Legacy: Necro Flash Storm - Deck Tech and Sideboard Guide

Greetings, Legacy fans! Now that the spoiler and pre-release seasons have ended, and we've all had enough time to analyze all the cards in Modern Horizons 3, it's time to see them in action. And if anyone ever doubted MH3 would affect Legacy, these doubts were proved wrong in very little time.

Necrodominance, Nadu, Winged Wisdom, Psychic Frog, Vexing Bauble, Harbinger of the Seas, Nulldrifter, Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student, the many MDFCs (Witch Enchanter and Sink into Stupor, for instance), and many others have been popping up in leagues and tournaments in these first few days of the new format.

Today, we'll discuss one of the most exciting lists with MH3 cards: Storm Combo + Necrodominance!

When I discussed Necrodominance in Storm decks, I based myself on Necropotence in Vintage lists. In these lists, Necropotence's job is to fill your hand and help you prepare your combo for the next turn. But I forgot something: Vintage decks were restricted to only one single Necro, so it didn't make sense to center its strategy around it.

However, nowadays, we can use 4 copies in Legacy - and why wait until the following turn to play our combo (a strategy most players used with Galvanic Relay before MH3 came along), if a so far forgotten card from Lord of the Rings lets us play our combo in that same turn? Here enters, Borne Upon a Wind.

The goal with this deck is still the same: cast many spells so that Tendrils of Agony copies a lethal number of itself through its Storm ability. Nonetheless, the way you'll do this now is what changed drastically after this new enchantment was released.

The most straightforward way to play this combo now is to cast Necrodominance as fast as possible, preferably on turn 1 under the protection of Pact of Negation or Chancellor of the Annex. At your end step, when Necro's ability triggers, use all your life points except for 1 and draw that same number of cards, usually 19.

From then on, you'll cast Borne Upon a Wind. How? You might already have some mana available from Lotus Petal, Chrome Mox, or some land you didn't use to cast Necrodominance. However, even if you don't, you can create mana with Elvish Spirit Guide and/or Simian Spirit Guide, and create blue mana from Manamorphose. Then, you'll cast everything at instant speed, namely Lotus Petal, Rituals (Dark Ritual and Cabal Ritual), and Spirit Guides to create more mana. You'll use Valakut Awakening to get rid of dead cards in your hand and go after more gas, and eventually find either Tendrils of Agony or Beseech the Mirror to finish the game.

On the odd-chance you don't find Necrodominance, you can still play this deck as a traditional Storm deck, even if less consistent, considering you won't focus on this plan as intensely as the older lists.

Important Details to Note

• There is a possibility you miss Borne Upon a Wind when you draw a gigantic number of cards with Necro. Is that the end of the game? Not at all, because Valakut Awakening is an instant and will draw you even more cards as you get rid of any lands, creatures, enchantments, and sorceries you won't use right then to find your combo.

• Summoner's Pact is useful both as mana acceleration, as it finds you Elvish Spirit Guide, and to fix your mana, with Wild Cantor. It is also useful to find Foundation Breaker on your sideboard. Besides this, it also filters your deck before you activate Necro or Valakut Awakening.

• As long as you have artifacts in play to pay for Beseech the Mirror's Bargain cost, you can use it to find other copies of itself and add more copies to your Storm count.

• If you have 4 mana and an artifact in play, Beseech the Mirror works as extra copies of Necrodominance, which boosts your redundancy.

I sound like a broken record, always repeating the same rule when I cover decks like this: this is a combo deck, so mulligan after your combo.

This deck, in particularly, is extremely dependent on its key card, so you should send back hands that either don't have it or can't get it. It is important to keep in mind that Beseech the Mirror, under the right circumstances, is also a viable option to keep. Only keep hands without Necro if you're mulliganing to less than 4 cards.

Starting hand examples:

This is basically the perfect hand: you cast Necro on turn 1 under the protection of Chancellor. Verdict: easy keep.

This hand is a trap: it has all the acceleration you need and protection, but it does nothing else. You can't rely on drawing what you need with Manamorphose. Verdict: Mulligan.

This is another hand that has everything you need to play your combo, but it doesn't have any protection. With decks like these, sometimes you need to take chances and admit your opponent might just play a counter and leave you behind. Verdict: Keep. If they have a counter, that's the life of the combo player.

No Necro, mulligan, right? But this hand has Necro! If you play the two Pact and get two Elvish Spirit Guide, they, along with Simian Spirit Guide and Vault of Whispers, will create 4 mana. Manamorphose will get you your second and third black mana, then you'll sacrifice your Vault with Beseech and get Necrodominance! Again, there's no protection. Verdict: like the hand above, keep.

You need to keep in mind that you'll be playing a combo deck in a format full of cards like Grief, Chalice of the Void, Trinisphere, and, more recently, Vexing Bauble. Its sideboard, therefore, will reflect this concern, and bring lots of artifact removal and protection against discard. This format is still very new, so you can adapt this sideboard according to your local meta, where some archetypes may show up more often.

It is also important to consider options like Dismember, to deal with hatebears like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben or Archon of Emeria, Vexing Bauble, to deal with enemy combos (you can simply sacrifice yours when it is your turn to combo), and Empty the Warrens as an alternative win condition.

Scaminator

The worst possible outcome is if they discard your Necro and you don't get another in time. On the other side, if you manage to stick it, it will be quite challenging for them, considering they can't hold off your combo. So, this game depends a lot on who starts playing.

Post-side, you can make this a little better with your Leyline when you're drawing first (and Chancellor is way less efficient). Keep in mind that you can also cast Veil of Summer if you're drawing first instead of Elvish Spirit Guide.

Playing first:

In:

Nothing.

Out:

Nothing.

Drawing first:

In:

Out:

Grixis / Temur / 4C Delver

Chancellor of the Annex and Pact of Negation have the tough job of protecting your Necro from counters, or protecting you from Orcish Bowmasters.

You can still pay 19 life even if this risks you getting hit with a Lightning Bolt because you'll only pay it when Necro's ability resolves. So, at this point, you've already drawn 19 cards and already have enough Pact of Negation to avoid getting killed.

In:

Out:

Red Stompy

Chalice of the Void and Trinisphere are the problem in game 1, so you'll play your Chancellor of the Annex in the hope it will delay your opponent by one turn if you don't start playing.

Post-side, you'll bring up answers to these problematic artifacts. If you can't play your combo reasonably fast, Broadside Bombardiers will put pressure on your life points, which will make Necro less efficient.

In:

Out:

Beanstalk Control

If you have any protection (Chancellor or Pact of Negation), they'll struggle to stop your game plan. This is the type of deck Necro Storm tends to prey on.

In:

Out:

Mirror

Welcome to the coin toss simulator. Whoever starts on game 1 should win unless they have to mulligan to infinity or if a Chancellor is enough to delay their combo. Post-side, don't even bother bringing up Leyline of Sanctity because when they start playing their combo, they'll invariably find the cards they need to remove it. The only shot you'll have at stopping them is breaking their Necrodominance before they trigger its ability.

If you're playing first, then you'll want to protect yourself from these removals. You'll keep Chancellor and Pact of Negation. If you're drawing first, you'll want to give it a shot and try to stop their combo. Moreover, keep in mind you can pay Nature's Claim's cost through Elvish Spirit Guide.

Playing first:

In:

Nothing.

Out:

Nothing.

Drawing first:

In:

Out:

This is it! I can definitely say Necro had a very strong start in Legacy. Anyone who still thinks its power was considerably nerfed compared to the original Necro probably hasn't seen this deck in action. As this is all very new, we'll have to give this format some time to assimilate and adapt to this deck, but it is already quite concerning.

I hope you enjoyed reading this article.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!