Pioneer: Orzhov Ketramose - Deck Tech& Sideboard Guide

In recent weeks, a Standard deck has been gaining popularity despite not having achieved many significant results outside SCGCon Charlotte in March: Orzhov Ketramose, using the famous Amonkhet god that has become a staple of Modern and Legacy to extract value from various effects that exile cards.

With the amplified card pool in Pioneer, the possibilities with Ketramose, the New Dawn tend to grow. Cards like Vanishing Verse, The Wandering Emperor or Graveyard Trespasser are already well-known in the format and become sources of card advantage with the god, and added to the improved mana base and the possibility of including a Companion with Yorion, Sky Nomad, this is an archetype that has too much potential not to be explored.

Check out this article for the Pioneer version of Orzhov Ketramose, with a Sideboard guide for the format's main Metagame matchups!

This list is based on two distinct proposals: the first is to use the famous Bounce package with Nurturing Pixie and Yorion, Sky Nomad combined with exile interactions that allow to quickly enable Ketramose, the New Dawn while turning it into a constant source of card advantage. It is possible to transition to 60 cards by removing the bounce package, but Yorion, Sky Nomad has major interactions with many cards on the list while enabling the triggers of the deck's core card.

Maindeck

Ketramose, the New Dawn is the main source of value in the list, a threat that is difficult to remove with traditional interactions in the current Metagame, and also avoids most of the commonly played exile spells.

Our other creatures interact actively and, in some cases, recurrently with Ketramose.

Graveyard Trespasser forces a two-for-one to be answered, exiles one or two cards from a graveyard each combat, and still guarantees a life drain that compensates for the life loss of the Amonkhetian god's draw.

Skyclave Apparition interacts with the board, exiling a permanent and triggering a draw. Additionally, it can be reused with Nurturing Pixie or Yorion, Sky Nomad.

Obzedat, Ghost Council is barely seen in Pioneer and has one of the best interactions with Ketramose, where in addition to being an efficient threat, it also guarantees an extra draw and a life drain every turn.

Yorion, Sky Nomad reuses all ETB effects of permanents in play while being a threat on its own, in addition to also guaranteeing draws with Ketramose and even enabling it for a turn.

The Wandering Emperor doubles as a threat and removal and also guarantees an extra draw during your turn, and since it has Flash, it can also be used as a combat trick. In addition, Nurturing Pixie can return it to the hand when it has few counters.

The bounce package.

The interaction in this list mainly involves using Temporary Lockdown to exile the remaining enchantments and returning it to the hand with Nurturing Pixie to reuse multiple ETBs at once. Combined with the fact that Lockdown is a great card against Aggro and Sacrifice without being useless against Rakdos Demons or Dimir Ninjas, it is worth the maindeck slots at the moment.

Hopeless Nightmare and Nowhere to Run are the classic choices for bounce lists, with Nightmare controlling the opponent's hand and draining resources while Nowhere to Run handles the board, with the bonus of removing Hexproof in archetypes that care about this ability.

Thoughtseize is the best one-mana iteration of the format and the main card for keeping unfair strategies in check in Pioneer.

Fatal Push is the most efficient cheap removal in Pioneer. It would be possible to run Portable Hole instead to have more interactions with the exile, but the instant-speed factor and the insertion of Temporary Lockdown in the maindeck make it a more appropriate option.

Vanishing Verse is nearly unconditional and exiles several categories of permanents in the format, but the cards it doesn't exile, like Teferi, Hero of Dominaria and Zur, Eternal Schemer, can be quite punishing.

March of Otherworldly Light can be quite comprehensive, but under the condition of paying more mana or exiling cards from hand to increase its reach.

Cling to Dust, alone, enables Ketramose, the New Dawn as a creature if there are enough cards in the graveyard to pay the Escape cost, in addition to being an answer against Arclight Phoenix or Greasefang, Okiba Boss and also serving as life gain or cantrip.

Playing with 80 cards means requiring more lands in the list, and with 35 in total, Orzhov Ketramose requires the most untapped duals as possible. Additionally, a full set of Shadowy Backstreet ensures more consistency in enabling Bleachbone Verge while also filtering the top and feeding the graveyard for Cling to Dust.

Hive of the Eye-Tyrant also plays into the deck's strategy while acting as a complementary and resilient threat to sweepers in this list.

Eiganjo, Seat of The Empire and Takenuma, Abandoned Mire offer, respectively, more ways to interact with the board or gain recursion without giving up land count in the deck. Common targets for Takenuma include the one-ofs Obzedat, Ghost Council and Yorion, Sky Nomad.

Field of Ruin is a one-of to deal with potential troublesome lands. It is possible to include more copies, but despite the list having only two colors, this list is very greedy in mana colors.

Sideboard

These two cards are very common in multiple games, as they are efficient complementary threats that work across a wide range of different games.

Beza, the Bounding Spring is ideally suited to play against Aggro, but all of its features make it a decent creature in attrition games and a means of ensuring resource parity in longer matchups.

Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet works as a means of extracting more value from creature-destroying removals or trades in combat, while a 3/4 body with Lifelink is useful in games against Aggro.

Dawnbringer Cleric is primarily suited to play against Bounce, Enigmatic Incarnation and also in Aggro games. Sometimes, its ability to exile cards from the graveyard grants it slots against Greasefang and Izzet Phoenix, but it's not always mandatory if there are better cards on your list since it's a bit too slow.

Ghost Vacuum complements the graveyard hate with an effect that allows an extra draw every turn with Ketramse.

March of Otherworldly Light can be used against Aggro, but also in games where we need to deal with more threats that Fatal Push doesn't respond so well to, or destroy unwanted enchantments.

The Meathook Massacre responds to the combo of Ygra, Eater of All while being a relevant sweeper against go-wide decks. It is possible to use it on the play against Prowess, but it is notoriously slow on the draw.

Extinction Event works as a complementary sweeper and also as a way to deal with several large creatures with a single card. It mainly enters in Midrange mirrors.

Damping Sphere is a linear answer against Lotus Combo and also works with Quintorius Kand or any archetype trying to sequence multiple spells in one turn. While tempting, it is a poor side-in against Izzet Phoenix.

Liliana of the Veil plays in attrition games and also against Control decks, being the main tool to exhaust the opponent's resources in grindy matchups.

Defiled Crypt is the main recursion tool in the list, granting some useful interactions with Yorion, Sky Nomad and Nurturing Pixie and its other side can be used with Graveyard Trespasser to increase the pressure on the board.

Rakdos Demons

IN

OUT

Rakdos Prowess

IN

OUT

Atarka Gruul

IN

IN

OUT

Izzet Phoenix

IN

OUT

Lotus Combo

IN

OUT

Azorius Control

IN

Enigmatic Incarnation

IN

OUT

Mardu Greasefang

IN

OUT

Selesnya Company

IN

OUT

That's all for today!

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!

Thanks for reading!