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Fullmetal Narset

Commander / EDH RUW (Jeskai, America)

Mdilthey

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Artifact (24)

Sorcery (12)

Instant (24)

Enchantment (5)

Planeswalker (3)

Commander (1)

Commander: foil Narset, Enlightened Master

Land (29)

Creature (2)

In 2014, Arthur Chu broke Jeopardy, 48 years after the show's premier.

Arthur Chu remains one of the most controversial players in the game show's history. Many fans and contestants alike accused Chu of unsportsmanlike conduct, or worse, outright cheating. However, Chu broke no rules. Chu applied game theory to give himself a competitive advantage.

Chu's strategy was simple: after every correct answer, Chu switched categories. Since Chu knew which category was coming up next, he had a few extra seconds to think about the category, while his opponents struggled to switch gears to an unexpected topic. The lead was enough; Chu went on to win 11 straight games, and cemented himself as the 6th highest earner in the game's history.

Enter: The Fullmetal Narset deck.

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Fullmetal Narset models the "Paradox Academy" deck from Canadian Highlander, one of the best decks in a similar singleton format. A true port of Paradox Academy in EDH isn't possible, since the namesake card Tolarian Academy is banned. However, we have a similar reprint in Storm the Vault   that takes a bit more work to get going, but the pure power of Tolarian Academy makes it worth the effort.

Barring a Tolarian Academy win, our deck centers around Wheel effects to keep our opponents on the back foot. Like Arthur Chu, we're hoping that our opponents experience information overload, and lose track of their path to victory while we propel ourselves to a win.

The core strategy for Fullmetal Narset is not "Get out Narset, Enlightened Master by Turn 3." In fact, Narset is mostly a simple source of card advantage on an empty hand, and her presence or absence is mostly inconsequential to our game plan.

Our core plan is to drop as many mana rocks as possible and then refuel with wheel effects. This strategy can be repeated many times, and it's not uncommon to exile 3-5 wheels over the course of a game.

Each wheel helps refill our hand with mana rocks and draw spells, but it also disrupts our opponents. Any graveyard-based strategies are disrupted, since you'll be shuffling graveyards in repeatedly over the course of a game. Additionally, opponents can't productively rely on tutor effects.

With wheels, we're constantly generating mana advantage through mana rocks, High Tide, land untapping, and Smothering Tithe . With all that mana, we can cast more draw spells and more rocks to eventually get to an infinite combo or a really big "X" spell. Our most common win conditions are Jace, Weilder of Mysteries, Expansion / Explosion , Blue Sun's Zenith , and Mindslaver locks.

The namesake of the Canadian Highlander deck, Tolarian Academy , is one of the most important pieces of the deck. With Storm the Vault  , we can generate similar advantages, often at instant speed during our opponent's turns. A flipped Storm the Vault   can be untapped with cards like Turnabout , Snap , and Frantic Search , as well as Minamo, School at Water's Edge . It also has fantastic synergy with Smothering Tithe , letting us wheel into a million mana to cast our new hand.

Paradox Engine is one of the deck's most powerful win conditions. An active Paradox Engine usually chains us directly to a win on the same turn. As a backup, Dramatic Reversal and Isochron Scepter also lets us go infinite, which will win the game.

edit: Paradox Engine is BANNED now! I've switched to Mind over Matter and have made some small changes t the decklist to be less reliant on the card.

If all else fails, just cast Enter the Infinite !

Worldpurge is an incredibly powerful and almost unplayable card.

Almost.

To execute a perfect Worldpurge, you need at least 3-5 mana rocks on the field. A perfect worldpurge means casting Purge, and then quickly casting all of your mana rocks in 1-2 turns, followed by a wheel effect. As an example:

Cast Worldpurge . Play an Island, cast Mana Vault , Sol Ring , Chrome Mox , and Thran Dynamo . Cast Day's Undoing .

You are now 3-4 turns ahead on mana with a fresh grip of 7 cards, and your opponents just mulligan their best 7 cards away.

You can also cast cards from under Narset's triggered ability after you cast a Worldpurge , opening up other lines to a quick victory.

Fullmetal Narset is a great deck for a 95% meta. While any numerical deck ranking is highly subjective, the deck fits perfectly amongst other fringe competitive EDH strategies, like those found in popular Youtube series like The Spike Feeders. The deck is very budget friendly - all the most expensive cards can be replaced by similar, cheaper spells, and the core of the deck will still work.
  • Time Spiral --> Reforge the Soul
  • Force of Will --> Any other counterspell
  • Mox Opal, Mana Crypt, Mana Vault --> Worn Powerstone, Coldsteel Heart, Star Compass

Here's a potential budget decklist that keeps Omniscience, Scepter combo, and most of the wheels at just $100 total (at time of writing)! NOTE: Due to a spike in a few cards, this list is now above $100, but not too much!

To tune Fullmetal Narset to a true cEDH meta, add a Timetwister and a Mox Diamond . The deck is also highly resistant to stax effects, so you can profitably run Back to Basics and Cursed Totem and a bunch of other effects without slowing yourself down, if you want to play staxier.

For more casual metas, you can leverage Fullmetal Narset's insane mana advantage to play some of Jeskai's most fun and powerful spells. This is the deck that Mass Manipulation , Omniscience , Nezahal, Primal Tide , Kozilek, Butcher of Truth , Expropriate , and many other game-winning spells thrive in. If you want to make massive things happen every game, this is the shell for it, since you'll be able to hard-cast a lot of cards without needing Narset on the field.
March 15, 2019: Added Psychic Possession .

March 19, 2019: Testing out Goblin Welder . Welder can get you multiple Mindslaver activations in a turn, which can tie up a win all by itself.

May 15, 2019: Added all the new planeswalkers from WAR, and added a counterspell suite.

Yes, yes. Paradox Engine is banned. Let's show Sheldon and the boys that we don't need no stinkin' Paradox Engine to wheel our opponents to death! I'm adding Mind over Matter as a poor man's engine, Azor's Gateway as a second giant land to untap, Pore Over the Pages to untap all our big lands, and Omniscience just to look the rules committee in the eyes and say "Not today."

Cards out:

Paradox Engine , Paradoxical Outcome , Foil , and Ancestral Knowledge

Cards In:

Mind Over Matter , Azor's Gateway  , Pore Over the Pages , Omniscience

Thanks for looking. This deck is extremely fun to play and creates an interesting tension and frustration for your opponents. I hope you enjoy!

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Revision 16 See all

(6 years ago)

-1 Ancestral Knowledge main
+1 Azor's Gateway  Flip main
-1 Foil main
+1 Mind Over Matter main
-1 Mind's Desire main
+1 Omniscience main
-1 Paradox Engine main
-1 Paradoxical Outcome main
+1 Pore Over the Pages main
+1 Spellseeker main
-1 Teferi, Time Raveler main
+1 Tribute Mage main