Hammer Update 4/13/2025

Hello everyone, and welcome to the April update for Hammer! There has been quite the shakeup since our last update between the Underworld Breach banning and the release of Tarkir Dragonstorm. Going into this update, here were my primary focus:

Underworld Breach is gone, so what decks benefit the most from that? We know Eldrazi, Boros, and Orzhov Ketramose were reasonable decks even with Breach around despite being bad against the deck. Additionally, Frog was bad against Breach as well as the other Eldrazi and Orzhov. Furthermore, there is a hole in the metagame for linear degenerate combo decks to jump into the fray while everyone figures out their sideboard plans. It’s looking like Storm, Kethis/Jeskai Ascendancy, and Belcher are at the top of that list.

That was my general take on the metagame prior to Dragonstorm releasing. While there may be a bigger impact on the format, the cards that are initially having the biggest impact are Ugin, Eye of the Storms in Eldrazi shells, and Cori-Steel Cutter in a variety of shells (Prowess and potentially Boros Energy look like the most likely versions incorporating it.)

So, where do we shine, and what are our problems in this coming meta?

I’m happy to see Eldrazi, Frog, Boros, and Belcher. I am also very happy to see Kethis/ Ascendancy, and Storm with the right sideboard adjustments.

Orzhov shells and Amulet Titan will remain pretty terrible for us. Thankfully early results are showing that Ugin has killed off Orzhov.

**The Cutter shells are still incredibly new so I don’t have a ton of insights into that one.

Honestly, the meta looks pretty promising, and while we will certainly have some polarized matchups, that’s nothing new. 

There are a couple new cards that I’m interested in trying out, but nothing fundamentally game-changing for us. I’m most interested in Dragonfire Blade, and a lot of people have asked about Cori-Steel Cutter. 

I think the Blade is genuinely interesting. Not only is it fetchable off Saga due it costing 1, but it has a strong effect in both the +2/+2 as well as the “hexproof from monocolored” protecting from every removal spell that I can think of with the exception of Kozilek’s Command (note that colorless spells are not monocolored within the rules). It’s equip cost is a bit high, but being able to grant hexproof on a utility equipment means that it’s at least worth trying out. Finally, note that this card plays exceedingly well with Aid, since it acts as a way to counter removal spells by flashing it in.

Cori-Steel Cutter is a very good card, but I am not a fan of what it does to our mana. Additionally, We can struggle to reliably trigger it more than 1-2 times. Obviously the haste and trample are very nice, but I don’t think it fits too well in the Hammer shell. 

Note that I may try some build with a bunch of Dragonfire Blades, Leyline Axes, and Fervent Champions since he equips both of those for free and ends games very quickly.
With that out of the way, here are the list and SB guide:

Azorius Hammer

Sideboard Guide

Notes on current configuration:

-4 Memnite over Sentinel - Based on the expected meta, I am not high on Sentinel. If Frog ends up being a large percentage of your expected field then I think it is a good inclusion, but I am not excited to play Sentinel against a combination of Boros, Eldrazi Ramp, Orzhov, and Combo piles.

-2 Sigarda’s Aid - I am willing to believe the meta will have less interaction (at least in the early days), so I’m happy to have a bit of extra redundancy in the combo pierces. I also like how Aid plays with Dragonfire Blade, so this is where I’m at right now. These slots could easily go to alternate interaction, Steelshaper’s Gifts, or potentially Forge Anew.

-2/2 Surge of Salvation split - As mentioned above, I anticipate less interaction, so moving the extra copies of Surge to the sideboard to add more linearity. I do think Surge is still the best maindeck interaction, but Spell Pierce would also be reasonable due to its flexibility.

-Nettlecyst - Cyst performs the role of presenting a fair threat that you can grab with an early SFM that isn’t as soft to interaction as equipping a Hammer. As I’ve said recently, it has gotten a lot better post-opal for a few reasons: 1. We have more cheap artifacts than before, so it is often bigger than it used to be. 2. It is a huge threat when paired with Axe even by themselves. 3. Having access to a threat that doesn’t require Aid/Paladin to be a threat is really important against decks like Frog. I’ve liked Cyst especially post-board where we often want to stick a hate piece and then equip it with Cyst to present a ~2-3 turn clock.

-0 Doorkeeper Thrull- The WB Sewers/Blink matchup is pretty rough between all their flexible removal, Phelia, and Solitude, and Doorkeeper Thrull is the best solution to the problem. That being said, there are a couple things that push me away from the little dude (aside from the Aid nonbo). First, I think WB is on the decline thanks to Ugin. Second, I think the matchup is so fundamentally rough that it takes too much real estate in the SB to fix. I’m fine just saying that the matchup is bad for us and working on the rest of the field.  

-4 Consign to Memory - Consign is the best card against eldrazi, and it also has quite a bit of game against Belcher, Cascade decks, and even Storm (if they are playing the new Dragon with storm). It can take a positive matchup like Eldrazi and make it heavily favored, or even give us game against Amulet. The card is very flexible, and quite powerful. 

-3 Drannith Magistrate - I mentioned that Kethis Combo, Jeskai Ascendancy, and Storm were all on the rise. Drannith does a ton of work against all 3 of these, and even has play against cascade decks. As long as there is a percentage of the meta where Drannith shines, I’m generally happy to have him.

-2 Swan Song - Swan song is effectively my choice for being a hard counter against Wrath of the Skies with additional utility. Since Song can tag Enchantments and Instants in addition to Sorceries, it means that I’m happy to bring them in against WB since it can stop an Overlord, Stony Silence, Push, Ending, Ephemeral, etc. Against Breach it not only counters Breach, but also tags Nature’s Claim, Flame of Anor, Rumble, and a variety of other cards. Even against Frog, it tags Pest Control in addition to Unearth, Push, and other counter magic. Spell Pierce is also a reasonable choice in this slot but I find it to be a bit too limited against WB for my liking. 

-2 Spell Pierce - With the format opening up to different archetypes, I like Pierce as another form of interaction that has an extremely wide arc. It is a reasonable card against a lot of the metagame, but the exact number of Surges/Songs/Pierces can easily be up to you based on what you expect out of your opponents.

-Grafdigger’s Cage - Cage is a tutorable hate piece off of saga which plays reasonably against any Emry deck, most storm configurations, and provides a good amount of utility against decks that leverage Green Sun’s Zenith and Graveyard backup plans (like Creativity having Persist as a backup) 

-Pithing Needle  - Needle is a flexible tool against many decks, is tutorable off Saga, and contributes to metalcraft for Opal, Paladin, and grows constructs. Similarly to my thoughts on Pierce, I especially like flexible tools such as Needle to cover a wide variety of opposition that I may not have anticipated. It is also an essential tool against Belcher. Quick hit list against the top decks:

-Energy: Bombardment, Ajani

-Eldrazi: Karn, Boseiju, Mite, Worldbreaker

-Frog: Frog, EE

-Belcher: Belcher, Tameshi

Happy hammering y'all, and I hope you get to crush some eldrazi nerds.