Ketramose, the New Dawn immediately became an all-star across the manyMagic: The Gatheringformats upon its release in Aetherdrift. Commander is no exception, with Ketramose being a fantastic choice to lead a Commander deck.
A Ketramose, the New Dawn is a unique take on an Orzhov (white/black) deck as Ketramose is an engine piece as opposed to building the whole deck around it. This allows some versatility in how you want to build Ketramose, from full control to blink. Ketramose works best as a blink (exiling and returning to the battlefield) commander, which is what this guide will be using in this build.
Altar of the Brood
Leyline of the Void
x12 Plains
x9 Swamp
Tainted Field
The decklistcontains 26 creatures, four sorceries, 14 instants, 14 artifacts, seven enchantments, and34 lands. Most of the deck are cards that either blink a creature or benefit when a creature enters the battlefield.
Key Cards
Ketramose, The New Dawn
The commander of the deck, Ketramose, the New Dawn is aninvaluable draw engine.Whenever acard is put into exile from the graveyard or battlefield, you draw a card. This effect is key, asit does not trigger once per turn, only once per instance.
This means if youexile something twice in one turn, you’ll draw two cardsso long as they aren’t a part of the same effect. Ketramose is indestructible, making it much harder for your opponents to deal with. The only thing that can get rid of Ketramose isexiling it, which is an effect not common in many decks.
Ketramoseonly triggers when a card is exiled from the battlefield or graveyard. It doesnot trigger if a card is exiled from the hand or the library.
Unlicensed Hearse
Unlicensed Hearse isone of the best graveyard hate cardsout there, but when combined with Ketramose,turns it into a draw engine as well. One activation of Unlicensed Hearse with Ketramose draws you a card while cutting off your opponent from anything important in their graveyard.
Over time, Unlicensed Hearse willbecome one of your best attackers. Since its stats increase for each card it exiles, it can get pumped up very quickly. You can activate Unlicensed Hearse at instant speed, letting you surprise an opponent with a blocker that’ll grow in stats.
Mirror Of Life Trapping
Mirror of Life Trappingdelays every creature that enters the battlefield from enteringuntil the next creature comes along. This is a great way to give yourself time to find answers for a problematic creature, especially if no other creatures enter the battlefield.
Mirror of Life Trappingaffects every player, so keep that in mind when you’re casting your own creatures, andmake sure Ketramose is on the battlefield before you get Mirror of Life Trappingdown if possible.
When Ketramose is on the battlefield, Mirror of Life Trapping becomes a way todraw a card whenever any creature enters the battlefield. Mirror of Life Trappingonly triggers on creatures entering the battlefield that were cast, so tokens or reanimated creatures won’t be affected.
Preston, The Vanisher
Any blink deck isn’t complete withoutPreston, the Vanishermaking an appearance. Preston essentially makes it soall creatures that come back after getting blinked are duplicatedin the form of a 0/1 Illusion token. Thisdoubles up on all their enter the battlefield triggersand in some cases, opens up the door for infinite combos.
While you won’t often use Preston’s activated ability, it is still useful to have, especially if you go down an infinite combo path.Preston has a great toughness to act as a blocker, all while continuously build up a threatening board state that makes it hard for your opponents to concentrate on just one threat.
Here is the infinite combo withPreston, Felidar Guardian,andany way to blink a creature.
Prerequisites: Preston and Felidar Guardian are on the battlefield.
Step 1: Cast any spell or use an ability to blink Felidar Guardian, exiling it and returning it to the battlefield.
Step 2: When Felidar Guardian re-enters, Preston will create a token copy of Felidar Guardian.
Step 3: Use the copy of Felidar Guardian to blink the original, use the original to blink any permanent you want (including lands).
Step 4: Repeat steps 2 and 3.
This combo gives you an infinite number of enter and leave the battlefield triggers, an infinite number of 0/1 Felidar Guardian tokens, an infinite number of mana (if you blink lands with the original Felidar Guardian), and the ability to remove all nonland permanents with Preston’s effectwith the infinite manaand tokens.
Each trigger of this combo will cause you to draw a card and lose one life with Ketramose. This can burn you out of the game or cause you to lose from not having a card in your library to draw, so if your life or library total is low you can cut the combo off by choosing a different target to blink.
How To Play The Deck
AKetramose, the New Dawn Commander deck is all about blinking your creatures and getting value from doing so. The deck draws a ton of cards, both with Ketramose itself and with cards that draw when they enter such asSpirited CompanionandWall of Omens.
While blinking triggers Ketramose, there are other ways to have it draw you cards.Relic of Progenitus, Scrabbling Claws,andGhost Vacuumcan all exile a card from the graveyard by just tapping themselves, triggering Ketramsoe to draw you even more cards.Exile-based removallikeAnguished Unmaking, Despark,andSwords to Plowsharesare helpful as well.
The deck’sprimary win condition is winning through combos. With how much draw power is available in the deck, you can draw to your main combo pieces very quickly. These are infinite blink combos, such as the Preston and Felidar Guardian loop along with theLeonin Relic-WarderandAnimate Dead/Necromancy.
The Leonin Relic-Warder combo works as so:
Prerequisite: Leonin Relic-Warder is in the graveyard. Have either Animate Dead or Necromancy in hand.
Step 1: Cast Animate Dead/Necromancy to attach it to Leonin Relic-Warder, reviving it from the graveyard.
Step 2: Leonin Relic-Warder’s ability triggers, use it to exile Animate Dead/Necromancy until it leaves the battlefield.
Step 3: Leonin Relic-Warder will die, going to the graveyard and returning Animate Dead/Necromancy to the battlefield.
Step 4: Repeat steps 1-3 for infinite leave and enter the battlefield triggers.
This combo willnot work if Rest in PeaceorPlanar Voidare on the battlefield.
The combos in this deck will lead to a win ifCorpse Knight, Wispdrinker Vampire,orAltar of the Broodare on the battlefield. For the Preston-Felidar Guardian combo, blinking a swamp withDread Presenceon the battlefield drains all opponents' life totals. For the Leonin Relic-Warder combo,Grim GuardianorElas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrimbeing on the battlefield can cause infinite burn.
Ketramose’s effect can force you to cut your loops early if your library is too light on cards as otherwise you’ll accidentally lose the game. If this is a possibility, you canuse a spell that blinks a creature until the end stepto get rid of Ketramose without having to worry about it so you’re able to combo off safely.
The biggestflaw of the deck is its low defense. There aren’t a ton of creatures in the deck that make for great blockers, so you’llneed to rely on removal spells and board wipesto cut your opponents off from their most threatening permanents for you. It is very reliant on its combo pieces, so it’s prone to removal as well.
