I built this deck as soon as Narset was released. I had wanted an overpowered deck to bust out if I ended up playing against others who were playing infinites, combos that ended the game on turn 3, or other degenerate decks. This deck as built to fight fire with fire. However, my deck is not built to capitalize on Narset's ability in the form of multiple combat steps or a bunch of turns. Instead, it is built to control the game until I can attack with Narset. With that one attack, Narset will reveal the necessary cards to win the game on the spot without having to attack again.
So first, before diving too much into card decisions, here is the decklist:
As you can see, there are no additional combat step cards and only a couple extra turn cards. These are actually there because I used the deck mostly for a local 2HG EDH event that happened every other week. I haven't taken them out since I stopped going to those events because they are still pretty good. I also only used "Time Walk" effects instead of "Time Warp" effects. That is, I only use extra turn cards that don't target. Part the Waterveil should actually be Capture of Jingzhou but I feel that the 1 extra mana is worth the $250 cheaper card since Capture is a good card to eventually be reprinted as Wizards (hopefully} makes their way through reprinting the P3K cards.
I have a bunch of counterspells that are meant to protect myself as I attack with Narset. Since I should usually know what is on top, with cards like Sensei's Divining Top and Long-Term Plans, once I reveal the cards I want to make sure I can cast them. Counter spells, while terrible to reveal off Narset, are great to protect what I am trying to do. They are also good for stopping others from doing anything while I try to get everything set up on my side.
Best case scenario is that I reveal Omniscience and Enter the Infinite off Narset. However, I can win with just Enter the Infinite as I can then use all the artifact mana to assemble Power Artifact and Grim/Basalt Monolith to get infinite mana. I use this to cast all my other Artifact mana (mainly Gilded Lotus) and then Comet Storm or Stroke of Genius.
Silence, Abeyance, and Orim's Chant allow me to preemptively stop a player from interrupting me the turn I am trying to go off.
Hall of the Bandit Lord allows me to swing with Narset the turn I cast her. Lightning Greaves does too and actually allows for a Turn 1 win if I have the right 8 cards right away to start the game. However, since this is so unlikely already, and I only have Narset as a creature, Lightning Greaves is on the current chopping block once I find different cards to add to the deck.
As of right now, Lightning Greaves, Commander's Sphere, and Restore Balance are on the chopping block. Lightning Greaves is really only good at one time (since Narset already has Hexproof) and if I don't have it in my first 9 cards, it is essentially worthless. Commander's Sphere gives me colored mana, but so do other cards and the card draw isn't enough to keep its inclusion. Restore Balance was added when doing the 2HG tournaments and it is actually really good in certain situations, but it is not something I am ever hoping to see.
A few other cards were added with the idea of 2HG in mind, but they work well in multiplayer as well. High Tide, Turnabout, Snap, and Frantic Search all allow my teammate to get more mana as needed since I can untap their lands or give them more for mana for their islands. Time Spiral lets me untap their lands too, but that was already there due to how good it is when casting it for free. Since the others work well when casting for free as well, I plan on keeping them.
Ancestral Vision, Wheel of Fate, and Restore Balance can all be cast off Omniscience and/or Narset. This is the reason these cards are in this deck and not in any of my others. They aren't that good when having to wait to cast them but getting a free Wheel of Fortune or Ancestral Recall is pretty good to keep everything going.
Muddle the Mixture is in here because it grabs quite a few pieces of my combo: Power Artifact, Grim Monolith, or Comet Storm. It can also get me Cyclonic Rift if I need it.
As mentioned in my original post, Lightning Greaves is a terrible top deck and if I don't have it right away (in the first 9 cards) I don't want it. Since Narset already has Hexproof it doesn't do enough to warrant its inclusion. In the infrequent scenario where it would have sped up the clock by a turn, I think I am fine with waiting a turn. Especially since attacking right away usually means I am blind flipping off Narset. While that isn't bad since it is potentially 4 free spells that could win me the game, the next turn is usually more impactful to the game anyway since I have an opportunity to manipulate the top of my library.
Commander's Sphere isn't usually relevant. For 3-drop artifacts, Chromatic Lantern fixes all my mana and Darksteel Ingot is indestructible and I am already not running either of those. In my mind, those two are better than this one. I don't really care about the card draw in most cases and 3 mana is a lot for this deck which is why I don't run the others.
Snapcaster Mage is an inclusion I have been internally debating. He is really good in this type of deck, but his inclusion takes away from the creatureless build of Narset. I liked having a deck that had no creatures, but including him just makes the deck better.
I have slowly been putting focus on my "permanent" decks (that is, ones I want to stick around for a long time) and have slowed down on building new decks. As such, I have also decided to focus on updating this deck a little further though I am not sure exactly what I want to do with it. Of the cards I have so far, here are the ones I can see cutting:
The main card I can think I want to (re)include is Goblin Charbelcher. I used to have it in the deck and I cut it but I am thinking of re-adding it because it gives me a way to win without needing to assemble an infinite combo. I am not sure it is the best card to add back in but it seems like a decent card.
Otherwise, the cards above are potentials for being cut for the following reasons:
Cryptic Command - This is a great counterspell, but it is expensive at 4 mana. I feel that there is a better card that can fit into this slot or something else that can work better towards the end goal of the deck.
Dream Cache - This is a more expensive Brainstorm but one that can put cards on the bottom. However, again, it seems slow and it is a Sorcery. It does allow me to put cards from my hand on top of my Library in case I draw my Enter the Infinite or Omniscience.
Omniscience - Speaking of Omniscience, I am not positive it fits the deck anymore. The whole point of the deck is to win as fast as possible and part of that is to get cards on top of my library to cast for free. In that vein, I want to be casting Enter the Infinite before anything else in order to just get every card in my hand. Once I get to that point, I don't need Omniscience as I can quickly assemble "infinite" mana.
Restore Balance - I have never cast this card. It is meant to add a stax element to the deck but it is the only thing in the deck that does it and I have never cast it. There has never been a point where I felt that Restore Balance was the card I needed to stabilize.
Memory Jar - This is another card that makes sense on paper and then doesn't do much in game. It is often a poor card to reveal off Narset and I often don't get much out of activating it. Drawing 7 new cards after Narset has already swung doesn't do as much as I would like it to do since I only have that turn to use everything. And needing to cast it for 5 mana to then activate it to try to get something isn't something I want to do often.
Will all of these in mind, I am not sure what I want to cut for these cards. And, there may be better cuts or other cuts I could be making. With the status of my other decks, I just want to put a higher focus on truly tuning this deck to be as oppressive and backbreaking as possible. The only things I don't want to do is add additional Time Walk effects (though I could potentially be convinced to add something like Ral Zarek) and I don't want any extra combat effects. This is meant to win the turn Narset enters the battlefield if possible or the next turn if I have no way to give her Haste. I don't want to string together a bunch of different combats to try to win as that just feels like durdling while trying to get to my win condition.
So, as alluded to above, the main focus of the deck is trying to get a winning combination of cards in the top 4 cards the first turn Narset swings so if there are any cards I seem to be missing or any cards that would help towards that goal, I would be glad to hear about them. I am sure there are cards out there that fit with this vision of the deck and maybe the cuts I want above are not the right ones but as I hopefully find more cards to slot in, I think the cuts will be more apparent.
And, Cryptic Command is a maybe right now. It is versatile but the triple blue and 4 mana total can be offputting and can cause situations where I can't cast it when I want.
As of right now, I have included Swan Song as a 1 mana hard counter. I am thinking about Dispel to protect myself in counter wars. I am hesitant to include too many counter spells though due to the nature of the deck. So, I may not include it at all. And this concern is another reason to cut Cryptic Command.
I have been thinking about Ral Zarek as a way to re-use things like Grim Monolith, Basalt Monolith, and Gilded Lotus. I am not sure if this is enough though so I haven't actually pulled the trigger on including him in the deck.
So, as of now, I need either 2 or 3 new cards and I am still working on trying to determine what those should be.
I have finally devoted some time to really making cuts/additions to this deck and testing it a little more. As such, here is what I have actually cut:
Omniscience - As mentioned above, I will almost always try to get to Enter the Infinite over trying to get to Omniscience. Omniscience does not help with my main win conditions since they are X spells and once I draw my entire deck, I can get infinite mana anyway. So, it just felt like a do nothing card most of the time (or, at least, something I would rather be a different card if I ever draw it).
Memory Jar - This is a great card to temporarily refill my hand, but because the deck is moving towards a set goal of casting Enter the Infinite and I still have a fair number of "reactive" spells, I don't think Memory Jar is as good in this deck as I want it to be. I know it is a card that helps with combos, but I just rarely found it to be what I want to be doing with the deck. I would rather just add a draw spell in its spot if I feel I need it.
Restore Balance - This was meant to be a "gotcha" against players by emptying their hands and getting rid of their lands while I still have a card exiled with Narset to help refill my hand. However, I never cast it and I never wanted to. With as many mana rocks as I have, I still find I want to retain as many lands as possible. So, it was just a slot not doing much.
With those cuts, I have added the following cards:
Swan Song - This is the best 1 mana hard counter I could find and it hits very relevant card types (unlike something like Dispel that only gets Instants). And it is mostly used to protect my combo as I am going off so giving them a 2/2 is irrelevant. It is also a way for me to counter a spell off Narset if I exiled Swan Song just to get a Bird and keep it in the game. It is unlikely that will come up often, but it is something.
Ral Zarek - I added in Goblin Charbelcher and then realized it is not very good. I wanted a way to win without going infinite, but it still requires that I draw my deck (or, at least, a lot of cards) and then use Scroll Rack to put them back on top. It is slow, inconsistent, and gives me a card that does literally nothing until I am probably already winning. So, Ral Zarek is a relevant card at a number of times in the game and his ultimate can be very good as well.
Detention Sphere - I felt that another "general" answer like Oblivion Ring would be useful and Detention Sphere is basically the same thing except better as it handles token decks fairly well. It also makes Enlightened Tutor not lose as much utility as I cut Omniscience which is the mains reason it was in here.
I also slightly tweaked my mana base. I have changed my philosophy on what fetches to include and, while I understand it may be odd to hold to that philosophy for a deck that is meant to win as fast as possible, I have decided to cut he off color fetches in this deck. So, Misty Rainforest and Polluted Delta are cut and in their place I added another basic Plains as well as a Reflecting Pool.
I am still working towards the "final" version of this deck and I think I am really close to having this where I want it to be. With the above changes and a couple of playtest games (both 1v1 and goldfishing) I think there are just a few more changes that can be made to tighten up the deck. I would like to play this more often but it is a brutal deck and it is not generally fun to lose on turn 4 or 5 to an infinite combo, so I haven't actually played this deck in a real game in over a year.
Anyway, here are the cards left that I think could be better. Note that for pretty much all of them, I really don't know what to slot in as I haven't found anything the deck really wants:
Summary Dismissal - This seems good in theory as it deals with uncounterable spells and a few relevant abilities when I need it to. However, the biggest issue that this deck is trying to combo off which means, ultimately, I want to protect my combo. The problem with this card is that I can't use it in a counter war as it will end up exiling my spell I am trying to cast or counter my abilities I am trying to activate. Because of this, I am looking to find a replacement for this card, though I am not sure what I want it to be. I have thought about Mindbreak Trap because I can still deal with uncounterable spells and I can cast it off Narset targeting nothing so it doesn't stay exiled. But, I am not sure I want another counterspell.
High Tide - This is one of the last holdovers from when I tweaked the deck to work better in a 2HG environment. Casting High Tide so my teammate can get double blue off their Islands was great. However, for my deck it is pretty bad. I already don't usually get that may lands and, even if I do, I don't have a ton of Islands as I am really trying to fix colors early.
Snap - This, again, was a bit of a holdover from building with 2HG in mind. It is not a bad card on its own, but I don't often feel that being able to bounce a creature is all that relevant. And bouncing my own creatures feels awesome (save Narset from exile; re-use Snapcaster) I only have the two so it basically never happens that way. And I have counter spells to protect them already. It does work well with High Tide, but as I am cutting that, this becomes less useful.
Ancestral Knowledge - This card isn't too bad in the deck as it helps me set up my draws and the cards I exile off Narset. It also gets rid of useless lands later in the game. The main issue is the Upkeep cost as it makes it less useful early on to really smooth out my draws since I can't keep it around for too long and I will end up shuffling most of those cards away. In the end, it ends up being just another way to (maybe) get the right card on top but because I can only look at the top 10 to do it, it is not very consistent. Soothsaying does this much better and I don't have to worry about my library getting shuffled when I don't want it to. But, I really want another card like Scroll Rack to replace it and I don't think one exists.
So first, before diving too much into card decisions, here is the decklist:
1 Narset, Enlightened Master
Lands
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Arid Mesa
1 Cascade Bluffs
1 Cavern of Souls
1 City of Brass
1 Command Tower
1 Flooded Strand
1 Hall of the Bandit Lord
1 Hallowed Fountain
8 Island
1 Mana Confluence
1 Mystic Gate
2 Plains
1 Plateau
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Steam Vents
1 Tolaria West
1 Tundra
1 Volcanic Island
Creatures
1 Snapcaster Mage
Planeswalkers
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Ral Zarek
1 Teferi, Temporal Archmage
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
Enchantments
1 Detention Sphere
1 Future Sight
1 Mind Over Matter
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Power Artifact
1 Soothsaying
1 Abeyance
1 Brainstorm
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Comet Storm
1 Counterspell
1 Cryptic Command
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Dig Through Time
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Force of Will
1 Frantic Search
1 Impulse
1 Long-Term Plans
1 Mana Drain
1 Misdirection
1 Muddle the Mixture
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Orim's Chant
1 Pact of Negation
1 Remand
1 Silence
1 Stroke of Genius
1 Supreme Will
1 Swan Song
1 Turnabout
Sorceries
1 Ancestral Vision
1 Dream Cache
1 Enter the Infinite
1 Mind's Desire
1 Part the Waterveil
1 Personal Tutor
1 Ponder
1 Recurring Insight
1 Reforge the Soul
1 Temporal Manipulation
1 Temporal Mastery
1 Time Reversal
1 Time Spiral
1 Timetwister
1 Wheel of Fate
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Azorius Signet
1 Basalt Monolith
1 Boros Signet
1 Chrome Mox
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Grim Monolith
1 Izzet Signet
1 Lion's Eye Diamond
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Mox Diamond
1 Mox Opal
1 Scroll Rack
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sol Ring
1 Talisman of Progress
1 Voltaic Key
As you can see, there are no additional combat step cards and only a couple extra turn cards. These are actually there because I used the deck mostly for a local 2HG EDH event that happened every other week. I haven't taken them out since I stopped going to those events because they are still pretty good. I also only used "Time Walk" effects instead of "Time Warp" effects. That is, I only use extra turn cards that don't target. Part the Waterveil should actually be Capture of Jingzhou but I feel that the 1 extra mana is worth the $250 cheaper card since Capture is a good card to eventually be reprinted as Wizards (hopefully} makes their way through reprinting the P3K cards.
I have a bunch of counterspells that are meant to protect myself as I attack with Narset. Since I should usually know what is on top, with cards like Sensei's Divining Top and Long-Term Plans, once I reveal the cards I want to make sure I can cast them. Counter spells, while terrible to reveal off Narset, are great to protect what I am trying to do. They are also good for stopping others from doing anything while I try to get everything set up on my side.
Best case scenario is that I reveal Omniscience and Enter the Infinite off Narset. However, I can win with just Enter the Infinite as I can then use all the artifact mana to assemble Power Artifact and Grim/Basalt Monolith to get infinite mana. I use this to cast all my other Artifact mana (mainly Gilded Lotus) and then Comet Storm or Stroke of Genius.
Silence, Abeyance, and Orim's Chant allow me to preemptively stop a player from interrupting me the turn I am trying to go off.
Hall of the Bandit Lord allows me to swing with Narset the turn I cast her. Lightning Greaves does too and actually allows for a Turn 1 win if I have the right 8 cards right away to start the game. However, since this is so unlikely already, and I only have Narset as a creature, Lightning Greaves is on the current chopping block once I find different cards to add to the deck.
As of right now, Lightning Greaves, Commander's Sphere, and Restore Balance are on the chopping block. Lightning Greaves is really only good at one time (since Narset already has Hexproof) and if I don't have it in my first 9 cards, it is essentially worthless. Commander's Sphere gives me colored mana, but so do other cards and the card draw isn't enough to keep its inclusion. Restore Balance was added when doing the 2HG tournaments and it is actually really good in certain situations, but it is not something I am ever hoping to see.
A few other cards were added with the idea of 2HG in mind, but they work well in multiplayer as well. High Tide, Turnabout, Snap, and Frantic Search all allow my teammate to get more mana as needed since I can untap their lands or give them more for mana for their islands. Time Spiral lets me untap their lands too, but that was already there due to how good it is when casting it for free. Since the others work well when casting for free as well, I plan on keeping them.
Ancestral Vision, Wheel of Fate, and Restore Balance can all be cast off Omniscience and/or Narset. This is the reason these cards are in this deck and not in any of my others. They aren't that good when having to wait to cast them but getting a free Wheel of Fortune or Ancestral Recall is pretty good to keep everything going.
Muddle the Mixture is in here because it grabs quite a few pieces of my combo: Power Artifact, Grim Monolith, or Comet Storm. It can also get me Cyclonic Rift if I need it.
-Lightning Greaves
-Commander's Sphere
+Summary Dismissal
+Snapcaster Mage
As mentioned in my original post, Lightning Greaves is a terrible top deck and if I don't have it right away (in the first 9 cards) I don't want it. Since Narset already has Hexproof it doesn't do enough to warrant its inclusion. In the infrequent scenario where it would have sped up the clock by a turn, I think I am fine with waiting a turn. Especially since attacking right away usually means I am blind flipping off Narset. While that isn't bad since it is potentially 4 free spells that could win me the game, the next turn is usually more impactful to the game anyway since I have an opportunity to manipulate the top of my library.
Commander's Sphere isn't usually relevant. For 3-drop artifacts, Chromatic Lantern fixes all my mana and Darksteel Ingot is indestructible and I am already not running either of those. In my mind, those two are better than this one. I don't really care about the card draw in most cases and 3 mana is a lot for this deck which is why I don't run the others.
Snapcaster Mage is an inclusion I have been internally debating. He is really good in this type of deck, but his inclusion takes away from the creatureless build of Narset. I liked having a deck that had no creatures, but including him just makes the deck better.
The main card I can think I want to (re)include is Goblin Charbelcher. I used to have it in the deck and I cut it but I am thinking of re-adding it because it gives me a way to win without needing to assemble an infinite combo. I am not sure it is the best card to add back in but it seems like a decent card.
Otherwise, the cards above are potentials for being cut for the following reasons:
Cryptic Command - This is a great counterspell, but it is expensive at 4 mana. I feel that there is a better card that can fit into this slot or something else that can work better towards the end goal of the deck.
Dream Cache - This is a more expensive Brainstorm but one that can put cards on the bottom. However, again, it seems slow and it is a Sorcery. It does allow me to put cards from my hand on top of my Library in case I draw my Enter the Infinite or Omniscience.
Omniscience - Speaking of Omniscience, I am not positive it fits the deck anymore. The whole point of the deck is to win as fast as possible and part of that is to get cards on top of my library to cast for free. In that vein, I want to be casting Enter the Infinite before anything else in order to just get every card in my hand. Once I get to that point, I don't need Omniscience as I can quickly assemble "infinite" mana.
Restore Balance - I have never cast this card. It is meant to add a stax element to the deck but it is the only thing in the deck that does it and I have never cast it. There has never been a point where I felt that Restore Balance was the card I needed to stabilize.
Memory Jar - This is another card that makes sense on paper and then doesn't do much in game. It is often a poor card to reveal off Narset and I often don't get much out of activating it. Drawing 7 new cards after Narset has already swung doesn't do as much as I would like it to do since I only have that turn to use everything. And needing to cast it for 5 mana to then activate it to try to get something isn't something I want to do often.
Will all of these in mind, I am not sure what I want to cut for these cards. And, there may be better cuts or other cuts I could be making. With the status of my other decks, I just want to put a higher focus on truly tuning this deck to be as oppressive and backbreaking as possible. The only things I don't want to do is add additional Time Walk effects (though I could potentially be convinced to add something like Ral Zarek) and I don't want any extra combat effects. This is meant to win the turn Narset enters the battlefield if possible or the next turn if I have no way to give her Haste. I don't want to string together a bunch of different combats to try to win as that just feels like durdling while trying to get to my win condition.
So, as alluded to above, the main focus of the deck is trying to get a winning combination of cards in the top 4 cards the first turn Narset swings so if there are any cards I seem to be missing or any cards that would help towards that goal, I would be glad to hear about them. I am sure there are cards out there that fit with this vision of the deck and maybe the cuts I want above are not the right ones but as I hopefully find more cards to slot in, I think the cuts will be more apparent.
Omniscience
Restore Balance
Memory Jar
And, Cryptic Command is a maybe right now. It is versatile but the triple blue and 4 mana total can be offputting and can cause situations where I can't cast it when I want.
As of right now, I have included Swan Song as a 1 mana hard counter. I am thinking about Dispel to protect myself in counter wars. I am hesitant to include too many counter spells though due to the nature of the deck. So, I may not include it at all. And this concern is another reason to cut Cryptic Command.
I have been thinking about Ral Zarek as a way to re-use things like Grim Monolith, Basalt Monolith, and Gilded Lotus. I am not sure if this is enough though so I haven't actually pulled the trigger on including him in the deck.
So, as of now, I need either 2 or 3 new cards and I am still working on trying to determine what those should be.
I also slightly tweaked my mana base. I have changed my philosophy on what fetches to include and, while I understand it may be odd to hold to that philosophy for a deck that is meant to win as fast as possible, I have decided to cut he off color fetches in this deck. So, Misty Rainforest and Polluted Delta are cut and in their place I added another basic Plains as well as a Reflecting Pool.
Anyway, here are the cards left that I think could be better. Note that for pretty much all of them, I really don't know what to slot in as I haven't found anything the deck really wants:
Summary Dismissal - This seems good in theory as it deals with uncounterable spells and a few relevant abilities when I need it to. However, the biggest issue that this deck is trying to combo off which means, ultimately, I want to protect my combo. The problem with this card is that I can't use it in a counter war as it will end up exiling my spell I am trying to cast or counter my abilities I am trying to activate. Because of this, I am looking to find a replacement for this card, though I am not sure what I want it to be. I have thought about Mindbreak Trap because I can still deal with uncounterable spells and I can cast it off Narset targeting nothing so it doesn't stay exiled. But, I am not sure I want another counterspell.
High Tide - This is one of the last holdovers from when I tweaked the deck to work better in a 2HG environment. Casting High Tide so my teammate can get double blue off their Islands was great. However, for my deck it is pretty bad. I already don't usually get that may lands and, even if I do, I don't have a ton of Islands as I am really trying to fix colors early.
Snap - This, again, was a bit of a holdover from building with 2HG in mind. It is not a bad card on its own, but I don't often feel that being able to bounce a creature is all that relevant. And bouncing my own creatures feels awesome (save Narset from exile; re-use Snapcaster) I only have the two so it basically never happens that way. And I have counter spells to protect them already. It does work well with High Tide, but as I am cutting that, this becomes less useful.
Ancestral Knowledge - This card isn't too bad in the deck as it helps me set up my draws and the cards I exile off Narset. It also gets rid of useless lands later in the game. The main issue is the Upkeep cost as it makes it less useful early on to really smooth out my draws since I can't keep it around for too long and I will end up shuffling most of those cards away. In the end, it ends up being just another way to (maybe) get the right card on top but because I can only look at the top 10 to do it, it is not very consistent. Soothsaying does this much better and I don't have to worry about my library getting shuffled when I don't want it to. But, I really want another card like Scroll Rack to replace it and I don't think one exists.