Subject: No Necro! Date: Fri, 04 Dec 1998 12:19:52 PST From: "Tony Piro" To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com [ISSUE] No Necro?!? I read on a post at mtgnews.com that Necropotence may not make it into Sixth Edition. The reason stated for this was that remove from the game effects would not be in Sixth and Necropotence can send cards out of the game. I think that removing Necropotence from Type II is a big mistake, so I want to start lobbying to keep Necropotence now before it's too late. Necropotence is what keeps balance in Type II. In fact I'd go as far as to say that Necro is what keeps Type II fair. How does it do this? In Type II there is a delicate balance between fast creature decks and control oriented decks. People like to play each style and Type II is most fun when the largest number of people get to competitively play the kinds of decks they enjoy. Everyone knows that control decks are generally better than creature decks. The reason for this is that control decks tend to maximize card advantage, and maximizing card advantage is the best way to win at magic. Brian Weissman wrote the definitive article about this aspect of the game in an old Duelest. The point of this article was that cards like Wrath of God and Moat can nullify whole strategies put together by creature decks, and as long as the control deck has one point of life it has a chance of winning. If control decks are so good, then why don't they dominate every tournament environment? Because Necropotence keeps them in check. Necropotence keeps any deck that cannot consistently deal damage honest. If you never deal damage to a Necro deck, it will probably draw at least twenty more cards than you will. This more often than not will be enough to win the game. There are two main ways that Necropotence hurts control decks. 1.) Counterspells become ineffective against a player drawing three or four cards each turn. 2.) Large scale effects (wrath, etc.) do not net the same kind of advantage when your opponent can just redraw all the resources he just lost. If Necro is so good, then why doesn't it dominate? The problem for a Necro player is that it is very easy for any deck with red or lots of fast creatures to finish a Necropotence deck off after the Necro player had drawn down to four or five life. Because Necropotence is strong, direct damage will always be somewhat viable. So what we have is a very delicate balance. If control decks get too good, then Necropotence decks get good too and slow down control. If Necro decks get good, then direct damage and creature rush decks are more viable and this keeps Necro players honest. This good balance has made Type II a fun environment since black vise was restricted. The best example of this came during autumn of 1996 after Mirage was released. Counterpost decks were really strong at this time and would have completely dominated if it wasn't for Necropotence decks that could sometimes beat Counterpost with powerful card drawing and discard effects. Furthermore because Necro was used, creature and direct damage decks were also competitive during this time. This period in Type II could have been very boring if Necropotence wasn't around. The nonreprinting of Necropotence is part of a much larger problem in Magic right now. The problem is that Wizards keeps screwing the old players in order to introduce the game to new players. I really don't understand this strategy at all. Wizards is making plenty of money right now, and I see no reason for them to be so greedy. They need to quit making sets full of cheesy combos and speed kills. They need to print more sets like Ice Age, Alliances, Mirage, and Visions. They need to keep printing the staple cards that give each color personality and keep balance in tournaments. Perhaps Wizards needs to make a stand alone of staple tournament cards (like Necro, Wrath, Armageddon, Disk, Birds of Paradise, Sylvan Library, and so on) if they want to dumb down the basic set. I advise everyone to write to Wizards of the Coast and tell them what they want in Magic. Sixth Edition will probably make or break Magic as a serious tournament sport, and if Sixth Edition "dumbs down" Magic as much as it seems it will, Sixth will turn many of the older, faithful players away from the game. These are the players that keep the game alive, and without them the game will die. ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com