Skeletal vs Zombie Necromancer

[Phillus]

Any reason for a skeleton deck to be better than zombie? Altar of skulls doesn't have that much impact until later in the game when your "My life for Ner'Zhul" puts enough skull tokens. Is there any reason to have more than 8 skeleton tokens since it says when Altar of Skulls has 8 or more. There's not much offensive options for skeletons besides Armory. Zombies have that awesome card zombie frenzy.

[sdougla2]

I wouldn't necessarily say that zombies are better than skeletons. Zombies are stronger in direct engagements, but are less mobile, worse at defense, and easier to control. Bloodthirsty limits their options if you use AoE poison effects like Idol of Pestilence. You can focus on zombies or skeletons and use support cards for them, or you can use a mix of different types of undead.

Sure, Zombie Frenzy boosts the offensive ability of zombies, but mostly it helps overcome their mobility deficiency, and it has limited ability to do that because of Bloodthirsty. It can be a good card at the right time, but skeletons largely avoid the need for that type of card by having better mobility in general. Besides, if you want a damage boost for skeletons, you can always fall back on Marked for Death, which can help all of your creatures.

There is no reason to try to get more than 8 tokens on Altar of Skulls.

[Phoenix]

Another way to boost skeletons is the armory, I believe that all the skeletons are soldiers and therefore would get the bonuses.

[iNano78]

I generally agree with sdougla2, although I'd say "Bloodthirsty limits their options unless you use AoE poison effects like Idol of Pestilence."  There are certainly exceptions, but generally if you can damage (almost) every creature via the Idol, including the opposing mage, then your zombies have a choice of (almost) any target in their zone and get a damage bonus to boot.  But they certainly have their drawbacks: namely Slow/Lumbering and Pest (e.g. can't guard, aside from the [mwcard=DNC22]Brute[/mwcard]).

Skeletons function a lot more like a Warlord's soldiers.  In addition to [mwcard=MWSTX2FFJ04]Armory[/mwcard], [mwcard=DNC13]Skeletal Archer[/mwcard]s can work with [mwcard=FWJ02]Archer's Watchtower[/mwcard], although you can't put [mwcard=MW1E21]Hawkeye[/mwcard] on them, unfortunately.  And you can use [mwcard=MWSTX2FFI04]Flank Attack[/mwcard] with most Skeletons, too.  And instead of Zombie Frenzy, you get [mwcard=DNI03]Reassemble[/mwcard] and [mwcard=DNI05]Unholy Resurgence[/mwcard], which are kind of like the Minor Heal and Renewing Rain (?) for Skeletons, except they also work while [mwcard=MW1J19]Deathlock[/mwcard] is in play.  And then you've got [mwcard=DNC07]Mort[/mwcard], who not only keeps your other skeleton creatures reconstructing, but also fixes your [mwcard=DNW02]Wall of Bones[/mwcard] and [mwcard=DNJ01]Altar of Skulls[/mwcard], kind of like having an undead [mwcard=MWSTX2FFC09]Otto Kronig[/mwcard] around.

Personally, I tend to go with Zombies supported by Skeletal Archers because I like the way Zombies work (and how cheap they are), but I'm tempted to try a true army of skeletons.

[Laddinfance]

I find that even when I go hard one direction, there are several creatures from both sides that I really want to use.

If I go skeletons, then I look closely at Plague Zombie and Venomous Zombie. Mort and Sardonyx can both apply poison conditions, but that's a highly specialized set of creatures. With a Necromancer, I want to be able to apply poison conditions so that I can plink things for a point of damage every round. So, Plague Zombie becomes a natural target for my Undying Servant, and Venomous Zombie is a very potent threat. In this way you have a couple zombies that cover a weakness in going all skeletons.

If I go zombies, then I look closely at the Skeletal Archer and Skeletal Knight. The Necromancer is very limited on ranged options and so the Skeletal Archer is very solid. Zombies are also very poor at defending your Mage, but Skeletal Knight is quite solid. Also, he's a totally controllable platform for a 5D attack.

[rodriguekhalil]

 
  Everything that`s been said is true. I would add one thing:  Bloodthirsty works against living creatures only.

This might not apply to everybody, but, in a mirror match, Zombies will not be very effective. Neither would they be against walls, conjurations, nonliving creatures. Imagine a turtling strategy where the mage walls himself behind some solid walls... good luck zombies. 

   Yes, zombies are resilient (which effectively means infinite armor), but this can be dealt with other ways than combat damage: their health being in general lower than skeletons, they are particularly weak against burn conditions or tainted(does it work on them?)

  As Laddinfance says, I guess that a careful balance beteween one and the other would be the best.

[Hardcordo]

Tainted is a poison condition and zombies are nonliving so I am pretty sure they are immune.

[Laddinfance]

Tained is a poison condition. Zombies are immune to it.

[sdougla2]

Zombies are immune to the taint condition.

AoE poison damage limits your zombies' options because if your opponent walks out of that zone, but they leave a living creature in it, your zombies can't follow.

[iNano78]

AoE poison damage limits your zombies' options because if your opponent walks out of that zone, but they leave a living creature in it, your zombies can't follow.

If you're letting your opponent walk out of that zone, you're doing it wrong.

[mwcard=MW1J22]Tanglevine[/mwcard] [mwcard=DNJ10]Stranglevine[/mwcard] [mwcard=DNE03]Stumble[/mwcard] [mwcard=MW1E16]Force Hold[/mwcard] [mwcard=MW1E14]Enfeeble[/mwcard] [mwcard=MW1E04]Chains of Agony[/mwcard] [mwcard=MW1I12]Force Push[/mwcard] [mwcard=FWI03]Force Bash[/mwcard] [mwcard=MW1I28]Teleport[/mwcard] [mwcard=MW1E38]Teleport Trap[/mwcard] [mwcard=MWSTX1CKE05]Spiked Pit[/mwcard] [mwcard=FWE04]Force Crush[/mwcard] [mwcard=FWJ07]Quicksand[/mwcard]

[sdougla2]

First of all, Quicksand isn't relevant to the discussion.

Chains of Agony and Enfeeble are the only in school options, and they don't actually stop your opponent from leaving. The other options can help, but your opponent could do a lot of things to get around them depending on the exact situation. Sure, you WANT to keep them in that zone, but you won't be able to do it every time. There are a lot of position control options, but that doesn't mean you necessarily want to require them all the time. Zombies require more support on that front than skeletons, and zombies operate under more restrictions. If you win the position war, great, they're trapped in that zone, but if you don't, zombies will have a harder time compensating for shifts in positioning. Particularly with how badly zombies deal with walls.

[DaveW]

I find that the one-shot limitation on Unholy Resurgence (as compared with Zombie Frenzy) to be an awful restriction. I think of Zombies as longer-lasting mob mentality type creatures who always are on the offensive, while Skeletons are more like precision tools (a.k.a. good soldiers) in attacking where they need to and when, and who have good support in terms of reconstruction effects... if they aren't killed outright the first time they are hit.

[Phillus]

Is it better to just be a skeletal warlord instead of necromancer?

[iNano78]

Is it better to just be a skeletal warlord instead of necromancer?

If you try to build a skeletal Warlord, I think you'll find that you start wondering why you're going with skeletons rather than War school soldiers, especially since spell points are so hard to come by for the Warlord to begin with.  In other words, it's (probably) easier to justify a few War conjurations in a Necromancer book than an army of skeletons in a Warlord book.  But feel free to prove me wrong.

[Phillus]

What should a Army compose of? Mass skeletal minions? Mass soldiers? A Deathfang and a combination of both? What do I do with cultists after they fill Altar? Any specific reason Skeleton Necromancer uses Altar more than the zombies? Graveyard or Libro Mortuos?