can swing with big creatures like Sturmgeist. I thought it was a wonderful plan, and preliminary testing showed that it worked wonders. but then everything changed when the goblin nation attacked. So it was back to the drawing board.
I tried a few other things with this deck after that. Its second iteration was a sort of anti-draw, with Spiteful Visions and Howling Mine along with Necropotence. I wanted my opponent's perceived card advantage to hurt as much as possible, while I reaped the rewards of drawing without drawing. But that one fell because few creatures seemed to fit the mold very well, and eventually I realized that I was swapping out creatures for anti-creature effects, and I got frustrated.
So I did a bit of research on the topic of the card, Necropotence. All I really knew was that it was hot stuff back in its day. So I looked over a couple of decks and had an epiphany. Necropotence was never meant to be a central card. It was always a support card. The best support card, but nonetheless, a support card. Like an invisible assassin, or an infallible advisor, or a detective who always gets his man. It's not meant to be in the forefront. It was always just the guy who let you have your way with the battlefield. Oh god... Necropotence is the Burger King of Magic.
Anyway, this deck is... varied. Obviously, there's Necropotence itself, but there's also a bit of everything in it, like a sundae with rainbow sprinkles, except all the sprinkles are black. We've got Hymn to Tourach and
Shimian Specter
for discard, Stip Mine and
Choking Sands
for Land destruction, and
Black Knight
, Vampire Nighthawk, and
Spirit of the Night
for beatdown, along with a few hand increasers and life givers so that Necropotence doesn't suck you dry. It may not have any specific strengths, but often, with Necropotence, you'll be able to take on any threat.
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You may consider certain portions of the prior paragraphs to be redacted. As it turns out, this deck has decided to fully embrace the life-gain aspects, and the synergy that has emerged as a result has been beautiful. Gaining sodloads of life with Gray Merchant of Asphodel, especially in a multiplayer game, is just plain fantastic. An upkeep can win you a game when you've got Sanguine Bond in play. Hopefully, this newer version turns out to be better than the old version in every conceivable manner.
