Aw ... the fun of four Necro's!

[banky]

C'mon! You can admit it! You all know you have some casual deck sitting arround that takes some broken card and exploits it to the fullest! I myself am in the process of whipping one up with the 4 Necropotences I just nabbed of some old guy for 2 bucks total. Hell, the Necro's came with some crap black aggro deck thats made up of nothing but Ice Age cards, but at least I got a start! But anyways, post your quirky lil br0k3n piles of jank or any ideas you may have for me to use these black card advantage monsters!

[Matt]

// Necros
4 Necropotence
3 Demonic Consultation
3 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Demonic Tutor

// Geysers
4 Consume Spirit
3 Corrupt
1 Zuran Orb
2 Ivory Tower

// Kills
3 Chainer's Edict
2 Contagion

// Shades
1 Nantuko Shade
2 Order of the Ebon Hand

// Discard
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Duress

// Mana
1 Strip Mine
1 Lotus Petal
17 Swamp
4 Dark Ritual

Something like that. There mightbe Diabolic Edicts in there instead of Chainer's, I don't remember.

[deathcubek]

Alice block.  Zuran Orb and Thawing Glaciers are banned.
This is also from memory.

Amazing
4 Necropotence
3 Demonic Consultation
4 Phrexian Warbeast
4 Knights of Stromgald

Good
3 Contagion

Good for block
4 Soul Burn
3 Abysal Specter
4 Icequake
1 Ihsan's Shade

Playable?
4 Soldevi Sentry    

Mana
4 Demonic Ritual
2 Lake of the Dead
20 Swamps

Sideboard
4 Dystopia
4 Stench of Evil
2 Serrated Arrows
1 Ihsan's Shade
3 Dark Banishing
1 Lodestone Bauble

Possible blue and red splashes:
Phantasmal Fiend
Incinerate

This deck tries to kill fast and hard with Necropotence.  Fast creatures kill while huge Soul Burns powered by Lake of the Dead and Dark Ritual try to keep you alive.  I am probably have some of the numbers wrong, as its been forever.

You need to watch out for R/G.  Stormbind, Pyroclasm, Incinerate, and those bears from Homelands are huge.  If they are just green, Dystopia can wreck them, but with red you have to watch your life totals.  Fast mana and some amazing cards make this a tough matchup.

If they are playing white expect Serrated Arrows against your pump knights and hold an Icequake for an opposing Keldjoran Outpost.  Swords to Plowshares can still hit a number of your creatures.  Your artifact creatures are key first game against their pump knights, and Dystopia can race their amazing hate against you.

Without Thawing Glaciers or global removal, Browse can't really get up to speed. R/G Land Destruction shouldn't hit you too bad, as you should be dropping a land a turn.  Pox can take you for a bit of a ride, but you should be able to play past it and the Lodestone helps against all Land-D.  Some random stuff happens in this block, and if its fat creatures, go with the Banishings.

It is a really fun format and I am trying to pull all the cards together so I can play it again.

[Togran]

Trix is a rather dominant Necro deck, don't know how fun it would be casually though.  Really the victory condition in this deck is the Skull.  It drops Turn 2 Consistently, and turn 3 just about everytime.  I consider the Illusions/Donate part sort of like the party in the end-zone after the touchdown, or the signing of the treaty after the war: It's obligatory and has to happen, but the game was over before the formalities were completed.  

Here's an extended version from after Dark Ritual was restricted:

4 Victory Conditions
4 Skulls

7 Hot Potatos
4 Illusions of Grandeur
3 Donate

12 Skullfinders
4 Brainstorm
4 Vampiric Tutor
4 Demonic Consultation

8 Helmets (Skull Protectors)
4 Duress
4 Force of Will

2 Skull Accessories
1 Firestorm
You gained 1-2 life so I have to combo you twice? I don't think so.  Yikes you have a giant army of Tubbies that might kill me.  Ok those 4 all take 4.
1 Hoodwink
You may be a nice guy and give magic cards to people who need them, but other people aren't as nice and aren't willing to give them back.  
.
27 Mana Sources
4 Mox Diamond
4 Badlands
4 Underground Sea
12 Swamp
3 Gemstone Mine

This deck is pre-searchlands, pre-chrome mox and post extended dark-ritual bannings (and obviously pre-ice age is out).  Got all that? Good good on to some play/card choices.

First step to the deck is seeing how fast can you drop the skull on the table with your hand?  Turn one is possible with the double Mox Diamond Necro hand, but Turn 2 can be more ideal at times.  Usually Turn 1 is either a Duress turn, or you use your search to set up the Skull being dropped on turn 2.  If you lack the Necro in hand, but have a Vamp or a Consult you are fine.  

You really want turn 2 Necro hands, but Turn 3 with lots of protection are fine too.  Basically when the skull hits, they have 1 turn left.  Draw as many cards as you can considering your opponents ability to deal damage on you the next turn.  Don't forget to calculate Vampiric Tutor damage and Force of Will Damage.  

You might to toss in Dark Rituals, or maybe Type 1 artifact Mana.  But that would make it Turn 1/2 Necro's, instead of Turn 2/3.  That would be really silly.

[hispls]

The old school necro was hard core.  Every winning deck ran 4 necro's 4 strip mines, 4 hyms, 4 sinkholes, and 4 hippies.  Of course you'll want 4 dark rituals, and as many tutors as you can pack in, zuran orb was always nice or ivory tower to make up for necro dammage.  Other than that, you can't go too far wrong with this kind of backbone.

[banky]

Aw yes, the great old school-ness that is NecroTrix! How could I forget!?!?

... I wonder if my local card shop will allow me to trade in my Tropical Islands and Flooded Strands for Underground Seas and Polluted Deltas?

[Harry Lime]

Free-spell Necro anyone? One of my favorite decks of all time  

2 Skittering Skirge
4 Contagion
4 Corrupt
4 Duress
4 Dark Ritual
3 Demonic Consultation
4 Drain Life
4 Necropotence
2 Nevinyrral's Disk
3 Spinning Darkness
4 Unmask
18 Swamp
4 Wasteland

Sideboard:
2 Dystopia
2 Nevinyrral's Disk
2 Perish
3 Persecute
3 Planar Void
3 Powder Keg

This was from extended circa 1999-2000, PT-Chicago. I think it came it 2nd?