How I stopped worrying and learned to love the Bonk: A Maindeck Hammer Primer

With the meta in flux right now, no one is really sure what the “optimal build” of Hammer is. So instead of just guessing, I wanted to discuss how to build a hammer deck and what to do based on your expected meta.

THE CORE:

50 card main: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/5168796#paper

28 Spells

4 0’s, (Ornithopters/Memnites)

4 Sentinel

4 Paladin,

4 Sigarda’s Aid

4 Stoneforge

4 Hammer

1 Shadowspear

3 Drum/Mantle Effects

22 Lands

4 Saga

3 Inkmoth

15 Colored Sources

***AFTER THIS CORE, YOU CAN ADD PRETTY MUCH ANYTHING YOU WANT AND HAVE REASONABLE SUCCESS***

For reference, here are the 3 main schools of thought on Hammer builds currently with lists from the creators:
CrusherBotBG (@StefanDimov413): Mono White. Very aggressive, eschews interaction for speed and redundancy in it's fair equipment (plating/cyst/sword).

List: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/5166645#paper

HappySandwich (@_HappySandwich): Azorius. Very disruptive/interactive, eschews a bit of speed for interaction.

List: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/5136662#paper

Disgruntled_Elk (@DisgruntledElk): Azorius. Has a bit of disruption but also keeps some of the CrusherBot speed. You can find my lists on this patreon and see how they have evolved, but here is my most recent iteration as of 10/18/22: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/5168784#paper

While there is definitely a lot more overlap in the Happy and Elk lists, the Crusher list is quite distinct. I won’t be talking about which one is the best. Rather, I will discuss the choices you can make in deck building after the core, and what “packages” you can add to the deck to fill out the main. 

***Building a Sideboard is another animal entirely, so I will likely cover that at a later date.***

The Packages: 

Now, depending on who you ask, many of the below cards WILL be part of the core. For example, I will literally never leave home without Gingerbrute again, but some may disagree. The Core is explicitly for the bare minimum deck construction. These are here to fill out the remaining ~10 cards.

The key “packages” are as follows (in no particular order)

The Kaldra Package:

1 Kaldra Compleat

2+ Giver of Runes

The Disruption Package:

2+ Blacksmith Skill

2+ Spell Pierce

The Blitz (CrusherBot) Package:

3-4 additional 0’s

2-3 Steelshaper’s Gifts

2-3 “Fair” equipment (Cyst, Cranial Plating, Swords)

Stand-out Single Cards: These are the cards that you can add in varying amounts to fill out the rest of the deck after you’ve selected your desired packages:

Gingerbrute - Can tutor it off of saga. With an equipper, this will get you more free wins than almost any other card in the 75.

The Reality Chip - Has an incredibly high ceiling, as well as a fairly medium floor. At it’s best, Chip can let you play 4+ cards off the top of your deck every turn. Especially if you have additional fetchlands in your manabase, even unequipped it can help fix your draws. It pair exceptionally well with Paradise Mantle and Puresteel Paladin, since this will allow you to sink that mana into playing a pile of cards.

Paradise Mantle - This card will usually go in one of the Springleaf Drum spots. While it isn’t generally as good as drum on turn 1, it is incredibly good on later turns. It draws a card off paladin, is a way to fetch a colored source off of Stoneforge, and costs 0 to help with metalcraft. It is also a surprise mana with sigarda’s aid. It pairs absurdly well with paladin since it not only draws a card like mentioned above, but you can move it for free with Paladin, meaning that all of your untapped creatures can turn into a birds of paradise.

Steelshaper’s Gift - This is a very flexible card, and is a solid inclusion as a one-of in almost any list. Being able to more reliably find Hammers, Shadowspears, your fair equipment, or surprise an opponent with a Kaldra and a non-sick SFM can be incredible blowouts.

Nettlecyst - This is my preferred “fair” equipment. It is usually fairly large (minimum 4/4), comes with a body, and turns most of your creatures into threats for a measly 2 mana.

Sword of Fire and Ice - Many people like this sword, as it has pro UR Murktide and will likely end that matchup. It is also reasonable in the control matchups as a way to create a threat out of an ornithopter and generate card advantage.

Cranial Plating - It’s like a mini-nettlecyst. If you can reliably make BB, being able to move this thing around at instant speed is a very powerful angle to have.

Looking at the 3 main lists, here is what the respective builds differ on after the core (all of them run 22 lands, broken down as the 4 saga, 3 inkmoth, 15 colored source split)

Crusher: 4 Memnite, 1 Plating, 1 Cyst, 1 Sword, 3 Gift (Mana rocks are 2 Mantle, 1 Drum)

Happy: 2 Pierce, 2 Skill, 2 Giver, 1 Kaldra, 1 Reality Chip, 1 Gift, 1 Gingerbrute (Mana rocks are 3 Drum)

Elk: 1 Memnite, 2 Skill, 2 Giver, 1 Kaldra, 1 Cyst, 2 Gift, 1 Gingerbrute (Mana rocks are 2 Drum, 1 Mantle)

As you can see, these lists are identical at their core, but the build diversity really comes out in these 10 slots.

Note that these 10 slots will often dictate a given pilot’s approach to the game. Crusher is known to be much more aggressive than Happy or myself. Happy plays a generally slower, more resilient/methodical game. I (Elk) tend to strike a balance somewhere in the middle and will generally shift my list more often.

***"If there is a card you want to play but don't see on here, it's probably because I think it's too bad to consider. Looking at you Invisible Stalker and Kor Outfitter.***

“But Elk”, I hear you ask, “WHAT BUILD IS THE BEST?”

They are all good.

Here’s the trick: take the core, and figure out how aggressive you want to be. Add the packages in from there, and top it off with the 1-ofs that you want to spice up your list.

If you expect a grindier metagame against decks with piles of removal (Red Black, Jund, 4C control, etc) and are comfortable navigating those boardstates while being more patient, It’s hard to go wrong with HappySandwich.

If you expect a lot of races (Amulet Titan, Oops All Spells, the Mirror, etc.), Crusher’s build is excellent in that it will often be faster and more consistent at doing exactly “the thing”. In this case, that means suiting up a creature with a Hammer.

If you expect a wider metagame with the ability to be proactive game 1 while adjusting post-board, then I would suggest my take on the deck.

Depending on who you ask, you will get a different answer on “what is the best build?” The reality is that whatever decklist a pilot registered is the one they think is the best.

If they didn’t think their build was best, I’d be curious why they registered it in the first place.

***Note: some people are much better at piloting the deck in a specific way, so “best” is also relative to the pilot.***

Mono White or Splash?

Why go Mono White?

• Cleaner Mana
  • You get to play a bunch of basic plains, and never need to worry about having access to a 2nd color. This can make the list much easier to learn the basics with, and that is a pretty big deal for people just learning the heuristics and play patterns
  • Additionally, your mana is as painless as you want it to be, which can sometimes make a difference in very specific matchups (burn, tribal decks, etc) that tend to be very close on life total.
• More resilience to Blood Moon
  • You’ve got 10+ basics, so uh… yeah. If you expect a ton of blood moons, mono white is a reasonable call.
• More utility lands (Canopy lands and Eiganjo)
  • While I generally find the deck to be very mana hungry and thus unable to reliably sacrifice its lands, there are certainly long games where being able to redraw can give you a shot at winning.

Why Splash?

• Wider range of options
  • Playing another color gives you a lot more options to choose from. While this rarely impacts your maindeck, it can make a huge difference in your sideboard cards, and subsequently swing matchups to make them much more manageable.
    • Specific cards cover matchups that mono white is ill-suited to battle.

Splash colors

-Green - Stop

-Black - Really, Stop

-Red - Really, Absolutely Stop. Don’t put magnetic theft in your 2022 modern deck. That card is bad.

-Blue - Now we are talking.

But in reality, there is very little reason to splash any color aside from Blue.

• Just for posterity, I’ll briefly cover the benefits of other colors, since they can get you some cool cards.
  • Black gets you Thoughtseize and Dark Confidant. While Thoughtseize is a solid card, the decks that you need it against are often very redundant. When you TS a 4C or UW player, do you take their Solitude, their Prismatic Ending, their march, or their counterspell?
    • Like I said, TS isn’t bad, but often times blacksmith’s skill is the better card anyway.
    • Dark Confidant is definitely unplayable as long as Wrenn and Six is legal.
  • Green can get you some Naturalizes, Veil of Summer, maybe Gaddock Teeg, and Ancient Stirrings (this was briefly popular back in the Lurrus Grixis Death’s Shadow days).
  • Red gets you Wear//Tear, Magnetic Theft, Alpine Moon, and Magnetic Theft. This is tied with Green as the worst splash. These are mostly fine cards, but they are usually more cute than good.
• If you are going to splash, the BEST option currently is Blue. The only real downside is that WB, WG, and WR all have canopy lands (Silent Clearing, Horizon Canopy, and Sunbaked Canyon)
• Why splash Blue? Mostly, it’s high-impact sideboard cards.
• Lavinia, Azorius Renegade
  • The scariest cards against hammer are the evoke elementals (Solitude, Fury), the Forces (Force of Vigor), and cascade spells like Living End. Lavinia stops all of these from coming down early, and with the right hand, the game will not get past turn 3-4. With Leyline Binding picking up in popularity, she has gained even more utility than she previously had.
  • Drannith Magistrate is a fine card, but simply does not hit the wide range that Lavinia does.
• Countermagic (Spell Pierce, Mana Leak)
  • In terms of Combo/Control interaction, there is not much more you can ask for than a spell pierce. A single mana is often easy to hold up, and it tags everything from Cascade Spells and Indomitable Creativity, to Chalice of the Void/Teferi from UW control, to Hammer/Aid in the mirror.
  • I personally hate Mana Leak and will never advocate for the card, but I have had many people tell me about their success with the card. If you like the card and have success with it, more power to you.
• Teferi, Time Raveler
  • Stops Cascade, Interacts exceptionally well against Control since it bounces Chalice and stops countermagic, and protects the combo on your turn from everything except Boseiju.
• The Reality Chip
  • There is no better maindeck 1-of you can run that has a higher ceiling than The Reality Chip. There are games where Chip will help fix your draws with your fetchland/SFM shuffles, and then proceed to let you play 4+ cards off the top each turn.
  • That said, it performs exceptionally well in a very grindy meta (looking at you, Yorion 4C piles. Good riddance.) As this meta is still in flux, it is reasonable to cut for more aggressive pieces. I still like it, but I can take it or leave it.

TL;DR:

As long as you take the 50-card core, you can add pretty much anything to the last 10 slots and be fine. Have a plan, and don’t sweat it too much. Playing tight with this deck matters WAY more than the exact configuration you choose.

*Yes, I understand the irony of someone who just wrote a couple thousand words about literally exactly that.*