Welcome Magic lovers!
Aetherdrift, the first of six Standard-legal sets coming in 2025, is already cruising into local game stores and players' hands in just a few short weeks, which means the pace of spoilers has been fast and furious.
While the entire set hasn't been completely spoiled at the time of this writing, there are already several spicy additions to the Standard format which got people talking, so today, let's go over one of the most potentially powerful cards that have been revealed from Aetherdrift thus far.
Ketramose, the New Dawn
With a modest mana value of three, this legendary god threatens to come down relatively early and immediately begin generating card advantage, at about the same speed as some of the other popular card-draw engines currently seeing play in Standard, such as Caretaker's Talent or Unholy Annex, with only Up the Beanstalk being cheaper to cast.
However, the fact that Ketramose, the New Dawn is able to trigger any number of times in a given turn means he's unbounded in a way that many of the other card draw engines aren't. Add to this the fact that, due to his indestructibility, he's much harder to permanently remove from the board, and you end up with a very respectable card to build around.
When it comes to the question of how best to trigger the black-and-white god in Standard, things get interesting, as there are many, many ways to do it. I won't even get into the countless ways Ketramose, the New Dawn may be abused in older formats like Pioneer and Modern.
Firstly, being both white and black means Ketramose is situated perfectly to take advantage of many of the removal spells which exile, rather than simply killing, a creature. He will trigger and draw cards off of commonly played exile removal spells like Anoint with Affliction or Blot Out in black, while Lay Down Arms, Soul Partition or Temporary Lockdown in white will also do it. With its indestructibility, is there a better white creature in Standard to slap a Sheltered by Ghosts onto? Now, the pilot gets to draw a card when resolving it as well.
Ketramose will also trigger from blink effects or transform cards doing their thing, like the Phyrexian praetors, or defeated battles. Despite no longer having werewolves in Standard, there are plenty of permanents which are capable of transforming to trigger Ketramose, the New Dawn, from Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal to Thousand Moons Smithy and Treasure Map.
The collect evidence mechanic also works well, with cards like Analyze the Pollen, Deadly Cover-Up and Urgent Necropsy already seeing play in Standard. Even an Abhorrent Oculus being cast by paying its pseudo-delve cost will trigger Ketramose.
Any repeatable effects, such as those found on cards like Scavenging Ooze, Ghost Vacuum or Agatha's Soul Cauldron, are at a premium, as they effectively allow one to trigger Ketramose at will. Even an Urborg Scavengers can do it in a 'Soulflayer'-style deck. In fact, post-sideboard games with a white-black deck will often include things like Rest in Peace, which not only triggers the god when it enters the battlefield, but will also now turn any Go for the Throat or Get Lost into an additional draw.
There are probably plenty of other ways to do it that haven’t been mentioned here. The point is, it's exceedingly easy to do.
Finally, consider that once seven or more cards are in exile, and Ketramose, the New Dawn has become a creature, it's going to be essentially impossible to turn him 'off' again, as we currently don't have access to anything in Standard that can pull cards back into the game once they've been removed from it. Importantly, Ketramose doesn't care if cards were exiled after he was on the battlefield, or if they were exiled previously. He also isn't picky about how they're exiled, and being templated to trigger from permanents leaving both graveyards and the battlefield means he covers almost all of one's bases. Essentially, only hand disruption which exiles, such as Dreams of Steel and Oil or the new Aetherdrift uncommon, Intimidation Tactics, won't trigger Ketramose.
Once this three-mana god is capable of attacking and blocking, it actually presents a relatively large problem for the opponent to deal with. First, its menace ability means that the opposing player won’t be able to effectively chump-block it each turn with something like a 1/1 fish or rabbit token, as producing multiple token blockers a turn in order to double-block the menacing Ketramose isn’t something that most decks are capable of doing in the vast majority of game-states one may find themselves in.
Second, its lifelink ability makes it almost impossible to race for most low-curve decks trying to close the game out with damage. If its pilot is able to ‘turn on’ Ketramose early enough in the game, whether it's by using exile removal spells or a repeatable activated ability, it can very quickly snowball one’s life total well out of reach of an aggressive deck.
Lastly, its indestructibility makes it a very resilient threat. Not having to worry about the most commonly played removal in the format that would normally be able to target a 4/4 creature, such as Go for the Throat, Get Lost and Burst Lightning, is fantastic. As previously mentioned, this allows one to slap down a Sheltered by Ghosts onto Ketramose with little to no fear of being blown out by instant-speed removal, or by the opponent getting their permanent back a turn or two later if they draw some. It also means Ketramose, the New Dawn never has to shy away from getting into combat with larger creatures, or those with deathtouch, such as Preacher of the Schism. Even the undefeatable Glissa Sunslayer, with her deadly combination of first strike and deathtouch, is no match for an indestructible god in combat.
However, fear not, for there are always ways to defeat even an indestructible god. Sunfall is still a widely-played sweeper which cares not for silly indestructibility. Sacrifice effects like Liliana of the Veil or Sheoldred's Edict will happily eat a Ketramose for lunch. Effects which give -X/-X, such as Terror Tide, will also slice through indestructibility. Stun effects like those found on Floodpits Drowner or Kaito, Bane of Nightmares can at least shut down the Ketramose from engaging in combat, if not stopping its card-drawing ability. In short, there are still plenty of ways of dealing with Ketramose, the New Dawn, from removal to countermagic, to disruption like Intimidation Tactics.
That said, much of the removal that can interact with Ketramose is often more expensive than he is, meaning the player casting him comes out on top in terms of mana spent. Sacrifice effects can be easily dodged by sequencing one's plays in such a way as to always have fodder on the board alongside the new god. There are also plenty of other ways to protect a threat that already mostly protects itself. Altogether, its abilities and resilience make Ketramose, the New Dawn a powerful draw engine plus late-game threat that's not going to be easy to either race or remove.