Narset, Parter of Veils – MTG War of the Spark Review

David
Fanany
Player
since
1995

With all of the spectacular things going on in War of the Spark involving explosions and elder dragons and Fblthp, I think a lot of us were slow to notice what Narset brings to the playmat. Both her abilities are obviously great against control decks – shutting off their card drawing and getting a stream of answers of your own will put you in a great position. But she’s also a combo card, because she makes any Wheel of Fortune-style cards absolutely lopsided – a card like Dark Deal does a decent impression of Mind Twist as long as she’s in play. She turns off the downside on Howling Mine, which already wasn’t that much of a downside in the right deck. And she even has the right color expansion symbol to be in a Peasant Cube, where I know a lot of people have been hoping for answers to the likes of Brainstorm! (I never understood why you didn’t just take it out of the cube, if it’s a problem, but Narset works too.)

Constructed: 3/5
Casual: 3/5
Limited: 3/5
Multiplayer: 3/5
EDH/Commander: 3/5

A one-sided Spirit of the Labyrinth effect is always a nice way to keep your opponents where you want them, and Narset offers that effect in spades. Her passive is a good way to keep opponents fair, and her -2 gets you to tools to help keep them down. She’s one of the more “supportive” planeswalkers in the set, and while she’s not an oppressive force, she is a pretty potent piece to any control deck that wants to make sure their opposition does Nothing.

Constructed: 3.25
Casual: 3.75
Limited: 3
Multiplayer: 3.5
Commander: 3.75