Deck and SB guide, effective 6/13/23

Hello hello hello everyone, and welcome to yet another lovely month to be playing Hammer.

***As a quick note, I have simply not been playing much "stock" hammer as of late, so I will not be updating that version. If you have any specific questions, I'm happy to answer those, so feel free to reach out!

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!

Lonely Hammer

SB Guide

Current Lonely Deck Configuration Notes:-2 Forge Anew - Go check out my LotR review for a more detailed breakdown if you're interested in my expanded thoughts. The short of it is I think the card is great. To make room, I cut the Outfitter, cut the Skill from the SB, and moved the third surge from the main to the sb.

-2 Giver, 2 Surge - This has felt like a strong protection package in the main. Giver protecting through a T3f has also come up more as that card has seen an uptick in popularity.  

-1 Paradise Mantle - Mantle continues to be the best it's ever been, probably even more than with Chip. Being able to more reasonably hard cast Solitude or Emeria's Call with a Paladin in play is incredibly powerful. That's basically all you need to know.  

-4 Drannith - Without Pierce, your combo matchups get a bit dicier. Additionally, with the removal of Moonlight, and the uptick of Rhinos, Drannith has gained a lot more relevance as a 4-of in the sideboard.

-0 Moonlight, 2 Orvar - Moonlight used to be busted against Creativity, but with the advent and popularity of Teferi, Time Raveler in Creativity, the plan against the deck has had to change. If we can no longer reliably be reactive, the plan needs to change to be more proactive. Instead of the moonlights, we have added a couple Orvars to enable the "just kill em" plan more reliably, and am overall boarding more lightly vs Creativity.  

-No "fair" equipment (cyst/sword) - Frankly, the fair plan is so middling that it isn't really worth the slots IMO. Additionally, the upticks in Leyline Binding and Prismatic ending make me like these plans even less than before. Plus, with the addition of Forge, it means that we have increased redundancy in our combo. Full commit.   

-2 Sanctifier: Card is very good against exactly 1 popular deck (Scam), and even then those decks are adopting more ways to kill her. I'm actively looking to replace this card, but I'm not quite sure how I want to configure this at this point.