The Battlefield

Necropotence

$23.81

Sheoldred, the Apocalypse

$81.99

Vilis, Broker of Blood

$7.35

AI DraftFeb 26, 2026

Necropotence + Sheoldred, the Apocalypse + Vilis, Broker of Blood

Overview

If you control Necropotence, Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, and Vilis, Broker of Blood, then each time you activate Necropotence’s “Pay 1 life” activated ability you pay life as a cost (see and Ruling [2019-07-12]), which is a loss-of-life event that triggers Vilis’s “Whenever you lose life, draw that many cards.” Those Vilis triggers are placed on the stack after the activation and will resolve before the Necropotence ability resolves (trigger handling and putting triggered abilities on the stack: ). Each card you draw from Vilis’s triggers will in turn trigger Sheoldred’s “Whenever you draw a card, you gain 2 life” (see ). The Necropotence ability still exiles the top card face down when it later resolves and creates a delayed triggered ability that returns that card to your hand at the beginning of your next end step even if Necropotence leaves the battlefield (Ruling [2017-11-17]); you may not look at those face-down exiled cards (Ruling [2023-09-01]).

Step 1

Activate Necropotence’s activated ability and pay 1 life as part of its cost; paying life is a loss-of-life event (see and Ruling [2019-07-12]).

Step 2

Because you lost life, Vilis, Broker of Blood’s triggered ability(s) — “Whenever you lose life, draw that many cards” — trigger. Triggered abilities waiting to be put on the stack are handled as described by .

Step 3

Those Vilis trigger(s) are put on the stack and will resolve before the Necropotence activated ability (trigger placement happens after the activation step; see ).

Step 4

When a Vilis trigger resolves you draw cards equal to the life you lost from paying Necropotence’s cost; each individual card drawn is a draw event that will cause draw-triggered abilities to trigger (multiple draws are multiple events where applicable; see ).

Step 5

Each card you draw this way causes Sheoldred’s ability “Whenever you draw a card, you gain 2 life” to trigger, and those Sheoldred triggers will be put on the stack and give you 2 life each when they resolve (see ).

Step 6

After the Vilis draws and the Sheoldred lifegain triggers resolve, the Necropotence activated ability will resolve, exiling the top card of your library face down and creating the delayed triggered ability to put that card into your hand at the beginning of your next end step (the delayed ability is created by Necropotence; see Ruling [2017-11-17]).

Step 7

At the beginning of your next end step the delayed triggered ability created by Necropotence will put the face-down exiled card into your hand even if Necropotence has left the battlefield (Ruling [2017-11-17]), but you still can’t look at the card while it’s exiled face down (Ruling [2023-09-01]).

Resolution

When you activate Necropotence’s “Pay 1 life” ability you lose life as you pay the cost (Ruling [2019-07-12] and ). That loss of life immediately causes Vilis’s triggered ability(s) to trigger; those triggers are put on the stack and will resolve before the Necropotence activated ability resolves (trigger handling: ). When a Vilis trigger resolves you draw cards equal to the life lost; each individual card drawn causes Sheoldred’s draw-trigger to trigger, and those draw-triggers will give you 2 life each when they resolve (see ). After those draws and resulting Sheoldred triggers resolve, the Necropotence ability will resolve, exile the top card of your library face down, and create the delayed triggered ability that puts that exiled card into your hand at the beginning of your next end step (Ruling [2017-11-17]). You can’t look at the faces of cards exiled this way while they’re face down (Ruling [2023-09-01]).

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