Why is Narset on Ikoria? | Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths 

Narset I love ya girl, but why the Hell are you on Ikoria???

Would also like to note that Narset was not "just another Jeskai monk" she was their Khan.

Spoilers (But not really) from the story: She actually makes another cameo in the book during Jirina's POV: "The people were of all sorts, too, from traders wearing the flamboyant Skysail styles to soberly dressed Drannith merchants and masked hunters with their huge, spiked weapons, along with many others Jirina couldn’t identify. At a stall selling used books, an imposing woman with long, dark hair dressed in flowing silks flipped through one volume after another, to the rising irritation of the shopkeeper. As the crowd swelled around the stall, the woman assembled a stack of volumes nearly taller than she was, paid the surprised vendor, and walked briskly away with the whole thing effortlessly balanced in her arms." Perhaps she is there simply to gather stories or learn the land's history? Maybe it's her turn for Tamiyo's story-circle and she's trying to find something interesting to talk about?

Narset is training on Ikoria too go Super Narset! Will Narset reach a new level of power? Find out next time on MAGIC THE GATHERING Z!

Narset is Jeskai, she is a martial artist and a sage, and Tarkir showed she is obsessed with finding obscure and hidden knowledge. Of course a puzzle like Ikoria would attract her to it, as well as being a place where she can test her martial prowess.

Imagine if Vivian Reed enchanted her arrows with dragons. I was once a plainswalker like you until I took a dragon to the knee

So excited another Narset for my Narset commander deck!!

It's rlly blurry but Narset looks much older in this artwork, wish there was some consistency with that, 1st timeline enlightened master Narset (including secret lair version) looks older with a white hair streak, but then she looks much younger in 2nd timeline in Narset Transcendent, Parter of Veils, etc. But now as the card implies she looks way ancient

Well with rotation soon Narset and Teferi are going to leave standard so of course we needed to make another Narset and Teferi (the next core set)... we heard you guys love the pair -Wizards of the Coast But in seriousness, I’m thinking it’s mostly the fact that she is a wedge walker and with the other two walkers being creature focused they needed a spell focus walker to not upset the aggro/midrange v control dichotomy. Why she is here story wise I have no clue but as a “we need a spells walker to balance out the creature walkers” and as a callback to the previous wedge set it makes sense

Narset is by far my favorite mtg character, but the only reason I can think of for her coming to ikoria is to train to be a warrior once again. She had lost her red mana, so maybe she's tossing herself into the thick of it in order to regain her old ferocity. Maybe she is training to return to tarkir and overthrow the dragons? I have a feeling the jeskai ultimatum might provide some insight

She is in Ikoria because she sells.....

Maybe she's there to train against larger monsters. Perhaps to return to Tarkir to tell Ojuti about the things she learned outside of the plane. Maybe we'll see Tarkir again one day.

Really enjoying your Ikoria content, keep it up!

I mean, I would assume Narset's inclusion was for color pie balance reasons among the planeswalkers, really. They already had red and green planeswalkers, and in recent sets they've been wanting at least four of the colors to be represented on planeswalker cards. So they needed some combination of white, blue, and black for the final planeswalker. Narset was a natural fit, given she's also from a wedge plane (kind of). We also see that she's gained the red in her color pie back, after being white/blue in Dragons of Tarkir and monoblue in War of the Spark. The "of the Ancient Way" epithet also implies she's learning more about her original self - you know, as a part of the Jeskai Way. As for what she might be doing, there's a line in the Planeswalker's Guide to Ikoria that talks about Vadrok - the WUR apex - burning a city to ash with its magical fire, which also erased memories of it from the minds of that attack's survivors. That sounds a lot like what happened on Tarkir, or at least it sounds like something Narset might want to know about. It's also possible she's looking for Illuna - the URG apex - to wish for more knowledge about OG Tarkir. Hopefully we see something to this effect on the cards? It seems like it isn't mentioned in the book, so that's about our only hope.

More female rep. They've been cranking out more female characters in the past few years than they can keep building interesting lore for. Diversity is fine, just not for its sake alone...

Fact: Narset was busy destroying Vintage when War of the Spark happened.

plainswalking not an exact science plus it puts her in a unique situations and look at angrath her was a traveler who got stuck somewhere plus narset is an inquisitive individual

So they kill Dack Faydon is killed without a card and Narset gets a card without being mentioned

Narset is a bomb in Limited. I thought she was pretty medium before I had a chance to play with her, but even if the +1 isn't doing anything, getting to use the -2 multiple times is game-winning, and not very hard to accomplish. The key is that it deals damage off any non-land, so you can pitch a so-so creature for something more threatening across the table, like a flier or mutate-pile.

She had one other purpose for being here, I forgot where I read it, but she showed Vivien to Ikoria. Best logical reason...to train...true reason...she's a powerful woman and fan favorite, both selling points.

I bet wizards thought ikoria and kiora were to close and would confuse the players that is why they left her out even tho she was a perfect fit!

Narset's one of my favourite Planeswalkers (for me, her being Autistic is a really nice inclusion given how they described her thought process during Tarkir) but seeing her here on Ikoria doesn't make sense from a narrative perspective. Maybe if there was some ancient lore she is seeking, since she's said to travel the Multiverse in search of knowledge and to learn of the histories of each plane, much like Tamiyo or even Huatli, then it would make sense for her to be on Ikoria, but as it stands with what little they have even mentioned of her, her appearance does not fit at all. Maybe a card will become spoiled that explains more, but for right now, it doesn't make any sense at all.

I really wish it would have been Garruk, but if it wasn't white she'd be great for a standard burn deck.

What happened to her spear or staff thing... I really liked the designs of jeskai staffs

Would be awesome if wotc was doing some foreshadowing here with narset doing some research or something for the benefit of tarkir, but I doubt they'd be up to something that clever

Could be that she is studying mana on a conceptual level and trying to learn what was lost about the Jeskai traditions of old through other planes where mana forms in wedge formations. It’d explain why her card in this set is in Jeskai colours.

I believe she was on Ikoria to meditate in Jeskai mana and try to wrap her head around her old past on Tarkir. Before Ikoria she was only ever UW since the timeline change. I believe we will soon return to Tarkir and when we do, Narset will be trying to revert it to its old ways and without being full Jeskai colors Im not sure she could or even understand she wanted to.

One quibble. Narset was NOT just another monk. She was the Khan of the Jeskai.

I think the story left unsaid is actually quite interesting. Narset knows that fate could have been different, but never experienced it herself. The Narset that exists in this timeline was brought up with the Oujutai clan, who stamped out the red aspects of the original Jeskai. This current Narset has gained a red color identity, meaning shes becoming who she was originally meant to be had the dragons not re-wrote history.

Other than having an excuse to print the card, there's no reason why Narset and Vivien are on Ikoria.

Storywise, Narset could be coming to Ikoria to seek the advice of the sage here to see how they deal with large threats so she can take this knowledge with her new found power back to Tarkir to face Ojutai like Shu-Yun did way back when (don't know if that's how you spell it). Her being on Ikoria makes sense in the mystic side of her character too, as little is known about these large crystals. Maybe she wants to draw power for Ojutai so that Jeskai can overpower the other clans back home

All I want is Nahiri to return in the next Zendikar set. No gatewatch nonsense

Whirlwind of Thought seems to imply that Narset is on Ikoria to learn more about the ancient clan magics of her home world's lost timeline.

This is my favorite card of this set so far. I can’t wait to make a deck based around it.

Maybe it's because she wants to find a way to defeat the dragons of Tarkir and liberate the clans

Narset on Ikoria was really lame. She didn't get many cards. She wasn't really in the novel. Her rational for being there was not explained. Narset comes from a world with huge dragons. But the huge dragons she liked were sages, philosophers, scholars, and warriors with great discipline. Not at all like the huge ferocious dumb brutish beasts of Ikoria.

Is it possible that she has been spending time with Ugin and he sent her here? I have a sneaking suspicion that there is something much deeper involved here than her just showing up on her own accord.

Honestly I'm surprised of her visit to Ikoria too but I find it cool to her character. First, in the mechanic sense, they needed a planeswalker to not be about creatures. Narset seem great at that. Second, She is BACK on Jeskai colors which, to me, means that she is learning of her old ways from the past timeline on Tarkir and this plane or the monster from it can "channel" that for her. Is even in the card name. Third, I think her story will develope more in future sets of what she learned in this plane which, I only asume, means we will be going back to Tarkir soon. (For those that think that that is not an option because Tarkir "is not that old to see again" or that the wedges world building was just reintroduced here, I want you to remeber that we just had Ravnica 3 times and we're about to see Zendikar for the 3rd time too. Which bring me to my last point. Kiora wasn't in this set because I think she will be on Zendikar next. As for Garruk I think Wizards are pushing him out of the "gatewatch" ideal planewalker type and have his own side story and character development. As you said in the video, this planes was made in part to develope the story of Vivien.

Narset is in Ikoria to kick some huge asses that's what.

I'm disappointed that Lukka isn't some kind of cat dinosaur beast planeswalker, that would have been sooo sick wotc

Narset is my favorite mtg character

@Aether Hub , again a cool and great video :) and an unexpected planeswalker on Ikoria :) I like your videos very much :)you are making cool video's my king.

Do you think ajani,garruk, or angrath will appear in kaldhiem?

jeskai decks just got a big buff

Perhaps Narset is trying to access the red mana’s powers that she had in the other history that she’s aware of, giving her some semblance of who she was?

Perhaps narset is searching for sonething. She will show up briefly every couple of sets, look around and then vanish. Somewhere down the line it will be revealed what she is doing and it will all make sense? Hopefully. Am I giving wizards to much credit?

This set has something in common with Theros beyond death: Both had one well-known planeswalker who fits well into the plane (Elspeth and Vivien respectively), a brand-new planeswalker that is native to the plane (Calix and Lukka), and one planeswalker who is known well enough, but there's really no good explanation why they're there (Ashiok and Narset). Perhaps this pattern will continue?

I love Narset, I will happily add this new card and her awesome new enchantment Whirlwind of Thought to my Jeskai themed Commander

I think having Vivien and Garruk/Kiora would be too one-dimensional. Narset might be there to learn the lore, solve the puzzle of Mutations and Bonding since the Jeskai are all about knowledge. IMO having 3 walkers in green who only care about big beaters would have been pretty monotonous. Having a "cameo" of a walker who is all about noncreature spells mixes things up a little.

What if Narset somehow died before War of the Spark (im just saying they killed Niv-mizzet without anyone knowing, and next thing you know, hes coming back to life apparently) and spiritually she is there on Ravnica and now Ikoria. She was an illusion(mono blue) on Ravnica, and now she is finding her way to come back(explains the white)

i litteraly called she was gonna show up like 3 days ago

1 emblem might not seem impressive, but 2 emblems will take out a Questing Beast, and 3 emblems will take out an Uro. See where I'm going with this? This card has the potential to turn every Opt into a Shock. And the longer you can keep her on the battlefield, generating more emblems, the more powerful she becomes. I can see this card being quite good in Azorius Control decks.

I started playing on the block and Ojutai and Narset are both my favs. Maybe Ojutai sent her to a mate for him/her(I think he’s a dude but idk)? Ojutai was the first to emerge from the Dragon Tempest. He’s prob just lonely and needs some dragon luv 🤗

Huatli would have been another choice for Ikoria, she could even give some kind of in-universe comparison between the dinosaurs of Ixalan and Ikoria. Narset doesn't even have any *mechanical* synergy with Ikoria. it's a set all about casting creatures to make bigger, nastier creatures... and she focuses on noncreature spells? Okay.

I love this content aetherhub where lore lives on youtube. What about old mtg novels lore a book is called arena

that is a good planes walker

I can understand why Narset would travel to Ikoria- Raugrin has the same colours as her native Jeskai did in the old timeline (which she's been looking into), but the focus of Raugrin is the Red (which she's missing), so it is more focused on what the Jeskai now lack of what they once had, while still being similar to what they once were. So she isn't directly linked to Ikoria's story, she just happened to be there at the same time as it occurs, same as Vivien, both of them returning to their respective journeys after the Bolas fiasco.

Being Ikoria for her makes as much sense as Lilliana being there. ZERO. The spell could have been mono red and be 10x better. I love learning the lore and they whys. Kiora would have been perfect as a mono blue here. I guess they thought it would be too obvious.

Seeing Narset in the set is nice. Story wise she doesn't fit you're right. But it does give a planswalker to build around for the cycling decks coming from this set. Fits right into the commander deck to just the way it's made. Even a standard cycling deck wants this right now. Also that ultimate is pretty good for spell slinging Jaski.

I get they want to use more planeswalkers but I'm kinda disappointed with ikorias creature types, theres still a few cards not spoiled but, I expected more leviathans, krakens etc but this just feels more like big cats and humans the set...they are really pushing vivian, she has gotten cards in almost everything except theros and eldraine...

I find Narset kinda hot in her past cards but what happen here? She looks rather old Plus, I guess we're seeing wedge in ikoria because wizards fucked up on tarkir. I'd would love to see wedge dragonlord. We would see the complete 10 tri color dragonlords.

Narset is my favorite character but I really wish her card arts were actually consistent it's very frustrating they aren't she looks 50 in this card but 20-30 in most other appearances even with the white streak she still looks rather consistently young. It's not like she can't be 50 but it's jarring to have an image of a character that's not consistent across sets. As for the card it's cool but underwhelming considering her previous iterations.

Her ultimate is an uninteractable guttersnipe. Izzet spellslinger would happily splash white for this card, and boros burn could play her as a 2-of for extra draw power and being able to guttersnipe multiple times. Plus she is another great addition to Jeskai spellslinger edh lists.

To me, either Kiora and Narset made sense or even better, both. Specially if made into commander capable cards, which didn't happen here. I love Planeswalkers as commanders, so having more options is good news in my book.

I'm alsof surprised she is 3-colored. The planesealker version of Narset had bever been Jeskai since she was part of the blue-white ojutai clan. Do thuis really makes me wonder where the red mana comes from

She probably needed to go somewhere to learn her original colors/wedge. And Ikoria is a place she found that has it, since the dragons most certainly won't reteach their people wedge mana. I would imagine most people striving to learn everything they can about their abilities, would be utterly enraged to find out they were limited and knowledge was sequestered from them.

She looks like a character from Mortal Kombat though.

It’s not a stretch to believe Narset would want to come to Ikoria. Perhaps she sees Ikoria as a plane like Tarkir and wants to make it a little better, a little less like the mess Tarkir is. Even though she isn’t in the novel, I have no doubt that Wizards will develop her story on Ikoria through the MTG website.

My only concern is who is the Planeswalker that Lukka interacted with on Ikoria via the Ozolith.

You're wrong lol, she is literally from a plane ruled by dragons. Which are in themselves giant monsters.

She will be banned for EDH due to the fact you can combo turn 2 and free spell yourself w a machine gun proficiently. See ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-s0ThK2zlTzQ.html for the combo.

Probably not as exciting, but the wanderer shows up in one card, blade banish. I've always been interested in the wanderer since war of the spark, so I hope they explain who this person is.

Well the card says narset of the ancient way, perhaps the reason she back in jeskai means through being on ikoria she is getting back in tune with these ancient ways of the jeskai. Being aware if the timelines. Training herself in the nature/animals of ikoria. Perhaps ikoria has a connection to her home? Both are asian inspired.

She feels real out of place, and all the versions of narset look different. I’m all for changing clothes when you do stuff, but I am more used to consistent design behind characters in sets

I am a huge fan of Narset and have been patiently waiting for her to appear in the lore again. Although I am happy she has standard relavent cards I am really hopeful that wizards will continu to develop her story. I am scared that all the card love she has been given will leave wizards to beleive that we are content with her content and not visit her lore again.

Shes a amazing character. But I think haulti or however u spell her name would've been such a better inclusion or garruk ofc

Vivien is so boring as a character. I would prefer somebody like Davriel or Garruk to get the main spotlight for next sets

Hope Narset still has her staff

planeswalkers... blegh

In my opinion Huatli would have been better she tamed an elder dino the beast and Dino's of this plane are different enough for a fish out of water story with her

I do love this version of Narsets Planeswalker card. But it was so freaking random when revealed

narset is like the least 'creature'themed planeswalker and yet she is the one appearing in a 'creature focused' set....

I think we will be seeing more of Narset in the future sets, maybe wrappping up the previous lores.

I'm okay with Narset since both of the other two planeswalkers already revolve around big monsters. Having all three would just be kind of same-y.

the better question would be.. WHY IS THE WANDERER IN IKORIA

Kind of interesting that twice in a row now they add a plansewalker in the set but then have them peace out like two sentences into the story

OH NAAAAAARRRRSSSSEEEEEETTTT

I think you are spot on Garruk would have been a prime choice, or even Kiora. But it is nice to see Narset again, but no lore!? Such a missed opportunity.

I was really expecting Kiora.

The real question is why she looks like she aged 30 years since War of the Spark.

If only Domri could still be alive

I don't dislike Narset, but i think Kiora would have been a better fit for this set.

Narset gettin older or wat I prefer Narset enlightened master art. She's younger

0:22 especially with her emblem

Narset didn’t even make an appearance in the set’s novel

=D

She has RED. Have the Tarkir monks got Red Mana again?

I just like how the wedges in Ikoria have a different centre colour. Like Tarkir was gWb wUr uBg bRw and rGu. But Ikoria is gwB wuR ubG brW and rgU. I'd love to see more wedges and shards with a different primary colour

Any coincidence that Narset, a character who's background/tribe is based off chinese fighters, makes a reappearance close to the premier of disney's live action Mulan? And not to mention her recently getting a secret lair promo

Her emblem by itself is a win condition in my Elsha deck. All I need is a mana reducing card such as Helm of Awakening, Sensei's Top and Elsha. Then I can draw my deck. Everytime I cast Top it would do the 2 damage until everyone is dead. Especially if I have multiple emblems