Necromancer

Necromancer
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Nocturne
Illustrator(s)	Marco Morte
Card text
Choose a face up, non-Duration Action card in the trash. Turn it face down for the turn, and play it, leaving it there. Setup: Put the 3 Zombies into the trash.

Necromancer is an Action card from Nocturne. It allows you to play Actions that are in the trash. Three Actions (the Zombies) are added to the trash for Necromancer to work with when it is in the game. If you play multiple Necromancers in one turn, you have to choose a different trashed Action each time.

FAQ

Official FAQ (2021)

• This plays a non-Duration Action card from the trash.
• Normally it can at least play one of the three Zombies, since they start the game in the trash.
• It can play other Action cards that make their way into the trash too.
• The played cards are turned over, to track that each can only be used once per turn this way; at end of turn, turn them back face up.
• Necromancer can play another Necromancer, though normally that will not be useful.
• The Action card stays in the trash; if an effect tries to move it, such as Encampment (from Empires) returning to the Supply, it will fail to move it.
• Necromancer can be used on a card that trashes itself when played; if the card checks to see if it was trashed (such as Pixie), it was not, but if the card does not check (such as Tragic Hero), it will function normally.
• Since the played card is not in play, "while this is in play" abilities (such as Tracker's^†) will not do anything.

Other rules clarifications

• Face-down cards in the trash can still be interacted with by cards other than Necromancer, such as Lurker, and you can still look at them if you want to know what they are.
• The restriction on movement only applies to effects that would have moved the card out of the play area if it were played normally, for example, Island will fail to move itself out of the trash and onto your Island Mat, although any other effect will still apply, such as moving a card from your hand onto your Island Mat; if a card is looking to move a card out of the trash, it may move itself - thus, if you choose to play a Lurker, Graverobber or Rogue in the trash, it can gain itself out of the trash as a result.
• If a face-down card in the trash is gained, and then later trashed in the same turn, it is returned to the trash face-up, meaning another Necromancer may play it.
• Attempting to trash a card in the trash doesn't count as trashing. So if you try to trash a Tragic Hero in the trash, you won't gain any   from Tomb, and it won't activate Sewers.
• If Necromancer plays a Throne Room variant that then plays a Duration card, the Necromancer stays in play as long as the Duration does.
• Unlike Band of Misfits, Necromancer can play Command cards from the trash.

Strategy

Necromancer is a flexible card whose strength varies greatly depending on what cards are in the trash. The presence of Zombie Spy means that a single copy of Necromancer is not a stop card and generally won’t make your deck worse, but Necromancer will typically only make your deck significantly better if you can use Zombie Mason productively for thinning, or if there are likely to be strong Action cards in the trash. Since Zombie Mason and Zombie Apprentice both provide benefits in exchange for trashing Action cards, it is always possible to power up your Necromancers even in the absence of other enablers; however, cards in the trash can be used by your opponent’s Necromancers as well, so improving Necromancers is only a benefit to the degree that you can take advantage of them to a greater extent than your opponent.

While none of the Zombies is individually very powerful, they do give Necromancer consistent access to some abilities:

1. As a trash-for-benefit effect and thinner that is unreliable because you cannot pick its target, Zombie Mason is most effective in the early game, when your deck is almost entirely junk. Occasionally, in Kingdoms that otherwise lack thinning but greatly reward it, it can be worth opening with Necromancer in order to thin your Coppers and upgrade your Estates into better cards. Later in the game, you can sometimes try to use Zombie Mason on more valuable targets, most notably to mill Provinces, although usually this will require support such as Zombie Spy to line up a target.
2. Although Zombie Apprentice offers non-terminal draw, it is mostly situational and difficult to use sustainably, as you need collision with and a supply of Action fodder, and can only play a single copy per turn. It can occasionally be useful to avoid a dud, or with good trash-for-benefit targets such as Fortress, or against an opponent junking you with Ruins.
3. As a cantrip with a slight sifting effect that does very little, Zombie Spy is usually a fallback option. Most often, it is useful to resolve Necromancer colliding with another terminal.

Necromancer is likely to become a highly valuable card in several situations:

1. Trashing attacks are a powerful enabler for Necromancer, as these often send valuable Action cards to the trash. Knights are particularly notable, as Necromancer significantly extends the period in which players can attack, which can potentially last until all the Knights and all the Necromancers are in the trash.
2. Trash-for-benefit effects can set up Necromancer targets if they are used on Action cards. This is particularly likely to happen with effects that only work on Actions, such as Procession or Advance. Less commonly, you may be able to make profitable use of Necromancer with Actions that are good targets for trash-for-benefit effects; this includes high Actions (e.g. Peddler) and those that have an on-trash benefit (e.g. Squire) or an on-gain benefit (e.g. Lackeys).
3. One-shots and other self-trashing Actions (like Tragic Hero) are especially good targets for Necromancer, as you can repeatedly benefit from their effects without losing access to them. For example, Necromancer can consistently generate Villagers with a single Acting Troupe in the trash. Way of the Horse is a particularly notable enabler: cards played from the trash remain in place and so are not returned to the Supply, allowing Necromancer to play Zombies or other trashed Actions for non-terminal draw throughout the game. Similarly, Horses that end up in the trash can be used as sustainable draw.

One noteworthy dynamic of Necromancer is that all players have equal access to and control over its targets in the trash. Most importantly, this means that setting up good targets for your own Necromancers can give your opponent a similar advantage for free. For example, if you invest resources in gaining, playing, and trashing a Tragic Hero, your opponents will be able to play that same Tragic Hero without expending any of their own resources. This should be considered while deciding how to build up your deck, but might be a smaller concern if you will play more of them than your opponent, whether that’s because you have more copies of Necromancer, because you have a better engine that plays Necromancers more reliably, or just because you can trash an Action and still play it with a Necromancer later on that same turn. On the other hand, cards that gain from the trash like Graverobber (or, in an extreme case, Shaman) can undermine Necromancer by removing its targets. They also allow Zombies to be gained from the trash: although Zombies are rarely strong cards to have in your deck, denying Zombies to your opponent can render their Necromancers useless.

External strategy articles

Note: Article(s) below are by individual authors and may not represent the community's current views on cards, but may provide more in-depth information or give historical perspective. Caveat emptor.

• slides from 2021 coaching session

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		Play a face up, non-Duration Action card from the trash, leaving it there and turning it face down for the turn. Setup: Put the 3 Zombies into the trash.	Nocturne	November 2017
		Choose a face up, non-Duration Action card in the trash. Turn it face down for the turn, and play it, leaving it there. Setup: Put the 3 Zombies into the trash.	Nocturne (2021 printing)

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Dutch	Dodenbezweerder
French	Nécromancien
German	Totenbeschwörer			Spiele eine Aktionskarte, die mit der Vorderseite nach oben im Müll liegt und keine Dauerkarte ist, lasse sie dort und drehe sie für diesen Zug mit der Bildseite nach unten. Spielvorbereitung: Legt die 3 Zombies in den Müll.	(2017)
	Totenbeschwörer			Wähle eine Aktionskarte, die mit der Vorderseite nach oben im Müll liegt und die keine Dauerkarte ist. Drehe sie für diesen Zug um und spiele sie (lasse sie dort liegen). Spielvorbereitung: Legt die 3 Zombies in den Müll.
Japanese	ネクロマンサー (pron. nekuromansā)			廃棄置き場の中から、持続カード力一ド以外の表向きのアクションカード1枚を、場に出さずにこのターンの間だけ裏返しにして使用する。 準備: 廃棄置き場にゾンビ3種類を置く。
Polish	Nekromanta			Wybierz ze Śmietniska leżącą awersem do góry kartę Akcji, niebędącą kartą Następstwa. Odwróć ją awersem do dołu na czas trwania bieżącej tury i zagraj, pozostawiając ją na Śmietnisku. Przygotowanie: umieść na Śmietnisku 3 karty Zombie.	(2022)
Russian	Некромант (pron. nyekromant)

Trivia

Official card art.

Preview

Finally, the powers of the dead are yours to command. It’s about time. Today I’m doing the last bonus preview, Necromancer.

Necromancer lets you play Action cards from the trash. And just to ensure that you always have some options there, the trash starts with three Action cards in it, the Zombies. And two of the Zombies can help you get other Action cards into the trash. Somehow it all works out.

Each Action card in the trash can only be used once per turn, though if there are multiple copies of a card in the trash, you’ll be able to play each copy within the same turn. When you play a card in the trash, you flip it over to indicate that. So if you play three Necromancers in a turn, one could play Zombie Spy, the next could play Zombie Apprentice to trash a Skulk, and the last could play the Skulk you just trashed. If you use Throne Room to play Necromancer twice, each play of Necromancer will have to play a different card from the trash. Necromancer can’t play Duration cards, and cards that try to move themselves (like Reserve cards from Adventures) fail to do so; they’re stuck in the trash.

—LastFootnote, Nocturne Bonus Preview #5: Necromancer

Secret History

This card came from the name. I had a list of names that fit the flavor of the set, and in some conversation thought, hey Necromancer could play cards from the trash. For a while it was a Band of Misfits, it became the card. You played it as something in the trash. That was way more confusing but seemed the only way to do it. And it had this looming problem of how best to stop infinite loops, plus sometimes a tracking issue (how many of these did I play as Markets?). Matt suggested turning the cards in the trash face down for the turn to both track what you'd done and stop infinite loops; this solved those problems, but also turned out to open the door to changing it to play the cards outright, rather than being Band of Misfits. This fixes some poor rules situations and also has better flavor; it plays the Zombies, it doesn't become a Zombie. Not working on Duration cards was a late change; there's no tracking there, which is awful.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Secret History of Dominion: Nocturne

Why isn't Necromancer a Command card?

Necromancer didn't get changed, because people heavily disfavor losing card interactions, changing it would actually remove non-exotic interactions, and I didn't need to change it to fix anything; it limits itself already.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Dominion Discord, 2019

Necromancer being a Command card merely stops you from using e.g. Band of Misfits on it; but that's not some exotic combo that will never happen, it's useful just with those two cards on the board.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Dominion 2019 Errata and Rules Tweaks

Possibly Necromancer should be a Command card, but the motivation would mainly be, to avoid this question.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Dominion Discord, 2022

After the release of Plunder, players found an infinite loop that exploits Necromancer's lack of the Command type. Specifically, Necromancer plays a Reckless Band of Misfits (turning it face down); on the 1st iteration, the Band of Misfits plays a Sentinel, which trashes a Lich and a 2nd Band of Misfits (which enters the trash face up), and then the Lich discards itself and gains the face down Band of Misfits. Then on the 2nd iteration of the Band of Misfits, it plays a Necromancer, causing the whole combo to loop forever (for infinite Tomb  ).

It's possible that Necromancer will become a Command card after all, whenever Nocturne next gets reprinted.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Dominion Strategy Forum

Alternative to turning cards face down

If I'd done Necromancer in a set with tokens, I could have put tokens on them.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Dominion Discord, 2020