Magic: The Gathering‘s War of the Spark release has caused a massive shakeup in more than just Standard. Modern has seen decks such as Neoform Combo and Teferi’s Pool come to light using War of the Spark cards. Meanwhile, Legacy is being taken over by the subtle power of Narset, Parter of Veils.
Why is Narset, Parter of Veils seeing play?
Narset is one of the uncommon Planeswalkers to come out of War of the Spark. Initially, she doesn’t look like much. However, Legacy is largely comprised of fast combo decks that are kept in check by Blue decks. These decks run Force of Will and/or Daze as ways to protect their own gameplans but also to pressure linear combo decks into playing more interactively. To respond to these Blue decks, to have game against other combo decks, and to have access to Blue’s draw spells, a lot of Legacy combo decks also run Blue.
Due to this, Blue is the most played color in Magic: The Gathering‘s Legacy format. In fact, according to MTGgoldfish.com, the top three most-played cards in Legacy are all Blue: Brainstorm, Ponder, and Force of Will. We see that in Brainstorm being played in 51% of decks and Ponder in 49% of decks.
Narset enters here. Her first ability removes your opponents’ ability to draw cards – beyond their first – each turn. Brainstorm, Ponder, Jace, Grislebrand, Sylvan Library, and many other cards are all significantly worse if Narset is in play. Additionally, her -2 ability lets you see 4 cards and chose the best non-creature/non-land one. This is super important because Narset, one card, lets you see 8 cards of your deck over 2 turns.
All of the above makes Narset a strong Legacy card. It’s not just me who’s saying it, either. Check out this tweet from longtime Legacy player and Mythic Invitational winner Andrea Mengucci:
Welcome to War of the Spark Legacy!
Narset is the new Leovold, and just like vs Leovold the early days people will forget about it, Brainstorm and shame concede 🙂 List from @anzi104 in my #LegacyVEEDEO pic.twitter.com/oURhGJ9l4Q— Andrea Mengucci (@Mengu09) April 30, 2019
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