at least 2 negates can be mainboard in todays standard, there's not really a deck that it doesn't take away something significant from. nothing is running 0 noncreature spells, and more than one decks will get very badly hurt by having it maindecked. there should, probably be better spot removal than Heat Ray in here, though. if you hit it with narset you don't get to use it. finding better spot removal than that would be good.

Heat Ray will go as soon as I find something better. I could use Crater's Claws (just spoiled today), but then run into the same problem with Narset. And it is only a sorcery. Only advantage is it hits players.

With all the multicoloured coming up, Dark Betrayal will become highly useful, and I admit I have thought about splashing black and making it 4-colour. There are so many more possibilites with that.

As for Negate , yeah 4 mainboard may be a but much, but the only thing it misses is creatures. Overall there are more creature than non-creature spells. I'll keep the count at 4 for now but if I ever find it too many, I'll drop a couple to the side.

-2 Negate and +2 Mindswipe, as soon as TO recognizes the card.

Curious as to why you're using Flooded Strand s over Evolving Wilds . They essentially do the same thing in this deck. They both only fish out basics come rotation.

A really solid looking build, Take a look at mine too, let me know what you think. Maybe we can bounce ideas off of each other.

Jeskai has nukes

Flooded Strand brings in land untapped at the cost of a life, where as Evolving Wilds brings in land tapped

What he said.

Yeah, there's no life loss from Evolving Wilds, and if I crack it at EOT it doesnt make a difference, but to fetch an untapped basic in response to a spell to be able to hit that Dissolve mana is important.

Ah, forgot the original fetches bring in lands untapped. Disergard that suggestion of Evolving Wilds ] then.

what do you think of Jeskai charm and deflecting palm. Just spoiled today

Absolutely loving both. Hard to tell yet whether they will be playable in this build, but I have high hopes for both.

Trying to work it to fit them in..likely gonna drop Jace, the Living Guildpact . I havn't been terribly thrilled with him. He is great for setting up Narset's next exile, but other than that...Without an Elixir of Immortality type effect spoiled yet (other than Jace's own -8 of course), throwing away cards makes me sad, especially in the mirror match, even though there his -8 is absolutely crippling.

Okay so this is gonna be long, apologies, but I felt motivated since these are my favourite colors and hopefully it helps. Four suggestions.

1.) Jeskai charm. Put em in. Just do it. So good. One mode that's strictly better than the most playable mode of Azorius charm ("put target creature on top" rather than "target attacking/blocking creature"). Another strict upgrade of the lifelink azorius charm ability, which is NUTS if you ever get it off with Elspeth. And then the same burn as Boros charm. Which brings me to point 2...

2.) Mindswipe. It may just be me but I think the card is really bad in constructed. I'd rather have a dissipate or dissolve any day of the week. The whole reason an (X) counter like syncopate was a thing in standard is because it accomplished something specific (i.e. when snapcaster was playable) and also because it gave a turn 2 hard counter in a world of 3 mana counterspells. Mindswipe does neither of these things. Just has the gimic of realistically giving you a free lightning strike to the face at best (as apposed to the 4 dmg guaranteed by jeskai charm), while running the risk of being out of range to counter anything efficiently late game. Ask yourself this, if you counter something with mindswipe for 3 mana (i.e. when they tap out) would you really take that 1 dmg over say a scry from dissolve? And late game, is keeping up 5 mana for a counterspell really worth a lightning strike that can't target creatures when the meta will likely be quite tempo? And to pre-empt the counter argument that I'm sure some one will come up with, saying something like "it fills the void of a game ending mana sink to replace Sphinx's Rev when you have 10 lands out etc". To that I say: "No it doesn't." It's a new era of control and decks need to forget about Rev and adapt. My advice is do a straight swap out, mindswipe for jeskai charm.

3.) If your not enjoying Jace (which I kinda feel the same about) then consider swapping him out for Chandra? The 0 gives you card advantage (which you can more strictly filter with scry lands) the +1 can ad to the incremental ping'ing of keranos and also clears a potentially big blocker for Narset to attack through.

4.) Divination over Jace's Ingenuity. All of your current control is at the 3 - 5 mana slot (mostly at 3). So at best you counter something on turn 3, banishing light something on turn 4 and wipe the board on turn 5. That's 3 cards down going into turn 6. Assuming you've hit your land drops (and several have been untapped) you now have 6 mana. Wouldn't you rather draw 2 and be able to either play a banishing that you draw into in the same turn, or leave up a dissolve, rather than basically tap out for 1 extra card?

Anyways, sorry for the looooong winded suggestions. That's just my 2 cents.

I love long insightful comments like this much more than short ones, so thank you for it!

As I've been testing, I've noticed that Mindswipe is very sub-par. I don't really want to lose the counter, but trading it in for the versatility of Jeskai Charm is something I'd been considering, and seeing you think the same thing reinforces my thought that its a good idea.

I originally had Chandra, Pyromaster here, but didn't like the fit. Too often she exiled something I couldn't play, or was pointless to play. That was before Narset, Enlightened Master though, so her +1 becomes much more useful. I think I'll try putting her back in, and perhaps try Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker as a 1-of to make up all 3 of Jace's slots.

As for Divination , it is a good card, but the real value to Jace's Ingenuity is that it is an instant, so is almost always cast on EoT.

Thanks again for the comment and suggestions, and hopefully you'll have more to say after reading this.

Thinking of dropping Keranos, God of Storms for a 3rd Narset and another PW, possibly Ajani Steadfast .

When I exile Keranos with Narset, there's just nothing that can be done, but Ajani's +1 and -2 would both be highly beneficial to the build, and a 3rd Narset ensures I draw her almost every game.

narset dies to your own board wipe, which might be needed. it might be worth keeping keranos in there so she's your only card effected by it and you have less chance of drawing the two together. I understand that narset is good but there will definitely be times she won't survive one attack, if she even makes it to that (board wipes, Drown in Sorrow , Anger of the Gods , I'm sure there's more things that hit her than I have on the top of my head). might not be the nest thing to depend on her, because there's so many solutions to her. keranos is much more resilient, as are your walkers.

Yes, Narset, Enlightened Master does unfortunately die to my own wraths...I've been thinking of swapping 2 End Hostilities for 2 Duneblast . That way, everything would die except her. Only problem there is if I draw it, I wouldn't be able to play it unless I changed my mana base.

That being said, if I did change my mana base, I could potentially change the deck a lot to become a midrange type build running Generator Servant to get Narset, Enlightened Master out and attacking as soon as possible. That being said, I'd rather not. I really like playing control, and would rather not change too much. The mana base would be way to janky I think, being 5 colours, though access to all 5 wedge lands would help enormously I'm sure.

Other than counterspells, I really have nothing to protect Narset, Enlightened Master against opponent wrath effects and mass removal. For 6 mana, I really wish she had a larger body (I'd be happy with a 2/4) for exactly that reason. I guess they figured hexproof made up for that...

The resilience of Keranos, God of Storms and the walkers is a good point, and definitely will be considered. While not vulnerable to wraths though, they are vulnerable to targeted removal (most importantly here being Utter End , which I believe will become a staple if standard), which is much more prominent than wrath effects, whereas Narset, Enlightened Master is not.

Thats my bit on the pros and cons of the win cons here, so hopefully this will spark some discussion about them.

I feel like every deck that has the colors will have either Drown in Sorrow , End Hostilities , or Anger of the Gods . probably sideboard for some things, but narset will be worth running them, and aggro strategies will have a spot in this standard (good or not, at least in the beginning of standard they'll be present) so people will have a way to get rid of lots of weenies. Utter End and Banishing Light are going to be the only two cards that stop a keranos that will be seeing lots of play, and I'm not confident Utter End will (think Silence the Believers , the cost is too much. Granted the end hits other permanents as well, but 4-mana spot removal generally doesn't see play) both of those need to have white in the deck to be present (same for Deicide ). It would be a shame to take out keranos when he can only be killed by decks that run white, and half of that removal is solved by your light.

planeswalkers have Utter End , Hero's Downfall , and creature damage to remove them. Elspeth will protect herself from creature damage, chandra will not mind dying too much as long as she's drawn you a few cards, and sarkhan will get in an attack or two then die. the good thing about your walkers is you can protect them with End Hostilities by wiping the board. narset has an equal vulnerability to creatures without the same way of protection.

Narset, I explained above, has no way to handle opponents having creatures or board wipes. if they have creatures, you can attack for four cards and let her die. if they don't have creatures, they're probably playing control, and then they have a board wipe. She gets killed by Courser of Kruphix , so every green deck can fight her without a problem. red has Stormbreath Dragon another staple. black has gray merch off the top of my head as an easy chump blocker for her. blue has an active thassa, white has board wipes and I could see Wingmate Roc being played.

she's good and worth playing (6-drop comes down the turn after your board wipe, so that's solid) but has a vulnerability against every deck in the format even before they sideboard, where keranos has white decks able to kill him and other decks groan when they see him and have to race.

I like the balance now, you're not likely to hit a narset off of a narset trigger, and you have a solid chance of getting a real win-con (where narset will rarely win you the game with a 3/2 body)

Flooded Strand ? Because, well, fetches, oh and have you considered the new Deflecting Palm Not sure, but it looks kinda nasty.

I had Flooded Strand , but as I'd actually like to build this, dropping that kinda money doesn't seem worth it to fetch basics (then again, totally worth it if I get into modern). The life loss, while not much, was bad against aggro. Without a good 4cmc wrath, aggro will benefit too much from it.

Deflecting Palm is something I'm considering, but I'm not sure how many or where to fit it in.

I would honestly still play it, even aggro decks are slowing down. Doesn't look like they're getting a whole lot of gas other and 3 colors are being pushed hard. Just my opinion as it thins out land draws as well as allows for better mana fixing . And yeah, of course picking it up for modern would be undoubtedly beneficial. Just me though. + Their pre order price is only around 25 dollars, which is a $100 for a playset, yeah its pretty steep but they should drop to around 15 after packs have been opened . and will more than likely be staple for most all U/W/x decks.

Oh! And also, Jeskai Charm is really good, maybe try and find a spot for another 1 or 2 of them :) Since its about as close to Azorius Charm as we're gunna get which was played as a 3/4 always :)

@asasinater13

Very good points all across the board. I thought earlier I could add Mass Calcify . It would have the same effect as Duneblast in that it protects Narset, unless playing against white in which case it gets sided out. It is also castable without alrering my manabase, so if I draw it, it isnt dead.

Temur monsters will be a highly played deck, so Mass Calcify will be very useful.

Thanks for the insight. I agree, a 2/2 split between Narset and Keranos feels good.

@Prehstun

The mana fixing from fetches would be minimal. The real advantage to them in modern is that they can fetch the Rav shock lands, and so are incredible mana fixing. Fetching basics doesn't help too too much, but does help, I will not try to deny that.

As for thinning, it doesn't help with draws that much. "Deck thinning" is really a myth. Mathematically there is an advantage, but only a very small one and "thinning" alone is not a good reason to run fetches. Though, if I can get the cash I'll get them because they would help.

thinning is a very real thing. It doesn't make a large percentage difference, but it definitely exists. I don't think enough to warrant the lands for thinning alone, especially in a control deck that will want a land a turn until like turn 10-11. but I could imagine them being run here. not necessary here though.

The only replacement for Deflecting Palm I can think of that I don't mind losing is Negate .

@asasinater13

Of course thinning is a real thing, but the actual benefit of it is far overrated. The mathematics of statistics prove that. I'd run fetches for fixing.

What about Ajani Steadfast instead of Chandra, Pyromaster , or instead of something else? Perhaps -1 End Hostilities or -1 Banishing Light ??

i dont see a reason of running Mass Calcify i know you compared it to a duneblast but if you turn 6 narset and you need to board wipe turn 7 then youre dead. turn 7 you shouldnt need to board wipe you should be stabilized by turn 7 or at least starting too. Plus when you go up against white creatures you have a dead card, plus its 7 mana which is way too expensive. if youre gonna need to turn 5 end hostilites, turn 7 mass calcify: you will be dead when you couldve drawn an end hostilites and wiped the board two turns earlier. just put another copy of End Hostilities . adding one copy of Mass Calcify solely for narset is kind of a waste. you could only draw narset or only draw mass calcify, worst case draw narset and mass calcify in your opening hand so you have a 6 cmc and 7 cmc sitting in your hand while you get ripped by aggro - might as well mulligan at that point. definitely need at least 3 Jeskai Charm that card is too good to not run 3 of. you have 3 options so its versatile. you can close the game with 2 jeskai charm for 8 damage, you can redirect the damage to kill a P/W, you can bounce their fatties in response to fetch lands and have them shuffle their Polukranos, World Eater back into their library, etc. yes its one more mana then Azorius Charm but you cant win a game or kill a P/W with azorius charm. one sarkhan hit plus two charms is 12 damage. thats does not play around. and although you dont like Crater's Claws i would run one of them because 5 mana for sarkhan does 4 damage if he hits. 5 mana for a crater's claws does 4 damage as well. but if you have a 4/4 in play then it does 6 damage for 5 mana. i would suggest -1 sarkhan, +1 Stormbreath Dragon to mainboard, and +1 Haunted Plate Mail and -1 elspeth. i would -1 chandra (put to sideboard), -1 banishing light, +2 Dissipate . also AEtherspouts mainboard. there are also a few new cards i would suggest that have been spoiled recently - Crippling Chill stops Stormbreath Dragon for 2 turns and draws a card, weave fate - not in database yet, basically an instant speed divination.

Dropping an Elspeth, Sun's Champion for a Haunted Plate Mail ?? That really doesn't seem like a good idea at all. Elspeth has been wrecking standard for a year, and certainly will not stop doing so with Khans. The plate mail is nice, but really don't like that idea.

Dropping Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker for Stormbreath Dragon is something I've considered, but I can't play Stormbreath for free with Narset.

4 Dissipate and 4 Dissolve is too many 3 mana counterspells.

Crater's Claws, with only 2 slots for creatures that would trigger its ferocious (Sarkhan's slots), it would happen so rarely as to be next to pointless.

The new Inspiration I will definitely be adding. I need more 4 cmc stuff.

Jeskai Charm I really like but don't know where to fit it.

Overall, not sure I like the suggestions for the most part right now, but thanks for the time as it is appreciated. Definitely food for thought.