Necroduality – Crimson Vow
Date Reviewed: January 19, 2022
Ratings:
Constructed: 3.17
Casual: 4.42
Limited: 4.00
Multiplayer: 3.67
Commander [EDH]: 4.00
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Well, this can’t possibly end badly.
Doubling things is incredibly dangerous, both from a gameplay standpoint and a game design standpoint. That, I think, is why Necroduality is quite limited – compare Doubling Season, and the way Doubling Season hasn’t been in Standard since planeswalkers were introduced. (Fifteen years, for those of you who lost count.) Even the toned-down doubling effects ended up being quite powerful, but with a card like Necroduality, the point will be less about making a vast number of zombies and more about duplicating some kind of ability they have or trigger they set off. Offhand, I can’t think of any such abilities that you could double to break a game state in the sense we usually seek for combo decks, but there will probably be some where you get just a little extra advantage and pull ahead. It’s a very fun and flavorful effect for casual tables, with some potential for tournament play depending on what comes out in the coming years.
Constructed: 3/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 4/5
Multiplayer: 3/5
Commander [EDH]: 3/5
Talk about ushering in a new era of unlife. Necroduality is one of those tempting enchantments with a very intriguing bit of rules text. Doubling up on Zombies is always a good and expedient way to make the Zombie Apocalypse happen faster…but the caveat, of course, is that Necroduality is an expensive, do-nothing enchantment on its own that requires time and further investment to fire, and we all know how I feel about those! If you’re newer to my card reviews, spoiler: I’m not high on them.
Necroduality is hampered by being somewhat pricey in a tribe that’s already trending cheaper, as well as just not doing much with its droves of token-based shambling monstrosities; this doesn’t inherently make it bad, but asking a tribe to deliberately slow-roll their gameplan to get this online seems like a bit of a tall order. I do think that the upside is promising, but I’m definitely not sold on it in any Constructed format. It’ll likely have its time in the sun in Commander, which generally is forgiving towards slower and more ponderous set-ups if the payoff is worth it, but that this costs four mana and requires a lot of additional investment makes me question if it can pan out in any Constructed environment.
Constructed: 2.5 (this just demands too many concessions in deck building, and if Zombies is a good deck, it won’t be because of this card)
Casual: 4.25
Limited: 4 (you’re going all-in on Zombies if you’re playing this, but it seems worth it)
Multiplayer: 3
Commander [EDH]: 4 (Dimir is one of the better Zombie starting points, but making Necroduality shine will definitely take a deft touch)
One of the best cards printed in the set that will become prominent in a non-commander constructed format in a few years whenever the next crazy good zombie creature gets printed, but for now this enchantment will have to find its home in zombie commander tribal. It will quickly ramp up the number of creatures you have in play and allow for additional enter the battlefield triggers from some really strong zombies! Being an enchantment this is going to remain on the battlefield until your opponent uses a resource to get rid of it, but since you’re running blue there isn’t a short supply of counter protection that you can use to prevent that. Left unchecked you’ll have an army of zombies with some really powerful effects that will win you the game. This is a dangerous card for your opponents, this is more dangerous than the zombies that it will make!
Constructed: 4/5
Casual: 5/5
Limited: 4/5
Multiplayer: 5/5
Commander [EDH]: 5/5
We would love more volunteers to help us with our Magic the Gathering Card of the Day reviews. If you want to share your ideas on cards with other fans, feel free to drop us an email. We’d be happy to link back to your blog / YouTube Channel / etc. 😉
Click here to read over 4,000 more MTG Cards of the Day! Daily Since 2001.
