Hammer Update 3/3/2025

Hello everyone, and welcome to the March update for Hammer! With Regional Championship Portland behind us and RC Charlotte coming up fast, we know a few things:

1. Grinding Breach is clearly the best, and likely to be the most popular, deck.

2. Ketramose WB Blink decks have solidified as the best “fair” deck in the format, and is likely the most popular after Breach.

3. Boros/Jeskai Energy shells have been on the decline.

4. Eldrazi continues to be a strong option.

All that being said, it means my expected meta for Charlotte will likely be: 20-25% Breach, 20% WB, 15% Eldrazi, 12% Energy, and then every other archetype notably behind those.
With that out of the way, here are the list and SB guide:

Azorius Hammer

Sideboard Guide

For a more in-depth analysis as to why I’ve replaced Aids with Battlefield Improvisations, you can take a look at my February update, or watch this video where I break it down near the beginning

Notes on current configuration:

Turn 2 Kills: Similarly to last month, my goal of “maximizing your turn 2 kills” is still my highest priority when constructing Hammer at the moment. You can certainly build Hammer to be grindier, but this is not the meta for that imo. 

-4 Memnite over Sentinel - Right now the most popular decks are Orzhov Ketramose, Grinding Breach, and Eldrazi Ramp. Sentinel is medium to bad against all of these decks. While it shined against Frog decks, I value faster kills and metalcraft more than having Sentinel against Frog specifically.

-0 Gift - Frankly, I felt that I needed to make room in the sideboard for more targeted hate (4 consign, 4 Doorkeeper), and I believe that Steelshaper’s Gift was the most cuttable option we  had in the main deck.

-4 Surge of Salvation - Echoing what I said on the matter in February, Surge continues to be very good, and paired with BI is game-ending. Breach has fairly limited interaction for us, and being able to stop a Haywire Mite/Spot Removal from killing a key permanent is often game-winning. Additionally, the card acts as a time walk against Belcher activations. Even against Eldrazi, Surge does a reasonable Consign to Memory impression, as I found that countering Worldbreaker/Mycospawn/Emrakul cast triggers or K Command exiling your creature than I did about stopping the bodies. Also important to note is that Surge gets better post-board when you bring in hate pieces like Needle and RIP since it also protects those. Finally, the ability to surge prior to activating an Inkmoth nexus to get a kill against Solitude or an on-board bombardment is game-winning. The card is wildly flexible, and there’s a reason it is the card that I’ve shifted entirely to the main deck.

-MD Grafdigger’s Cage - Breach is a huge percentage of the meta, and while I am happy against them post-board, moving the Cage to the main deck to grab with Saga gives us enough extra equity game 1 that I find the cost of having a dead card in other matchups to be worth the cost of its inclusion. Plus I wanted to find another slot or 2 in the sideboard, and I believe Cage was the most reasonable narrow cards to include in the main deck configuration, since unlike Consign, it can still contribute to metalcraft for Paladin or Opal.

-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. 4. Against the decks that cast Stony Silence (like Boros), having a chunky body that doesn’t need to activate is quite important. Now we can even move it at instant speed thanks to BI. 

-0 Forge Anew - While Forge Anew would likely be my 9th equipper over aid, I simply don’t believe we have the space in the deck at the moment. The meta of Breach/Ketramose/Eldrazi pulling our SB in drastically different directions means that our coverage is thinner than I’d like. FA is fine, but I don’t believe it provides the “ooph” that an equipper needs in the current meta (since it only equips 1 thing for free each turn).

-0 Razorgrass Ambush - While you can certainly play 1-2 flip lands over some number of fetches, I believe having access to Consign to Memory on turn 1 against Eldrazi is important enough to further maximize our blue sources. Right now we have 2 Shocklands, 7 fetches, and fast Mox hands for our turn 1 blue. That is still a smidge lower than I’d like, but it’s where I think I’m comfortable right now.

-2 Wear//Tear with no Sacred Foundry - Tear is the relevant piece here, and ultimately that’s why I’m playing it despite not having a sacred foundry. No Foundry means our mana is a bit better, and we can still cast Wear on occasion with Mox. I like it against Boros, Breach, and Amulet, and I am happy to have at least 2 copies. Note that I am less confident that we want it against Breach now that we have access to Swan Song in the SB.

-2 Rest in Peace - Completely shutting off most of Breach’s utility in addition to stopping their combo is huge. Oh, and sometimes they mill over their wincons while you have a RIP in play and lose on the spot. Additionally, making it effectively impossible to cast Oculus/Murktide against Frog, and being the best graveyard hate in the format means I’m happy to play at least a couple copies. Since we’ve also seen an uptick in Hollow One type decks, it’s nice to have a bit wider of a range of graveyard hate than solely Cage.

-4 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. I liked Hushbringer when I believed the lifelink and “dying” triggers mattered more, but Thrull having flash ends up making it come out ahead. Note that since we cut Sigarda’s Aid, Thrull stopping triggers from artifacts entering no longer matters that much for us. While that piece is actually relevant against Breach, I have found other cards to be more important to bring in agains them. Typically WB only have A few spot removal spells and Wraths as outs to it, and with 4 Surges + 2 Swan Song post-board, you can play the game of “protect the lil’ guy”. 

-4 Consign to Memory - The absolute best spell against Eldrazi with some upside against decks like Titan and cascade shells that still pop up from time to time. While I think we can reasonably beat Eldrazi without Consign, I think that it is a large enough segment of the metagame to warrant the slots and really slam the door on that matchup. Note that I don’t believe you should bring in Consign against decks like BW because we already have access to 4 Surge, which can protect off of basic Plains.

-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.

-Pithing Needle  - Needle is a flexible tool against many decks, is tutorable off Saga, and contributes to metalcraft for Opal, Paladin, and grows constructs. Also an essential tool against Belcher. Quick hit list against the top decks:

-Energy: Bombardment, Ajani

-Eldrazi: Karn, Boseiju, Mite, Worldbreaker

-Grinding Breach: Emry, Mite, Grinding Station, Aether Spellbomb, EE, Bauble

-Frog: Frog, EE

-Belcher: Belcher, Tameshi