Matchup Analysis - Hammer Mirror

Key Cards:

Pre-board: Sigarda’s Aid, Paladin, Kaldra/SFM, Inkmoth, Shadowspear, The Reality Chip

Post-board: Removal Spells, Spell Pierce, Pithing Needle

Key Strategies and Objectives:

• Kill them ASAP
  • Mulligan to a fast hand (goal is turn 3. If you have the turn 2, then go for it.). Oftentimes mulling to 5 is often correct if you can’t get a strong 7 or 6. Since you often need to kill fast and there isn’t much (if any) interaction, being aggressive is often correct.
  • The Saga Construct beats plan without an equipper is outclassed.
    • If you're keeping a hand with this as the only game plan, you'll need at least one piece of interaction to prevent your opponent from enacting Plan A (Hammer).
    • Hands where you can play a Turn 1 Saga and make constructs on 2, plus a Pierce or Removal are the reasonable keeps.
    • If you aren’t making constructs until turn 3, you'll be put in the void trying to block your opponent's early hammered creature. ***For an example, check out this video at ~45:50 to see why the slower saga hands simply don’t measure up in the mirror without backup.
• Manage the mirror kill. Ensuring that you can block an inkmoth kill with either an Ornithopter or inkmoth is key if you can’t force your own kill through.
• Kaldra is excellent, and incredibly difficult to beat in the mirror, especially if you put it on an ornithopter and leave it on defense. Primary ways to beat it are providing multiple flash hammer/aid kills, or to get your own kaldra online.
  • Remember that your shadowspear can turn off their indestructibility in the strange corner case that it matters.
• Sigarda’s Aid is excellent, as is Thopter and Inkmoth, since they are ways to get quick evasive kills, especially in the board stall games where both sides have huge lifelinking beaters.
• Giver is good:
  • Giving Pro-Colorless means that you can block non-trampling attackers exceptionally well.
  • It can also help you push through board stalls.
• Giver is awkward:
  • Pro-Colorless means that equipment fall off of the chosen creature.
  • Pro-White means that Sigarda’s Aid can’t target your creature.
• Sentinel is very medium, especially on the draw
  • While the card can draw one or 2 random cards, you can often play around the cost, or just for the combo, as the extra card usually isn’t what makes the difference.
  • On the play it is fine, but I like boarding out all of them on the draw.
• Remember that March can kill a Saga with Chapter 1 on the stack to kill the land and keep them from even getting mana.
• The Reality Chip isn’t always impactful, but during board stalls the card can absolutely take over the game.
• Pithing Needle
  • Needle is interesting, since both players likely have the same cards you would name. The most common names are Saga, Hammer, Stoneforge Mystic, and Shadowspear.
  • Remember that if you have Aid and they have Paladin, naming Hammer with Needle can create a board state where only you have a live Hammer.
  • Remember that your OP can grab Needle with chapter 3 of Saga, so activating your SFM/Saga/Fetchland can be very important depending on the exact board state. Don’t get got.
  • If you can’t answer a Kaldra and they have SFM in play, it is often correct to name the SFM, since Kaldra will likely beat you otherwise.
• Also, 2 things to note about things I’ve seen people do:
  • T3feri is not removal. Don’t play this 3 mana clunker in the mirror, it sucks.
  • Don’t Blacksmith’s Skill your opponent’s permanents; it doesn’t work the way you want it to.

TL;DR: Kill them as fast, and mulligan appropriately. Know when Saga constructs and the grind plan will matter, or if the game will end in the first few turns. The matchup often comes down to the high-roll