Narset, Archenemy of EDH

Commander / EDH Competitive Cruel Control Land Destruction Multiplayer Primer RUW (Jeskai, America)

IpCrash3r

Creature (3)

• 1x Generator Servant
• 1x Simian Spirit Guide
• 1x Treasonous Ogre

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Land (33)

• 1x Adarkar Wastes
• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Battlefield Forge
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Cascade Bluffs
• 1x Cavern of Souls
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x City of Traitors
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Flamekin Village
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Gemstone Caverns
• 1x Hall of the Bandit Lord
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Island
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Mishra's Workshop
• 2x Mountain
• 1x Plains
• 1x Plateau
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 1x Shivan Reef
• 1x Slayers' Stronghold
• 1x Tarnished Citadel
• 1x Tundra
• 1x Volcanic Island
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Enchantment (6)

• 1x Aggravated Assault
• 1x Decree of Silence
• 1x Eldrazi Conscription
• 1x Leyline of Anticipation
• 1x Mass Hysteria
• 1x Need for Speed

Artifact (26)

• 1x Azorius Signet
• 1x Basalt Monolith
• 1x Boros Signet
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Coalition Relic
• 1x Defense Grid
• 1x Eye of Ramos
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Goblin Charbelcher
• 1x Grim Monolith
• 1x Izzet Signet
• 1x Lion's Eye Diamond
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Mox Opal
• 1x Scroll Rack
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Static Orb
• 1x Strionic Resonator
• 1x Talisman of Progress
• 1x Tangle Wire
• 1x Thran Dynamo
• 1x Voltaic Key
• 1x Winter Orb

Instant (14)

• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Flusterstorm
• 1x Force of Will
• 1x Impulse
• 1x Long-Term Plans
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Rebuild
• 1x Silence

Sorcery (16)

• 1x Armageddon
• 1x Beacon of Tomorrows
• 1x Boom / Bust
• 1x Capture of Jingzhou
• 1x Mana Severance
• 1x Personal Tutor
• 1x Ravages of War
• 1x Seize the Day
• 1x Temporal Cascade
• 1x Temporal Manipulation
• 1x Temporal Mastery
• 1x Time Stretch
• 1x Time Warp
• 1x Walk the Aeons
• 1x Waves of Aggression
• 1x World at War

Commander (1)

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Sideboard

Enchantment (2)

• 1x Leyline of Sanctity
• 1x Nevermore

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Maybeboard

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Eldrazi Conscription

Artifact (2)

• 1x Grim Monolith
• 1x Sky Diamond

Instant (2)

• 1x Daze
• 1x Swan Song

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This deck was inspired by Komamura's Narset, the Last Avatar deck. I encourage you to take a look at the original here!

Thanks to the Reddit EDH community! You guys are awesome!

WARNING:

This deck is intended to be as cut-throat as possible. Unlike the original deck-list provided by Komamura, I have designed my Narset build to be degenerate, and downright cruel. You will find that playing this deck against the same playgroup will cause you to be the focus of the entire groups attention, which is why I have named it the "Archenemy of EDH". You may also be alienated by your peers, and refused entry into further EDH/Commander events.

By continuing you have acknowledged that this deck:

1. Does not follow the French 1v1 Rulings or Banlist

2. Will likely win games (or cause opponents to scoop) before the game has had a chance to start.

3. May cause you to lose friends.

You have been warned.

Introduction

The deck is fairly simple to pilot - however knowing when to drop Narset and swing comes with experience.

Most Narset decks run one of two ways:

1) Heavy Counterspell and Control, with big spells to finish the job. (EG. French 1v1 Competitive)

2) Giant Spells that can win the game by themselves, or planeswalkers, with land destruction or other effects.

My particular build attempts to balance the two in a way that allows the deck to continue to be competitive, but not follow any single style of build. As with most Narset decks, this deck is ENTIRELY dependent on your commander - so learning when to play her is VERY important!

How does it win?

My particular list abuses extra turn and combat phase mechanics to assist with our deck getting out of hand as fast as possible. In most cases, Narset can actually have near-infinite attack or combat steps, depending on what cards we exile during our attack step.

In most cases, our opponents will simply scoop when they realize we are taking 4+ turns in a row, with multiple combat steps in-between. The primary strategy is to ramp out a early turn Narset, or begin playing our heavy board-control cards while we continue to slowly build up our board, giving us a nice head-start.

Overall, the deck typically will slowly put our entire deck into play, until finally bursting out of control and killing each opponent. 90% of the time, your opponents will simply scoop, which is why this deck can be unfun to play. (But incredibly fun to pilot!)

How does it lose?

As the deck completely relies on our general, it is very important that Narset stays alive when we attempt to play her. Heavy control decks (counterspells), and decks that run many sacrifice or board-wipe effects are typically our worst match-ups.

If I am playing decks such as this, I attempt to "bait" a counterspell. There are many ways to do this, but I find the best method is using a tutor to find a Temporal Mastery and placing it on top of your library. I always make sure that my opponents are fully aware that Temporal Mastery will cost only two mana to cast on my next draw step. In most circumstances, this alone will bait a counterspell.

Another method I like to use included the cards Mana Crypt and Lion's Eye Diamond. As both cards can be cast for , our opponents get slapped upside the head with a Narset that got played while they were tapped out, thinking we did not have enough mana to cast (or re-cast) our general.

As always, if playing against control players, I like to assure I have a counterspell of my own in-hand, and/or a haste enabler that will assure Narset can attack the turn we play it. There is absolutely nothing wrong with waiting until the right time to strike - you can even wait until you can cast a few extra turn cards (by hand), and then take your opportunity!

Notable Cards

(NOTE: I AM NO LONGER RUNNING THE PROTEUS STAFF COMBO IN THIS DECK) Proteus Staff is an instant win card with our general. As the deck runs 0 creatures (as I'm sure many of you have noticed), we can use Proteus Staff on our own general, allowing us to put it back into play and stack our entire library in any order we wish. If a haste enabler is on the field, we can stack our deck to let us win the turn we swing. Keep in mind that if you decide to run a creature based Narset deck (even if it's just a single creature + Narset), this card is no longer worth running.

Strionic Resonator an amazing card in Narset. It allows us to copy Narset's ability to exile the top 8 cards of our library, instead of 4. This increases our chance of hitting an extra turn (or combat step) by a long-shot. If you are wanting to build ANY variant of a Narset deck, this should be an automatic include.

Mana Severance is a recent addition in the deck. This allows us to exile all of our lands, assuring us that we will hit ONLY spells that can be casted with Narset. This is to be used later in the game when we have an assured board state, control over our opponents, or are desperate to hit an extra turn card.

Decree of Silence This is another recent addition, however I have found it to do a LOT of justice in my playgroup. Having Narset swing into a land destruction spell, followed up by this guy has always been a game ender for me. What's worse then losing all of your lands? Having your next three spells countered without any effort. Ouch!

Why do you run X card?

Q) Why do you run odd colored fetch-lands, such as Polluted Delta?

A) I assume you're newer to competitive decks if you are asking this question. Even though we do not run swamps, we can still benefit from searching for an Island type card, which by itself is a bonus. (Finds us Taiga, Volcanic Island, etc). More importantly, fetch lands help us filter out the lands reducing the chance that we will exile a land when we swing with Narset. It's basic probability - yay, math!

Your opponents in a typical game when playing this deck...

If you liked this deck, please give it a +1! It's much appreciated, and encourages me to make more guides like this!

Top Ranked	Achieved #25 position overall 9 years ago
Date added	9 years
Last updated	9 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	14 - 0 Mythic Rares 63 - 2 Rares 13 - 0 Uncommons 6 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.09
Folders	EDH ideas, Current Decks, Jeskai EDH, If I decide I don't mind people hating me off the board, EDH ideas