Teaching Arena Zoomers About Necro | Against the Odds

What are the odds of sticking a Turn 1 Necropotence with the help of Dark Ritual and then using it to combo off? Let's find out!
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0:00 Start
3:50 Games

[@Loren_Law]

Hi Seth! I was your fourth opponent in this video. Nice to finally play against you in a content match. Unfortunate that I didn't bring my best. I was playing around with a necro-madness brew and you were literally my first match to test the deck. Turns out it doesn't work! I Hope to cross paths in best of 3 someday.

[@josephwodarczyk977]

This is so wholesome.

[@Freezingfist1]

​@josephwodarczyk977 nice to see on the internet, from time to time

[@cuddlequeen3225]

That's awesome. You intimidated Bear with your boss deck build

[@dogninja8]

Hi, it's Loren_Law, probably better known as Seth's fourth match opponent... And this week for Against the Odds, we're playing Necro-Madness in Timeless

[@MTGGoldfish]

Good game!

[@wafflehaxxx]

You can also Beseech the Mirror for a Dark Ritual to cast the Tendrils of Agony in your hand instead of casting one from the deck. Gives +1 storm (You had one extra mana).

[@humanat]

I was wondering how many storm players watched that play and cried to themselves.

[@themoderatelysadpanda461]

Came here to say this

[@railander]

It's easy to forget about these details when playing multiple spells.

[@gzzuss]

Also discarded whether the storm and keep bolas 😅 he could just storm with the 2 mana left and save play

[@AricHaldan0782]

what's more, he apparently had lethal the turn before as well without needing the necropotence.

[@Graatand]

I wonder what janky underpowered bulk rare card Seth is building around today? 😃

[@noobtube2799]

real

[@helloyou5549]

just Necropotence, it's not very good

[@ConManAU]

Pay life to draw cards? Are you crazy? That just brings me closer to dying!

[@MTGGoldfish]

Didn't you read Inquest ;)

[@jaredwonnacott9732]

Skip your draw step?! There's no upside worth that!

[@1997Awesomedude]

Timeless seems like the perfect teaching arena zoomers format

[@TheEvolver311]

Timeless seems like the least Zoomer welcoming format 😆

[@AstoranSolaire]

@@TheEvolver311 but it's so friendly, you can give your opponent free mountains 🙃

[@TheEvolver311]

@@AstoranSolaire I mean more that it attracts people with a nostalgic attachment to some of cards. Most if the zoomers I know who play Arena have told me it looks boring just variations of the same handful of decks over and over

[@MTGGoldfish]

It's like the format was made for it.

[@yarrrthekraken]

@@TheEvolver311 isn’t that true of every single format?

[@Knux84]

lmao the game where "turn 1 mountain, pass" was lethal is INCREDIBLE

[@julixcvi]

Necropotence is just ridiculous

[@jamesdrummond7684]

sure, but the second hour with the dead hooker is free

[@samanthalouise641]

I grabbed one in an eldraine draft just because it’s fucking necro I’ll use it eventually. I was so shocked to see it because I wasn’t paying attention to old enchantments being in eldraine. What a ridiculous card it is.

[@Arkanda003]

too potent, I'd say

[@christianjohnson4328]

First time, huh? Lol

[@MTGGoldfish]

Yup

[@0Whitelottus0]

Man, poor NicoCZ they just went “okay I’ll play my mountain and hope for the best…” Also, that citadel really loves being in Seth’s hand

[@lukasnovak9736]

It was me, I played my Big Red deck. Not fast enought I suppose... :D

[@colecarmichael5724]

Seth is the living embodiment of “you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain”

[@TomBpersonal]

I love his jank brews but I love watching his powerful decks too!! And the nexus video was great :)

[@drugsdelaney2907]

I won the first tournament I played in with a deck that I copied out of the back of an Inquest or Duelist, I can’t remember. I was an og net decker, lol. 8 knights with protection from white and the Library of Leng/Ivory Tower/Necropotence combo in a WW meta I essentially cruised to victory. That’s it, that’s my Necropotence story that’s 30 years old. I’m gonna build this deck on Arena and reminisce, so thanks Seth and have a good one.

[@dagonhydra]

It’s not actually good in this build, but Ivory Tower is in Arena!

[@DracoSuave]

Man, back when that's all people thought Necro did, before the days of Trix and Fruity Pebbles and other cereal-named things that involve Necroing a combo to win.

[@tankdempsey1818]

17:40 If you play the phyrexian tower first, use the colorless to play spring leaf you could have guaranteed had three black next turn as well

[@AricHaldan0782]

In the last game, you could have technically beseeched for a dark ritual for the lethal 18 damage by casting the tendrils in hand. Of course opponent was actually on a virtual 20 because of the bowmaster + innkeeper, so it still wouldn't have been lethal, but there might be other games where the extra 2 damage is enough.

[@MVPlaysMusic1]

Could have just won on turn 2 in that game

[@AricHaldan0782]

@@MVPlaysMusic1 oh true enough, beseeching into tendrils could have had enough storm count for exactsies. ( For those who don't see it; 2 orni + drums + demonic + dark ritual + beseech 3 times saccing orni's and drums = storm count 8 , so 9*2 =18 drain )

[@isaacbenrubi9613]

Bear says, "STOP TRYING TO STORM OUT AND RUB MY BELLY"

[@jakeelephant006]

38:09 "The way we win this is by winning" Deep

[@nzeezoostupidiii1314]

Quality of life thing here as a necro player. Press full control when activating necro multiple times so you dont have to wait for the card animation for each activation whether you just have to wait for all animations to happen once. Saves a lot of time personally. Be warned though, if you play with a friends and they try to complete counter your deck and you do this, they'll play cards like Whirlwind Denial, but no one plays those cards competitively so you should be fine with randoms.

[@nzeezoostupidiii1314]

30:30 If you are desperate for mana, you can shoot your own creatures to get that treasure. Fun tech with decks like this.

[@stonerainproductions]

Adriano really crushed that artwork! Great content as always Seth. Necro brings me back, it was my very first standard deck, I've loved it ever since.

[@ElusiveOtter]

🧔‍♂️: “Bear, SHHH!! 🤫” 🐻: “…ROOF. 😡”

[@MagicRon97]

I managed to pull an anime Necro the day after this video came out. As someone who is new to Magic I had no idea why the card was so good at first. This video has been very educational 😂

[@nzeezoostupidiii1314]

Underworld Breach is broken in a deck like this. More storm with free dark ritual and you can search it with Beseech whilst Beseech fills the grave as well. Trust me, it's worth it for the one rare wildcard. It wins games.

[@YouTubingAtWork]

Game 3: "Mountain. Pass." There's a finite amount of fun to be had in a game, and the goal is to have all of it.

[@lukasnovak9736]

It was me, I played my Big Red deck. Not fast enought I suppose... :D

[@hardkenya2820]

it's so good to see Seth having so much fun playing a deck!

[@chrissamudio4660]

Man. I thought I knew how to storm and use necro but man this really showed me what it can do. Fun deck to see

[@patritchie1317]

In the yawgmoth game, the last Beseech hitting a dark ritual would have been lethal.

[@jasonkral605]

I'm glad you played this. Been beat by it so many times and could never really see how it ran.

[@HomicidalTh0r]

Seth looks way too happy to teach arena zoomers about some cracked strats and I love it lol

[@AstoranSolaire]

17:15 Play Tower first so you can spend colourless on Drum, then you have 3 black to cast Necro without saccing Ornithopter

[@bigbuffguy9589]

How is Necropotence an "Against the Odds" deck? There's a reason it's banned in Legacy and restricted in Vintage. That being said, I always enjoy your "Teaching Arena Zoomers about ____" videos, so I'm sure this will be a fun watch.

[@0Whitelottus0]

The man wanted to play some necro but didn’t know how to fit in the schedule, just let Seth be happy

[@AricHaldan0782]

well... it's timeless. the format is pretty busted so I think we can let this one slide.

[@nicoletamez518]

Because this isn't an Against the Odds bit. It's Teaching Arena Zoomers. He's got like four or five other video series besides Against the Odds. Just look in the playlists.

[@counterburn1216]

Turns out, the game was rigged from the start.

[@doppelganger5328]

@@nicoletamez518 Teaching Arena Zoomers About Necro | Against the Odds . title of the video literally copy pasted

[@jackrosen1]

I'd love to see a segment in a podcast discussing what cards you'd like to see printed into timeless. Tinker? Show and tell? Mother of Runes? Daze? Strike it Rich? So many interesting options to ratchet the power level of the format up beyond midrange piles that dominate now!

[@andrewbmore1310]

ABSOLUTELY LOVE this guys inhale game.

[@AdoptedAndy]

I thought I was going crazy I’m glad I’m not alone in hearing it

[@andrewbmore1310]

I cannot unhear it now lol@@AdoptedAndy

[@joshwest8882]

This deck has been a meance , nice to see all the pieces explained

[@Da40kOrks]

I was there playing Necro in all formats during Black Summer (TM). I have so many fond memories of double ritual hymm/necro turn one. Also played it in Type 1 with mirror universe (rules were different back then).

[@dimensionalineage]

KITTY SIGHTING!! 😍 That is all. And thank you Seth for the lolz. I never consistently laugh this much in anyone else's videos.

[@javarrmalutei5740]

I was waiting for the Necro-Greed death and you did not fail to disappoint. That one I felt as I ended up killing a necro back in the day almost the same way.

[@WarpstoneSpeedSnorter]

That cat's got a mighty bark

[@mightythor-9286]

Dark ritual is my only gripe with timeless. The problem is if your opponent is on the play they can turn 1 dark ritual into necropotance before you have an opportunity to interact in ANY way. No force or will, negation so it’s a problem card for sure.

[@Discarabsnation3187y]

Yeah I gotta agree that dark rit/necro storm is the only deck I’ve played against that feels blatantly wrong. Like you said, there’s no free counters so if you lose the die roll you’re basically just screwed. Add on to the fact that, by the nature of the deck, you could easily just keep a 3 card hand to mulligan for a land, dark rit, and necro to effortlessly refill your hand it just seems kinda dumb tbh. If there’s a card I’d pin to be restricted next, it’s probably gonna be necro imo.

[@zirilan3398]

I am simply suprised Necro is not restricted at all

[@sorin_markov]

@@zirilan3398 Probably Dark Rit gets restricted rather than Necro, but I could see either or both

[@zirilan3398]

@@sorin_markov can`t wait for Wizards to say: Nahh you get no Wildcards back, it wasn`t banned! when they restrict it

[@sorin_markov]

@@zirilan3398 I'd expect them to give you back an amount of wildcards equal to the number you have minus 1. So if you made all 4, you'll get 3 wildcards since you can still use the 1 DR

[@ConManAU]

Aha, I was pretty sure when you mentioned this in another video that you were accidentally spoiling a future release.

[@foxokon94]

Seth be like: "I wonder if there was a kill there" after missing beseech for dark rit into tendrils from hand

[@kylersaunders5707]

Hey Seth couple things 1) run one breach allows you to keep going when you stall out a bit 2) never sac your tokens for mana only to beseech everything is fodder for beseech you can win a lot quicker that way just some tips

[@HeavenstoBetsy451]

@17:26 the line is play phyrexian tower, pay for Springleaf drum with tower, play ornithopter, initiate necropotence. It saves precious combo resources.

[@VictorianoOchoa]

Seth is such a beast with these decks. I love them.

[@joseph1150]

Necro tendrils just has "oops I guess I win" hands.

[@TMidander]

Omg the cheerleader barks from Bear :))

[@runemanqwe]

Seth, Bear was probably freaking out because of the storming. I know my cats aren't a fan of bigger storms, but that's because they're Timmys

[@josephwodarczyk977]

My cat is perpetually hungry, which personality is that.

[@runemanqwe]

@josephwodarczyk977 That depends on how they act when trying to get food. A softer, excited meow that tends to be short and gives up after a couple minutes would put them in Timmy territory. Yeah, they want more food and are definitely gonna be hype for it, but once you assert No for a bit, they'll give up. Longer, louder meows that sound a bit intense, a bit weird, and that stop after 2-4 minutes would be more of a Johnny. They've learned that the louder and more demanding they are, the more likely they are to get food. The excitement is still there, just mixed with more drive. A set of meows that last for more than 5 or six minutes, regardless of sound level, tends to lean more towards Spike. Especially when things start to break or they start putting on dramatic performances. It's not that Spike's are whiny. They just are hard focused on the objective and have learned how to go about achieving it with greater success. They know exactly what they're doing, and won't give up. The lines can bleed over of course. Personalities mix all the time. But, that's my general opinion on it.

[@astrowerm]

Those old border swamps look dope on arena

[@guntaloompa5892]

In the last game, since you had the tendrils in hand, you could have beseeched for a dark ritual on the last one and cast the tendrils for lethal

[@domri4203]

Bear is barking up a Storm.

[@maciek19882]

Where's Hypnotic Specter?

[@adamtobiasz8793]

Another good video of my brother.😊😊😊😊

[@RodrigoCML7]

Man we started early with Seth’s opponents rescuing defeat from the clutches of victory this year 😂

[@asitisrequiredasitisrequir3411]

@50:27 you could have beeseached for a dark ritual, then you would have enough mana to cast tendrils from hand and win, close though!

[@papadev1702]

Bear, CC, and Storm?! Seth you spoil us

[@TransformersBoss]

46:07 “I guess there’s no way to turn-2 Necro with this hand.” Turn 1: Ornithopter, Tower, sac Thopter to Tower, Demonic Tutor for Necro. Turn 2: Shock in Overgrown Tomb. Tap it to play Freebooter. Sac Freebooter to Tower, Scry and get a treasure, sac Treasure for Black mana #3, Necro on turn 2.

[@fernandob2275]

32:49 out of context yes. But within the format at the time Necropotence was printed, there was no pay off like we have today. The best deck around it was monoblack with pump knights lol

[@draftsgonebad6386]

Against the odds? This deck is awesome! If anyone wants to see the deck's inception and more gamplay with it, I've recorded 8 videos piloting the deck in both Bo1 & Bo3 on my channel here: kzbin.info/aero/PLQJ_0GzvRiE7YMQkASULiFYkhFZYMnB8A&si=AATonRf8YGiZdrdk Super excited to watch the video. Big fan of yours Seth!

[@bryanstokke6566]

The underworld breach deck was pretty dope.

[@JohnGolden]

really brings back the pain.

[@TheLunaLockhart]

this deck looks like SO MUCH FUN! I almost want to dip into my wc to build it, but I'm sorta on that standard grind atm

[@rorixthebladewingify]

Black Winter in 2024?? Im all for it and this is Why I love this guy and this channel! Keep up the amazing MTG!;

[@Terry.M.I.]

black always having fun playing on the edge of living and dying to a shock

[@ReidFisher86]

46:08 turn one: tower ornithopter DT for necro Turn 2: overgrown tomb freebooter. Sac freebooter to tower, necro.

[@bruvaroni]

In that first beseech chain you could have casted the dark ritual from your deck which would have given you enough mana and storm count to win

[@bizmansion]

This is very close to the deck that my friend played that made me stop playing magic almost 20 years ago. We played type 1 only. I have never stopped hating tendrils.

[@TransformersBoss]

16:50 “We don’t beat anyone if we don’t stick Necro, I don’t think. Winning without Necro seems pretty hard.” Literally won the game a moment ago without Necro. Granted, that was with a turn-1 Citadel, so I guess it was pretty hard!

[@zacharylongston199]

23:20 that cut lmao. i just know he told his dog to stfu xD

[@TransformersBoss]

17:15 Right here, you could’ve played Tower, then used it for colorless for the Drum, play Ornithopter, then tap Drum, Ornithopter, and the two remaining lands for BBB

[@JonathanHecht]

glad to know Seth's pets are doing good

[@gmon5000]

19:39 Seth once again learns that greed doesn't pay. Especially when it involves your life total and you're up against (what looks like) a burn deck.

[@Ramza1987]

With the storm spells taken into consideration. Have you thought about Witherbloom aprentice for its magecraft drain ability? Amazing video btw, this was a seriously fun watch.

[@michaelsinnreich6626]

And I thought my turn 1 baron sengir was a good use of 3 dark rituals (20 years ago) this was brutal.

[@alasbruta]

You’re 1 mana short for the og Baron with only 3 rituals 🥲

[@theotherjoedimaggio]

turn 1 Ritual --> Hypnotic Specter. dream scenario, i thought. Nope. turn 1 Citadel, damn.

[@alasbruta]

@@theotherjoedimaggio indeed haha

[@michaelsinnreich6626]

@@alasbruta we had sol ring back then too, it's not just for commander. Lost it to a turn 2 reprisal, but what a turn it had.

[@alasbruta]

@@michaelsinnreich6626 hahaha good times! Still remember my turn one Spirit of the Night with FOUR rituals.

[@chaos800]

saffron olive is going to singlehandedly going to get necro restricted with this video lmao

[@Martin-qb2mw]

The KZbin algo has correctly identified that I will watch any video that is titled "Teaching Arena Zoomers About...."

[@thespanishinquisiton8306]

I'm wondering if going Sultai can fix the Primeval Titan deck's problems. Throw in Uro, Thoughtsieze, and some counterspells and you can hopefully fight off the unfair decks

[@sorin_markov]

That worsens the fair matchup by a lot though an it's not *that* much better than the fair decks

[@gremlinhunter53]

Necropotence is currently legal in Penny Dreadful, a format MTGGoldfish has explored before. Might be worth checking out!

[@MTGGoldfish]

That's wild!

[@foolishpolecat5914]

At around the 50:50 mark, you couldve won that turn by using that last beseech to tutor for a dark ritual and casting the tendrils from your hand.

[@Z3R0SAMA]

Lol when I see this deck on timeless I laugh because I'm playing U/R tempo and I always go straight to face with the bolts

[@pauldyson8098]

I love the "Teach Arena Zoomers" series (becaue I'm old, probably).

[@ArleneMarvell]

Timeless is like baby's first legacy deck. I really like it

[@whats_up_gamer2062]

i wish the ice age necro was on arena. such classic art.

[@OwlEmperor]

You had the win at 51:10. Next time do Last beseech on dark ritual then sac ornithopter for 5 then tendrils or pay 1 more for citadel and risk the top deck.

[@SparkMandrill]

I'm really hoping one day we get an old classic, Teaching Arena Zoomers about T1 Hypnotic Specter T2 Hymn to Tourach

[@joshtyree7755]

This deck is a really good deck

[@reberhard1]

I miss my circa 1997 Necro deck. Wish I could find the deck list to see if it would still work in current Magic.

[@goshdarnitthatsalongname5349]

What website/software do you use for videos? Looks amazing!

[@47Mortuus]

How does Seth simply click on Necro or Fetches or The One Ring etc. without having a "Activate Ability" popup that he'd have to click???

[@Agupaulu]

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a player constantly punt and not get punished for it more than Seth

[@Buchaus]

That triple Dark Ritual hand was disgusting 😂

[@bobwilson679]

Love it

[@annoyingcontrolplayer7321]

41:15 Oh lawd he comin

[@3rdtimesacharm84]

Quick question, does anyone know why Saffron keeps activating necro on his turn VS doing it on opponents turn to better judge what life total is good to go down to?

[@brandonsheflin4411]

I love Bolas's citadel

[@marcbonnet5555]

Hi there. Just wondering : At 48:00, when we sac the freebooter on turn 2, couldn't we have Storm out with Beseech Loop and go for 8 storm which is lethal with Tendrils? Thanks again for the content!

[@finesseandstyle]

How do you click and instantly activate necro's ability? EDIT: Disable warnings in gameplay settings

[@tygonmaster]

I feel with tons of card games out there like yugioh and hearthstone that pretty clearly tell you "health is a resource and card advantage is important" that it is pretty well known in the ccg community that it is the case. Things are a lot different from back in the day when ccgs were a lot rarer.

[@AkiVainio]

I remember trading my extra Nightmare to get two Necropotences back when Ice Age came out.

[@79awinkler]

Here it is. It’s the video he mentioned in the last video!

[@MaxKirgan]

At the time Necro was known to be pretty powerful. "Black Summer" was a thing in Type 2 after Ice Age came out. I was on Counterpost at the time and thankfully I somehow never came up against it. I think the thing with Necro, people who didn't play at the time Necro was so oppressive, don't really know why it's so busted.

[@rahminh]

we need a Bear appereance!

[@acid107v]

Thank you for introducing a good deck! I have a question. You activated necropotence with just one click. But I can't do it like you because when I click necropotence in mtg arena, the activate availability button pops up. How do I set up to make necro work with just one click like you?

[@whaleofdarkness]

A shame that Tolarian Academy and Memory Jar can never be on Arena because they are on the reserved list. Would be a funny Arena Zoomers episode.

[@adamfrancescutti7615]

The reserved list is only for physical reprints, it doesn't stop them from putting the cards in digital games

[@whaleofdarkness]

@@adamfrancescutti7615 Yeah, but they are usually invocations from real sets first like Necropotence in Strixhaven.

[@timstoner13]

Hi, how do you obtain all the the Wildcards for the Decks?