Just a few weeks ago, SorceryCon, Sorcery’s largest community-organized and community-run event, brought hundreds of players together in Indianapolis for four days of celebration, competition, and connection.
With competitive tournaments running alongside casual pods and smaller meetups, artists sketched and signed, and old friends reunited. It was equal parts high-stakes competition and heartfelt celebration, a gathering built by the community, for the community.
We caught up with the SorceryCon constructed champion, CJ, a name you might recognize from strong finishes at the Courtesan Cup and SCG CONs and online leagues. But ask CJ about SorceryCon, and the conversation quickly shifts away from trophies. For him, the highlight of the weekend was reconnecting with friends, meeting new players, and laughing through matches, even during a Top 8 draft that had to be muted because the table couldn’t stop joking. As he puts it, “Even if I came in last place, this event would’ve been worth it. The bonds I’ve made through Sorcery are the highlight.”
CJ came prepared to SorceryCon with skeletons, movement tricks, and one very clear philosophy: Value wins games. Let’s dive into the deck he brought to SorceryCon.
Tell us a little about yourself! How long have you been playing Sorcery?
CJ: "I’m CJ! I’ve been a nerd since ’94 and playing Sorcery since ’24. I run a YouTube channel called Old Fashioned Nerds and help run the Sorcerer’s Summit Discord with Bruce.
As for highlights… I’ve had a good run. League podiums, SCG wins, multiple SorceryCon Top 8s, and a couple of rainbow foils. But honestly, I care more about the games and the people than accolades."
What was the energy and feel of SorceryCon like? What makes the event special?
CJ: "SorceryCon was incredible.
More than any other event, the community was the highlight. I’ve met so many close friends through Sorcery that I chat with daily. At one point on Saturday, I was crying laughing over a ridiculous interaction I’d just had. I remember thinking, I don’t really care what happens from here, this has been a perfect weekend.
Even in the Top 8 draft, we were laughing so much that the stream had to mute us. Both pods unanimously decided to split the Cold Foil Heroes prize money so we could focus on having fun games instead of stressing over what was at stake.
Despite the high level of competition, I left every match thinking, I’d love to play that opponent again.
The Deck: CJ's Necromancer "Dank Magic"
View CJ's "Dank Magic" Deck on Curiosa.io
What’s the core concept behind your deck?
CJ: "The name of the game is value with this deck. This build uses Necromancer’s ability to generate skeleton tokens to create value at every stage of the game while buying time to draw into powerful Water spells to finish the match.
Depending on the draw, the deck pivots:
- Wendigo / Dormant Monstrosity draws → explosive early tempo
- Omphalos / Pnakotic Manuscript draws → slower value engine and card advantage
Regardless of draw, this deck is what I would call creature control. What this means is, apart from all of the minion removal you run in the form of magic/auras, you are running 13 minions that double as removal spells in the form of Coy Nixie/Thin ice, Lacunae Entity, Lord of Lies, Abaddon Succubus, etc. This means even with your slower draws, you should be able to control the board against aggro/midrange and stall until your late game value engines are online."
What are your primary goals when piloting this deck?
CJ: "I wouldn't say there is a particular focused strategy with this deck other than value. I really enjoy this list because of its versatility. Against aggro, I'm looking for Watchtower (to prevent infiltration), large undercosted bodies like Lugbog Cat, Dormant Monstrosity, or Gnarled Wendigo, and sticky minions like Sacred Stag or Order of the Sacred Oak. I also focus on Defensive sites like Thin Ice or Troll Bridge, or healing like Abaddon Succubus, Ring of Morrigan, and Daperyll Vampire.
Against midrange/control decks, I'm looking to get large threats out faster than they can deal with them, find my card draw engine, or find my sites that target particular Avatars (Garden of Eden for Sorcerer, Mismanaged Mortuary for Archimago/Flamecaller, Bureau of the Occult for Imposter / Deathspeaker / Archimago / Flamecaller, etc.). I think the flexibility of this deck is what makes it so strong. It really doesn't have an unwinnable matchup."
Key Cards & Power Plays: Which cards are essential?
CJ: "Dormant Monstrosity, Gnarled Wendigo, Coy Nixie (plus Thin Ice) are what form the backbone of most of my strategies against creature decks. Without them, the deck will perform fine, but it wouldn't be nearly as strong, and a lot more of my matchups would be even or unfavorable. The whole point of this deck is to utilize your skeleton tokens for value other than as 1 mana 1 power minions.
These three (plus Thin Ice) utilize them best. I know skeletons and Coy Nixie don't sound like a combo, but just walking a Skeleton onto Thin Ice to meet that 5 power requirement for submerge is enough to feel overpowered in certain matchups. With Innsmoth Dock, River Rapids, Wuthering Heights, Coy Nixie, Abaddon Succubus, and Maelstrom, the movement shenanigans in this deck can be pretty overwhelming for opponents."
Any favorite combos?
CJ: "Gilman House is pretty powerful on its own. I think most people have caught on to this, but when it's out, you can transform up to 4 skeletons into 3 power Horrible Hybrids for zero mana investment. Essentially, that's 4 mana for 16 power over the course of the game. I think the one common pitfall here is that people transform them as soon as they reach the site, but transformed minions are treated as the same game object, meaning they can act on the turn you transform them.
It's best to walk your skeletons onto Gilman House, leave them as skeletons, and transform them the next turn when they are untapped and ready to attack. This way, you don't deplete your collection if the opponent is ready with a minor explosion or something to counter your strategy. If they wipe your skeletons before you transform, it's no problem; you're a Necromancer, there are always more bodies ready to be turned."
Symmetric suffering is a very potent removal spell early in the game before the board gets cluttered. I'd advise using it early, before they get multiple minions out, as later in the game, they will always sacrifice their least relevant minion. I like this spell specifically because sacrifice gets around stealth, ward, and whatever the heck is going on with Doom of Dilman
One of the best hands you can hope for is Lugbog Cat, Wendigo, and Dormant Monstrosity. Especially if you have a movement-based site like River Rapids as a site adjacent to your home site.
With this combo, you spend the first 3 turns making skeletons. Turn 4, you move them all to the side, summon a monstrosity for 1 mana, sac them for a wendigo for zero mana, and play a lugbog cat for 3 mana. If your wendigo is on the River Rapids, you can then reposition it to hopefully threaten an attack by the next turn. This means you have 15 power on the board across 3 bodies on 3 separate locations, turn 4, and it's unlikely your opponent can deal with more than one of them for the turn.
This is the kind of tempo that lets you take over the game as each subsequent turn, you add another threat and never leave the opponent with a chance to play their own threats to the board. If they don't remove your minion and just play their own, you can remove it with any number of spells, hit them with whirling blades, or grapple shot. It's pretty devastating."
Strategic Choices: Why splash Air?
CJ: "Early in Gothic, I was all about mono water. I really enjoyed the amount of freedom they give you with your "utility" sites, such as running double Bureau, double Mismanaged Mortuary, Garden of Eden, Temple of Maloch, etc. With the meta being so focused on "Big water midrange," however, you really need some "mirror breakers" or cards that let you win when you're both on similar big body strategies. That's where whirling blades and grapple shot come in.
Yes, Atlantean fate and Call of the sea can be big blowouts, but 3/60 just isn't consistent enough to let you feel comfortable in the water mirror matchup. Whirling blades and grapple shot bring those numbers up to 8/60, which feels a lot safer, as any of these spells let you X for 1. Whirling blades especially feel overpowered in this deck, as your minions are massive and you often get 3-5 for 1 value out of 5 mana. I had to cut Temple of Maloch and the second Bureau just to feel safer about hitting my threshold. Of note, being dual-colored does make this deck a lot more vulnerable to threshold issues against red players with site destruction/drought, but those are less common than big water decks, so I felt that the tradeoff was worth it."
Strengths & Weaknesses?
CJ: "The main strength is its versatility and potential for explosive draws. Water-air midrange is a pretty common archetype in the current meta. Necromancer's explosive draws with Gnarled Wendigo and Dormant Monstrosity make it one of the best decks within that archetype.
My other favorite deck within the archetype is Mist Imposter. It runs a lot of the same cards, but it has a more consistent late game and more card draw due to its ability to swap into Sorcerer or Interrogator in the late game. It's better against drought as it runs Enchantress, and if you draw Plague of Frogs, you can just hit your opponent for 21 or draw 7 by putting on the Interrogator mask. That said, it's pretty weak to mono fire aggro, especially Pathfinder. If they play 2 drop into 3 drop, you never really have a safe moment to take a turn off, spend 3, and change your mask. They are always producing more threats, and you really need to keep spending your early turns dealing with the pressure.
Dank Magic Necromancer, however, is particularly good at aggro because it has early chump blockers and can cheat out 4-6 power minions as early as turn 3. I was expecting lots of Fire Pathfinder (and I faced 2 or 3 in the tournament), so I went with the Necromancer build.
I would say this list can be weak to Archimago if you don't draw your hate sites, but Mismanaged Mortuary, Bureau of the Occult, and Garden of Eden are all pretty backbreaking for Archimago, so if you draw any of these, you should be fine."
SorceryCon Moments: How did the deck perform?
CJ: "This deck performed beautifully at SorceryCon. I wish I could say I won solely based on skill, but there's a lot of variance in Sorcery, and winning takes a lot of luck. If you saw my finals match with Pete you know what I mean. I had the actual perfect opening hand for that matchup with Swap, Lugbog Cat, and Dormant monstrosity. It's pretty difficult to beat that hand pretty much regardless of avatar/deck choice in my experience. I had a similar draw against my round 1 opponent, and my quarter finals opponent was unfortunately stuck on one minion for the entire game. Despite my luck, I will say this deck did everything I wanted it to, and I'm very pleased with it."
Favorite play of the weekend?
CJ: "I stole a game from Roaring Turkey, who was on a very similar list. I think he was ahead 15-5 and had a Dormant Monstrosity and some skeletons on board. I had just used every card in my hand except for 2 Whirling Blades and a Babbling Brook to stabilize, but his monstrosity was 3 turns away from hitting me if nothing changed. My draw for turn was Lugbog Cat, I tapped and drew a second Babbling Brook. Mind blown, I realize I think I just won the game. I play the cat and pass.
Now he's 2 turns from the beatdown, and plays a Hounds into the void adjacent to my site. Untap, I hit for 4, whirling blades for another 4, and clear his skeletons, play the brook to lock down the board. Next turn, hit for 4 and door him with some skeletons, second brook to lock down all of his minions once again. Sneak the victory with the second Whirling blades. Took a lot of luck, but that's the kind of power in this deck, and it shows you why I had to splash air for Whirling Blades!"
What’s Next?
CJ: "Not making any changes to this deck, it did pretty much everything I wanted to, so I'm happy with where it is until the meta changes. I took a few days off from Sorcery after the event, but I'm planning on building something that can consistently beat this monstrosity because I can't imagine having to face this thing in future tournaments, haha. Hopefully I can come up with something soon! Looking at you Imposter/Deathspeaker/Ironclad..."
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CJ’s Necromancer build may have captured the title, but the spirit of SorceryCon was something the entire community shared.
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