Necro Tech II: How good is it? What's the game plan?

I think Necro Tech II is probably one of the coolest specs thematically and it has some really cool synergies, however I’m not experienced enough to know how “good” it actually is in practice, or how to play it to it’s fullest…

Necro II units are pretty weak on their own, but when in play together, you can create some really awesome synergies, such as Bone Collector / Necromancer creating armies of skeletons for Skeletal Lord to buff, alongside a Corpse Catapault to punish the enemy for killing Skeletons. Wight needs no introduction (except to say it’s one of the few Necro II units that can be effective without relying on other units).

All of this sounds great in theory, but in actual games, if your enemy lets you safely get to 2, 3, or even 4 units in play (which you need to get those awesome Necro combos going), you’re probably in a pretty good position already.

With that in mind, how DO you play Necro II? How does Necro II stack up against other specs? What Necro II units do you tech first and what is your plan for winning the game with those units? Which units are must-haves and which are noob traps? Do you patrol with your Tech units or your Skeletons?

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There’s potentially a couple of ways to play it.

Necromancer/Skeletal Lord

I like using this build. Necromancer makes a lot of skeletons and puts damage out and then Skeletal Lord makes those skeletons worth something. Early techs of Bone Collectors become very valuable here because they will generate two skeletons on a dying swing. If planning on this build I prefer not to drop Skeletal Archery until later that way the opponent can’t prepare for it as well. Skeletal Javelineer is also good to keep around when going for this build because it’s a 1 cost skeleton card that will generate another skeleton on death. Summon Skeletons is also always good to keep around.

There’s other builds that can do work this is just the one I have the most experience doing. Necromancy tech II is really weak to big bodies with overpower, a heavy flying gameplan, and Abomination so watch out for those.

Edit: Wait, I’m pretty sure you’re the person I played against at the Dice House. And I believe you used a similar build to the one I just described, lol. I think you worked in a corpse catapult where I probably would have gone for another Skeletal Lord or Necromancer (to at least replace the one I stole, mwhahahaha. then lost)

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It strikes me that Necro Tech II (Wight, specifically) is a good answer to Hero-heavy strategies. Add a Tower, and suddenly Metamorphosis is a bit less scary.

Likewise, Necro Tech II (Blackhand Resurrector, specifically) is a good support for your own Hero/Spell-based strategy, especially Vandy and Rook, but also board-wipers like Bigby and Prynn (and, to a lesser extent, the unit fetch on on maxband Garth himself). But since that version of Necro doesn’t come with its own win-condition, you have to commit to the Ultimate Spells.

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Is that the answer to what my Moment’s Peace deck needs? Strength/Balance/Necromancy… peace to box out units, snapback->Wright for heroes, Skeletons benefit from Midori midband, Rook premium defender in SQL spot during moments peace turns.

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That isn’t necessarily true. You could also be playing a deck that mostly just wins with Tech 1 units, heroes, and spells, and just wants a bit of extra support at the Tech 2 level.

To put this in context, I’ve been playing with [Feral]/Necromancy/Anarchy lately, and it’s the deck I’m currently playing in CAPS. My normal game plan is to get ahead at the Tech 1 level by playing efficient units, heroes, and spells to make advantageous trades and build a better board position, then to ride that advantage to victory off of more spells and maybe a couple of Tech 2 cards. For example, when I go for Anarchy Tech 2, I might tech a Steam Tank and/or a Chameleon Lizzo, and when I build Feral Tech 2, I’ll tech a Barkcoat Bear or an Elephant, and maybe have a Tiger in the deck from Calamandra.

Independently of this thread showing up, I was thinking recently about how I might be able to use Necromancy Tech 2 in my deck, since I’ve never tried it before. I arrived at some of the same ideas that you did, in that Wight is a great tool for beating Heroes, and that Blackhand Resurrector can be powerful if you have good heroes, and doesn’t require other pieces from the spec to be good. For example, in my deck, I can imagine teching in a Wight and/or a Blackhand Resurrector after I already have some combination some combination of Bone Collectors, other Tech 1 units, Chaos Mirror, Lich’s Bargain, and Behind the Ferns, and maybe having it work.

Anyway, the point of me saying all this is to say that just because a small package of Wight/Reserrector isn’t a win condition itself doesn’t mean that you have to rely on ultimate spells to win. This sort of package could benefit any deck that can establish itself using primarily Tech 1 units, heroes, and/or spells. It’s worth noting that the Necromancy spec itself has two great tech 1 units, a solid hero in Garth, and an excellent spell-based win condition in Lich’s Bargain, so this sort of plan already has a solid foundation in any deck playing Necromancy.


[spoiler]While thinking about ways to use Necromancy Tech 2 in my deck, I also came up with a much sillier idea. You develop normally in the early game, while making sure to play Bone Collectors and hopefully using Garth to make some skeletons as well. Then, you build Necromancy Tech 2 and tech a Necromancer or two. Once you’re at Tech 2, tech Feral Strike and try and stick maxband Calamandra, while continuing to amass skeletons with Garth, Bone Collectors, Necromancer, and maybe Lich’s Bargain. Then, use Feral Strike to win by fetching Pirate Gunship and Skeletal Lord to hand, putting Skeletal Lord and another unit into play, then exhausting 5 skeletons to put the Gunship into play.

You could also theoretically do this without even choosing Necromancy as your Tech 2, but it seems like it would be prohibitively difficult to make 5 skeletons without Necromancer or the black starter. You could probably do it in [Necromancy]/Feral/X, though, and then you get the bonus of being able to potentially cheat in a Tech 3 unit this way while still being able to use a different spec for Tech 2.[/spoiler]

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Is Hooded Executioner really that great? He certainly can be in the late game to remove some key threat of your opponent’s - but even then the boost effect is kind of expensive. And I’d never consider teching one in the early game, because the boost isn’t worth the gold, and without boosting he’s worse than pretty much every other Tech 1 in the game.

A 3/3 for 2 gold is a perfectly average T1 stats wise, if you don’t get to use the ability. I think it’s helpful to think about Hooded Executioner as a spell and a unit combined into one card: you get a blocker and a Sacrifice the Weak for 1 extra cost that comes with no downside and without having to play an extra card. Sacrifice the Weak is already a really really good spell, and Executioner has it built in. The card economy is really what makes it so great since you get “two cards” for one.

Definitely situational and not something to play every game, but I’ve already seen some games here on the forums where an Executioner is holding it’s own in the early game, and then clearing out Tech IIIs in the late game. Obviously if all you’re killing with the Boost is skeletons or wisps, it’s pretty underwhelming, but if you boost to kill another 3+ cost unit, it has already way more than paid for itself.

If the enemy is playing Garth with Doom Grasp and Executioners, it means that pretty much anything I play could die without even entering combat, and that’s pretty scary.

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Within Necromancy tech I units Bone Collector offensive choice and Hooded Executioner is the defensive choice. If BC doesn’t get to swing then he was just a bad HE.

Hooded Executioner is a really good card. Having a kill spell built into a unit is phenomenal. It lets you get in some offense when your on defense, and it scales really well into the late game. It’s like being able to pay 3 to give HE haste, readiness, and +infinite armor the turn he arrives. It’s good stuff, and really annoying to play against because you can never just have 1 or 2 really big bodies patrolling and feel safe. Got to have a few little guys to protect the big ones.

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One of the strongest plays available, which I don’t see mentioned here, is that Necromancy tech 2 forces your opponent to keep killing your skeletons. Otherwise you can pretty easily force a Tech 3 into play really early through Bone Collector, Garth’s ability, and Summon Skeletons to fuel the Skeletal Lord.

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Last night I played necro/balance/blood. Having necro units was nice. Graveyard helped keep some key units in play and massing skeletons. Then when your graveyard gets wiped I used a combo of bloods multi haste and the tech 2 u sacrifice to bring a fallen hero in with max lvl. Which I used necro so I could also play a discard pile unit 5 gold or less. Picked skeleton lord. And used balance peace spell to buy myself rounds without being attacked to build up more skeletons. Lucky opponent did not have mass clear spells. Balance hero lvled just enough to also give skeletons 1/1. And of course long range. At one point I came out of my peace with 6 4/4 skeletons 2 skeleton lords. 3 heros. Pretty much cleared the board FTW. My only iffy question was the tech 2 to sacrifice to bring a hero out. It doesn’t say if you have to meet requirements or not and I didn’t have hero hall or tech 3 building. Thumbs up or down move? Worst case I would of attacked with blood hero before the sacrifice to kill em then brought out necro. Same outcome.

Remember that long-range is an ability and will remove Midori’s buff from the Skeletons.

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Skeletal Archery also gives the Skeletons anti-air, so they get two things that prevent Midori’s buff. They could still benefit from other things like Drakk’s midband, of course!

Also, even if you don’t play skeletal archery, Drakk’s midband effectively nullifies Midori’s, so those two heroes are less effective when used together. It’s not relevant here, but Cala’s midband also stops Midori’s. I always found it a little strange that those two heroes were put in the same faction, since she’s one of only two heroes with a Midori anti-synergy.

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Midori is such a weird hero anyway, his mid-band doesn’t apply to many units as it is (and isn’t THAT MUCH of a benefit), and his maxband is purely selfish. He’s a loner hero who wants to attack, with a lot of strange “controlly” effects on his spells.

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Better to have his midband be kind of weak than have the nonsense that was +2/+2 and costs $1 less. Tiger Cub was a 4/4 for $1, Iron Man was a 5/6 for $3…

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Thanks for that. You all are correct. I’ll tell my girlfriend she would of actually won. Hard one to swallow lol. So may not love necro as much now. 3/3 is still solid for that type of units though. May rethink replacing balance. Just loved the peace spell and trash spell it has.

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So about that. A unit with no ability. If it says anything in the text, that’s an ability? Or I thought it was a tapped or transition for something else. “Sacrifice a unit it to do x” but I just read it also is any of the type of identifiers. Invisible, stealth, exc. so my main question is would the javelin skeleton count as an ability since it uses that token to act as long range, or is that not a perm and not an ability?

Any text that isn’t in italics counts as an ability. Skeleton Javelineer still has its ability even after using up the Javelin rune, since the text is still there. In the case of Calamandra’s and Drakk’s midbands and Skeletal Archery, think of it as if they put extra text on the card to give them those abilities, and the text disappears if the hero or upgrade leaves play.

Note that something like Spectral Hound has no abilities of its own because the text on it is in italics, so it’s just a reminder of the game rule that Illusions die when targeted.

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Simple. Thanks

It looks like using Blackhand Resurrector to get Garth was legal! Rules Questions thread - #1708 by feathers

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