Deck and SB guide, effective 4/4/23

I've got 3 words for you, fellow Hammer-lovers: Surge. Of. Salvation.

I'll hit you with the updated lists, but first we have to discuss the card that is on everyone's mind. There is a lot to discuss here, so I'll be tackling it in a separate piece this week. For those interesting in the tl;dr:

Surge of Salvation is the best combat trick/counterspell you can be playing, and you should play a minimum of 3-4 before touching Skill, Pierce, or any other reactive piece.

While it hasn't been seeing a ton of play aside from myself, I am strongly inclined to believe that Lonely Hammer (Solitude) is where you want to be. I will continue to update a stock list as well, but my personal take is that you should be playing the Solitude version if your goal is to win more.

While we wait for Surge to become legal, I would stick to the list that I won the Hunter Burton Memorial Open with, which can be found here.

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 Surging Hammer

Stock UWg Hammer

SB Guide

Current Lonely Deck Configuration Notes:

-1 Outfitter - Still kind of hate the card, but it does its job pretty well. I don't really like 2, but 1 has been a treat.

-4 0s- Removing the Memnites created room for Solitudes and an extra Surge. Additionally,

-2 Giver, 3 Surge - Pushing our White Card count as high as possible is important with Solitude. Additionally, drawing a Giver/Surge/Skill later in the game is a much better draw when you can pitch them to a lil' elemental guy.

-1 Paradise Mantle - Mantle is 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.

-3 Drannith - Without Pierce, your combo matchups get a bit dicier. The Dranniths work to help shore those up, while still being a body that you can both protect and put a hammer on.

-3 Moonlight - Card is busted against Creativity and Living End (though a bit less so), and Creatitivy is seeing a huge uptick. Additionally, it also has some utility against Yawgmoth and some other combo decks. It's fine against rhinos, but I don't generally like how the play patterns line up with it vs. them, so I don't bring it in there.

-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.

-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 only bringing in more than 1 copy against Scam, and that matchup is otherwise fine, especially with the adoption of Surge.

"Do you really think Solitude is the best way to build it?"

-Yes. *gestures to trophy*
-In all seriousness though, Solitude is the only reason I beat multiple matchups in that event, and continues to impress as a fair card in the matchups that can go long (4C, Murktide, Scam, and Creativity)

-Check out my tournament report and last month's update if you want a more in-depth discussion.

If you want to spike and are willing to put in a bit more work to tweak your play patterns/pacing, Solitude will reward you. While I haven't gotten to actually test Surge of Salvation, I am overwhelmingly confident that it is excellent.

If you don't want to play the Solitude build because ~$200, you can play a stock list and you'll probably be fine.