Welcome Magic lovers!
During the last spoiler season, when Aetherdrift was fully revealed before its release in February, the card that immediately stood out to me as a powerful engine that could be built around, was Ketramose, the New Dawn. In fact, I wrote an entire article about it here.
Since then, it has made waves in the Modern format, where a playset of Ketramose immediately found a home in the Necrodominance decks. That said, with Modern currently suffering from a bout of 'one-deck-format' syndrome (which it tends to contract often), the black-white Necrodominance decks featuring Ketramose have struggled to make a huge impact thus far.
However, when shifting our gaze to the Standard format, it appears Ketramose, the New Dawn has been even more anemic, with next to no decks attempting to break the powerful, indestructible god. Until now.
With a top-four finish at the 176-player Champions Cup Area Qualifier in Tokyo, Japan that happened over the past weekend, Nakamura Kazuhiro and his Orzhov Ketramose control deck showed the world that a new dawn may be rising in Standard.
The Plan
A proactive, 'tap-out' style control deck, this list attempts to manage the opponent's resources and board presence early in the game with cheap removal, sweepers, and disruption, while slowly accruing card advantage with Ketramose, the New Dawn as it sits on the battlefield, shrugging off any attempt to remove it. The fact that almost every interactive spell and effect in this deck causes the opponent to exile cards, either from hand, battlefield, or graveyard, makes it trivially easy to continue drawing a stream of fresh cards via the Orzhov-colored god.
Starting at the bottom of the curve, we see two-mana removal in the form of Anoint with Affliction and Ride's End to deal with the opponent's early threats, while Soul Search can nab any non-land card in their hand that may present a problem later. In addition, the fact that it lines up perfectly against a good portion of the metagame by consistently producing a 1/1 flying spirit token against the aggressive decks is also a substantial bonus.
At three mana, a playset of Temporary Lockdown is ready to make life hell for any aggressive opponents. This ubiquitous sweeper is one of the most important tools in the Standard format at the moment, as low-to-the-ground decks like Esper Pixie, Gruul Aggro, and Mono-red Aggro currently make up over a third of the metagame, and having a sweeper that can come down on turn three to keep things in check against them is paramount.
In a similar vein, Legions to Ashes is a three-mana sorcery that can not only sweep away multiple copies of the same card, but can also hit any non-land permanent, making it a nice catch-all in order to deal with anything from impending overlords or Leyline Binding against the Domain decks, to Enduring Curiosity or Kaito, Bane of Nightmares out of Dimir midrange. The fact that it, like all of the removal in this deck, exiles whatever it tags is a very delicious layer of icing on the cake.
At four and five mana, we find a pair of The End, as unconditional, exile-based removal which can also strip an important threat out of the opponent's list. One spot up the curve, we also have another way to strip away the enemy's cards with a trio of powerful, black sweepers, Deadly Cover-Up, which provides a way to sweep away all creatures both large and small, in addition to making sure the most powerful card in the opponent's graveyard won't show up again during the game.
As mentioned previously, every removal spell and sweeper in the deck exiles whatever it touches, which coincidentally shuts down decks which can bring creatures back from the graveyard, like Jeskai Oculus and Esper Pixie, but which is also very impactful against many sticky threats like Mosswood Dreadknight or Enduring Curiosity, or creatures with death triggers, like the playsets of Heartfire Hero that all the red, aggressive strategies run.
Another interesting choice in this list is the four Cease // Desist, which may seem odd at first glance, but can be powerful tools when used correctly. Nabbing an aforementioned Enduring Curiosity or Mosswood Dreadknight with its death trigger on the stack is quite nice, while getting a two-for-one when the opponent tries to cast Helping Hand on an Abhorrent Oculus feels grand. It also gives this slower control deck a chance against the incredibly potent Omniscience Combo decks that have been rising in popularity in Standard recently.
However, the real reason for all the exiling is, of course, the namesake card of this Orzhov Control deck: Ketramose, the New Dawn. The raw card advantage provided by this new god is the reason why every removal spell in the deck was carefully chosen. Many of these exile-removal spells don't see play elsewhere in Standard for good reason; they're often more expensive than the card they're trading for, which is not how one should want their removal to line up. But with Ketramose drawing cards off of every single removal spell and sweeper in the deck, it's easy to forget about the downside of playing some of these over-costed cards.
For additional card advantage, and a little extra life along the way, a playset of Mazemind Tome is here to smooth out one's draws and quickly find the namesake card of the deck, in order to keep the momentum rolling.
The only other creature making an appearance in the deck is a pair of Beza, the Bounding Spring, which do wonders at shoring up the early game against aggressive decks, allowing the pilot time to set up a Ketramose and begin burying the opponent in card advantage.
The Mana
With plenty of black-white dual lands, including the new Bleachbone Verge, casting one's spells on curve is effortless. This allows the deck to also run a playset of Demolition Field, which is a boon against creature-lands, Fountainports, and even the 'Everywhere’ token-land produced by Overlord of the Hauntwoods to keep the Domain deck from casting Leyline Binding at a discount.
A pair of Mirrex is a great way to pressure other control decks without committing additional threats to the board, and they provide an excellent 'plan B' against those archetypes.
Unfortunately, the black-white creature land, Restless Fortress, is just too weak to warrant a slot in this deck, despite it being an on-color dual land. Leave them at home.
The Sideboard
An additional sweeper in the form of Pest Control provides another useful tool against all the one-mana threats in Esper Pixie and Mono-red Aggro, while more cheap spot removal, like Grim Bauble and an extra copy of Anoint with Affliction, is also very welcome in those matchups.
The full four copies of Duress, as well as alternate finisher Outrageous Robbery, are a testament to the deck's weakest matchup: Azorius Control. The hand disruption is key in the control mirror, while a haymaker like Outrageous Robbery can often be a way to steal a game out of nowhere against them if they tap out.
A pair of Ghost Vacuum does good work against Jeskai Oculus and Omniscience Combo, while a new addition to the format, Ancient Vendetta, is here specifically to hose the nasty combo deck. Stripping Omniscience from their deck is game over on the spot, so setting up a turn to pull it off is what the entire game should revolve around.
Conclusion
Finally, a new archetype that may just have legs in Standard! This deck is powerful, resilient, and its answers line up very well against what the other decks in the format are attempting to do right now. Ketramose, the New Dawn is a particularly difficult threat to deal with that can single-handedly take over a game if left unchecked. Nearly impossible to race in a damage war, especially when backed up by the deck's plentiful removal, and difficult to remove from play for many of the top decks in the format, this makes Ketramose a very scary card for many players to see across the battlefield from them. Take this list to your next tournament and show everyone that a new dawn is rising in Standard!