Hello!

Narset was one of those for me. The general that I wanted to build around the moment I saw her spoiled. And build around her, I did. Card names kept surfacing in my mind and a deck crystallized before me as if by itself. Couple of goldfishing sessions later, I'm able to present the first working version of my Narset and the first deck steered by a Khans of Tarkir general on the forums



First off, let's get the stuff we want to cast off Narset's trigger on top of the library:
TOTAL: 12

Then we need more triggers. I intentionally drew the line between additional combat phases (in) and extra turns (out):
TOTAL: 8

Now, what do we actually want to cast for free? There are several options to go and I've decided to let the deck have some versatility in its wincon slots:
TOTAL: 13
TOTAL: 5
TOTAL: 11

A proper lady of war should, in fact, be hasteful:
TOTAL: 4

And finally a few cards to allow ourselves to bypass those silly timing restrictions:
TOTAL: 3

Now to speed things up a bit:
TOTAL: 13

Important lands:
TOTAL: 3 (+27 other lands)

NOTE: The deck is still WAY under construction, but it's playable and can be explosive even in this unpolished state. Needs more haste, more dragons and more testing. Updates will follow in time.

Fixed that for you...

I like her too! she is similar to Jeleva (and I've had a blast playing her) but has fewer restrictions as she casts any noncreature card for free. Also unlike Jeleva, her abilities and color combination means that going for general damage might be a viable option.

The bad part is that just like Jeleva, X spells are a no-no since X=0 with her ability. Counterspells are also not worth including, as they will be dead flips (except Cryptic Command).

If I was building this deck (and I probably will), I'd go for
- top deck manipulation to control her ability better
- big instants & sorceries to cast for free (good news: she's got Izzet colors )
- big enchantments & auras to buff her up

Since her ability will often be unpredictable, it might be nice to include a lot of Charms or spells with various options as they will allow adapting to the current state of the board.

I'll probably build this deck as well, so I'm looking forward to your progress

Why do you think the top spots went to Scroll Rack, Brainstorm and JTMS?

Yeah, your list already contains a lot of the important cards for building her. I didn't take the time to look over the whole thing, but I assume Enter the Infinite and Omniscience are there? They are a bit on the antisocial side but it's worth putting them if only to go for the dream of having them in the same Narset stack.

One problem I noticed, though, is that X spells won't work with her, such as Entreat the Angels because with free spells, X=0. However, extra costs are better than usual (like kicker and entwine), since there will be more mana around to pay for them with the base spell being free.

Something I thought of today while driving to dinner, is that mass land destruction would work well with her if you are looking for a more dickish build. When no one has lands, only Narset can keep casting spells

I just added a whole bunch of results from the search "noncreature" + "CMC >= 6". Enter the Infinite is too much of a "I win" card for me, I'm afraid. Omniscience is in, though

...for now, anyway.

Entreat and Bonfire are in the alpha list just because they're miracle spells. The idea is that library manipulation can cheat these to the top to cast normally. Just testing it, really. If it doesn't work, well, the maybeboard wants those slots

Not happening. At least not in my build. I want to keep my friends, thank you

...that being said, I do have an unemployed Armageddon in my collection. Maybe just that one for surprise. Maybe Cataclysm...


Thanks!

I'd not go overboard with mana intensive cards, instead pushing the mana curve low.

You need to be doing something prior to getting your general into play.

Once Narset hits play, you're casting 4 cards a turn for free.

You need stuff that filters out as much land as possible. Blue and White can do that for you. Mana Severance

Other stuff I didn't see, that I'd auto-include: Banishing light, detention sphere, etc...

Well, it is just a bunch of random ideas now. I need to find the time to refine it. So far, I've transferred it to tappedout.net, took the first sixty cards from top, switched in a few cards from the bottom half I really wanted in and filled the rest of the deck with Forests that act like a perfect mana base for now.

It's the same process I have used recently to bring a certain other deck idea of mine into being. I'm preparing to post it soon, so stay tuned! (Hint: It's mostly brown and silver.)

UPDATISSIMUS MAXIMUS!

So, after some goldfishing I edited the decklist to a readable form of my first functional version of Narset. Isn't she a beauty...

Lots of cards went in, lots of cards went out. The remains from my brainstorming now reside in the maybeboard.

Suggestions welcome!

All decks need more dragons!

Noted

Wow, that really is a lot like Jeleva. You might want to check out my Jeleva build (link in the sig). One thing I found is that if you don't want to win the game with combos, the best spells to cast for free are ones that put a creature or creature-like permanent into play... bribery, stolen identity, call the skybreaker, acquire, etc.

Another incredibly powerful thing to do is hate on card draw: stuff like omen machine, uba mask, or spirit of the labyrinth. Since your advantage comes from freecasting, not drawing cards. Another decent option is wild evocation, since you're not amassing a big hand, and you want to dissuade people from using counterspells.

Although, with this guy you can cast enchantments, which is different from Jeleva... so I might include some nice enchantment-based control cards like : pendrell mists, crackdown, teferi's moat, idk, choose your favorites here - but I'd go for some stuff that made it hard for people with a lot of big creatures.

Since this dude is in white, I'd have a hard time not playing grand abolisher. That'd let your big cheaty spells go off pretty reliably.

I currently have a numot deck that I don't find fun anymore. I will be changing it into a Narset deck. Remove a few LD cards for more fun Narset targets. Add scroll rack and vedalken orrery for the consistency.

Great! Looking forward to the list

Scroll Rack is the key card of the whole deck. Don't leave home without it! I actually want to add Numot to the list. Dragonstorm FTW!

Also a must is Misthollow Griffin. You can cast it even if it gets hit by Narset.