Necrologia MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 4 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost5
RarityUncommon
TypeInstant

Key Takeaways

  1. Necrologia can provide a tremendous card advantage at the potential cost of life, valuable in critical gameplay moments.
  2. The ability to play at instant speed during your end step grants flexible and deep strategic possibilities.
  3. While powerful, its use is balanced by risks including hand discard and a high mana requirement, especially in black.

Text of card

Play Necrologia only during your discard phase. Pay X life: Draw X cards.

"My enemies' death yields threefold benefit: removal, reuse, and research." —Volrath


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Necrologia enables a significant draw of cards at just the cost of life, potentially providing a massive advantage as you refill your hand with more options and strategies.

Resource Acceleration: While not directly providing mana or tokens, Necrologia’s ability to efficiently refill your hand can indirectly accelerate your resource availability, ensuring you have the necessary cards to make impactful plays in subsequent turns.

Instant Speed: The flexibility of casting Necrologia at instant speed during your end step allows for strategic depth. It gives players the opportunity to manage their life and resources throughout the whole turn and still benefit from the card draw when it’s safest, after opponents have acted.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Necrologia demands that you discard your hand at the end of turn, a steep price that can leave you vulnerable if you can’t capitalize on the new cards immediately.

Specific Mana Cost: Its heavy reliance on black mana makes it a tough fit for multicolored decks, potentially restricting its play to mono-black or decks with a heavy black presence.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: The five mana cost can be prohibitive, especially since it’s designed to be played at the end of your turn, limiting your ability to utilize other spells or abilities in the same cycle.


Reasons to Include Necrologia in Your Collection

Versatility: Necrologia serves as a powerful draw engine, easily slotting into black-centered decks that thrive on card advantage. Its ability to be cast at the end of your turn ensures that you get the most out of your draw, prepping you for your next move without having to discard to hand size immediately.

Combo Potential: This card’s significant draw effect creates numerous opportunities to find combo pieces or set up game-winning plays. It pairs well with life-gain strategies that offset the life paid, or with reanimation tactics that benefit from having multiple cards in the graveyard.

Meta-Relevance: In a meta where having the right answers or threats at the right time is crucial, Necrologia ensures that you dig deep into your deck. Whether you’re facing down control, aggro, or combo decks, refueling your hand can be the edge you need to stay competitive.


How to beat Necrologia

Necrologia is a unique spell in the universe of Magic: The Gathering that allows players to pay life in exchange for drawing cards at a crucial moment—during the end step of the turn. Its power comes from its potential to provide a massive card advantage. However, every powerful card has its Achilles’ heel, and understanding this is key to overcoming its effect.

To counteract Necrologia’s advantage, players should focus on two strategies: maintaining pressure to keep the opponent’s life total low, which makes Necrologia a risky play, or using discard effects to make the drawn cards a liability. Other tactics include instant-speed graveyard disruption to eliminate key cards before they can be used, or leveraging spells that punish the opponent for drawing cards, such as Underworld Dreams or Notion Thief.

Strategically timing these responses can tilt the balance in your favor. By disrupting the benefit gained from Necrologia and exploiting its life payment cost, players can effectively neutralize its impact and keep the game in their control.


BurnMana Recommendations

Embarking on the MTG journey, every card choice can be crucial in sculpting the victory path. Utilizing cards like Necrologia can be a game-changer, offering the power to transform life into valuable card advantage. Such cards weave strategy with resource management, ensuring your deck stays dynamic and unpredictable. Are you eager to optimize your deck with Necrologia? Maybe you’re curious about alternatives or methods to counter it? We provide a wealth of information tailored for players looking to deepen their understanding of gameplay, deck building, and strategic mastery. Let’s dive further into the MTG universe together and uncover the full potential of your deck. Join us to enrich your MTG expertise.


Cards like Necrologia

Necrologia stands as a unique spell in the realm of card advantage in Magic: The Gathering. It presents an interesting correlation to cards like Ad Nauseam, which also allows players to pay life for cards, yet Necrologia has the particular timing of being cast only at the end step, offering a burst of new options at a crucial moment. Unlike Ad Nauseam, Necrologia does cap the card drawing with your current life total, ensuring a more controlled yet potentially substantial gain.

Erebos, God of the Dead presents a different approach to the card-for-life exchange. Its ability to draw cards is repeatable and the life payment is constant per card, providing reliability without a single explosive turn. While it offers a steady stream, Necrologia floods the hand all at once and can turn the tide if timed correctly. Lastly, Night’s Whisper and Sign in Blood both offer set card draws for a small amount of life, yet lack the scalability and potential enormity of Necrologia’s card drawing event.

Hence, Necrologia, while riskier and heavier in its life cost, may offer larger rewards. It’s a card that demands a tactical approach to life management and could lead to a game-winning hand, bearing a distinctive place among its life-for-card counterparts.

Ad Nauseam - MTG Card versions
Erebos, God of the Dead - MTG Card versions
Night's Whisper - MTG Card versions
Sign in Blood - MTG Card versions
Ad Nauseam - Shards of Alara (ALA)
Erebos, God of the Dead - Theros (THS)
Night's Whisper - Fifth Dawn (5DN)
Sign in Blood - Magic 2010 (M10)

Cards similar to Necrologia by color, type and mana cost

Broken Visage - MTG Card versions
Contagion - MTG Card versions
Hatred - MTG Card versions
Dark Triumph - MTG Card versions
Annihilate - MTG Card versions
Waste Away - MTG Card versions
Consume the Meek - MTG Card versions
Stinging Study - MTG Card versions
Szat's Will - MTG Card versions
Cruel Revival - MTG Card versions
Call for Blood - MTG Card versions
Death of a Thousand Stings - MTG Card versions
Moonlight Bargain - MTG Card versions
Traitor's Clutch - MTG Card versions
Treacherous Urge - MTG Card versions
Ad Nauseam - MTG Card versions
Lash of the Whip - MTG Card versions
Rescue from the Underworld - MTG Card versions
Flesh to Dust - MTG Card versions
Unmake the Graves - MTG Card versions
Broken Visage - Masters Edition II (ME2)
Contagion - Masters Edition (ME1)
Hatred - World Championship Decks 1999 (WC99)
Dark Triumph - Nemesis (NEM)
Annihilate - The List (PLST)
Waste Away - Torment (TOR)
Consume the Meek - Duel Decks: Zendikar vs. Eldrazi (DDP)
Stinging Study - Commander 2021 (C21)
Szat's Will - Commander Legends (CMR)
Cruel Revival - Starter Commander Decks (SCD)
Call for Blood - Salvat 2005 (PSAL)
Death of a Thousand Stings - Saviors of Kamigawa (SOK)
Moonlight Bargain - Commander 2018 (C18)
Traitor's Clutch - Time Spiral (TSP)
Treacherous Urge - Planar Chaos (PLC)
Ad Nauseam - Double Masters (2XM)
Lash of the Whip - Theros (THS)
Rescue from the Underworld - The List (PLST)
Flesh to Dust - The List (PLST)
Unmake the Graves - Magic 2015 (M15)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Necrologia MTG card by a specific set like Exodus and Seventh Edition, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Necrologia and other MTG cards:

Continue exploring other sealed products in Amazon
See Magic products

Printings

The Necrologia Magic the Gathering card was released in 3 different sets between 1998-06-15 and 2015-05-06. Illustrated by 2 different artists.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
11998-06-15ExodusEXO 681997normalblackBrom
22001-04-11Seventh Edition7ED 1491997normalwhiteScott M. Fischer
32001-04-11Seventh Edition7ED 149★1997normalblackScott M. Fischer
42015-05-06Tempest RemasteredTPR 1102015normalblackBrom

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Necrologia has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
OathbreakerLegal
PremodernLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
PredhLegal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Necrologia card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

DateText
2004-10-04 This spell is cast during the End step. Since you discard down to 7 cards in the cleanup step, this card is used before the discard.

Recent MTG decks

Continue exploring other format decks
More decks