Pre-Portland Hammer Update (February)

Hello everyone, and welcome to the February update for Hammer! With the Regional Championship Portland coming up this weekend, the metagame largely cemented, I wanted to drop my most recent list and sideboard guide, as well as a breakdown of WHY there are some pretty significant changes to even the core. 

Azorius Hammer

Sideboard Guide

Alright, let’s cover the most significant changes from recent months… and the elephant in the room.

“Battlefield Improvisation card is unplayable garbage”

-Me, for the last 7 months

I was 100% wrong, and I would like to hold that L. Let’s break down why I misevaluated the card. I assessed Battlefield Improvisation (BI) the way I did. Firstly, equipping a single Hammer was often enough to win the game. Secondly, we weren’t playing Leyline Axe. Finally, we didn’t have access to Mox Opal. These have all created fundamental shifts in how our games play out, as well as our general gameplay options. We already had Aid, Paladin, and Forge Anew, and we weren’t even capped on all of them. Drawing too many equippers is less than ideal, and one that demanded 2 mana for a single use and gets blown out by a removal spell was pretty bad by my assessment. That said, using BI to move a Hammer and Axe is 11 mana, and immediately kills the opponent as early as turn 2 (even without Mox). Additionally, equipping Axe is incredibly important to run over random blockers, and BI does that really well.

BI is closer to Paladins 5-8, and in a world where we want to equip multiple equipment, BI fills that role perfectly.

“Okay, BI is good, but is it really REPLACING Sigarda’s Aid???”

Yes, and this is why:
Aid asks us to hold our equipment, and that goes against how the deck currently plays. Axe starts the game in play, and access to Mox incentivizes us to deploy our Hammers early and often. This tension is real and can lead to games getting flubbed. Additionally, drawing multipleAids feels pretty bad, whereas BI even to strap up an Axe to something is a nice chunk of damage. Keep in mind it gives +2/+2, so an attacking Stoneforge/Memnite go from 1 damage to 8. If you’ve got anything else, that likely means the game has ended.

I was skeptical until I tried it and was immediately impressed. 

Anyway, with that said, let’s cover the rest of the configuration.

Notes on current configuration:

Turn 2 Kills: Note that we can kill on turn 2 with Axe, Hammer, Thopter or Memnite, and BI/Paladin. My goal in this configuration is to maximize fast kills and redundancy.

-4 Memnite over Sentinel - Right now the most popular decks are Boros Energy, 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.

-2 Steelshaper’s Gift - As mentioned above, my goals with this configuration is maximizing fast kills and increasing redundancy, and Gift does exactly that.

-4 Surge of Salvation - Surge continues to be very good, and paired with BI is game-ending just very good right now. 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 note is that Surge gets better post-board when you bring in hate pieces like Needle and RIP. Finally, the ability to surge prior to activating an Inkmoth nexus to get a kill against an on-board bombardment is game-winning. The card is wildly flexible, and there’s a reason you see me bringing in every copy post-board against just about every deck.

-Nettlecyst - Cyst continues to overperform, and does a great job presenting a fair threat that you can grab with SFM. 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. 

-Forge Anew - I was playing a Paradise Mantle or a third Gift in this slot, but at the end of the day I value the ninth equipper over the 17th “zero” (I count Axe) or the 15th Hammer. I chose Forge over Aid because it acts in the same play pattern as both Paladin and BI, which removes that tension.

-Razorgrass Ambush - With fewer off-color cards in the 75, I like having 1-2 utility lands. I am a coward so I am only running one copy, but I prefer Ambush to Witch Enchanter since I like the ability to tag Tamiyo/Boros creatures and value the 4 mana 2/2 less, even though there is certainly upside to tagging Bombardment/Stony. Your call on this to be honest.

-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. 

-2 Rest in Peace - Completely shutting off most of Breach’s utility in addition to stopping their combo is huge. 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. 

-4 Hushbringer - The WB Sewers/Blink matchup is pretty rough between all their flexible removal, Phelia, and Solitude, and Hushbringer is the best solution to the problem. Typically they only have Pushes and Wraths as outs to it, and with 4 Surges post-board, you can play the game of “protect the Faerie”. The lifelink also means that it can race effectively if you have an axe equipped. Just beware potential flash blockers and opposing Razorgrass Ambushes/channeling Eiganjo. After finalizing my list, I believe you can run 3 Hushbringers and 4 Consign, but I believe that Surge does a reasonable Consign impression against Eldrazi, and we get more value out of the 4th Hushbringer than we do the 4th Consign.

-3 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. 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.

-0 Orim’s Chant - The more I played against breach, the less impressed I was by Chant. While it did a good job at stopping exactly Breach, they could often just grind us out and we would watch with Chant stuck in our hand. I prefer Wear//Tear as a similar option against the card Breach, while also having utility at other spots like tagging their Sagas.

-Grafdigger’s Cage - Predominantly a less effective RIP that can be tutored via Saga, this turns off Breach and Emry, and even prevents them from grabbing Haywire Mite off of Saga. It also has utility against Green Sun’s Zenith shells, and prevents the Frog decks from unearthing or manifesting dread off of Oculus (Oculus trigger with Cage in play will simply mill 2 cards).

-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

Hopefully you all enjoy Hammer and finding Commons from Assassin's Creed that seem to not exist anywhere in paper!