• Learning Education, go for Buy Claims and save Piety so that you can buy more claims once you're ready.
• In the start, win the Northumbria war to get rid of Aella. It's fine to surrender the other war to focus on raiding/other goals.
• Ivar can form the Jomsvikings pretty early just by conquering a county in the Baltic coast region. This helps with additional troop numbers to keep factions in Hispania under control.
• Go for Elevating the Kingdom of Mann - so raid a lot, win some wars, get in a lot of battles, and don't form any kingdoms. I waited to Elevate the Kingdom of Mann until I was ready to switch faith/culture down in Iberia so that my Varangian Veterans still cost Prestige instead of Gold, as I stayed tribal until elevating Mann. Wait to Elevate Mann until you are ready with some of the steps down below.
• Identify the appropriate Capital Kingdom in Iberia. In order to end the Struggle, your capital Kingdom needs to all be the same faith and culture in all de jure counties. It's a little bit easier to convert Faith than culture, so I ended up identifying Al-Andalus as the best Kingdom to eventually have my capital in because the culture was already all Andalusian and 16 of the 19 counties were already Muwalladi.
• Conquer a county in your eventual Capital Kingdom so you can move your capital there and adopt the local culture (but I'm not moving my capital until I actually elevate Mann because it moves your capital to Mann).
• You should get Buy Claims a bit after getting Legendary Figure prestige level, and I spent my Buy Claims first on any Kingdoms, then duchies (Iberia was really fractured in this playthrough so I only bought duchy claims). The Buy Claims helps when you switch faith because you may not have the Conquest CB after doing so.After I bought all my Claims, I reset learning Perks and got Whole of Body, to make sure Ivar lived longer.
• Once I was ready to switch faith and culture. I elevated Mann, then moved my Capital to a county in Al-Andalus, then converted to Andalusian culture, then changed Faith to Muwalladi. It's important to move your capital only after elevating Mann.
• Once this is done, focus on ending the struggle via dominance. You need to own 2 kingdoms de jure, and your capital kingdom needs to be the same faith and culture. Al-Andalus was already all Andalusian culture, so I just needed my realm priest to change 3 counties to Muwalladi. The other nice thing about Muwalladi is that it makes conversion speed faster in counties of your culture. This helped not take the faith conversion take a long time.
• I did have to destroy some of my Varangian Veterans MAA because of the gold cost. You'll need gold primarily for creating the 2 kingdom titles and eventually the empire. You can still use the Norse MAA after changing to Iberian culture as long as you already have them when you change culture.
• I made the Andalusian fascination Onagers so I could siege and win wars faster.Use the bought claims to attack your biggest neighbors and snowball into ending the Struggle.
• Once I ended the struggle, I only needed like 10 more counties to form the empire. Raided a little bit for some extra gold to create the Empire title.
• I was able to do this without using any of the Special Troops: Ivar's 5000 at the beginning, the 1250 Jomsviking Volunteers, or the 7500 army for elevating Mann. This makes factions essentially completely useless as your army is just way too big for any factions to matter.
• That's about it, not sure where to go next on this run! I might split from the Caliph and Avenge the Battle of Tours. I might also consider going back to Norse and Asatru or making a hybrid Norse-Andalusian culture (Mann is still Norse so I'm promoting cultural acceptance there).

The Deck

Necropotence is worse than The One Ring

Common Turn 1/2 Play-Patterns

• Dark Ritual + Troll + Reanimate + Any 1 mana spell - This is the best opening hand you can have. Play your land for turn, dark ritual. If you have a thoughsieze or other 1 mana spell in hand, play it first to clear the way for your cycle+reanimate. Hopefully you'll discard your opponent's interaction or eat a spell piece so that you can cleanly resolve reanimate on Troll. Then use the other two mana to cycle then reanimate your Troll. In this position, you just put a 6/5 into play and disrupted your opponent on turn 1. Or maybe you put a 6/5 AND a deathrite shaman into play. There are very few removal spells in the format that will kill the Troll early, its nearly impossible to block the troll, and its really just 3 attack steps to kill your opponent with the troll in a fetchland format.
• Dark Ritual + Thoughtsieze + Reanimate - In the blind, this is an interesting decision. You might want to Thoughseize alone and save your Dark Ritual for turn 2 if its game 1 and you have no other information. If you high-roll, you can get your own Atraxa on turn 1. If you low-roll and can't discard a creature, you waste a Dark Ritual. I personally prefer to only cast thoughsieze on turn 1 when I don't have any information on my opponent's hand or deck. I like to save the Dark Ritual for my turn 2 play, where I can act on the information I gained from thoughseizing with 4 mana available to me. The only exception to this is when I have other things to do with the extra Dark Ritual mana. For example, the opener could be Dark Ritual + Thoughtsieze + Reanimate + Bowmasters, where you just cast a turn 1 bowmasters if you don't discard a sweet reanimate target. Or Dark Ritual + Thoughtsieze + Reanimate + DRS + DRS. The flexibility of being able to follow up your Thoughsieze with a reanimate OR a threat based on what you see is what makes this really potent.
• Dark Ritual + The One Ring/Sheoldred - Combined with a thoughtsieze, this is the second best opening hand the deck can have. I LOVE getting Rings and Sheoldreds out on turn 2. Its how this deck wins games. Clear the way turn 1 with a discard spell, or if you can't use a Deathrite Shaman to bait removal. Then on turn 2, go for your busted ritual turn. If you thoughsiezed turn 1, you can act on the information you gained. If your opponent is holding up a spell pierce, then don't try and turbo out a ring. If they're holding up a mana drain, let them waste their mana and just pass. The Ring will give you card advantage no matter when you play it, so you can be patient against countermagic you can play several dark rituals or threats on later turns to get through counterspells (being able to flash out bowmasters on opponent's end steps is a fantastic way to force them to tap mana to counter or remove it). Sidenote - most players will NOT counter your dark ritual and instead try to mana drain whatever you cast using the dark ritual mana. A way to get around this is to do something like cast Dark Ritual (which doesn't get countered) followed up by a Thoughseize (which they're almost forced to counter) followed up by your real threat.
• Fair Hands (Deathrite Shaman, Bowmasters) - Wow this deck can play fair magic too! I don't need dark ritual on turn 1 to win! This deck performs great on a basic draw that interacts with your opponent. Turn 1 deathrite shaman, turn 2 discard Harvester to interact, turn 3 Ring. Or turn 1 Thoughsieze, turn 2 bowmasters, turn 3 interaction, turn 4 ring/sheoldred. If you can get to turn 4 in these sorts of games, you're generally going to win as your smother your opponent with card advantage and sheoldred triggers. In some matchups however, you might want to mulligan a slow fair hand if it doesn't interact well with your opponent's strategy.

Individual Cards

• Dark Ritual - No explanation needed.
• Reanimate - Not much explanation needed for this either, beyond the fact that you need at about a dozen enablers to make this card work. An enable is a card that can discard your opponent's creatures, or a way for you to discard your own big creature. We have a dozen exactly - 4 thoughtseize and 8 big creatures that can discard themselves. Plus, all of our other creatures are reasonable backup targets that we're happy to reanimate when the eat a removal spell.
• Troll of Khazad-Dum - A legacy staple alongside reanimate, it serves the same purpose in this deck. It enables busted turn 1/2 reanimations of a 6/5 pseudo-unblockable creature. It dodges most removal spells in the format. It lets us lower our land count down to just 19. Its also hard-castable with Dark Ritual, similar to how Vein Ripper functions in pioneer by being a cheat target that can also be cast fairly on later turns.
• Harvester of Misery - Listen up kids this card makes the deck click. I haven't seen anyone else really talking about this card or playing it on ladder. This is a fantastic card that serves multiple roles in the deck. It is an UNCOUNTERABLE targeted removal spell, it is a boardwipe for small creatures, it is a reanimate target that puts itself into the graveyard, and it is a 5 power threat with menace. Oftentimes, you end up discarding this on turn 2 to answer your opponent's cheap threat, and this is a good play to make regardless of whether or not you can reanimate this card. The fact that this removal spell is UNCOUNTERABLE has won me games against slow UBx decks, this is an un-counterable way to kill their bowmasters so you can get drawing cards with your Ring. Harvester's boardwipe potential is also amazing. It cleanly kills Field of the Dead tokens for example. Its discard ability can stack with its ETB if you reanimate it. For example, if your opponent is on Jund with a board of Jarsyl (3/3), bowmasters, and a DRS, you can discard this targeting Jarsyl to shrink it to a 1/1, then reanimate it to wholesale wipe your opponent's board. PLEASE REMEMBER THAT THE BOARDWIPE IS SYMMETRICAL - playing this guy will kill your own DRS and Bowmasters as well. I sometimes let myself fall behind on board if I'm trying to set up a big play with harvester.
• The One Ring and Sheoldred - Lumping these together because we know how it works. These are both fantastic cards to play on Turn 2 off a ritual that can win the game. I already went over some scenarios before, and I'm sure we know how it goes by now. As I explained before, I think this package is much better than trying to play Necropotence.
• Thoughsieze - Premium discard spell in the format, doesn't need much explanation. I will note that I am not playing Duress or Inquisition in the maindeck because they do not synergize as well with Reanimate. If there was another discard spell that could discard big creatures, I would play it. Can I thoughtsieze myself to set up reanimate? No, you're lost in the sauce. Don't do that. Point the card at your opponent please.
• 1x Demonic Tutor - Its restricted for a reason. I'm not sure how many copies the deck would play if it wasn't restricted, as 4 copies would be a lot. But it helps a lot with consistency in the mid-late game, and I've cast it off a ritual on turn 1 when I went Dark Ritual -> Thoughseize discarding Show + Tell -> DT for Surgical Extraction -> goodbye combo piece.
• Deathrite Shaman - This card is banned in every other format for a reason. Its a mana accelerant that is also a late-game win condition. It can gain you life in a pinch. Its passive graveyard hate. Mwah.
• Orcish Bowmasters - This is a very good card that keeps the power level of the deck up. I don't think I need to tell you the pros and cons of bowmasters if you're reading this much about timeless. You will sideboard this card out a lot, it has good matchups and bad matchups. But man is it good in the good matchups. As I stated before, its really good against blue decks, and often can bait out counterspells or removal to clear the way for your real threats.
• 3 Fatal Push and 1 Sheoldred's Edict - Seems like a pretty good maindeck removal suite. Maybe someone will type an essay on why it should be 4 fatal pushes and 2 edicts. Or how I can get away with less fatal pushes. This is something you can tweak if you pick up the deck.
• 1 Maindeck Liliana of the Veil - This is a flex spot that I've swapped around a lot. Really, this is just going to become a grief in a month when MH3 drops. Turn 1 lili off a dark ritual breaks a lot of decks backs. I originally had a maindeck Ashiok in this slot, which can also be a backbreaking play against some decks but it did literally nothing against others. This slot is completely flexible, feel free to add another removal spell or your personal pet card.
• 8 Fetchlands - I do believe you need to run fetchlands to enable your Deathrite Shaman. 8 fetchlands seems to consistently enable its mana ability, and allow me to splash green for its other lifegain ability. These fetches also let me get my utility lands.
• 1x Underground Mortuary - Surveil land that you will fetch frequently. I am considering running two, but I don't want too many taplands to disrupt my turn 1 Dark Ritual plays. Keep in mind, Troll more or less counts as 4 tap-lands already. Our untapped land count is pretty low for a monocolor deck.
• 1x Overgrown Tomb - Untapped land for DRS activated ability. You can also put a green card in your sideboard if you wish. I'm not, buy maybe there's a card worth playing. A light splash in on color is pretty free for this deck.
• 1x Gate of the Black Dragon - This tap land lets you spend 5 mana to "draw a card" once. This is significantly better than drawing a card, as it guarantees you hit a nonland card, and it gets around "draw a card" punishers like Bowmasters. I find myself fetching this and activating this in slower matchups, especially when my opponent is holding up countermagic. I don't activate it super frequently, but its absolutely worth having for the price of one tapped land. FYI Troll can grab this or Mortuary when you cycle it.
• 1x Takenuma - Pretty free way to buy back your threats. There's not enough effects in this format to punish nonbasic lands for this to not be worth running one copy of.
• 7 basics - keeps the manabase relatively painless for a fetchland manabase.

• 3 Surgical Extraction - This comes in for unfair combo decks only. Use this to rip Show + Tell from your opponent's hand, and then rip it from their deck. Only sideboard these in if you're also sideboarding in your extra discard spells, or if your opponent is filling their own graveyard.
• 2 Duress + 2 Inquisition of Kozilek - I like having more discard spells in the sideboard. I don't like that these can't hit big creatures to reanimate, but these are for control decks and unfair decks primarily. I'm not sure if the 2/2 split here is correct, or if 4 discard spells in the sideboard is correct. Another discard spell on my radar is Mind Spike which is a duress that lets you draw a card if you "miss" at the cost of 2 life. I've run it before in Death's Shadow lists and it performed well.
• 2 Path of Peril, 2 Meathook Massacre, and 1 Fatal Push - this is the fair deck sideboard package, which comes in against creature decks as Thoughsiezes come out. I don't always board in all 5 together, and I again don't know if this is the correct combination of spells. Perhaps some Sheoldred's Edicts or some good old fashioned Doom Blade style cards are needed instead. However I will say that both Meathook and Path of Peril have overperformed for me. Dark Ritual can enable a crazy meathook turn, and you can also hide behind The One Ring's protection and watch your opponent build up their board before delivering the boardwipe. Path of Peril lines up really well against Tarmogoyf decks, as Harvester and Meathook can struggle to kill that card. I'm 110% open to other suggestions for these slots.
• 2 Ashiok, Dream Render - this was originally in the maindeck and got moved out to the sideboard. It can be a BACKBREAKING card to cheat out with a Dark Ritual against some decks. It's also selective graveyard hate, which I really like. I don't like playing Leyline of the Void in this deck because it nerfs my own Reanimates. However, Ashiok lets me choose when to exile my opponent's graveyard, so I can wait until I cast my Reanimate, then active the planeswalker ability. Oftentimes, you just run Ashiok as a static hatepiece for searching libraries and don't active the ability at all.
• 1 Pithing Needle - this sideboard slot is flexible, needle is a catch-all for random combo decks that rely on activate abilities, and tough planeswalkers to beat. I originally had 2 copies of pithing needle in the sideboard. I can be convinced that its correct to turn 2 copies, and I can also be convinced to put another card in this slot.

TLDR