Kheru Goldkeeper is a confusing card. Despite being an uncommon, this may legitimately be the best Dragon in all of Tarkir: Dragonstorm. If someone figures out how to break it, the card could generate an endless amount of mana.
The answer to breaking this creature likely lies in casting spells from the grave with an attached exile cost. The specifics of this are a bit tricky, but there’s no denying that Kheru Goldkeeper has serious potential.
Kheru Goldkeeper
Kheru Goldkeeper is a four-mana Flyer with a very simple effect. Each time a card leaves your graveyard, you get a Treasure token. This is yet another enabler for infinite Gravecrawler shenanigans. You won’t necessarily need Phyrexian Altar if you use this card; any sacrifice outlet will do the trick since Kheru Goldkeeper will keep creating mana each time Gravecrawler leaves your graveyard.
The Renew ability on Kheru Goldkeeper isn’t worth discussing outside of a Limited environment. Five mana for what this ability offers is simply not worth it. While it’s technically better than nothing if you’ve got nothing else to spend your mana on, you should never be in this situation in a constructed format.
Turning our attention to Standard, Kheru Goldkeeper has a very natural home. Insidious Roots combo is a niche and incredibly difficult deck to play in the format, but Kheru Goldkeeper could be a massive upgrade to it.
Kheru Goldkeeper and Osteomancer Adept
Different Roots decks try to accomplish different things, but there is one that attempts to Fling a massive Plant for lethal damage. It accomplishes this by creating a loop with Insidious Roots, Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler, and Osteomancer Adept. By resurrecting multiple Surveil creatures, this loop will eventually empty your library while creating a massive board of plants. From here, you can use Voldaren Thrillseeker to end the game in one shot.
Kheru Goldkeeper fits into this deck like a glove. Now, you only need Osteomancer Adept to go infinite. As long as the creatures you resurrect keep milling cards, you’ll be able to amass a gigantic board while emptying your library.
The trick is in Osteomancer Adept’s ability. This, essentially, gives you a temporary Underworld Breach for creatures. You can cast creatures from your graveyard, but you need Forage in addition to their casting cost. This can either be paid by sacrificing a Food or exiling three cards from your graveyard.
Technically, exiling cards from your graveyard and casting a creature are two different instances of cards leaving the graveyard, even if they happen as a result of the same action. This will trigger Kheru Goldkeeper twice, creating two Treasures. Even though a total of four cards are leaving the graveyard, three are considered to be leaving at the same time. Insidious Roots decks already work using this interaction.
The only issue with using this combo without Insidious Roots is that you’ll need to find a new win condition. That said, there’s little reason not to include Insidious Roots in a deck like this since you still need to use a ton of Surveil creatures to make it work.
Miscellaneous Synergies
If you want to make a concerning amount of mana, you can use Kheru Goldkeeper with Titan’s Nest. Titan’s Nest can exile cards separately, which means that every single card in your graveyard can create a Treasure. Combine this with the generic mana generated by Titan’s Nest, and you should be able to cast whatever you want.
Kheru Goldkeeper can similarly create a ton of Treasure alongside Lier, Disciple of the Drowned. Lier gives each instant and sorcery in your graveyard Flashback, and will essentially make any one-mana spell free to cast. Imagine casting a massive series of Consider or Opt for free from your graveyard.
Cryptwailing, if you have enough creatures in your graveyard, will force your opponents to discard their entire hand for no cost. Disciple of the Ring can start untapping your creatures for free. Psychic Frog and Psychatog can ramp you mana. Woodwraith Strangler can turn all of your creatures in your graveyard into Treasures.
Tortured Existence becomes an infinite loop with Kheru Goldkeeper. Using this with the new Teval, the Balanced Scale or Insidious Roots should be able to create infinite tokens. Bag of Holding is also strangely very good with Kheru Goldkeeper if you’re discarding a lot of cards.
Kheru Goldkeeper also synergizes well with cards like Scavenging Ooze. You can, essentially, turn all the creatures in your grave into life gain and +1/+1 counters for the Ooze. The mana cost of Ooze’s ability can be handled by Kheru Goldkeeper.
A Great Value Piece for Graveyard Decks
Even if you don’t go infinite with Goldkeeper, it’s easy to create a ton of value with it. As long as cards are consistently leaving your graveyard, Kheru Goldkeeper should be a consideration.
The mana value of this card is fair as well. Four mana isn’t too expensive to see Standard play, but this won’t be breaking older formats as it’s too slow.
While this card has a chance of appearing in Standard, that depends on whether the other graveyard stuff is good enough. Roots combo isn’t a bad deck per se, but there’s a reason why it hasn’t appeared much at the pro level. Either way, Kheru Goldkeeper has an incredible amount of potential.
