+1

I definitely think that you have the right idea with Ruhan of the Fomori - play control and let the maniac do his thing. I do think that you can spice up your counterspell suite a bit. I would consider dropping Counterspell and Negate - I think that you can typically afford some slightly more expensive permission spells, especially if they afford you some more benefits. I really like the format staples Hinder and Spell Crumple, and Muddle the Mixture seems like a good Negate replacement that also offers you quite a bit of versatility.

Also, Venser, the Sojourner could be a fun inclusion in your planeswalker package. His ultimate can really help you turn the corner and lock down the entire board.

Battle Mastery

How...

First of all, put Snapcaster Mage back in, he's godlike, especially in a deck with so many instants and sorceries.

Leyline of Anticipation and Vedalken Orrery are fantastic.

Also, you want all the extra turn funstuff: Beacon of Tomorrows, Time Warp, Time Stretch, Temporal Manipulation, Capture of Jingzhou. Well, those are all nice and wonderful, but I think we want to put them exactly where we want them correct? Personal Tutor and Mystical Tutor. Add an Enlightened Tutor while you're at it (Do you like Omniscience, because I like Omniscience).

Replace Ugin with Karn Liberated. They serve an extremely similar purpose, and Karn does it WAY better.

Brainstorm is AWESOME in narset decks. Do you not see? Respond to her triggered ability, put two super expensive cards on top of your library, voila. To that extent, Jace, the Mind Sculptor should be replacing your other jace, because his +0 ability is also amazing in narset. Long-Term Plans is basically an insta-win if you have one of the godly enchantments or sorceries.

Crazy good game-winners: Eldrazi Conscription, Blatant Thievery, Omniscience, Enter the Infinite

Something fun to think about is take out all the creatures in your deck except for Narset, then add a dash of Proteus Staff Shake and Shuffle to your liking, then attack and win the game.

Reconnaissance is basically a must, and if you like that card then Legion's Initiative has a similar, albeit one-timer effect.

While this isn't incredibly common in Narset decks, Godsend is a gigantic middle finger to anyone who wants to block you.

Narset is so awesome with that hexproof, it's great.

Cheers, hope this helps, ~Fugu

To HonoraryFugu and Quicksilver,

First of all, thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment. I truly value the input of other players.

I play in a very control based meta where Narset rarely makes the battlefield, let alone swing. I mean, this can be remedied by getting a Cavern of Souls, which I currently don't have. Time Walk effects are cute and powerful if Narset is on the field. However, like I said before, these effects feel basically useless when she isn't there or they are in my hand. I've debated about adding one more Time Walk though. Same goes with Proteus Staff, it doesn't really do much without Narset. Furthermore, these things put even more of a target on my head (I mean, most players are already gunning for me for just playing Narset). I'm not a fan of cards that are completely dependent on my commander being up, running, and uncontested. I mainly have this opinion because we have another Narset player that runs the typically build, with time walks, expensive cards ( Storm Herd, Omniscience, Enter the Infinite, etc), and the works. Generally, he sits there and doesn't get to play because he is constantly disrupted. I rather be controlling the field and using my few, yet efficient creatures to bait counterspells, removal, or boardwipes. Grand Arbiter Augustin IV, however, is constantly on the chopping block though. He is so good in a few spots, but meh most of the time.

However, I agree with some of your suggestions. I should put Snapcaster Mage back in. I was just being cheap and using it somewhere else. Ugin is easier to get but, it should just be Karn Liberated. Brainstorm is a good Magic card. I just don't know what to replace it with to be honest. Jace, the Mind Sculptor isn't in because I don't have one. When I acquire one, it's definitely going in. I'll have to try Blatant Thievery, Godsend, and one of the Flash enablers. Once again, thank you for the comments.

Preordain out Brainstorm in. It's that simple.

Brainstorm is better because it's an instant, and lets you reliably setup miracle cards, and sets you up for narset (respond to here attack trigger by brainstorming and putting something huge from your hand on top of your library). Preordain is nice, but there is no question brainstorm is better in this situation.

i think this is a good deck for Storm Herd

It looks good, but have you even considered playing the more combo-oriented version of Narset that runs a ton of extra turn / extra combat phase effects? It's considered more competitive, as the list often wins / become untouchable the second Narset swings. Typically the deck combos out turn four and immediately starts murdering the table. Exceptionally good in 1v1 environments.

Example list:

Narset's Face-Wrecking Turn Fest Playtest

Commander / EDH* NarejED

SCORE: 1 | 1 COMMENTS | 149 VIEWS

I would definitely advise adding back in Aggravated Assault. It's arguably the single best extra turn / combat effect to hit with Narset, as it creates an infinite loop if Narset is equipped with Sword of Feast and Famine, so long as you have lands that can tap for 5+ mana.

NarejED, I actually must beg to differ. An extra turn effect is miles better than additional combat steps.

Aggravated Assault is the best of those effects sure, but in nearly every case, something like Capture of Jingzhou will be much, much better. You get to draw another card, untap with everything, get an additional upkeep for whatever you need, AND you get another combat step. Also, he has very few creatures, so the extra combat effects are absolutely terrible when Narset isn't on the field, but the extra turn effects are still pretty awesome even if you have to pay for them. It is just far more practical to go with the extra turn effects.

As to you Gregarious, you can run the control suite, that's fine. The reason the other players have all those expensive cards is to get maximum value out of every Narset activation. Those decks get basically an absolute blowout after a single narset activation, whereas for you a narset activation is pretty meh.

HonoraryFugu Aggravated Assault + SoFaF is a guaranteed same-turn table-wide kill, so long as you have at least mana available from lands. No single extra turn effect is that powerful, save Beacon of Tomorrows when combined with Enter the Infinite. That combo obviously requires 3 more available mana to start off, and Enter isn't nearly as playable by itself as the Sword is. No other single extra turn effect assures victory, not even Time Stretch.

That's a two card combo, and you say that no other -single- extra turn card is that powerful?

I could not agree more. However, that is a two card combo in a singleton 100-card format. It's not going to come up often.

Pound for pound, 1 card vs 1 card, and extra turn effect is miles better. Sure, AA + SoFaF is great, and the cards are good individually, but two extra turns will win you the game as well. Any two extra turns. Any. Simply because you will just trigger Narset again, allowing you to reveal even more possbilities, while being able to draw 2 cards, activate planeswalker abilities, and get a crapton of upkeeps.

Finally, what if Narset gets killed by blockers? Or, what if she just gets blocked? Your combo is gone, but if Narset is chumped, I'd rather get two extra turns to attack more rather than just being forced to pass my turn. For me, the decision is: two more untap steps, two more upkeeps, and two more turns to recast Narset; or... an incredible equipment with no creatures to equip, and an extra combat enchantment that does nothing without a creature on the battlefield. You know what? I'd even take 1 extra turn with a dead narset instead of a good equipment and enchantment and a dead narset.

I could not agree more that those are good cards, but having an extra turn to regroup, a guaranteed untap step, a chance to recast Narset, instead of being forced to pass the turn... I mean...

I personally prefer hitting AA over just about any other card with Narset's ability in my deck. Of course, that deck is quite different from this one. Its primary goal is to simply swing with Narset and win, whereas this deck will primarily be topdecking Planeswalkers and various control-based answers when Narset swings.

AA is indeed quite a bit weaker in this control deck where, as Greg said, he doesn't often get Narset to resolve. Extra turns are much better by themselves than extra combat phases in regular decks. They're essentially one in the same when you're running a good Narset decklist though. Thus anything that has recursion (IE, Aggrevated assault) stands out from the general extra turn / combat phase effects. I will definitely agree that it's not strictly better than extra turn effects in this particular list.

8 counterspells feels like a lot, because they're duds off Narset.

To kameenook,

Narset allows for free spells, not uncounterable ones. Flipping a counterspell with a heavy hitting spell (such as Tragic Arrogance, Cataclysm, or Ugin, the Spirit Dragon) makes fighting over them much easier, especially when I'm manipulating other players' lands.

Typically your threat density should be so high once Narset is cast that you shouldn't need much protection. The only time good Narset combos are vulnerable are when she's being cast, and when she's swinging (both of which are easily negated via Cavern of Souls, Grand Abolisher, Rogue's Passage, and any number of enchantments that grant unblockable effects). Aside from the auto-includes (mana drain, pact of negation, and force of will), the only only counterspells really worth looking at are the so-called combo-protector counterspells (Swan Song, Dispel, and to a lesser extent Flusterstorm and Spell Pierce). Of course, you're playing a more control-oriented build that focuses on land destruction, rather than the optimized combo list, so you may find yourself playing the role of the defender, and thus need more control options.

To NarejED,

To be truthful, I love being the defender and sometimes the oppressor when I play. Quick question: is there a reason you don't run Sensei's Divining Top in your deck, NarejED? Is Scroll Rack just better? It's been a debatable switch for me in this deck.

Yes, Scroll Rack is almost strictly better for Narset. It allows you to put relevant targets for Narset's ability back on top if you accidentally draw them. In less optimal situations, it can shuffle away unwanted cards if you crack a fetch or cast a tutor. It also combos quite nicely with Land Tax. If an opponent has at least one more land than than you, the pair essentially turn into a repeating Ancestral Recall.

+1. Love non-combo Narset decks. It's not hard to make her busted but that's not what commander is about (unless that's the sort of commander you play).

For more sick synergy you can play counter spells that you can cast off narset for value. My current narset list contains:

Brutal Expulsion

Ojutai's Command

Cryptic Command

Izzet Charm

To chrizzil,

I really should be playing Cryptic Command. I just don't have one. However once I do, I'll probably replace Faerie Trickery with it. I really want to play with Brutal Expulsion, but I'm not sure what to replace it with.

Just take out any counter spell. It'll serve a similar purpose but wont be dead if you flip it off narset.

Hey this is an awesome deck! I'm looking at making a narset deck atm but a much more budget one, this will also be my second EDH deck and i don't have many of the cards she needs, any cheap suggestions on what i should put into it? and which ones are must haves in the deck?

Psst! Divine Reckoning is one of the best board wipes available to Narset! It doesn't do much against other voltron decks, but it wrecks anyone trying to go wide-- a very popular strategy in casual EDH and a handful of competitive decks. Overall a very good utility card / panic button, and rarely a dead card off of Narset's ability. You should try working it in, possibly in place of Dragonlord Ojutai. He doesn't do much aside from generating a smidge of card advantage. Consecrated Sphinx is better than him in almost every scenario.

To NarejED,

Dragonlord Ojutai has put in plenty of work for me. However, your suggestion is probably just the correct choice. Another boardwipe (with flashback) seems more useful overall. I'll have to test it out.

To Conflagz,

Thanks for stopping by. You can easily replicate my deck without spending a lot of money. If your meta isn't swarming with blue and counterspells, you can get away with not having Cavern of Souls. You don't need Dack Fayden really. I use him because of the heavy use of artifacts in my playgroups. As for the creatures, you just need Aurelia, the Warleader and Grand Arbiter Augustin IV. If you have a Snapcaster Mage, then use him. You don't need the swords at all. Just replace them with enchantments like Aqueous Form (which is something I will probably make room for), Holy Mantle, or Spirit Mantle. Blood Moon is also completely optional and best if you are playing against alot of three color decks. For me, the mass control spells, like Cataclysm, Tragic Arrogance, Winter Orb, and Rising Waters, and Sunder, are the things that win me the game. If you are fighting decks that ramp hard, you need to punish them or you'll fall too far behind fast. If you are looking for more resource control, pick up a copy of Global Ruin. I play it in another deck and I'm yet to be disappointed by it.

Does Blood Moon even make sense here? You have so little red and so few basics that it seems like it will actually be kind of devastating for you. Sure, Narset gets value just for attacking, but that doesn't mean you can survive well without being able to cast your own things. Plus, if she dies while you have Blood Moon on the field you could find yourself in a lot of trouble. Feels like it's just a bit awkward.