Smallzhao's Frenzy Necromancer

[Halewijn]

Yesterday Smallzhao Kicked my ass with the following necromancer. With his permission I will post his deck and talk about his strategy. 

[spellbook]
[spellbookheader]
[spellbookname]Smallzhao's Frenzy Necromancer[/spellbookname]
[mage]A Necromancer Spellbook[/mage]
[mage]built by the OCTGN SBB[/mage]
[/spellbookheader]
[spells]
[spellclass]Attack[/spellclass]
[mwcard=FWA04]2 x Hurl Boulder[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1A08]1 x Geyser[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX1CKA01]1 x Surging Wave[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Conjuration[/spellclass]
[mwcard=MW1W01]2 x Fog Bank[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNW02]2 x Wall of Bones[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1J11]1 x Idol of Pestilence[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1J19]1 x Deathlock[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1J22]2 x Tanglevine[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Creature[/spellclass]
[mwcard=DNC24]4 x Zombie Minion[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNC23]6 x Zombie Crawler[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNC22]1 x Zombie Brute[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNC08]2 x Unstable Zombie[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNC12]1 x Shaggoth-Zora[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Enchantment[/spellclass]
[mwcard=MWSTX2FFE04]3 x Brace Yourself[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWBD1E01]1 x Astral Anchor[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E14]2 x Enfeeble[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E31]1 x Poisoned Blood[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E10]1 x Decoy[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E20]1 x Harmonize[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E29]2 x Nullify[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Equipment[/spellclass]
[mwcard=MW1Q16]1 x Leather Gloves[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNQ01]1 x Cloak of Shadows[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNQ02]1 x Death Ring[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNQ05]1 x Libro Mortuos[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1Q15]1 x Leather Boots[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1Q23]1 x Regrowth Belt[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1Q19]1 x Mage Wand[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1Q06]1 x Dragonscale Hauberk[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Incantation[/spellclass]
[mwcard=MW1I24]1 x Seeking Dispel[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX1CKI01]1 x Drain Soul[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNI06]4 x Zombie Frenzy[/mwcard]
[mwcard=FWI16]2 x Dissolve[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1I08]1 x Drain Life[/mwcard]
[mwcard=]2 x Force Push[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1I28]2 x Teleport[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1I06]2 x Dispel[/mwcard]
[/spells]
[cost]Total cost: 116 pts[/cost]
[/spellbook]


His opening:

T1: Libro + death ring
T2: 2x crawler + something

At this point, I suspected yet another shaggoth zora build so I charged in, attacking the necromancer. In a couple of turns he summoned 4+ crawlers and walled himself in with fog banks around the starting corner. Still, I suspected shaggot zora to pop up any second now, or a way to lock me into his deathpit of crawlers.

The next turn, he summoned the idol of pestilence into his starting zone, with the fog banks still surrounding him. At a safe distance, I destroyed a fog bank and started attacking the idol. Still believing the idol was meant to lure me into his starting zone. At this point, I has lost the game and hell broke loose! 

The idol was indeed meant to lure me, but it didn't matter that I didn't enter his zone completely. The idol had done 1 damage onto me, activating bloodthirsty. The necromancer cast zombie frenzy and 5-6 crawlers gained fast and charged at my Johktari beastmaster to eat her alive. Each crawler doing 4 dice of damage. This caught me completely of guard and there was nothing I could do about it. Afterwards, the necromancer could cast the frenzy again and again, making it impossible for the (even fast) beastmaster to escape.

Some walls could have stopped them for a couple of rounds, but in the end, the necromancers army would keep on growing with even larger zombies. (4x minion, 2x unstable, 1x brute) The walls would not have stopped them for long.

In a VERY short time the necromancer manages to build a very dangerous, but cheap army of zombie crawlers, making it very strong against rushes. If the opponent wants to go for the long game, cards like idol of pestilence will draw them near. If needed, the option for Shaggot zora is still there and his army has the potential to keep growing. All in all, I was amazed by the genius of this deck! Kudos to Smallzhao! 

Note:  The spellbookbuilder is wrong. This is 120 points.

[Mystery]

he has only 4 armor and 2 dispel, if you have heavy enchanted one hitter, he doesnt have non bloodthirsty creatures for guard
If you armor yourself and maybe vet belt, what will all those zombies do? so just kill them slowly. Curse of decay some once it is exisiting in octgn

[Borg]

Hi Halewijn,

Nice post. Good to hear you enjoyed the game even though it went south

As to how to counter it, I don't know exactly what's in your book ( but assuming you have these ... )

You could sprint to NC on R1 and drop 2 Flowers giving you 20 mana for R2, then sprint again and drop a [mwcard=DNJ02] Corrosive Orchid[/mwcard] in his lap and take the Libro Mortuos out, leaving you 3 mana, to use 2 on a FD Brace Yourself.

Then, while channeling 11/R summon and Rouse a couple of Timber Wolves.

The loss of the Libro should slow him down while the potentially corrosive attack of the Orchid helps you against the Necromancer's armor, any Conjurations appearing in that zone and zombies.

If he brings the Libro out again, Crumble it.

[Halewijn]

If he brings the Libro out again, Crumble it.

I dissolved the Libro around turn 4(?). But, by that time, I was close to him without much armor and he already had summoned quite some zombies. He didn't recover the libro and just started using the Frenzies. By the time I realised his plan, he had enough firepower to take me down. I think a part of my loss was my imprudence.

he has only 4 armor and 2 dispel, if you have heavy enchanted one hitter, he doesnt have non bloodthirsty creatures for guard
If you armor yourself and maybe vet belt, what will all those zombies do? so just kill them slowly. Curse of decay some once it is exisiting in octgn

If I would have armored up, I suspect he would have summoned shaggot zora. Of course the deck has some flaws
but I think this is a casual book, with potential to become a competitive book.

[Mystery]

If he brings the Libro out again, Crumble it.

I dissolved the Libro around turn 4(?). But, by that time, I was close to him without much armor and he already had summoned quite some zombies. He didn't recover the libro and just started using the Frenzies. By the time I realised his plan, he had enough firepower to take me down. I think a part of my loss was my imprudence.

he has only 4 armor and 2 dispel, if you have heavy enchanted one hitter, he doesnt have non bloodthirsty creatures for guard
If you armor yourself and maybe vet belt, what will all those zombies do? so just kill them slowly. Curse of decay some once it is exisiting in octgn

If I would have armored up, I suspect he would have summoned shaggot zora. Of course the deck has some flaws
but I think this is a casual book, with potential to become a competitive book.

what did you do?

[Super Sorcerer]

ב"ה
It seems a bit similar to a zombie book one of my friends often play. With a straywood beatsmaster, I bring raja's fury and ring of beasts on turn 1, and then start to summon Thunderift Falcons (AKA birds) and some other creatures. His book is more resistant to birds, since he had already faced this tactic, but he didn't win my straywood with his zombie necromancer yet. The only non-pet zombie that could actually guard your mage if his bloodthirsty ability doesn't force him to attack is the zombie brute, so this book is really really bad against bird swarms.
Every straywood spellbook I build include at least 2 birds, even if it is a wolf book (and many of them are wolf books), because they are really cheap to put in the spellbook and they are usefull in many cases.

Basicly, no matter which mage you play (except for another necromancer), a necromancer must be rushed since otherwise he become too strong to stop (especially zombie necromancers). Luckily, necromancers have some difficulties standing against a rush, as he is the only 32 life mage that doesn't have a special ability that grant's him defensive capabilities (a pristess gain life while healing, a wizard have voltaric shield and forcemaster have deflect).

[Squirrelmaster]

Basicly, no matter which mage you play (except for another necromancer), a necromancer must be rushed since otherwise he become too strong to stop (especially zombie necromancers). Luckily, necromancers have some difficulties standing against a rush, as he is the only 32 life mage that doesn't have a special ability that grant's him defensive capabilities (a pristess gain life while healing, a wizard have voltaric shield and forcemaster have deflect).

Rushing a necromancer that plays zombies can be a bit of a problem. I played a zombie build against my mate, who was the forcemaster. He rushed, and I took some damage, but I had enough tricks to hold him back, armour, brace yourself, etc. and I just kept dropping crawlers, and he couldn't cope with the 3 attack dice from each. eventually I got out a brute to guard and in the end the zombies pulled his forcemaster into meaty chunks. Haha.
But yes you are right the necromancer cannot be left as he becomes very hard to beat if left alone. Its all about striking the right balance.

[Kelanen]

With a straywood beatsmaster, I bring raja's fury and ring of beasts on turn 1, and then start to summon Thunderift Falcons (AKA birds) and some other creatures.

You would be better with ring+bird on turn 1, and bring Rajan's Fury down after the 3rd bird...

[Super Sorcerer]

ב"ה
Now, about -

You would be better with ring+bird on turn 1, and bring Rajan's Fury down after the 3rd bird...

That is absolutely true when calculating damage outputs, but I rather have my conjurations far away.
I must also note that my books are not just about bird, but usually I bring a big creature on turn 3-4.
For example-
1) Rajan's fury + ring of beasts (I start next round with 19 mana after channeling)
2) double moove (to stand diagonaly to my opponent's square) + bird (23 mana)
3) bird + rouse the beast (26 mana)
4) grizzly as pet + rouse the beast (10 mana)
[usually the big creature get eagle wings on turn 5 or 6 to help him handle walls and protect him from melee attacks from zombies]
It isn't a bird book, but the birds give great support, and if my opponent put too much effort in handling the big creature, he will just be overwhelmed by birds.

[Kelanen]

You can still cast a conjuration back on your side of the board from there, but if you are correctly putting pressure on an opponent with a rush book, they don't have time to hit your conjurations.

You also get more bang for your buck making a bird a pet, rather than a grizzly...

[ringkichard]

I lost a very surprising game to a Frenzy necro, when I thought I had him well countered. I'd summoned a Darkfenne Hydra with Bear Strength and Circle of Lightning and made sure it was positioned between me and the zombies, and lightly injured. I knew bloodthirsty would mean the crawlers would have to fight the hydra, and the counterstrikes and damage barrier, I figured, would help thin them quickly.

Some slightly-better-than-I-counted-on rolls later and my hydra was dead and the Zombies came for me next. Oops!

[Super Sorcerer]

ב"ה

Some slightly-better-than-I-counted-on rolls later and my hydra was dead and the Zombies came for me next. Oops!

Yea, it happened to me as well. I played 5 times against zombie necromancer, 4 times I won and in the single time I lost it was about the same story (with a wizard counting too much on his hydra).

About

You also get more bang for your buck making a bird a pet, rather than a grizzly...

-
Totally wrong:
1) On a big creature, the melee bonus is used more times as he survive longer, the life bonus can sustain more attack since he has more armor (or defense if crevere or makunda) and the armor is used against more attacks since he has more health (with the armor bonus being an exception, since the additional armor to already high armor is less effective against small attacks). It cost more exactly because it pays more.
2) If my opponent didn't bring an anti-bird counter by turn 3, he is probably going to do so by turn 4 (and if not, he will probably lose anyway). Out of the big creatures I have in my book, I bring the one most fitting to the situation (for example, if Idol of pestilence is out then I would probably prefer a mountain gorilla if I have one). So I prefer to put my extra investment (the pet) on what my opponent is least prepared for.

[Halewijn]

You also get more bang for your buck making a bird a pet, rather than a grizzly...

-
Totally wrong:
1) On a big creature, the melee bonus is used more times as he survive longer, the life bonus can sustain more attack since he has more armor (or defense if crevere or makunda) and the armor is used against more attacks since he has more health (with the armor bonus being an exception, since the additional armor to already high armor is less effective against small attacks). It cost more exactly because it pays more.
2) If my opponent didn't bring an anti-bird counter by turn 3, he is probably going to do so by turn 4 (and if not, he will probably lose anyway). Out of the big creatures I have in my book, I bring the one most fitting to the situation (for example, if Idol of pestilence is out then I would probably prefer a mountain gorilla if I have one). So I prefer to put my extra investment (the pet) on what my opponent is least prepared for.

The beastmaster can re-attach the marker as much as he wants, so the survivability of the creature is not very important. Many big creatures will be ignored by the opponent. In that case, the 3 extra life does not matter at all. Pet birds are extra annoying to kill if you don't have flyers.

I completely agree that you get more value for lower levels. I will probably never make a level 4+ pet and only very rarely level 3.

Bear with pet marker costs 5 extra mana, which is barely worth it imo. I'd prefer to enchant him with bear strength/joined strength/wolf fury/...

[Kelanen]

About

You also get more bang for your buck making a bird a pet, rather than a grizzly...

-
Totally wrong:
1) On a big creature, the melee bonus is used more times as he survive longer, the life bonus can sustain more attack since he has more armor (or defense if crevere or makunda) and the armor is used against more attacks since he has more health (with the armor bonus being an exception, since the additional armor to already high armor is less effective against small attacks). It cost more exactly because it pays more.
2) If my opponent didn't bring an anti-bird counter by turn 3, he is probably going to do so by turn 4 (and if not, he will probably lose anyway). Out of the big creatures I have in my book, I bring the one most fitting to the situation (for example, if Idol of pestilence is out then I would probably prefer a mountain gorilla if I have one). So I prefer to put my extra investment (the pet) on what my opponent is least prepared for.

Your preference can be what you want, but you are utterly wrong on the statistical side I'm afraid, and provably so. On a L1 creature you will end up doubling it's damage and survivability, versus a much smaller incremental change on say a Grizzly. Put another way, you get a fixed bonus to any pet, but the cost goes up on bigger creatures, whilst the bonus doesn't.

Putting it on a L1, and then another L1 when it dies, then another... is MUCH stronger.

[Super Sorcerer]

ב"ה

The beastmaster can re-attach the marker as much as he wants, so the survivability of the creature is not very important. Many big creatures will be ignored by the opponent. In that case, the 3 extra life does not matter at all. Pet birds are extra annoying to kill if you don't have flyers.

So it is either 5 mana for the big creature, or 2 mana each time he kill a pet bird. The bonus will last on the big creature at least 2.5 times more, so it is worth at least as much.
And usually the pet token is what makes the difference between "must be destroyed as quickly as possible" and "too big to focus down" for 4th level animals (or at least makes focusing them a weaker move). At least that is my experience with this type of books and with wolves books (petting the redclaw alpha proved the most efficient so far in wolves books).

Your preference can be what you want, but you are utterly wrong on the statistical side I'm afraid, and provably so. On a L1 creature you will end up doubling it's damage and survivability, versus a much smaller incremental change on say a Grizzly.

Now that is totally wrong about the damage, the multiplier doesn't matter, and it is actually better to make big attacks even bigger.
when it is either 5 dice attack an 6/7 dice attack with piercing +1, or a 4 dice attack and a 7/8 dice attack with piercing +1, there is no armor value that makes the first option deal more damage on avarage, and there are some armor values that make the second option better (the only cases they are the same are against 0 armor and against resilient).