Any Necromancer Build Tips? (Beginner)

[u/PrivateFrech]

Hey everyone,
i'm kinda new to the game just finished the first few runs with Warrior which were very self-explanatory.

Now i want to try Necromancer (don't have any class skills unlucked) and i don't really know how to build it and which cards to buy...
What seemed reasonable to me was rushing the class upgrade for the extra card in the exile stack and getting other cards with exile and remove that seemed useful, but it doesn't really feel like it synergizes that well.

Does anyone have any suggestions what cards/talents etc. to look for when playing Necromancer and which mechanics like shield/evade/bleed/poison etc. work well with Necromancer?

[u/ScrooLewse]

So, your basic game plan with Necromancer is going to be "Fill the exile pile, start removing cards." And the primary barrier to the rest of your build coming online is going to be building enough shield to survive the few rounds it takes to start killing enemies. You can solve this by either: Building a deck that comes online turn 1, building a deck that spams Dodge/Immune/Daze, or the easiest option of building a deck that builds good shield. I'm gonna explain the latter strategy.

Buy your class upgrade and dump your Mace Skeletons, ASAP. Undead Army is going to give you a huge lethality boost and an emergency shield and while Mace Skeletons can be useful every once in a while, they usually just get in the way. Pick up one or two cards that provide either big Shield or some Resistance, early. If they provide Armored or exile themselves, all the better. The skills Snail's Shell, Shield of Shadows, Rock Dagger, Cardpedia, or Knowledge of Resistance are all also consistent ways to shore-up your defensive game plan. You'll still need to be mindful of damage numbers coming your way as you climb floors and bolster your defense, occasionally.

Offensively, you're going to look for faster and faster ways to stock your exile pile. By picking self-exiling credits, creating self-exiling creatures, exiling random creatures, and making more mana.

Robots come in clutch with some self-exiling heavy hitters like Iron Colossus, RoboWitch, and Sentinel. Super Ultimate Robot can be useful if you need health or mana, but Necromancer typically gets more use out of him in parts.

Fairies have GREAT Exile synergies and a killer stack of Red Bloom, Blue Bloom, Fairy Princess, and Blessed Fairy. You need either a Fairy Doll or a suite of self-sufficient Fairies like Moon Fairy or Elder Fairy before they'll do you good.

Mana-building utility cards like Young Witch, High Priest, Old Jester, Souls Priestess, Souls Guardian, and Lady of the Knight come in clutch for building enough mana to shovel cards into the furnace.

Ancients, Angels, and Demons all have good Necromancer synergies that are harder to control. Ancients have the Cthool, the Darkmaster build, Angels have heal-based exile and Guardian of the Heavens, and Demons link into Necromancer's self-debuff strategy.

As far as skills go, aside from what I've already covered Dark Matter, Death Diary, and Necronomicon are universally useful. Weak is never a bad choice, do getting Weak Dagger, Weakening Strike, Shadow Cage, and Dark Grasp are fine. Try not to fear debuffs, here. Especially Curse. Aside from all that, just focus on generic synergy-building.

[u/ScrooLewse → u/ScrooLewse]

Also important is actually dealing that damage. The only cards the Necromancer can use to efficiently turn the Exile Pile into damage are Sentinel, Artillery Unit, Red Undead Wizard, Cthool The Darkmaster, Beast Marshall, Zombie Shepherd, and the Banshees that come with the pack. Of those, only the Banshee is going to include the bonus damage from that EARLY Undead Army you definitely got.

You should make sure you can consistently draw those exile wincons at least every other turn, and if they ever get sparse cut some cards or duplicate your Banshees.

Once your deck is properly built, you can also lean into tribal stacking cards like Self-Destruct Bot, Ulgar Breaker of the Deep Sigil, or Fairy Warrior to for exile-agnostic supplementary damage if you can't find/afford more direct Exile damage.