Deck and Sideboard Guide 4/8/2024 (Featuring OTJ)

Hello hello hello everyone, and welcome back to Modern. After the shakeup we saw when Violent Outburst was banned, the format has shown to be very diverse, and as such the list will reflect that by being a bit more streamlined and aggressive than past iterations.

While I think Hammer’s spot is generally fine, I think most powerful archetypes in modern are playable right now as long as you know what you’re doing with your given deck choice.

I am excited for the new toys that Outlaws of Thunder Junction (OTJ) are giving us this coming weekend, and I expect it to give Modern a little shakeup prior to Modern Horizons 3 in June.

You can take a look at the breakdown I did on relevant cards for us. Without further ado, here is my recommended configuration for Hammer right now for the list I would play this weekend. Additionally, You can take a look at a slightly more experimental list. While I don’t have a sb guide for it, it would be a good way to toy around with some of the more questionable tools. 

**Disclaimer: make sure to adjust your mid-match decisions based on the specifics of any list you face and use this as a guideline, rather than a hard and fast rule! Sometimes vibes > guide.**

Decklist

Slightly More Experimental List

Sideboard Guide

Notes on the current Configuration:

- If you are curious about why I’m off Solitude, please take a look at my March update where I go in-depth.

-No Gingerbrute, No Kaldra - Sadly, these haste threats simply don’t have the “oomph” that they once did. Why did they get worse though? 

• Yawgmoth nukes Cookie, and can even deal with the Kaldra.

• Leyline Binding and Boseiju have shifted the meta to simply be much more effective at removing the equipment, rather than the creatures. Additionally, Binding is very popular and simply cleans up the Kaldra.

• Lavaspur Boots are simply a much better topdeck, and can present much more consistent pressure. Additionally, they provide the haste utility that Cookie/Kaldra used to.

• Cryptic Coat largely replaces the evasion that both of these gave us. Additionally, the Ward 2 on the card means that it is quite a bit more resilient to Yawgmoth.

• Kaldra also used to simply end the game on the spot when you stuck it against RB Scam, Rhinos, or even Zoo. Now that RB scam is on a severe downswing, and both Rhinos/Zoo can race Kaldra with Scion + Leyline of the Guildpact, I am much less interested in grabbing the 7-mana monstrosity.

-Lavaspur Boots - Check my set breakdown for my full thoughts, but the tl;dr is that I think this card is quite good and does a lot for very little, plus you have more access to it than Gingerbrute, and is a much better topdeck on most boards.

-Fomori Vault - This is an interesting card that I am excited to try out. Like for the boots, I dive deeper into the card in my OTJ set review.

-Cryptic Coat - This card continues to overperform in a lot of ways, and has streamlined the evasion/stick threat package into 1 neat little card. Reiterating my comments from last month in case you missed em, “ It is like what people always wanted Invisible Stalker to be. It is a solid body on its own, provides evasion, and can even grind out longer games by returning it to your hand and re-deploying it. Another thing to note: both Sigarda’s Aid and Paladin allow you to move the Coat. Aid lets you flash it in, create a free 2/2, and then move the Coat to another creature with the trigger. Puresteel Paladin grants the “equip 0” ability to the Coat, meaning that you can freely move it as long as you have Paladin in play. Coat also acts as a fair equipment that doubles as a shadowspear thanks to its evasion.”

Additionally, the card plays quite nicely with the Boots, creating new hasted evasive 4-power threats every turn.

-0 Giver - With the addition of Coat for additional resiliency and evasion, coupled with lower numbers of Ragavans running around, I feel that Giver is fairly low right now, and would rather max out on Thopters.

-4 Thopter - Extra 0’s mean that we will go a bit faster more consistently. I’m about the thopter life right now.

-1 Memnite/2 Gift - The cut for the Vault was going to be either the 2nd Memnite, 2nd Steelshaper’s Gift, or 3rd Drum. I decided to cut 1 Memnite since I think the additional Drum plays nicely with all of the interaction in the SB, and the 2nd Gift is much more valuable the wider the variety of equipment we have. The addition of the Boots lead me to keep the 2nd gift around.

-2/2 Surge MD/SB split - I’m a big fan of going as fast as possible game 1 and having access to more protection post-board. The card is still very powerful, but drawing redundant copies game 1 can be a big problem. Fun bonus fact: Surge prevents all damage that creatures would deal to your dudes if there is a Leyline of the Guildpact in play.

Sideboard - The SB continues to be something I’ve iterated on right now, but this is where I’m happy right now with the mapping.

-2 Surge - Check the above commentary regarding the split. 

-3 Pierce - Pierce is highly flexible and slots in against a lot of decks. It is kept out of the maindeck because it’s dead in a higher percentage of game 1’s than things like Surge. The card is completely acceptable, and does a solid job filling its role as being better than Surge in specific spots, while still acting as nice cheap interaction.

-2 Ending - This card has been quite impressive in a lot of matchups, but specifically against Ragavan decks. If you want more tools for Amulet, then March of Otherworldly Lights is a better fit, but Ending is much more efficient against anything that costs 1-2 mana.

-3 Failure//Comply - Even though we’ve seen a fairly large downtick in cascade decks, this card really shines against Amulet Titan, and is flexible enough to bring in 1-2 copies against a lot of different decks.

-3 Totem - Yawgmoth is still quite popular, and this is an absolute hammer (pun intended) against them. Deploy a Totem, protect it with a Surge, and you’re absolutely winning unless you have absolutely nothing going on.

-1 Needle - Card is incredibly flexible, and I always want to have access to 1 in my 75. 

-1 Soul-Guide Lantern - I wanted a card for Goryo’s Vengeance decks, and SGL is where I landed. I like it more than crypt since it can exile something on the way down and then also pops for 0 mana, or you can cash it in for a card if needed. Crypt is 0 mana, but is a 1-shot and is easier to play around for them. Plus it lacks the buyout clause which can be nice. Relic of Progenitus is the other reasonable choice, but I value the free Graveyard nuke over the slow eating that Relic provides with its tap ability.