Sword of Once and Future

[Mookie]

Wouldn't this just be bonkers in Kess, Dissident Mage?

Looking at my own Kess deck (the one deck I would consider running Sword in), I'm running 39 instants and sorceries total, of which 13 can be meaningfully hit off the Sword. There are a few others like Increasing Vengeance and Thassa's Intervention that are MV 2 or less but not useful to cast. Eight of those are cantrips or other draw spells, while the other five are removal spells. I could run more spells to support it, but I will note that I already have a tendency to run out of cheap spells in my graveyard pretty quickly due to Kess.

On the flip side, the card it would be replacing is Robe of the Archmagi, and I'm not entirely convinced it's actually better. Maybe? I'd need to do some testing, but I don't think Sword's surveil 2 + maybe cantrip ever beats an actual Ancestral Recall just from connecting with Kess. Protection from black (and blue) does help get a hit in the first place though. Hmmmm....

[3drinks]

Wouldn't this just be bonkers in Kess, Dissident Mage?

Looking at my own Kess deck (the one deck I would consider running Sword in), I'm running 39 instants and sorceries total, of which 13 can be meaningfully hit off the Sword. There are a few others like Increasing Vengeance and Thassa's Intervention that are MV 2 or less but not useful to cast. Eight of those are cantrips or other draw spells, while the other five are removal spells. I could run more spells to support it, but I will note that I already have a tendency to run out of cheap spells in my graveyard pretty quickly due to Kess.

On the flip side, the card it would be replacing is Robe of the Archmagi, and I'm not entirely convinced it's actually better. Maybe? I'd need to do some testing, but I don't think Sword's surveil 2 + maybe cantrip ever beats an actual Ancestral Recall just from connecting with Kess. Protection from black (and blue) does help get a hit in the first place though. Hmmmm....

I think it is because it doesn't force Kess into the zone tbh, and surveil lends itself naturally to Kess. In my experiences, Kess doesn't go into the red zone because why risk it like that, just to draw cards? Even mask of memory would be better, and (debatably) Mask of Riddles probably out performs the proposed cut. I suspect the real problem is your instants and sorceries are too heavy, especially for Kess that can get double value for each spell. Translation: play more Opt, Preordain, and Expressive Iteration and less Jace's Ingenuity type cards.

That's my surface diagnosis for a deck list I haven't read. Maybe it'll help you make the switch.