strategy necromancer

[MrSaucy]

Altar of Skulls doesn't care how close I am to the enemy mage.   

I never use it. Takes too long to get going in my opinion. I think you would be too pressured early on by a Warlock or Forcemaster to develop such a long term strategy. Unless you know a way to get Altar going by turn 3, I wouldn't count on it.

[vlad3theimpaler]

Altar of Skulls doesn't care how close I am to the enemy mage.   

I never use it. Takes too long to get going in my opinion. I think you would be too pressured early on by a Warlock or Forcemaster to develop such a long term strategy. Unless you know a way to get Altar going by turn 3, I wouldn't count on it.

That was only a half-serious post.  But considering how game-altering it can be if the skulls get piled high enough, I'm probably going to include a copy in every book I make for the Necromancer.  If nothing else, I think that the mere threat of it getting activated will cause some opponents to rethink their strategies.

[MrSaucy]

That was only a half-serious post.  But considering how game-altering it can be if the skulls get piled high enough, I'm probably going to include a copy in every book I make for the Necromancer.  If nothing else, I think that the mere threat of it getting activated will cause some opponents to rethink their strategies.

I wasn't sure if you were joking or not. Haha. I don't include Altar because I haven't included the clerics in any of my spellbooks. Is this a mistake? Instead of reconstructing damage when a creature is near death I think I would rather sacrifice them via sacrificial altar instead. More effective... and evil 

[vlad3theimpaler]

That was only a half-serious post.  But considering how game-altering it can be if the skulls get piled high enough, I'm probably going to include a copy in every book I make for the Necromancer.  If nothing else, I think that the mere threat of it getting activated will cause some opponents to rethink their strategies.

I wasn't sure if you were joking or not. Haha. I don't include Altar because I haven't included the clerics in any of my spellbooks. Is this a mistake? Instead of reconstructing damage when a creature is near death I think I would rather sacrifice them via sacrificial altar instead. More effective... and evil 

The smiley was meant to indicate that I was mostly joking.  I'm an unrepentant smartalec, but that doesn't always translate well online, so I try to throw out smileys sometimes as a reminder not to take me too seriously.

The Altar is definitely going to be an auto-include when I get a chance to tear down the preconstructed spellbook and make my own.  Don't forget that the cleric can reconstruct your walls, too, if you're planning on using those.  I think they're probably not worth it if you're focusing on zombies, but with a skeleton build (which I'm working on partly just to be a contrarian), I think that they can be useful by keeping the walls/altar/Mort alive dead, but relatively intact.

[rwhunt]

Don't forget that if you are using the clerics to speed up the altar, once it gets going, they are going to start to be damaged by it's effects.  They aren't undead.  I like the altar in theory, but it seems that the current meta doesn't allow for the slower deck strategies to flourish.  That and the clerics are squishy.  It would, however allow you to let the opponent waste actions taking out the altar and/or your clerics, but I think that those mana points would be better spent summoning zombies/skeletons or damaging the opponent mage.

[ACG]

Also, who has played Necromancer against Forcemaster? One would think Necromancer would have an edge with his creature having psychic immunity, but then again the Necromancer does not do well when the enemy mage is right up in his face.

I've played necromancer v. forcemaster (I was the forcemaster). It was extremely close, but the necromancer won in the end, mostly through poison damage over time and spamming drain life while running away from me. I made some poor strategic choices early on that probably contributed to this. It came down to a final showdown where I had 3 attacks (of 5,4, and 3 dice) and the necromancer was within 10 damage points of death, but I was within 2 points of death. I had initiative, and nullified the expected drain life. Unfortunately, I rolled poorly. Psychic immunity was not really a factor since my forcemaster does not use much in the way of psychic spells (more of an emphasis on force spells and enchantments). Mordok's Obelisk and Suppression orb shut down zombie swarm pretty fast.

The Altar is definitely going to be an auto-include when I get a chance to tear down the preconstructed spellbook and make my own.  Don't forget that the cleric can reconstruct your walls, too, if you're planning on using those.  I think they're probably not worth it if you're focusing on zombies, but with a skeleton build (which I'm working on partly just to be a contrarian), I think that they can be useful by keeping the walls/altar/Mort alive dead, but relatively intact.

I've tried playing with the altar of skulls as zombie-necromancer (fighting against the Druid). I think it probably works better in a skeleton build than a zombie build, since you then have more cards that can support it. The major strength of the altar is its skeleton subclass, which lets you use the necromancer's excellent skeletal reconstruction spells to repair it. Since it has lifebond, this basically allows the necromancer to regenerate under deathlock.

Based on my experience as necromancer, I think you want to limit yourself to one of the three major necromancer conjurations (the altar, the ziggurat, or the graveyard). I prefer zombie builds, and I find that the ziggurat works best with that strategy, so I have dropped the altar in favor of the ziggurat in my own deck.