I suspect Narset here is going to get a
degree of criticism because she doesn't have a
loyalty ability that actively defends her or
addresses creatures. I don't think that
criticism would really be well-founded - if
you're playing her, presumably your deck is
designed to take advantage of her first two
abilities, in which case you should have no
problem handling that side of things yourself.
I'm used to thinking of her as a martial arts
expert, so it's going to take some time to fully
understand the extent of her power in the field
of card advantage. When you consider the sorts
of impacts that instant and sorcery spells can
have, getting to use one twice starts to feel
quite unfair.
Today's card of the day is Narset Transcendent
which is a four mana planeswalker with six
loyalty. The +1 has you look at the top card of
your library which you may reveal then put into
your hand if it is not a creature or land. The
-2 gives Rebound to the next instant or sorcery
you cast from your hand that turn. These two
effects are very much oriented to a control
theme with minimal creatures and are very
efficient card advantage in most situations.
Adding Black or Red to take advantage of burn or
life loss is another option, though White has
enough removal to cover the creatures without a
third color. The -9 gives an emblem that
prevents your opponents from casting
non-creature spells. The ultimate is great
derailing many threats and even creature heavy
builds generally rely on a few support spells,
so dropping everyone else down to just creatures
or lands is very powerful. Overall this is a
strong card with a high loyalty that is
difficult to stop when used in a control theme
and should be fairly popular in Commander and
current format Blue/White builds.
In Limited this is an easy first pick in
Booster both as a powerful source of card
advantage and as a value choice. The +1 may be a
bit less reliable in the creature heavy format,
but getting a second use out of key support
spells with the -2 can be a massive benefit. In
Sealed this can be splashed if either Blue or
White are weak, though if both aren't strong
this belongs in the sidedeck as the creature
dominated setting weakens it dramatically if not
moderately supported.
