Magic's newest set, Aetherdrift, is right around the corner, bringing with it a slew of new mechanics, vehicles, and... gods? With Amonkhet being a major player in this death race, we are getting a ton of cool new cards set on the plane, including a couple of new gods.
One of those gods is Ketramose, the New Dawn, a 3-mana 4/4 god with menace and lifelink. However, it can't attack or block unless there are seven cards in exile, but it has an ability that draws you a card whenever you exile a creature from the battlefield or a graveyard during your turn, at the cost of one life. In EDH, this card is very flexible and could lend itself to a lot of different archetypes, but I'm excited to have a new blink commander in a non-Blue color combination. I've decided to build Ketramose as a slow, controlling blink deck that wins by controlling the board before reusing a game-winning enters effect over and over to win the game.
Ramp
Like many non-Green blink decks, this deck takes advantage of the increasingly excellent White catch-up ramp package. Cards like Knight of the White Orchid, Claim Jumper, and Loyal Warhound find lands when they enter, and if another player also ramps their enter abilities can be reused later in the game. Commander staples like Solemn Simulacrum also make an appearance, as well as a variety of mana rocks and Myriad Landscape. Finally, Realmbreaker provides some decent ramp combined with a little bit of milling, which will help fuel the deck's card draw engines and win cons.
Card Advantage
With Ketramose on the battlefield, many simple spells become card advantage engines. The big ones in this deck are going to be sources of repeatable graveyard hate. Cards like Lion Sash and Withered Wretch essentially let you pay one mana to draw a card as long as any graveyard at the table has targets, and cards like Ghost Vacuum and Relic of Progenitus do the same thing for free, although only once on each of your turns. Because cards like these are so powerful, the deck runs a few ways to mill your opponents to ensure these cards have plenty of targets, like Altar of the Brood or Screeching Scorchbeast.
Even without your commander out there are still plenty of ways to draw cards. The deck has a handful of small creatures that cantrip like Helpful Hunter, Spirited Companion, and Dusk Legion Zealot, which are great in the early game and are always great blink targets. The deck also runs a few ways to gain card advantage using your opponents' decks as a resource with some light theft effects. Gonti, Lord of Luxury is a classic card that can steal a card whenever it enters, Shelob, Dread Weaver can let you cast your opponents' creatures when they die, and Sepulchral Primordial reanimates a creature from each opponents' graveyard whenever it enters.
Disruption
While this deck is unfortunately lacking Blue for counterspells, the removal suite offered by the Orzhov color pair is unmatched by any other color combination. Most of the removal in this deck is either attached to a creature, like Necron Deathmark or Witch Enchanter, or is exile-based in order to trigger Ketramose, like Path to Exile or Parting Gust. There are also a handful of cards that fall into both categories, like Skyclave Apparition and Solitude.
In addition to removal, we are also running a discard suite, hoping to make our opponents throw away their win cons and interaction before they're used against us. These effects are all on creatures for maximum blink value, like Virus Beetle, Refurbished Familiar, and Hollow Marauder. When it comes to board wipes, cards like Sunfall and Farewell might make sense as they exile the board, but I prefer wraths that don't manage to kill our indestructible commander. I chose Final Act because of the graveyard hate mode, The Eternal Wanderer because of the added blink effect on her plus ability, and Vanquish the Horde because I've always considered it to be one of the best wraths in commander.
Blink/Flicker Enablers
While it breaks my heart to build a blink deck without Soulherder, we still have plenty of options for repeatable blink effects. Conjurer's Closet and Teleportation Circle are still on the table, as is the Far Traveler background. All of these cards blink creatures on our end step, with Far Traveler having the slight downside of only blinking tapped creatures. There are also plenty of one-time blink effects, like Restoration Angel or Felidar Guardian. Eldrazi Displacer is so strong that I've purposely included a couple of mediocre lands in the mana base to support the colorless activation cost, so if you're wondering why this list includes deserts, that's why. As for instant speed blink spells, Cloudshift and Ephemerate are cheap spells that can blink singular creatures, while Eerie Interlude and Ghostway can not only blink our entire board at once but can also be used to dodge wraths.
Payoffs and Wincons
The main way this deck wins the game is through attrition, stopping your opponent's attempts to win while waiting to draw one of your main payoffs. Gray Merchant of Asphodel is one of the best blink targets for when you want to win, dealing tons of damage over and over while bolstering your own life total. Going wide is also an option, with Abdel Adrian and Company Commander making lots of tokens when they enter and Uchuulon making copies of itself each end step. And of course, what Black deck would be complete without Syr Konrad, the Grim a payoff for our milling and killing that can also mill your opponents.
Although winning through infinite combos isn't this deck's primary gameplan, there are a handful of cards that happen to go infinite together. Creatures that exile a creature and bring it back immediately, like Restoration Angel, Felidar Guardian, and Icewind Stalwart, can repeatedly flicker each other, resulting in infinite enter triggers that can kill players with other cards like Corpse Knight or Altar of the Brood. These combos could also kill you with your commander if you aren't careful, as the trigger to draw a card and lose a life isn't optional, so make sure that you can survive if you try to combo off.
And that's about it for this build of Ketramose. I find this commander super interesting because of the number of ways it can be built though, so I'm looking forward to seeing other brews in the future.
Ketramose EDH | Commander | Brian Smith
- Commander (1)
- 1 Ketramose, the New Dawn
- Creatures (33)
- 1 Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward
- 1 Aerial Extortionist
- 1 Boggart Trawler
- 1 Company Commander
- 1 Corpse Knight
- 1 Dusk Legion Zealot
- 1 Dusk Mangler
- 1 Eldrazi Displacer
- 1 Felidar Guardian
- 1 Gonti, Lord of Luxury
- 1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
- 1 Helpful Hunter
- 1 Hollow Marauder
- 1 Icewind Stalwart
- 1 Knight of the White Orchid
- 1 Loyal Warhound
- 1 Necron Deathmark
- 1 Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd
- 1 Refurbished Familiar
- 1 Restoration Angel
- 1 Screeching Scorchbeast
- 1 Sepulchral Primordial
- 1 Shelob, Dread Weaver
- 1 Skyclave Apparition
- 1 Solitude
- 1 Spirited Companion
- 1 Sun Titan
- 1 Syr Konrad, the Grim
- 1 Uchuulon
- 1 Virus Beetle
- 1 Wernog, Rider's Chaplain
- 1 Witch Enchanter
- 1 Withered Wretch
- Planeswalkers (3)
- 1 Kaya, Orzhov Usurper
- 1 Kaya, Spirits' Justice
- 1 The Eternal Wanderer
- Instants (10)
- 1 Anguished Unmaking
- 1 Cloudshift
- 1 Ephemerate
- 1 Eerie Interlude
- 1 Ghost Vacuum
- 1 Ghostway
- 1 Lae'zel's Acrobatics
- 1 Parting Gust
- 1 Path to Exile
- 1 Vanquish the Horde
- Sorceries (2)
- 1 Claim Jumper
- 1 Final Act
- Enchantments (4)
- 1 Athreos, Shroud-Veiled
- 1 Far Traveler
- 1 Teleportation Circle
- 1 Tocasia's Welcome
- Artifacts (11)
- 1 Altar of the Brood
- 1 Arcane Signet
- 1 Conjurer's Closet
- 1 Lion Sash
- 1 Mind Stone
- 1 Orzhov Signet
- 1 Realmbreaker, the Invasion Tree
- 1 Relic of Progenitus
- 1 Sol Ring
- 1 Solemn Simulacrum
- 1 Talisman of Hierarchy
- Lands (36)
- 10 Plains
- 6 Swamp
- 1 Bojuka Bog
- 1 Caves of Koilos
- 1 Command Tower
- 1 Demolition Field
- 1 Exotic Orchard
- 1 Fabled Passage
- 1 Fetid Heath
- 1 Ifnir Deadlands
- 1 Isolated Chapel
- 1 Lotus Field
- 1 Myriad Landscape
- 1 Orzhov Basilica
- 1 Pit of Offerings
- 1 Shattered Sanctum
- 1 Shefet Dunes
- 1 Snowfield Sinkhole
- 1 Sunlit Marsh
- 1 Tainted Field
- 1 Temple of Silence
- 1 Vault of Champions