Deck and SB Guide Effective 9/5/23

Hello hello hello everyone, and welcome to Wilds of Eldraine Modern! We started off well with a top 8 finish at SCG Columbus this past weekend!

With how the meta is continuing to shape, I'm quite happy to be on Hammer. I would be unsurprised for most popular decks in meta to be Scam, Rhinos, Tron, UB Control, Burn, and Murktide. This past weekend I played against Rhinos 4 times, Tron 3 times, and Scam 3 times, with a few other decks splashing in there.

*** As usual, 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.***

SCG Columbus top 8 Hammer 

SB Guide 

The terms ”Pile of Needles” and "Lonely" Hammer are likely getting retired, as at this point I think it's just stock and correct.

Current Deck Configuration Notes:

-Esper Sentinel - Echoing what I said last month: Yeah… don’t cut this card. People overstate how good bowmasters is against Hammer on the whole, and this is no exception. Definitely board them out when they are bad though. I am also noticing a resurgence of UR Murktide as well as 4C becoming more popular. Don’t cut the good cards from your deck for bad cards like memnite, bauble, and thraben inspector.

-Nettlecyst(s) - This card has honestly impressed me recently. With Scam adapting to address Sanctifier, I genuinely believe that cyst is potentially better than the WW cleric atm. That being said, I have simply not gotten to focus test the card enough to know for sure if I should just replace more sanctifiers with the cysts. Additionally, Nettlecyst is better now that we have forge anew and multiple needles to passively pump the card.

-Pithing Needle(s) - Echoing last month: I have historically disliked Needle vs. 4C and UW, the addition of The One Ring has made me re-evaluated this. That being said, I still wasn’t really happy with 1 copy, because you often needed redundant copies to cover the Ring as well as T3f and W6/Boseiju. The reality is that with the uptick in Tron and Yawg, I’m happy to have a pile o’ needles to bring in and draw naturally. Multiple needles hard-carried me against tron in multiple matches this weekend.

-4 Drannith - Living End has seen a downwards tick since its resurgence in the first couple weeks of LOTR Modern. With that said, the card is absolutely our best tool vs LE, and is excellent against Rhinos, which has been seeing an uptick. I would also like to note that I am experimenting with only bringing in 2-3 vs Rhinos when I am on the draw and leaving some more speed in their stead.

-SB Solitudes - While I absolutely love the card, I do believe that they all belong in the sb atm. You simply cannot really afford to draw them against UB Control, Tron, and 4C in the current meta. I would rather have the cyst and needle as effective 5-ofs for the time being.

-Sanctifier - While I have historically disliked this card, it is hard to argue with playing at least a couple copies in your 75 when Rakdos Scam is as wildly popular as it is.

I hope you enjoyed watching my matches this weekend on https://www.twitch.tv/anzidmtg!