The official Necron Dynasties preconstructed deck from the Universes Beyond: Warhammer 40,000 collection is widely regarded as one of the most cohesive and powerful mono-colored precons ever printed. Out of the box, the deck is led by Szarekh, the Silent King, focusing on a grindy artifact-milling strategy.
However, if you hand control of the tomb world to the secondary commander, Imotekh the Stormlord, the deck shifts from a slow control build into an explosive, hyper-synergistic Mono-Black Artifact Aristocrats and Token engine.
Imotekh commands the battlefield with two incredibly potent abilities:
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Phaeron of the Stormlord: Whenever one or more artifact cards leave your graveyard, you create two 2/2 black Necron Warrior creature tokens.
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Grand Strategist: At the beginning of your combat phase, you can pay 1 black mana to give a target creature +2/+2 and Menace until end of turn.
In this PreconForge Guide, we will analyze the official out-of-the-box decklist, identify the slower high-cost pieces holding you back, and showcase the best upgrades to turn Imotekh’s token-generating factory into an unstoppable dynasty.
The Strategy: Breaking the Graveyard Loop
To maximize Imotekh the Stormlord, your deck construction needs to focus entirely on his first ability. Because Imotekh triggers whenever an artifact leaves your graveyard (whether it is reanimated, returned to your hand, exiled, or shuffled back into your library), we want to avoid cards that move large chunks of artifacts at once.
Remember, Imotekh says „one or more.“ If you return five artifacts at the same time, you only get two tokens. To truly break him, our upgrade strategy focuses on incremental, single-card graveyard displacement. We want engines that move exactly one artifact out of the graveyard at instant speed, multiple times per turn cycle, to flood the board with an endless army of 2/2 Necrons.
Top 5 Cards to Cut from the Official Precon
While the official decklist is packed with high-tier artifact synergy, these five slower or less synergistic pieces should be removed to streamline Imotekh’s strategy:
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Szarekh, the Silent King: While excellent as the face commander, as part of the 99, a 4-mana attacker that mills you and only draws an artifact if you hit one is too slow compared to dedicated self-mill engines.
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Lychguard: A defensive creature meant to protect your commander by redirecting damage. Since Imotekh wants to sit back and generate value from the backline rather than engage in heavy combat, this is an easy cut.
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Plasmancer: A 4-mana creature that searches for a basic Swamp and puts it into your hand. This is incredibly slow and overcosted ramp for a deck that has access to elite artifact mana.
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Sautekh Immortal: A vanilla aggressive creature that gains a temporary power boost based on your artifact count. It offers zero utility or graveyard interaction.
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Myr Battlesphere: A massive 7-mana battlecruiser. While it does create artifact tokens upon entering, paying 7 mana for a non-Necron threat dilutes your lower-curve graveyard loops.
Budget Upgrades (Under $3 per card)
These affordable additions add crucial single-card graveyard manipulation, lower your mana curve, and turn your incoming tokens into lethal damage.
Instant-Speed Graveyard Exilers & Movers
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Scrabbling Claws (or Phyrexian Furnace): These tiny 1-mana artifacts are absolute gold in an Imotekh deck. You can tap them to exile a single artifact from your own graveyard, instantly triggering Imotekh to create two 2/2 Necron tokens on an opponent’s turn for zero mana.
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Tortured Existence: The ultimate budget engine for this deck. For a single black mana, you can discard a creature card to return an artifact creature from your graveyard to your hand. This triggers Imotekh, netting you two tokens at instant speed as often as you have black mana available.
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Myr Retriever: When this cheap artifact creature dies, it targets and returns another artifact from your graveyard to your hand, instantly triggering your commander’s token engine.
Token Payoffs & Finishers
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Sirkwood Bats (or Zulaport Cutthroat): Since Imotekh generates an abundance of tokens that you will inevitably sacrifice for mana or value, these drain pieces will melt your opponents‘ life totals without requiring you to ever swing in combat.
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Cranial Ram: An exceptional equipment choice that scales its power entirely based on the massive number of artifacts and Necrons you amass on the board.
Premium Upgrades (The Tomb World Relics)
If you want to spend extra resources at the forge to unlock competitive, infinite combat or sacrifice loops, look out for these premier assets:
The Infinite Token Combo
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Nim Deathmantle: This card creates an infinite combo with Imotekh and any free sacrifice outlet already in the precon (like Chronomancer or an added Ashnod’s Altar). You sacrifice an artifact creature, pay 4 mana to trigger the Deathmantle to bring it back, which triggers Imotekh to make two tokens. Sacrifice those tokens to generate the mana to repeat the process infinitely, creating infinite mana and infinite tokens.
Elite Value Engines
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Phyrexian Altar: Turns your newly spawned 2/2 Necron Warrior tokens into raw black mana, allowing you to feed your recursive graveyard abilities indefinitely in a single turn.
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Scrap Trawler: A mandatory premium inclusion. Whenever an artifact creature you control dies, Scrap Trawler lets you return a cheaper artifact from your graveyard to your hand, generating an endless daisy-chain of Imotekh token triggers.
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Braids, Arisen Nightmare: At your end step, you can sacrifice an artifact token to force every opponent to either sacrifice an artifact or let you draw a card and lose life. It keeps your hand full while constantly feeding your graveyard loops.
PreconForge Verdict: Is it worth it?
The official Necron Dynasties preconstructed deck is already a masterpiece, but pivoting completely to Imotekh the Stormlord unlocks a terrifying, industrial-speed value locomotive. By replacing the slower battlecruiser pieces with cheap, instant-speed graveyard triggers and recursive artifact loops, you ensure that the Necron tomb world never stops rising.
Stoke the fires of the forge, awaken your sleeping legions, and let us know in the comments below how many Necron Warriors you managed to summon in a single turn cycle!
Are you keeping the deck strictly locked into the clean Warhammer flavor with cards like Outcast options, or are you introducing traditional MTG mechanical horrors like Shimmer Myr to maximize your instant-speed potential? Let’s keep the strategy discussion moving forward!
