Deck and SB guide, effective 8/1/23

Hello hello hello everyone, and welcome to a brand new post-Pro Tour: Lord of the Rings modern!

Looking at the meta here, we see some interesting data points, but the big takeaway is that if this meta holds, it is actually well-positioned for hammer. After all, I’m happy facing Scam, Rhinos, Tron, UB Control, Burn, Murktide, and Breach. Couple that with the poor performance of 4C at the PT and I like where the format is heading.

***As a quick disclaimer, if something (like The One Ring) is banned on Monday, August 7, I would default to a list closer to what I posted in the June update.

***I say this every month, but this is *especially important this month*, as the meta is very much in flux.*** 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!

“Pile of Needles” Hammer

Proctor Hammer

SB Guide(s) - check the different tabs to see the various builds

-Note that both of the above are Lonely Hammer lists, as Solitude continues to be a key tool against Scam, Yawg, Titan, Murktide, etc.

-”Pile of Needles” Hammer is the list that my testing partner iPlantz took down the ~350 person MTGO Super Qualifier with at the end of July.

-Proctor Hammer - This is the variant I was playing prior to PT LotR.

Current Deck Configuration Notes:

-Esper Sentinel - Yeah… don’t cut this card. People overstate how good bowmasters is against Hammer on the whole, and this is no exception. The bodies that Orcs leave behind is not much worse than the usual 1-mana removal spell people would pay 2 for against sentinel. Don’t cut the good cards from your deck for bad cards like memnite and bauble.

-Strict Proctor - I mostly like this card if you expect a ton of 4C and Amulet. You can see my thoughts on it here.

-Pithing Needle(s) - While 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.

-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.

-No "fair" equipment (cyst/sword) - Yeah, we need to kill people with either hammers, constructs, or Kaldra. The small ball plan with the fair equipment is so much less exciting vs decks like Tron and Yawg that the cyst/sword plan is just not what we want to be about, especially with Forge Anew acting as redundant equippers.

-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.

Happy bonking everyone!