I've always referred to SFM as 'her'. I think most people refer to cards like Akroma or Emeria Angel as 'her'.
Also, I don't think girls shy away from playing Magic because guys use improper pronouns. It's probably got something to do with the fact that men and women are different market demographics (GI Joes appeal to boys, Barbies appeal to girls. The same can be said for video games and card games)
It's good, yes. It's better than good for its cost, yes. But it's only this good because of the quality of cards other colors get ... and it's still not even AS good.
there's never gonna be a good time to get into standard as a beginner, if a set just came out cards are more expensive and nobody else can give you advice because they don't know what's good either. but coming in late means you miss things like prerelease, game day, and the development of the meta, the observation of which really improves you as a player within a format. you just sort of have to go in when you feel like you're relatively informed/aware of your options and whether it seems fun enough to warrant spending the time and $. that's as good a time as you'll ever find.
to choose a deck/cards you wanna pretty much watch gameplay and find a deck that plays cards that have a good balance of fun, competitiveness, affordability etc. if that deck seems like a contender, just build it. worst case scenario, it's tier 2 but you have cardboard money so you can just trade it.
narset is good but she's kind of a win more imo. like, when you're at 8 mana, have the board stabilized, and have a grip full of counters or are just safe/ahead enough to protect her, then she's backbreaking (rebounding Utter End or Dig Through time is pretty gg)
you don't cast her on turn 4 in a control deck...unless you're already safe/stable, like i said.
idk, i think she's worth playing in control if you're in u/w but i think she's overhyped because she isn't as inherently powerful as JTMS. Hell even KTK Sarkhan can at least come in and immediately kill a guy while also being a clock.
it's still pretty early but i have a feeling that she will be an effective role player but not necessarily a format defining powerhouse or anything.
honestly, i don't think u/r control is all that good. some sort of u/r tempo or flyers, maybe, you could run some nice beefy haste flyers with counterspells and that might be okay, i think some guy played stuff like Icefall Regent and basically did "u/r dragons" with some ashcloud phoenix...that looked sweet actually.
but like compare u/r control to u/b control. you're casting magma jets while u/b is playing murderous cut. you're topdecking anger of the gods against R/G monsters while u/b got that crux of fate. yeah, it just doesn't seem as good to me on paper tbh.
as for what you missed, roast and probably stoke the flames are going to be crucial. jet and strike don't even 1for1 stormbreath, tasigur, rhino, anafenza...honestly i still don't think roast/stf are gonna cut it, creatures are just ridiculous in standard these days...but i don't know, i'd love to be wrong here because i do love izzet. i just see so many situations where you've got the mana, you've got the counter, and then you get into a PLA battle and you just lose out due to the other guy's spot removal actually being relevant.
however i had to consider the active board state of standard games, i think if you look at this card in a vacuum you might see 'oh it's a conditional enchantment that doesn't do as much if i'm not already in a very good position with tons of creatures.'
it also has to compete with other cards in your 75 and some people might just prefer to draw a removal spell or bomb or something that is a little bit more proactive.
Now, if you had a grip full of burn spells after a treasure cruise...that might be the reach you need.
a lot of the best token producing cards are pretty expensive (elspeth and brimaz come to mind) but you have cheap alternatives through cards like Hordeling Outburst, Raise the Alarm etc.
You also want a few Mardu charms, some good removal (murderous cut, hero's downfall, thoughtseize if you can afford them, arc trail against aggro, banishing light to exile big creatures)
the way i see it, it's either a dead card that does nothing (while a removal might have just won you the game instead), or you're losing card advantage AND tempo by paying mana to cast it and then essentially being down a card for it, which makes your hand weaker even after a dig through time.
Yeah imo your instict is correct, other people are just brewing rn and it ain't always pretty.
I think Sarkhan is better in a vacuum (SBD can't draw you cards and kill creatures) but SBD is resilient to white removal and has that monstrous effect which might make it better in certain metas/matchups.