Thursday, September 11, 2014

Now Brewing: Narset, Enlightened Master

Happy Thursday Zoners and welcome to another installment of Now Brewing. Today we will be looking at Narset, Enlightened Master in the Spirit of the Khans Spoilers that started last week. When she was spoiled she made me question whether to play Abzan or Jeskai at the pre-release event just on the fact that she enables me to build a deck I haven't tried before.

When it comes to deck building I have always found myself with at least 20 creatures in a deck but I have always wondered what piloting a deck that had more non-creatures than Creatures. I have found the inspiration in Narset and I'd like to see what we can get brewing here so let's get started!

Right off the bat she reminds me of Jeleva, Being able to play in Instants and Sorcery spells in response to attacking. Unfortunately we don't have the advantage of pulling from your opponents as well as your own library because we don't have Black. Instead we get both First Strike and Hexproof which is nice due to her hefty mana cost which means she'll stick around a little longer.

Her ability draws from your library in flavor of one's Inner-strength that the Jeskai are all about but there is one part that the Daxos players like myself ran into. "Until end of turn, your may cast Noncreature cards..." This means no lands my friends. But don't fret my dear Zoners, I've got a plan...

Getting into what we can do with her is build more into Artifact based mana ramp. Original Ravnica Signets, Basic colorless ramp like Sol Ring and Thran dynamo, New Ravnica Cluestones or Key stones and Chromatic lantern. These help insure you get your general out a turn or two early and
make your land base a little smaller.

Narset also wants to be attacking, and to make sure she doesn't fall victim to strong ground creatures she's going to need a boost. partial Voltron or Enchantress can really push her through to the red zone and keep her alive to the next phase: If you like Artifact based Voltron you can't go wrong with a Swords Package (Feast and Famine, Fire and Ice, War and Peace, Body and Mind), If you like the Enchantment based, Spirit mantle, Pemmin's Aura, and Eldrazi Conscription can be powerful if used correctly. Either way I still recommend Sunforger in the deck. Being able to pull an Instant out of your library in a time of need could sway the battle in your favor

When It comes to building the spells for Narset, Ideally you would want versatility above all else but playing some Control will help keep the aggro at bay. One of the best ways is utter land destruction. Since Narset is our let's play it for free, then lets make sure our opponents cant make up the tempo. It's funny that FTV: Annihilation was just before this set because most of those cards are perfect for this, Armageddon, Cataclysm, and Decree of Annihilation are a strong albeit rough way to put the game into your favor. Combining her abilities with effects that trigger off Instants and Sorceries like Quiet Contemplation are the second half of what can make this deck strong. Cards like; Guttersnipe, Talrand Sky summoner, Cast through Time, Gelectrode, Sphinx-Bone Wand can give us a win condition, token creatures and reuse our already free spells.

Narset is a fresh new legend that i can't wait to see what becomes of it, will she live up to becoming a combo general? Could Blue/Red/White be new Control colors? or will she just be a casual yet fun general to play like her "sister" Jeleva? Only time will tell, For now though these are the building Blocks for Narset. It's a little slimmer than my previous ones but since the set is still getting spoiled there could be so much more in store for us, and Narset.

[Building Blocks]

Creature

Talrand, Sky Summoner
Guttersnipe
Gelectrode

Enchantment

- Enchantress
~Spirit Mantle
~Pemmin's Aura
~Endrazi Conscription

Quiet Contemplation
Cast through time

Artifact

- Voltron
~ Swords

(Boros, Izzet, Azorius) Ravnica Signets
(Boros, Izzet, Azorius) RtR Cluestones/Keyrunes
Sol Ring
Thran Dynamo
Chromatic Lantern
Sunforger
Sphinx-Bone Wand

Sorcery
Armageddon/Cataclysm/Decree of Annihilation

No comments:

Post a Comment