“And I’ve spent my life trying to forget it”
Art:Narset, Parter of Veils
by Magali Villeneuve
Table of Contents
Today’s Featured Commander Is:
Narset is an absolute demon in CEDH, and they are coming to Pauper EDH to disrupt supplemental card draw and just play a very efficient control deck. The passive on Narset is absolutely the best ability she has and with so much supplemental card draw within the format, this can have a really big impact on the game and change it, for better or worse, can definitely feel different depending on how hard we get targeted but for the most part we have enough counterspells to protect Narset and ourselves. Beyond Narset, this is a true mono-blue control deck complete with not a lot of creatures and way more bounce and counter spells than we have any business having. This is a true mono-blue deck and will have your opponents groaning when you pull this out.
The Deck:
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Why Narset, Parter of Veils?
Narset is a huge part of our deck; in control mirror matches, Narset allows us to deny our opponent’s card advantage, which can be really strong against decks that are trying to continuously refill their hands. Narset also allows us to be very well positioned against spellslinger strategies as well since a ton of their spells are cantrips. While Narset does provide some very positive benefits, there are certainly some drawbacks, and it mostly comes in the form of us being targeted, In my testing experience, when we drop Narset all eyes come on to us, and opponents really don’t like having their additional draws messed with and thus send all of their removal and attacks at us, while we have a lot of bounce spells and counters that can prevent this from getting too out of hand it is still a factor to be aware of. I like Narsets filter ability as well, additional card selection is always nice and works very well with our draw spells. Narset is a huge part of our deck, and against the right decks, it can be absolutely devastating for our opponents.
Deck Matchups:
Since this is Pauper EDH, there are an absolute ton of things that can tip a game in your favor or out of it. While an archetype may seem favorable, there are absolutely good and bad commanders for our deck to go up against; I have included both these, which were all played among my testing groups using various decks, and I have included the sample size for clarity purposes. This is just meant to be a guide after testing a bunch of games with this deck!
The information below is notes about specific decks that were featured in our testing pods and how we fared against them. Naturally, Pauper EDH is a multiplayer game, so these are just a summary of my notes against different commanders and strategies. When we test these decks we try to test to its strengths and weaknesses to give a full spectrum of what the deck has to offer. Various commanders and archetypes/strategies are used to get the most accurate information.
Commanders, we have a good matchup against:
Oji, the Exquisite Blade
Record against Oji, the Exquisite Blade 3-0
This is a control mirror match that is quite favorable for us; a lot of their bounce focuses on creatures, so they often struggle to remove their commander and counter their best ETBs like Stonehorn Dignitary
can help us control the pace of this game and just grind them down. I like this matchup a lot.
Zada, Hedron Grinder
Record against Zada, Hedron Grinder 3-0
Stifling our opponent’s draws with Narset and countering Zada a bunch of times makes this matchup a breeze; I do like to keep more counterspells in this matchup compared to the average matchup, as countering their commander is key and destroys their deck.
Ley Weaver
and Lore Weaver
Record against Ley and Lore Weaver 4-1
I am a fan of this matchup; our big advantage comes from us ruining their draw plan and having enough counterspells to stop their commanders and, thus, their combos. This is a really good matchup for us and if we take care to counter their best spells and especially both of the commanders we can easily grind them out. If we stumble and they resolve a combo piece, they can definitely get a win, so be careful.
Commanders, we have a tough matchup against:
Théoden, King of Rohan
Record against Théoden, King of Rohan 0-3
This is a rough one for our deck, if we stumble at all in the early turns, they can assemble a couple of creatures that hit really hard, and the one-shot is absolutely on the table here. This is a tough matchup for our deck as they output so much damage often before we have any way to counter their spells or bounce their creatures. I try to keep an extremely bounce and counter-heavy hand in this matchup.
Trelasarra, Moon Dancer
Record against Trelasarra, Moon Dancer 0-2
The main reason that this matchup is really tough is that they gain so much life, and while that doesn’t affect us a ton throughout most of the game it can really be hard to grind them down with our finisher creatures when their life total is so high. Without the damage and assistance of another opponent, it can be rough trying to kill the Trelasarra player.
Fynn, the Fangbearer
Record against Fynn, the Fangbearer 0-4
Fynn is just far too fast for us. They establish so quickly, and we don’t have any recourse against the Poison counters; in this matchup, I just got run over four times, and the infect piled up so quickly. We can counter some of their later creatures, but unless we are on the play and have Counterspell
to take care of Fynn, this can be tough.
Strategy Overview:
Control the pace of the game:
Since we are a control deck, controlling the pace of the game is key to our overall strategy; removing and bouncing problematic creatures/commanders and limiting opponents’ supplemental card draw is key to winning the game.
Transform them all!
We have quite a few ways to transform and completely change an opponent’s creature /commander with awesome cards like Fall from Favor
and Witness Protection
we have quite a few of these effects and if any creature gets threatening or starts to threaten you its best to take them out, this also works great against decks that rely on their commander as transforming their commander can really hurt their gameplan.
Keep Narset on the field:
If you are at a table where there is a lot of supplemental card draw going, Narset being on the battlefield becomes the focal point of that game; if we control the card draw, we can control the whole game, especially with counterspells and bounce spells as backup. Narset draws a lot of heat, so if we need to use some of our resources to protect them, it is absolutely worth it.
Deck Overview:
This section contains information about cards in the deck and how they function within the deck! I also highlighted some of my favorite cards in the deck!
Creatures:
We have a pretty low creature count, but all of them are pretty handy for the deck overall; I especially love Lat-Nam Adept
because it can be a nice early-game blocker for us and can become a strong late-game hitter after just a few turns. Lat-Nam Adept also pairs extremely well with Windrider Wizard
, and the buffs and card draw can get insane with both of these out! We, of course, are rocking Murmuring Mystic
, which is our chump block king and allows us to be better against decks that are attacking every turn. While we do have some nice utility creatures we also have some great creatures to end the game, like Cryptic Serpent
and Tolarian Terror
which can both come out super early compared to their mana cost and are both really awesome ways to close out games.
Instants:
We are a control deck, so we have a ton of counterspells, but in this dec,k some of these cards are really strong, especially like Arcane Denial
, which, if we have Narset out can take away that extra draw and make this card a lot better, believe me arcane denial is awesome but giving it even more upside is even crazier! We also have some control staples like Capsize
which is a super awesome bounce that we can get back a ton of times, my personal record is eight casts in a game, if you beat that you have to let me know! I’m also a huge fan of Echoing Truth
which can be an absolute bomb against token decks and just completely shut them down, it’s pretty good against aggressive strategies that are running cards like Hordeling Outburst
. Keep Safe
and Turn Aside
are both really awesome and cheap ways to protect Narset and in the case of Turn Aside, opponents often have their guard down if we only have one mana left, and this can be a very nice gotcha.
Sorceries:
I really like Fade Away
, especially in the early game, because it can devastate aggressive deck and decks that have a major board presence early; this is also one of our recourses against a very fast Fynn, the Fangbearer! Our sorcery package just provides a ton of utility for the deck with cards like Rush of Knowledge
, which can be a great way to fill our hands and find the answers we need. All of our spells in the deck also work super well with Serpentine Curve
, which can also be another great way to put additional pressure on our opponents and whittle them down. Beyond that its mostly card draw, we will certainly never say no to that and all of these cards are great at pretty much any stage of the game.
Artifacts:
Feldon's Cane
is definitely one of the coolest cards we have in the deck, I’ve played this card before, and the main reason I included it was because in some grindy games we can have very little cards left in the deck so getting a reset and getting key pieces back into the deck can be very helpful. Beyond that we have nothing more than mana rocks, I especially like Decanter of Endless Water
since it gives no maximum hand size which can be very good in this deck since we are drawing extra cards quite often.
Enchantments:
Our enchantment package is focused mostly on removing our opponent’s creatures, invalidating them and taking them out of the game, with cards like Witness Protection and Fall from Favor as well as a ton of others allows us to beat up on decks that focus on single-creatures or commanders and can give us a huge advantage, we have a lot of these effects and they all pretty much do the same thing but having these redundant effects can allow us to remove the best of the best our opponents have to offer. I also really want to highlight Soul Barrier
which can really hurt creature based strategies and allows us to be very strong against super aggressive decks, its also super relevant in that it triggers on cast because they can take the damage or spend the mana then we can counter it still!
Strengths of the Deck:
- We have a very good control mirror match as we can deny their card advantage.
- We have a ton of counterspells so our opponents best spells almost never resolve.
- We are pretty good at ending games with big creatures like Tolarian Terror
and Cryptic Serpent.
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- We can be quite slow in the early game, and while we do have a couple of early-game creatures and some early bounce spells, we can take some early damage, which can be tough if we are at a table full of aggressive decks.
- Our commander stops our opponents from drawing cards so it can be quite hard to keep them on the field, they are targeted quite often. We do have counterspells, but it often turns into turns where we can’t do anything because of all the removal and attacks being thrown at Narset.
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Conclusion:
Thank you for reading to the end! Narset is a very cool deck and one that I had a blast playing with and testing while it is in a traditional control shell the added control elements from Narset help to transform this into a deck that really defeats card draw and allows us to have a lot of card advantage. I don’t know if I will rule zero for this one after January, as I am not the biggest control fan, but this is still a super sweet deck! Stay tuned and tap in!