Much Abrew: Cloud Hammer Time (Pioneer)
Hello everyone, and welcome to another edition of Much Abrew About Nothing! As you probably know, I love Hammer Time decks. But as good as Colossus Hammer has been in Modern, the archetype has never really taken off in Pioneer. Now, though, things might be changing thanks to Final Fantasy. The set gave us a ton of cards that are perfect for the archetype, including our Pioneer Stoneforge Mystic in Cloud, Midgar Mercenary, more free equips with Raubahn, Bull of Ala Mhigo and Stolen Uniform, and even a new equipment in Buster Sword! Is this enough to bring Hammer Time to Pioneer? Let's get to the games and find out!
Much Abrew: Cloud Hammer Time
Discussion
- The story of this deck is sort of funny. I knew I wanted to build Hammer Time in Pioneer, so I started with a blue-white version, and it was horrible. I didn't win a game with the deck. After a few matches, I gave up and built red-white Hammer Time. And while this build was better because it offered some Turn 2 kills, it still wasn't great overall. At this point, I decided to mash the two decks together, embrace the painful mana base of Mana Confluence and Starting Town, and go full-on Jeskai, and the deck finally came together! We went 8-5 with the latest build of the deck, good for a very solid 62% match-win percentage!
- Like any Hammer Time deck, our primary game plan is the same: get Colossus Hammer on a creature and smash our opponent into oblivion. Perhaps the most exciting aspect is our one-drops, Cacophony Scamp and Fireblade Charger. While both are good with Colossus Hammer, turning into 11/11 creatures that deal 11 damage when they die, Cacophony Scamp specifically is absurd with Colossus Hammer. With our best draws, we can play Scamp on Turn 1, play Colossus Hammer on Turn 2 and either Sigarda's Aid or Stolen Uniform to equip it to Cacophony Scamp, and quite literally win the game on the spot by attacking for 11 and then sacrificing Cacophony Scamp to get 11 more damage from its death trigger! When it all comes together, I'm pretty sure this is the fastest kill available in Pioneer!
- While the super-fast Turn 2 kills have existed in Pioneer for a while now, the deck was missing consistency, which is exactly what Final Fantasy added to the archetype. Cloud, Midgar Mercenary gives us a Pioneer-legal Stoneforge Mystic that works as extra copies of Colossus Hammer while also having the flexibility to snag removal (like Chainsaw or Assimilation Aegis), lifegain (Basilisk Collar), haste (Lavaspur Boots), and even creatures (Bladehold War-Whip and Cryptic Coat). While perhaps not as strong as Stoneforge overall since it can't cheat equipment into play, Cloud wears equipment way better than Stoneforge Mystic and is a massive addition to the deck.
- But that's not all Final Fantasy gave our deck. We also got two new ways to equip [[Colossus Hammer] for free! Raubahn, Bull of Ala Mhigo felt solid in the deck. It eats a removal spell fairly often, but that's fine because if it lives, it can take over the game by picking up a Colossus Hammer for free. And even if it dies, it clears the way for our next threat. The even bigger addition, though, is Stolen Uniform. Equipping for free at instant speed for just a single mana is incredibly strong and was more or less missing from Pioneer before Final Fantasy was released. (Resolute Strike does something similar but only for Warriors, which is pretty clunky.) Not only does it give us another way to kill on Turn 2 if we don't have Sigarda's Aid, but being able to move Colossus Hammer to an unblocked creature after blockers are declared also often just closes out the game!
- Finally, we have Cori-Steel Cutter, which isn't from Final Fantasy but is another new-ish card that is a massive power boost for the deck. Initially, I tried to build the deck without it, but I quickly realized the deck really wants an equipment that gives trample and haste because they work so well with Colossus Hammer, and Cutter is simply the best card for the job. Apart from pushing Hammer damage through blockers, it also gives us a backup plan if we can't kill with Hammer, by making some Monk tokens. While we're not a great Cutter deck since we don't have a bunch of cheap cantrips, we can usually squeeze out two or three tokens, which, backed by all of our equipment, often is enough to get the job done.
- Oh yeah, I almost forgot: Buster Sword is pretty bad in the deck but is flavorful with Cloud. Still, feel free to cut it because we ended up sideboarding it out in almost every matchup because it's just too slow.
- So, should you play Cloud Hammer Time in Pioneer? I think the answer is yes! Thanks to all of the new additions, the deck actually feels like it could be a real contender in Pioneer! If you like equipment decks or are just a fan of smashing people with Colossus Hammer, give it a shot!
Conclusion
Anyway, that's all for today. As always, leave your thoughts, ideas, opinions, and suggestions in the comments, and you can reach me on Twitter @SaffronOlive or at SaffronOlive@MTGGoldfish.com.
