M14 [New Card] Xathrid Necromancer

[AmbivalentDuck]

This pushes at the corner of playable:
1. Mirror trump in Cavern humans.
2. Cute interactions with Smokestack
3. "Answer" to Pyroclasm

My bet: this card will see occasional sideboard play in Vintage.

[psyburat]

It's a shame there's no overlap with Rotlung Reanimator.  It would make for a fun (not good) deck.

[vaughnbros]

Well this makes humans rather hard to deal with now... a slight downgrade from rotlung's text as these enter the battlefield tapped.

[TheWhiteDragon]

This guy + Saffi Eriksdotter + Loyal Retainers = gg

Imperial recruiter also puts the combo together while being uncounterable cavern human.

[BC]

This guy + Saffi Eriksdotter + Loyal Retainers = gg

Needs more Congregation at Dawn.

[TheWhiteDragon]

This guy + Saffi Eriksdotter + Loyal Retainers = gg

Needs more Congregation at Dawn.

If you want to run the risk of folding to counterspells, sure.  But if you want a Tier 1 powerhouse vintage combo, the uncounterable cavern+recruiters is the way to go.

[vaughnbros]

This guy + Saffi Eriksdotter + Loyal Retainers = gg

Needs more Congregation at Dawn.

If you want to run the risk of folding to counterspells, sure.  But if you want a Tier 1 powerhouse vintage combo, the uncounterable cavern+recruiters is the way to go.

Lol 3 card combos that cost 8 mana and can be disrupted by 1 lightning bolt or any Gy hate are not tier 1

[msg67183]

This guy + Saffi Eriksdotter + Loyal Retainers = gg

Needs more Congregation at Dawn.

If you want to run the risk of folding to counterspells, sure.  But if you want a Tier 1 powerhouse vintage combo, the uncounterable cavern+recruiters is the way to go.

Lol 3 card combos that cost 8 mana and can be disrupted by 1 lightning bolt or any Gy hate are not tier 1

BUT Lance........ Lol

[MaximumCDawg]

All yuck yucking aside, this card seems fine.  Is it playable?  We don't have much of a basis of comparison.  Rotlung Reanimator is most similar, but there is no Cleric deck so it has no home.  Spawning Pool is about 1/2 as efficient as this duder, but it does cost less (all colorless, too) and the creatures it spawns come out untapped.  Voice of Resurgence does something similar to Necromancer but only for itself.  Fresh Meat costs more and you need to have it in response to the sweeper. None of these cards has proven to be a Vintage all-star.  Necromancer has an edge on many of them in important ways, but I am skeptical that it's enough of an edge to succeed where similar effects have failed.

As you've mentioned, in theorycraft world it's great in Wizards / Human fish decks against other aggro decks or against sweepers.  However, I'm doubtful that the real threat to fish decks is other fish decks or Pyroclasm.  The real worry is faster combos, particularly Tinker.  Plus, if you have to resolve a 3cc creature before your opponent has access to his or her sweeper, I'm worried you either won't get it down in time to avoid the 2-for-1 or you will waste time playing it and then be too slow to disrupt your opponent.

And that's probably the Achilles' heel for a card like this: it doesn't do anything to disrupt your opponent.  Fish decks thrive on hatebears, either directly (Meddling Mage) or indirectly (Mayor of Avabruk) disrupting your opponent's win conditions.  This doesn't do that.  Best case scenario, your opponent wipes off your valuebears and leaves you with 2 - 4 zombies.  If they have no follow-up, okay, they lose.  But combo players have plenty of experience using Hurkyl's Recall against Shops to bounce and then win in the window that is created, and even with this guy, Pyro does the same thing.

I'm thinking this dude is fine, but not Vintage playable.  As always, I'd love to be wrong.

[AmbivalentDuck]

As you've mentioned, in theorycraft world it's great in Wizards / Human fish decks against other aggro decks or against sweepers.  However, I'm doubtful that the real threat to fish decks is other fish decks or Pyroclasm.

My bet: this card will see occasional sideboard play in Vintage.

A fish meta sometime in the future isn't inconceivable. The combo decks can't get much better than they presently are (notice that unrestrictions have driven most recent increases in power with the exception of Griselbargain). At the same time, bears have been experiencing a marked power creep. Thorn of Trinibear isn't inconceivable.