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Enchantment
Skip your draw step.
Whenever you discard a card, exile that card from your graveyard.
Pay 1 life: Exile the top card of your library face down. Put that card into your hand at the beginning of your next end step.
Ban history
Engine of 1996's Necro Summer and Extended Trix; banned in Premodern since the earliest list.
- Banned in Premodern
- On or before May 2018
- On earliest archived list; likely since 2012 founding
- Category
- Power
- Research
- Research confidence: Medium confidence
- First printed
- First printed in Ice Age (3 June 1995).
Why it’s banned
Power level (no published rationale).
Official reason
No official reason published.
Community & historical context (not an official statement)
Analytical/community: pay life for cards at an unmatched rate; with legal Dark Ritual a turn-1 Necro is possible (Draftsim). Historically drove 'Black Summer' / 'Necro Summer' 1996 after Leon Lindbäck's 3rd place at PT New York 1996; key engine of Trix (Extended), leading to Extended ban (March 2001); restricted in Vintage / banned in Type 1.5 (Sept 2000). Still restricted in Vintage, banned in Legacy.[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]
The story
Necropotence (Ice Age, 1995) defined 'Black Summer' 1996 after Swedish player Leon Lindbäck took third at the first Pro Tour with it, and later powered Trix in Extended until its 2001 ban there. It was never banned in Standard but was restricted in Vintage and banned in Type 1.5 in 2000. Premodern has banned it on every archived list; no reason was published, though Dark Ritual's legality makes turn-1 Necro realistic.
Premodern changes
- On listOn the earliest archived Premodern ban list.[8]
Other formats (Wizards)
Historical context, not Premodern decisions.
- Standarddominant era
- VintageRestricted
- LegacyBanned
- ExtendedBanned
Related cards
Sources
- Draftsim: The Premodern Ban List: All 33 Cards Banned (A.L. Walser, 2026-04-24) — community
- MTG Wiki: Black Summer (Necro Summer)
- MTG Wiki: Leon Lindbäck
- MTG Wiki: Trix
- MTG Wiki: Extended Necropotence deck
- MTG Wiki: Banned and restricted cards/Timeline
- MTGBans.info per-card timelines (effective dates; site's AI-generated rationales NOT used)
- Wayback: premodernmagic.com/banned-watched/ 2018-05-06 (34 banned, 5 watched)
- Scryfall card data (printings, release dates)
- premodernmagic.com legal sets endpoint
Research as of 18 October 2026.
In our decks
Not in any of our curated decklists yet. Find similar cards.
Played in tournaments
Share of published Premodern decklists that play Necropotence (main or sideboard): 4,173 lists from paper events and MTGO in the last 90 days, through .
Not seen in any of the 4,173 tournament lists from the last 90 days. Browse the meta.
Printings (10)
Every tournament-legal paper printing (no gold-border, World Championship or oversized cards). Hover or tap a row to preview that printing.
