This card made many of my friends quit the game, when everybody was running "the skull" in his or her deck. There were only 2 decks at the time in this area: those running necropotence and those designed to disrupt the necropotence deck (and most of those were also running...: NECROPOTENCE!)...
Saha
★★★★☆ (4.4/5.0)(6 votes)
One of the few cards I've given five stars.
Gilgiga
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(3 votes)
The R/G beats/ that was running around at the same time as necro didn't care for the skull, also there was a lot of U/W control. U/W got wrecked once people realized you could run it in decks other then agro though. That being said thing is P. fierce, and one of the best engines in the history of magic.
Fragskull
★★★★☆ (4.7/5.0)(3 votes)
Sooooooooooooo goooooooooooood
FreakyM
★★★★☆ (4.9/5.0)(4 votes)
An early example of an "advanced" card. Helped define Magic in its early days, and pretty much forever gave Black a card to embody it.
LeoKula
★★★★☆ (4.3/5.0)(6 votes)
5/5 for my favorite black card ever.
True_Smog
★★★☆☆ (3.3/5.0)(3 votes)
The best Black card ever printed.
FakeZOr
★★★☆☆ (3.1/5.0)(4 votes)
i don't understand. Please explain how this card is meant to be used.
AnmanIndustries
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(4 votes)
FakeZOr,
Basically, you pay life to draw a card, whenever you want. Although you don't get the cards until the start of your next turn. And for 3 mana it can give you a big advantage early on.
Tackle74
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(3 votes)
Ah fine memories of the Black Summer, of course I meta-gamed alot with White Weenie which was good at the time too. A great card anyone who ever played this card would get the point easily.
DacenOctavio
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(3 votes)
The quick-draw skull. Terrifying to its opponents, intimidating to those who would tap its power, considered a game breaker. But there are ways around it! Hand destruction, removal, Bloodchief Ascension!
storophanthus
★★☆☆☆ (2.6/5.0)(4 votes)
i remembered a game magazine said this is the worst card in Ice Age.. yeah worst so that it is banned and guilty for being broken.. Dark Ritual on the same set, turn one draw up to 19 cards, assuming you have zero costed mana producing artifacts and other Dark ritual or any other low costed spells, you might end up killing your opponents on the firs turn..
It's fun to see so many people say how great a card is and yet not know how it works...
1. You don't "wait a turn" you get them at the end of yours basically. (The end of the discard step, on your turn).
2. Paying 19 life? Have a DCI judge explain why that won't work.
3. Black Summer? Heh, when I started playing Magic, we had no banned list, no Restricted list, and if you went to a Type 1 tournament with 30 Black Lotuses in your deck, it was legal. And cheap. They costed about 5 dollars at the time. Hopefully someone here remembers that. Black Lotus went from 5 dollars, to like 50, in like ONE month.
The morons at the DCI who've ruined Type 1, I'm shocked they haven't taken aim at this more. I'll stop referring to them as idiots once Library of Alexandria and Fastbond become totally unrestricted again, and they allow Fastbond in Type 1.5.
scumbling1
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(6 votes)
"Dark Ritual on the same set, turn one draw up to 19 cards, assuming you have zero costed mana producing artifacts and other Dark ritual or any other low costed spells, you might end up killing your opponents on the firs turn.."
How are you getting the cards exiled with Necropotence into your hand on the first turn's main phase?
"The morons at the DCI who've ruined Type 1, I'm shocked they haven't taken aim at this more. I'll stop referring to them as idiots once Library of Alexandria and Fastbond become totally unrestricted again, and they allow Fastbond in Type 1.5."
It sounds like you want to completely destroy the eternal formats just for a trip down memory lane. Do you have any idea how bad Fastbond would be in Legacy, just with the existing top tier decks? x4 Library in Drain decks would be just as bad. This is a fallacious appeal to the past -- things were not better then simply because you have fond memories of them. The current rules of deck building got established very early on, and Magic can attribute much of it's longevity to the sanity they impose. Sensible bannings and restrictions haven't hurt, either.
Shadoflaam
★☆☆☆☆ (1.6/5.0)(4 votes)
Just got one for a foil Lashwrithe. I think that even if that weren't already an amazing trade I still would've done it, and I was Shocked that it wasn't a 50$ card. In EDH this thing is the Beast Within my Sharuum deck, and it is the card I tutor before anything else in the deck. Unfortunately, often leads to a mana screwed hand in a tricolor deck, but I would walk through a Door to Nothingness before parting with the Skull. Kudos, Necropotence, and here's the obligatory Storm Crow link.
tavaritz
★☆☆☆☆ (1.0/5.0)(2 votes)
But the funniest thing is that WoTC reprinted this card in fifth because no-one hasn't yet relized how good this card is. Nobody has looked this card correctly. I'm not saying that I did, because I didn't. I remember the same game magazine article and we vall in our gaming society agreed. Then gradually we started to think that there might be something to this card. But the fifth was out and everything fall apart.
I saw the insane power of this card in my cousin's suicide black deck way back in '97. This card is single-handedly responsible for my love of black and monoblack decks since then.
zenitramleirdag
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(3 votes)
hymn to tourach..hypnotic specter..sink hole..mind twist..strip mine..and necropotence! ahhhh! those were the days!
Anathame
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I actually remember Inquest saying this was a bad card back when Ice Age first dropped. I'm going to see what I can dig up. I think they said it was the worst card in the set, if you can believe that.
nope.avi
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
5/5 its the one of the iconic broken cards. cards like this that stood the test of time and are still still seeing play in vintage decks are obviously broken.
Yes, please get 19 cards so I can kill you with my scorching spear.
jstorrie
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Now it's on a dude!
SkyknightXi
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Anathame: I actually took that as a challenge (although i can't remember whether I preferred Oath of Lim-Dul; I understood both cards as Lich variants, even if this is more of a Greed variant), to find a way to make an advantage out of "you can only get cards by paying life". The way I came up with, before news of Necropotence actually being a potent weapon when coupled with Nevinyrral's Disk as an emergency escape button, was, of all things, Chains of Mephistopheles, since you technically aren't drawing, just putting cards into your hand. I don't think I ever really explored that, though.
DarthParallax
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(9 votes)
The Darth Vader of Magic.
The graphics are 'bad'. The rules text is awkward due to clunky 'you can see the strings' technology.
Make no mistake- The Skull is as iconic as it gets in MAGIC, just as Darth Vader is as iconic as it gets in STAR WARS. And they still talk about them both, decades later.
Imagine Darth Vader casting Necropotence. Equals Death. @.@
Flavortext: "I find your lack of cards disturbing"
Mike-C
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
I know black on black crime sucks but.. It's all about survival! And survival is Exquisite!! Mwah-ha-haa!
MassiveMassive
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Life as a resource... Necropotence players discovered it. InQuest ranked it as the worst card in Ice Age, but who could have thought giving up your draw step was a broken move waaay back then? They came back years later and proved themselves wrong by giving it the full five dots in the Players Guide of their magazine, as it should be. 5/5
kazenpaus
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
The only good playing experience I've ever had involving this was when someone dropped it in a multiplayer game, causing a rather fun instant alliance between the other three of us.
On the upside, Demonic Tutor saves you some life, and gets you what you want right away, for {B} less. On the other hand, this gets you what you want, and basically everything else in your entire deck.
Hmmm.
strider24seven
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
@SlackWareWolf "It's fun to see so many people say how great a card is and yet not know how it works... "
I'll say it is. You have provided a prime example of such a person.
1. You don't "wait a turn" you get them at the end of yours basically. (The end of the discard step, on your turn).
Necropotence gives you the cards at the beginning of the end step, not the "discard step" or, as the rest of the MtG community refers to it, the cleanup step. While the active player is granted priority during the end step before they are forced to discard (meaning you can cast instants and cards with flash), the active player can't play any lands he picked up, or cast sorceries or non-flash creatures, artifacts, enchantments, or planeswalkers. So for most cards in most decks outside of specially constructed permission decks, you do, in fact, have to "wait a turn." And even then, it's often not advantageous, and often not possible, to play instant-speed cards during the end step.
2. Paying 19 life? Have a DCI judge explain why that won't work.
Technically, it doesn't "work", since it's not "Pay X life: Faux-Draw X Cards." However, most reasonable people would interpret "Pay 19 life: Faux-Draw 19 Cards" as: "I choose to activate Necropotence's activated ability 19 times, each in response to the previous activation, paying 1 life each time for a total payment of 19 life." Then, the player exiles the top 19 cards of his library face-down, 1 at a time, as the stack resolves, keeping careful track of the order in which they were exiled. Most reasonable people would just count out 19 cards to save time. Then, at the end step, the player would put all 19 delayed Necropotence triggers on the stack, adding 1 card to his hand each time it resolves, keeping careful track of the order in which they were exiled. Most reasonable people would just put all 19 cards to hand. Then, the player would most likely attempt one of two tactics: 1. Use as many cards as possible before the cleanup step 2. Filter his or her hand down to the optimum 7 cards, exiling each card discarded this way (assuming Necropotence is still in play and that there are no other discard-replacement effects) Then, assuming no other actions or triggers occur during the end step or cleanup step, the turn ends.
As a DCI Judge, I would recommend that someone calling a judge on his or her opponent trying to pay 19 Life for Necropotence's activated ability receive a warning for unsporting conduct.
3. Black Summer? Heh, when I started playing Magic, we had no banned list, no Restricted list, and if you went to a Type 1 tournament with 30 Black Lotuses in your deck, it was legal. And cheap. They costed about 5 dollars at the time. Hopefully someone here remembers that. Black Lotus went from 5 dollars, to like 50, in like ONE month.
Cool story, bro.
More relevantly, you shouldn't badger or insult others for poor play/theorycraft if you are wrong yourself.
R1p_v4n_54u3r
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
The original. Often imitated, never duplicated. The epitome of card advantage by attrition and the card that set the standard for all of its descendants. Not even my beloved Phyrexian Arena comes close to this card's potential. And yet something feels all too Phyrexian, nay Yawgmothian even, about this particular spell.
As it stands, I can think of no scenario where a card like this could ever see the light of day outside of Vintage that didn't entail the whole of the game being forever turned on its ear.
Pure power, plain and simple. The card's name really says it all.
Comments (35)
That being said thing is P. fierce, and one of the best engines in the history of magic.
Basically, you pay life to draw a card, whenever you want. Although you don't get the cards until the start of your next turn. And for 3 mana it can give you a big advantage early on.
they print yawgmoth's Bargain, and it still banned.. now people take a look at ad nauseam
1. You don't "wait a turn" you get them at the end of yours basically. (The end of the discard step, on your turn).
2. Paying 19 life? Have a DCI judge explain why that won't work.
3. Black Summer? Heh, when I started playing Magic, we had no banned list, no Restricted list, and if you went to a Type 1 tournament with 30 Black Lotuses in your deck, it was legal. And cheap. They costed about 5 dollars at the time. Hopefully someone here remembers that. Black Lotus went from 5 dollars, to like 50, in like ONE month.
The morons at the DCI who've ruined Type 1, I'm shocked they haven't taken aim at this more. I'll stop referring to them as idiots once Library of Alexandria and Fastbond become totally unrestricted again, and they allow Fastbond in Type 1.5.
How are you getting the cards exiled with Necropotence into your hand on the first turn's main phase?
"The morons at the DCI who've ruined Type 1, I'm shocked they haven't taken aim at this more. I'll stop referring to them as idiots once Library of Alexandria and Fastbond become totally unrestricted again, and they allow Fastbond in Type 1.5."
It sounds like you want to completely destroy the eternal formats just for a trip down memory lane. Do you have any idea how bad Fastbond would be in Legacy, just with the existing top tier decks? x4 Library in Drain decks would be just as bad. This is a fallacious appeal to the past -- things were not better then simply because you have fond memories of them. The current rules of deck building got established very early on, and Magic can attribute much of it's longevity to the sanity they impose. Sensible bannings and restrictions haven't hurt, either.
ahhhh! those were the days!
InQuest, you so stoopid. See also Dream Halls.
The graphics are 'bad'. The rules text is awkward due to clunky 'you can see the strings' technology.
Make no mistake- The Skull is as iconic as it gets in MAGIC, just as Darth Vader is as iconic as it gets in STAR WARS. And they still talk about them both, decades later.
Imagine Darth Vader casting Necropotence. Equals Death. @.@
Target......_ _ _--------- _ _ _
Player...../.||..\ ....../ ..\=|
Dies ....../
This....../|^/o\^|.\----/----\
Turn..../..\/|||\/..\--/----- \
Flavortext: "I find your lack of cards disturbing"
InQuest ranked it as the worst card in Ice Age, but who could have thought giving up your draw step was a broken move waaay back then? They came back years later and proved themselves wrong by giving it the full five dots in the Players Guide of their magazine, as it should be.
5/5
On the upside, Demonic Tutor saves you some life, and gets you what you want right away, for {B} less.
On the other hand, this gets you what you want, and basically everything else in your entire deck.
Hmmm.
"It's fun to see so many people say how great a card is and yet not know how it works... "
I'll say it is. You have provided a prime example of such a person.
1. You don't "wait a turn" you get them at the end of yours basically. (The end of the discard step, on your turn).
Necropotence gives you the cards at the beginning of the end step, not the "discard step" or, as the rest of the MtG community refers to it, the cleanup step. While the active player is granted priority during the end step before they are forced to discard (meaning you can cast instants and cards with flash), the active player can't play any lands he picked up, or cast sorceries or non-flash creatures, artifacts, enchantments, or planeswalkers. So for most cards in most decks outside of specially constructed permission decks, you do, in fact, have to "wait a turn." And even then, it's often not advantageous, and often not possible, to play instant-speed cards during the end step.
2. Paying 19 life? Have a DCI judge explain why that won't work.
Technically, it doesn't "work", since it's not "Pay X life: Faux-Draw X Cards."
However, most reasonable people would interpret "Pay 19 life: Faux-Draw 19 Cards" as:
"I choose to activate Necropotence's activated ability 19 times, each in response to the previous activation, paying 1 life each time for a total payment of 19 life."
Then, the player exiles the top 19 cards of his library face-down, 1 at a time, as the stack resolves, keeping careful track of the order in which they were exiled. Most reasonable people would just count out 19 cards to save time.
Then, at the end step, the player would put all 19 delayed Necropotence triggers on the stack, adding 1 card to his hand each time it resolves, keeping careful track of the order in which they were exiled. Most reasonable people would just put all 19 cards to hand.
Then, the player would most likely attempt one of two tactics:
1. Use as many cards as possible before the cleanup step
2. Filter his or her hand down to the optimum 7 cards, exiling each card discarded this way (assuming Necropotence is still in play and that there are no other discard-replacement effects)
Then, assuming no other actions or triggers occur during the end step or cleanup step, the turn ends.
As a DCI Judge, I would recommend that someone calling a judge on his or her opponent trying to pay 19 Life for Necropotence's activated ability receive a warning for unsporting conduct.
3. Black Summer? Heh, when I started playing Magic, we had no banned list, no Restricted list, and if you went to a Type 1 tournament with 30 Black Lotuses in your deck, it was legal. And cheap. They costed about 5 dollars at the time. Hopefully someone here remembers that. Black Lotus went from 5 dollars, to like 50, in like ONE month.
Cool story, bro.
More relevantly, you shouldn't badger or insult others for poor play/theorycraft if you are wrong yourself.
As it stands, I can think of no scenario where a card like this could ever see the light of day outside of Vintage that didn't entail the whole of the game being forever turned on its ear.
Pure power, plain and simple. The card's name really says it all.
POWER CREEP