Make skellies, play water, win.

Control board, disable things and move them around.

Built this deck without much thought right out the gate with Gothic and at first it felt just broken strong. Now that we are a little over a month into Gothic I think Water has come out as the strongest element in constructed (though maybe best when paired with something else), and I'm sure this shell could be tweaked and used for different avatars. It's nice in necro since necro is kinda like an arhci-druid, where you get tons of value in skellies on the board but they are more game stallers than damage pushers/spellcasters like tawny was. This means the longer the game goes and the more you can use the skellies that lets the overall power of the water cards grind out a win. Also, the site value in water has reached a critical point where water sites are just broken strong compared to the sites in every other element. There are a lot of incredible sties that could be swapped into this deck, but I decided to lean away from scrying and focus on movement and transformation. Sinister Pond with Adept Illusionist can kinda feel like a waste but also just some wild ramping. I will probably cut sinister pond for other sites soon (like maybe The Void or Mismanaged Mortuary).

With Necromonster you are playing a deck that is kind of like a Minion based Archimago - so the longer the game goes the more likely you are to win (except against other similar late game control decks).

How to Play It:

You want to mulligan big bomb minions from your starting hand to get your early game control pieces. Ideally get a site combo that can move skeletons to the front line (like a river rapids on the starting spot is ideal) and/or a prime defensive site with Nixie. This deck requires an annoying amount of thought to get maximum value out of it, since you are looking at lots of motion abilities and you usually have too many options for great plays. The floor though is just make skeleton when you can and play control pieces. Usually the easiest way to guarantee a door is going for a polar explorers or ruler of thuul around the world strike with something big or a just a bunch of stuff. The best cards to see in your opening hand are Coy Nixie, Gnarled Wendigo and Shapeshift. Turn 3 Wendigo can sometimes win the game on its own.

It's hard to describe all the different play lines - but it is surprisingly easy to see them once you start playing this deck. You will feel too powerful most of the time. Only times it struggles so far have been against other similar decks (Water is strong right now and there are lots of ways to build the control/ramp water lists including this, and things like Seer/Spellslinger or even Interrogator/Sorcerer). Definitely the Mist shell plays very similar lines with better tools (but less reliability), so that is one to watch out for.

Random other Tips on Playing this Deck:

I am slowly coming around to leaning on skeletons more. Prioritizing playing a skeleton every turn has become a lot like trying to draw a spell for turn every turn. The only time I won't is when I need to not do it to answer a threat. Like if they have a big threat that I can't answer and play a skellie, then I will just answer it, but for building board state I lean toward getting a skeleton every turn if I can.

Lessons Learned from Playtesting

I have lost games because I made the mistake of attacking with the Skeletons on many occasions. Even though they can't move to defend they are defensive pieces in this deck (and utility) so it's best to just get them to the various frontiers so they can chump block and keep you in the drivers seat.

Updates over Time:

Jan 10 took out the Silver Bullets finally (had been trying to see if I could make them work, but at the end of the day toolbox seems like the way to go).

Jan 12 switched in Mismanaged Mortuary for Sinister Ponds so as to eat my vegetables and ideally mess up any cemetery stuff my opponent might try :D

Jan 19 went down to 2 Horrible Hybrids in collection to add a Return to Nature so as to eat my vegetables (aka cemetery hate for stopping archi and deathspeaker). also went to 2 mariners curses so i could run both oompaloompas

Jan 20 decided to pull 2 winternymphs for sacred stag

Early Feb finally added Aino (wasn't convinced on her until I realized her power against imposter). Made some other changes that I forgot to record (like I think I added in the archange)

Things I am Considering (as of Jan 19, 2026):

• Should I be doing the 4 kill spell collection? Basically, with Legion of Gall wreaking havoc on collections and Mist being (in my opinion) the strongest shell, I think in water it really makes sense to have 4 kill spells in your collection. Maybe it should even just be 4 ice lances. But also, I am not getting max value out of Gilman House and Toolbox by running 4 spells for the same job.
• How can I fit Failed Mutation and Sacred Stag? List as of the writing of this doesn't include either - but they are soooooooo strong and auto-includes. They don't make the list because I prioritize 3 and 2 drops to be able to survive aggro decks, and then for my higher end creatures I just run the super overpowered uniques and elites. I'm already wishing I could run more Magics as well, but the creature count should really be 38ish (not the current 35). Mariners Curse is high on the list of potential cuts, but getting to re-use it multiple times makes it such good removal and has lots of other uses around shutting down other water decks.

Suggested Variants:

If you are looking for ways to modify this deck here are my main suggestions:

• Mist Suite: basically pull things that don't gain value the turn you play them and trade out some snowballs and a riptide for grappleshots and whirling blades (maybe drop the into the abyss or a swap or riptide as well). Then you add in the small handful of really good air minions (basically just Sturmgeist and Daperyl Vampires, maybe consider Hounds and Grandmaster Wizard)
• Go Harder on the Big Boys fast approach. One of the popular cards to run in Water Necro is Dormant Monstrosity. I personally prefer minions that control the board for this deck because it is more about control. Sneaking out a Monstrosity in the corner is nice for big bodies early, but piling a bunch of big bodies on the board early just makes sweeping your board with good board clearing spells too easy (think Poison nova, atlantean fate, etc). That said, leaning in on big boi's fast can be really strong (also popular with Seer and Spellslinger builds that are similar). You can pull some of the control and early game stuff to add Dormant Monstrosity and more of the high end water minions to make your Shapeshifts hit harder (things like Hydra, Mester Worm and Diluvian are options). Even the other Kraken can work for that approach, and you drop the Mariner's curses and a couple of the 3 drops like Lugbog and Order.