__________________________________________________________________________________________________
A few years ago, I designed Judgment Day, decks based on the end of the world as portrayed in the Christian book of Revelation. This time, I went to the other extreme, presenting a deck based on the world's first great work, The Epic of Gilgamesh. It is a true genesis, a story from which many other stories have been drawn: the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve, and the deluge. The deck follows the Epic's tablets, beginning with the temple whore, Shamhat, and her taming of the wild man, Enkidu, through six days and seven nights of hot sex. Enkidu, now properly civilized, gains much new knowledge of life outside the forest and befriends the Uruk king, Gilgamesh. The two have the world's first bro-mance, but, alas, Enkidu's introduction to city living is the beginning of his end and he wastes away. Gilgamesh grieves over the death of his friend and seeks out immortality for himself. He doesn't achieve it in the way that he wanted, instead being immortalized in our memories forever.
DECK ORIGINS
I've been wanting to design a deck around Shamhat, Enkidu, and Gilgamesh for some time.
DECK CREATION
Shamhat's character is well-represented by the Raka/Jeskai color combination. She civilizes (W) and educates (U) Enkidu via sex (R). Shamhat is human, as is Narset, and her role as a temple whore is reflected in Narset's Monk creature type. That's why Narset commands the deck!
The deck casts Enkidu as the opponent. Its goal is to tame opponents, educate them, and tucker them out with good sex.
Sphere of Safety is one of my favorite spells to civilize aggressive opponents. Unlike Moat, it allows your opponents to wreak havoc on each other's life totals and planeswalkers. With the right amount of enchantments, it can completely protect you and your permanents from combat damage.
And then there's the sex. Despite being a named character in The Epic of Gilgamesh, the deck doesn't include a card for Enkidu, the wild man civilized through hot sex with Shamhat, our temple whore. Instead, Shamhat uses her womanly powers of Persuasion on an opponent's creature.
Now, Shamhat and Enkidu didn't just have one night of hot sex. Oh no. "For six days and seven nights they lay together"! Sex is great and all, but a week of it is not only exhausting, tapping your energy, it's difficult to even think about anything else when you're doing it. (And if your mind is wandering, then it's not good sex.)
"When the gods created Gilgamesh they gave him a perfect body. Shamash the glorious sun endowed him with beauty, Adad the god of the storm endowed him with courage…" 1x Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer
"In Uruk he built walls, a great rampart…" 1x Bulwark
"For six days and six nights the winds blew, torrent and tempest and flood overwhelmed the world, tempest and flood raged together like warring hosts." 1x Quicksilver Fountain 1x Rising Waters
"…the gods took Utnapishtim after the deluge; and they set him to live in the land of Dilmun, in the garden of the sun; and to him alone of men they gave everlasting life." 1x Honden of Cleansing Fire
"Gilgamesh went a long journey, was weary, worn out with labour, and returning engraved on a stone the whole story." 1x Spellbook
"The father of the gods gave Gilgamesh unexampled supremacy over the people…" 1x Beacon of Tomorrows
ADDED
Beacon of Tomorrows (this is the only Time Warp effect the deck wants)
Gilded Lotus (works better with Static Orb)
REMOVED
Epicenter (useless with Rest in Peace on the battlefield)
Coalition Relic (benefit hindered by Static Orb)
The best compliment this deck has received was an opponent calling it "the fairest Narset deck they'd ever seen!" The deck's funniest moment so far was taking out an opponent who'd just cast Enter the Infinite. When their spell resolved, we cast Cerebral Vortex! Quicksilver Fountain continues to prove itself both extremely flavorful and efficient, especially in tandem with Land Tax.
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There are no divisions: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. -Galatians 3:28
I have three different Narset decks. This one has 39 lands, the monk tribal Kung Fu Lightning has 38 lands, and DUNE: The Butlerian Jihad (not yet published) has 35 lands.
What makes each of my Narset decks stand out from the crowd is their utter indifference to casting Narset or keeping Narset in play.
That's why my Narset decks run so many lands. 'Cos I don't rely on my commander to cast spells for free.
I credit each deck's 40% win rate to this commander-free resilience. Sure, I might win more games — or even have turn 0 kills — if I reduced the land count and went for a more glass cannon approach, but, my love of Stax notwithstanding, I actually enjoy interacting with my opponents.
I don't play games to inevitably win. I play them to play, and for the challenge of playing.
Did any of the above answer your query?
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There are no divisions: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. -Galatians 3:28
I run cheap 2 cmc or less mana rocks in my narset deck. Rocks with lands total to 40 mana sources.
Why run 40 lands when there is no particular advantage to do so? Lands are dead draws with narset's ability and they don't trigger prowess (kinda off topic here). If there is no particular reason to run lands then why run lands?
Also if narset is not that imporatant to the deck why call it a narset deck? If you swap narset for child of alara would your gameplay change at all?
And stax=interacting with opponents?
I run cheap 2 cmc or less mana rocks in my narset deck. Rocks with lands total to 40 mana sources.
Why run 40 lands when there is no particular advantage to do so? Lands are dead draws with narset's ability and they don't trigger prowess (kinda off topic here). If there is no particular reason to run lands then why run lands?
Also if narset is not that imporatant to the deck why call it a narset deck? If you swap narset for child of alara would your gameplay change at all?
And stax=interacting with opponents?
A short answer is that I run decks that work for me.
Perhaps you missed it, but I'm a Vorthosian Spike and this is a competitive theme deck based on THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH.
I play with the amount of lands that I do in this deck to maximize my use of Land Tax and Quicksilver Fountain. I mentioned this earlier in the thread, but perhaps you missed it. Tax ensures I recover quickly from the deck's resource denial even without Narset in play; Tax also filters the lands from my deck, which is beneficial with or without Narset. For me, those are advantages. For you, perhaps not.
I've been wanting to design a deck around Shamhat, Enkidu, and Gilgamesh for some time. Shamhat's character is well-represented by the Raka/Jeskai color combination, something readily apparent, but perhaps you missed it. She civilizes (W) and educates (U) Enkidu via sex (R). Shamhat is human, as is Narset, and her role as a temple whore is reflected in Narset's Monk creature type. That's why Narset commands the deck and not Child of Alara (who will command my forthcoming 2001 deck), but perhaps you missed it.
Finally, I never wrote, and I certainly didn't mean to imply, that "stax=interacting with opponents." I wrote that that I enjoy Stax (playing both with and against) and that I like interactive games. The two are not mutually exclusive, but perhaps you missed it.
Or perhaps our views on the game are simply radically different. I want to be sure that I don't miss acknowledging that.
In closing, having played and won many games with my Narset decks, I've particularly enjoyed the games involving another Narset player, as they've often resulted in my deck being more resilient than theirs. This is in no small part due to being able to forward my deck's strategy and hardcast spells without Narset, something I'm able to do because I'm running the number of lands that I do.
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There are no divisions: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. -Galatians 3:28
If you run rocks over lands wouldn't that also benefit land tax? If on turn 6 you have 3 lands and 3 rocks and everyone else has 6 lands doesn't that ensure triggering of land tax? If you have 6 lands like everyone else then no land tax for you.
I haven't read the epic of gilgamesh but gilgamesh was a king and I'm pretty sure kings might a have jewel or two lying around and if narset is a whore maybe she gets payed with jewels and other trinkets?
If you run rocks over lands wouldn't that also benefit land tax? If on turn 6 you have 3 lands and 3 rocks and everyone else has 6 lands doesn't that ensure triggering of land tax? If you have 6 lands like everyone else then no land tax for you.
I haven't read the epic of gilgamesh but gilgamesh was a king and I'm pretty sure kings might a have jewel or two lying around and if narset is a whore maybe she gets payed with jewels and other trinkets?
illakunsaa, while Land Tax is a card I frequently tutor for, it (like Narset) is not a card that I rely upon. In the absence of Land Tax, given the choice between drawing lands I can play vs mana rocks I cannot post-Cataclysm/Razia's Purification, I prefer lands. I always have the option of not playing a land if I want to trigger Land Tax, and with G being such a popular color, I usually need not concern myself with it.
I'm also not a player to vomit my hand out onto the battlefield. Having cards in hand gives other players pause, even if they know that some of those cards are lands.
Finally, Stony Silence and Vandalblast are both played often enough that I don't want to rely too heavily on mana rocks.
If you're only running 29 land and you're not finding yourself consistently mana screwed, you are either a savage cheater or the luckiest magic player ever.
If you're only running 29 land and you're not finding yourself consistently mana screwed, you are either a savage cheater or the luckiest magic player ever.
Naturally I cheat a lot. I usually on purpose lose the first game and then I quietly select my starting hand before the first game ends. I also include bluff cards which I mulligang away so it looks like I'm legit. My favorite starting hand usually has plains, izzet signet and sol ring.
Or I just have 10+ cheap mana rocks to compensate for the lack of lands.
Also @4Lark how has Narset the planeswalker have been working for you? Also do you think medallions are good vs traditional mana rocks?
If you're only running 29 land and you're not finding yourself consistently mana screwed, you are either a savage cheater or the luckiest magic player ever.
Naturally I cheat a lot. I usually on purpose lose the first game and then I quietly select my starting hand before the first game ends. I also include bluff cards which I mulligang away so it looks like I'm legit. My favorite starting hand usually has plains, izzet signet and sol ring.
Also @4Lark how has Narset the planeswalker have been working for you? Also do you think medallions are good vs traditional mana rocks?
I love all iterations of Narset thus far.
Short of animating artifacts, I don't foresee medallions getting into a cage match with other mana rocks anytime soon. Context is key. Everything in its right place and all that jazz.
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There are no divisions: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. -Galatians 3:28
THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH
- STARRING NARSET, ENLIGHTENED MASTER -
A few years ago, I designed Judgment Day, decks based on the end of the world as portrayed in the Christian book of Revelation. This time, I went to the other extreme, presenting a deck based on the world's first great work, The Epic of Gilgamesh. It is a true genesis, a story from which many other stories have been drawn: the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve, and the deluge. The deck follows the Epic's tablets, beginning with the temple whore, Shamhat, and her taming of the wild man, Enkidu, through six days and seven nights of hot sex. Enkidu, now properly civilized, gains much new knowledge of life outside the forest and befriends the Uruk king, Gilgamesh. The two have the world's first bro-mance, but, alas, Enkidu's introduction to city living is the beginning of his end and he wastes away. Gilgamesh grieves over the death of his friend and seeks out immortality for himself. He doesn't achieve it in the way that he wanted, instead being immortalized in our memories forever.
DECK ORIGINS
The deck casts Enkidu as the opponent. Its goal is to tame opponents, educate them, and tucker them out with good sex.
Sphere of Safety is one of my favorite spells to civilize aggressive opponents. Unlike Moat, it allows your opponents to wreak havoc on each other's life totals and planeswalkers. With the right amount of enchantments, it can completely protect you and your permanents from combat damage.
To educate opponents, we force them to draw cards. If this doesn't deck them, there is still a price to pay for all that newfound knowledge. Keeping opponents hands full also means huge damage triggers for Sword of War and Peace.
And then there's the sex. Despite being a named character in The Epic of Gilgamesh, the deck doesn't include a card for Enkidu, the wild man civilized through hot sex with Shamhat, our temple whore. Instead, Shamhat uses her womanly powers of Persuasion on an opponent's creature.
Now, Shamhat and Enkidu didn't just have one night of hot sex. Oh no. "For six days and seven nights they lay together"! Sex is great and all, but a week of it is not only exhausting, tapping your energy, it's difficult to even think about anything else when you're doing it. (And if your mind is wandering, then it's not good sex.)
Shamhat, Temple Whore
1x Narset, Enlightened Master
1x Narset Transcendent
"I will proclaim to the world
the deeds of Gilgamesh."
1x Fact or Fiction
"This was the man to whom
all things were known…"
1x Enter the Infinite
1x Omniscience
1x Recurring Insight
"When the gods created
Gilgamesh they gave him
a perfect body.
Shamash the glorious sun
endowed him with beauty,
Adad the god of the storm
endowed him with courage…"
1x Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer
"In Uruk he built walls,
a great rampart…"
1x Bulwark
"…and the inner wall,
it has no equal."
1x Sphere of Safety
"…nor the temple
of blessed Eanna"
1x Honden of Seeing Winds
"…let Shamhat's
woman's power
overpower Enkidu."
1x Persuasion
"Shamhat welcomed
Enkidu's eagerness…"
1x Leyline of Anticipation
"For six days
and seven nights
they lay together…"
1x Back to Basics
1x Frozen Æther
1x Kismet
1x Static Orb
1x Stony Silence
1x Stranglehold
1x Torpor Orb
"And now the
wild creatures
had all fled away…"
1x Final Judgment
1x Path to Exile
1x Swords to Plowshares
"…Enkidu was grown weak,
for wisdom was in him"
1x Meishin, the Mind Cage
"You are wise, Enkidu,
and now you have become
like a god."
1x Forced Fruition
1x Well of Ideas
"…Gilgamesh will know
in his dreams that
you are coming."
1x Thassa, God of the Sea
to Shamhat's words
with care.
It was good advice
that she gave."
1x Enlightened Tutor
1x Mystical Tutor
"Gilgamesh lords it
over the people…"
1x Act of Authority
1x Council's Judgment
1x Return to Dust
"When Humbaba roars
it is like the torrent
of the storm,
his breath is like fire,
and his jaws are death itself."
1x Ajani Vengeant
"The craftsmen cast great
swords with blades of six
score pounds each one, with
pommels and hilts
of thirty pounds."
1x Sword of Feast and Famine
1x Sword of War and Peace
"They cast for Gilgamesh
the axe ‘Might of Heroes'…"
1x Obsidian Battle-Axe
"…Gilgamesh put on his
breastplate,
‘The Voice of Heroes',
of thirty shekels' weight"
1x Empyrial Plate
"Ishtar, our lady of love
and war, fell into
a bitter rage,
she went up to high heaven."
1x Elspeth, Sun's Champion
"So the gods agreed
to exterminate mankind."
1x Cataclysm
1x Razia's Purification
"Utnapishtim, in the evening,
when the rider of the storm
sends down the destroying rain,
enter the boat and
batten her down."
1x Solitary Confinement
"A stupor of despair went up
to heaven when the god of
the storm turned
daylight to darkness…"
1x Keranos, God of Storms
"…when he smashed the land
like a cup."
1x Global Ruin
1x Thoughts of Ruin
"For six days and
six nights the winds blew,
torrent and tempest and
flood overwhelmed the world,
tempest and flood raged
together like warring hosts."
1x Quicksilver Fountain
1x Rising Waters
"Utnapishtim loosed a raven,
she saw that the
waters had retreated…"
1x Crucible of Worlds
1x Faith's Reward
1x Land Tax
1x Teferi, Temporal Archmage
"…the gods took Utnapishtim
after the deluge; and they
set him to live in the
land of Dilmun, in the garden
of the sun; and to him alone
of men they gave
everlasting life."
1x Honden of Cleansing Fire
"Gilgamesh went a long journey,
was weary, worn out with labour,
and returning engraved
on a stone the whole story."
1x Spellbook
"The father of the gods
gave Gilgamesh unexampled
supremacy over the people…"
1x Beacon of Tomorrows
which no fugitive returns"
1x Cerebral Vortex
1x Laboratory Maniac
1x Master the Way
"The king has laid
himself down
and will not rise again…"
1x Rest in Peace
TEMPLE RELICS
1x Chromatic Lantern
1x Gilded Lotus
"Shamhat, you shall have
your desire from the
heap in the treasury."
1x Pearl Medallion
1x Sapphire Medallion
"A ring for your hand
and a robe shall be yours."
1x Sol Ring
1x Whispersilk Cloak
STRONG-WALLED URUK
1x Ancient Tomb
1x Cascade Bluffs
1x Cavern of Souls
1x Command Tower
1x Hallowed Fountain
1x High Market
9x Island
1x Kor Haven
1x Maze of Ith
5x Mountain
1x Mystic Gate
10x Plains
1x Reliquary Tower
1x Rugged Prairie
1x Sacred Foundry
1x Steam Vents
1x Strip Mine
BY CARD TYPE
1x Narset, Enlightened Master
Enchantment (20)
1x Act of Authority
1x Back to Basics
1x Bulwark
1x Forced Fruition
1x Frozen Æther
1x Honden of Cleansing Fire
1x Honden of Seeing Winds
1x Kismet
1x Land Tax
1x Leyline of Anticipation
1x Meishin, the Mind Cage
1x Omniscience
1x Persuasion
1x Rest in Peace
1x Rising Waters
1x Solitary Confinement
1x Sphere of Safety
1x Stony Silence
1x Stranglehold
1x Well of Ideas
Instant (8)
1x Cerebral Vortex
1x Enlightened Tutor
1x Fact or Fiction
1x Faith's Reward
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Path to Exile
1x Return to Dust
1x Swords to Plowshares
1x Ancient Tomb
1x Cascade Bluffs
1x Cavern of Souls
1x Command Tower
1x Hallowed Fountain
1x High Market
9x Island
1x Kor Haven
1x Maze of Ith
5x Mountain
1x Mystic Gate
10x Plains
1x Reliquary Tower
1x Rugged Prairie
1x Sacred Foundry
1x Steam Vents
1x Strip Mine
Sorcery (10)
1x Beacon of Tomorrows
1x Cataclysm
1x Council's Judgment
1x Enter the Infinite
1x Final Judgment
1x Global Ruin
1x Master the Way
1x Razia's Purification
1x Recurring Insight
1x Thoughts of Ruin
1x Chromatic Lantern
1x Crucible of Worlds
1x Empyrial Plate
1x Gilded Lotus
1x Obsidian Battle-Axe
1x Pearl Medallion
1x Quicksilver Fountain
1x Sapphire Medallion
1x Sol Ring
1x Spellbook
1x Static Orb
1x Sword of Feast and Famine
1x Sword of War and Peace
1x Torpor Orb
1x Whispersilk Cloak
Creature (4)
1x Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer
1x Keranos, God of Storms
1x Laboratory Maniac
1x Thassa, God of the Sea
Planeswalker (4)
1x Ajani Vengeant
1x Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1x Narset Transcendent
1x Teferi, Temporal Archmage
Beacon of Tomorrows
Gilded Lotus
Narset Transcendent
REMOVED
Epicenter
Coalition Relic
Flooded Strand
Beacon of Tomorrows (this is the only Time Warp effect the deck wants)
Gilded Lotus (works better with Static Orb)
REMOVED
Epicenter (useless with Rest in Peace on the battlefield)
Coalition Relic (benefit hindered by Static Orb)
The best compliment this deck has received was an opponent calling it "the fairest Narset deck they'd ever seen!" The deck's funniest moment so far was taking out an opponent who'd just cast Enter the Infinite. When their spell resolved, we cast Cerebral Vortex!
This deck destroys no lands.
Why destroy what must be sacrificed? Or kept tapped? Or turned into an Island?
My narset deck runs like 29.
What makes each of my Narset decks stand out from the crowd is their utter indifference to casting Narset or keeping Narset in play.
That's why my Narset decks run so many lands. 'Cos I don't rely on my commander to cast spells for free.
I credit each deck's 40% win rate to this commander-free resilience. Sure, I might win more games — or even have turn 0 kills — if I reduced the land count and went for a more glass cannon approach, but, my love of Stax notwithstanding, I actually enjoy interacting with my opponents.
I don't play games to inevitably win. I play them to play, and for the challenge of playing.
Did any of the above answer your query?
I run cheap 2 cmc or less mana rocks in my narset deck. Rocks with lands total to 40 mana sources.
Why run 40 lands when there is no particular advantage to do so? Lands are dead draws with narset's ability and they don't trigger prowess (kinda off topic here). If there is no particular reason to run lands then why run lands?
Also if narset is not that imporatant to the deck why call it a narset deck? If you swap narset for child of alara would your gameplay change at all?
And stax=interacting with opponents?
Perhaps you missed it, but I'm a Vorthosian Spike and this is a competitive theme deck based on THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH.
I play with the amount of lands that I do in this deck to maximize my use of Land Tax and Quicksilver Fountain. I mentioned this earlier in the thread, but perhaps you missed it. Tax ensures I recover quickly from the deck's resource denial even without Narset in play; Tax also filters the lands from my deck, which is beneficial with or without Narset. For me, those are advantages. For you, perhaps not.
I've been wanting to design a deck around Shamhat, Enkidu, and Gilgamesh for some time. Shamhat's character is well-represented by the Raka/Jeskai color combination, something readily apparent, but perhaps you missed it. She civilizes (W) and educates (U) Enkidu via sex (R). Shamhat is human, as is Narset, and her role as a temple whore is reflected in Narset's Monk creature type. That's why Narset commands the deck and not Child of Alara (who will command my forthcoming 2001 deck), but perhaps you missed it.
Finally, I never wrote, and I certainly didn't mean to imply, that "stax=interacting with opponents." I wrote that that I enjoy Stax (playing both with and against) and that I like interactive games. The two are not mutually exclusive, but perhaps you missed it.
Or perhaps our views on the game are simply radically different. I want to be sure that I don't miss acknowledging that.
In closing, having played and won many games with my Narset decks, I've particularly enjoyed the games involving another Narset player, as they've often resulted in my deck being more resilient than theirs. This is in no small part due to being able to forward my deck's strategy and hardcast spells without Narset, something I'm able to do because I'm running the number of lands that I do.
I haven't read the epic of gilgamesh but gilgamesh was a king and I'm pretty sure kings might a have jewel or two lying around and if narset is a whore maybe she gets payed with jewels and other trinkets?
I'm also not a player to vomit my hand out onto the battlefield. Having cards in hand gives other players pause, even if they know that some of those cards are lands.
Finally, Stony Silence and Vandalblast are both played often enough that I don't want to rely too heavily on mana rocks.
Narset Transcendent
REMOVED
Flooded Strand
If you're only running 29 land and you're not finding yourself consistently mana screwed, you are either a savage cheater or the luckiest magic player ever.
Naturally I cheat a lot. I usually on purpose lose the first game and then I quietly select my starting hand before the first game ends. I also include bluff cards which I mulligang away so it looks like I'm legit. My favorite starting hand usually has plains, izzet signet and sol ring.
Or I just have 10+ cheap mana rocks to compensate for the lack of lands.
Also @4Lark how has Narset the planeswalker have been working for you? Also do you think medallions are good vs traditional mana rocks?
Short of animating artifacts, I don't foresee medallions getting into a cage match with other mana rocks anytime soon. Context is key. Everything in its right place and all that jazz.