Much Abrew: Mono-White Hammer Time (Modern, Magic Online)
Hello, everyone! Welcome to another episode of Much Abrew About Nothing. Next week, we'll kick off our exploration of Throne of Eldraine, but today, we're heading back to Modern for a deck I'm super excited about: Mono-White Hammer Time. Ever since Stoneforge Mystic was unbanned, people have been asking about how it could enable the Colossus Hammer kill. Today's deck is an attempt to fuse Stoneforge Mystic with Colossus Hammer but with a twist: rather than being an all-in combo deck looking to kill on Turn 2 with the help of janky double-strike one-drops and janky ways to equip for free, we're also a Puresteel Paladin / Sram, Senior Edificer deck, allowing us to play the long game by drawing a bunch of extra cards while still sometimes killing our opponent on Turn 2 or 3 by equipping a Colossus Hammer for free. How does Stoneforge Mystic change Hammer Time? Is fusing Puresteel Paladin, Stoneforge Mystic, and fast Colossus Hammer kills the right way to build the deck? Let's get to the video and find out; then, we'll talk more about the deck!
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Much Abrew: Mono-White Hammer Time
Discussion
- First off, in terms of our record, we ended up 4-1 in five matches, taking down Humans twice plus Jund and Eldrazi Tron while losing to Zombie Rally (which is an oddly weird matchup thanks to their endless chump blockers and ability to fizzle our huge chunks of lifegain by blocking with a random dork and sacrificing before damage).
- As far as the deck, it's a lot different than our original Hammer Time build, even though it does share the name and the potential for quick Colossus Hammer kills. The main idea of Mono-White Hammer Time is to give up some of the all-in combo speed of the original build but to make up for this with a much more resilient late-game plan thanks to Puresteel Paladin and Sram, Senior Edificer's card draw, along with Stoneforge Mystic's equipment-tutoring power.
- Let's start with the Colossus Hammer kills. Stoneforge Mystic essentially gives us eight copies of Colossus Hammer in our deck, while Puresteel Paladin and Kor Outfitter allow us to equip our Hammers for free. Puresteel Paladin is especially absurd in our deck since as long as we get three artifacts on the battlefield, we can repeatedly equip all of our equipment for free. This means if our opponent can kill whatever we're trying to put Colossus Hammer on, we don't really care since Puresteel Paladin can just move Colossus Hammer to something else. This is a huge improvement over the original deck, where one of the most common ways we would lose is our opponent having a timely removal spell in response to our Sigarda's Aid or Magnetic Theft equip, leaving us with a mostly dead Colossus Hammer on the battlefield for several (or even many) turns while we waited to draw another way to put it on a creature.
- Of course, this resilience comes at a cost: we're much less likely to win the game on Turn 2. In theory, it is possible with something like Mox Opal into Puresteel Paladin on Turn 1 and double Colossus Hammer (equipped for free thanks to Puresteel Paladin) on Turn 2, but in reality, Mono-White Hammer Time is much more likely to smash the opponent repeatedly with a 12/12 until they finally die than to jank the opponent out on Turn 2 with one attack.
- The other advantage of Mono-White Hammer Time is Stoneforge Mystic, which further enables us to play a fair game by tutoring up various Swords and Batterskull along with Colossus Hammer. While not a Turn 2 kill, a Batterskull wearing a Colossus Hammer is still close to unbeatable for a lot of decks, and it becomes even more unbeatable when a Sword of Feast and Famine, Sword of Fire and Ice, or Sword of War and Peace gives us protection from our opponent's primary colors.
- Accorder's Shield and Cathar's Shield probably look weird, but they serve a few important purposes in our deck. First, they help turn on metalcraft for Puresteel Paladin and Mox Opal. Second, they are free card draw with Sram, Senior Edificer and Puresteel Paladin. Third, they are actually sort of good if we can equip them for free, allowing our creatures to dodge Lightning Bolt and other damage-based removal. Plus, if we can assemble a creature with vigilance, lifelink, and Colossus Hammer power, it becomes a close-to-unbeatable offense / defense threat.
- While the deck felt really solid, it's still very much a work in progress. One thing I'd really like to add is equipment that gives trample, which should have solved the chump-block issue we ran into against Zombie Rally and also helped us close out some other games more quickly. While Swords can help get through blockers if we have the right colors in the right matchup, having one card that beats the chump-block plan in every matchup seems wise. Loxodon Warhammer might be the best option for the job.
- So, should you play Mono-White Hammer Time? I think the answer is yes! The deck felt even better than the original thanks to its ability to pick up fairly fast combo kills (similar to the original) but with the added ability to play a long game. We had some games where we drew through half of our deck and built a pretty epic board of creatures thanks to all of our equipment—that's something the original Hammer Time list couldn't do. The only downside is that Mox Opal is really expensive. While it's good in the deck, if you're looking for a more budget-friendly version, try replacing it with more zero-mana equipment like Cathar's Shield. While this would greatly reduce the odds of a Turn 2 kill (I think it actually would make a Turn 2 kill impossible), it would offer even more late-game card draw with Puresteel Paladin and Sram, Senior Edificer. Regardless, the deck is a blast to play and felt surprisingly competitive!
Conclusion
Anyway, that's all for today. Don't forget to vote for next week's deck by liking, commenting on, and subscribing to Instant Deck Tech videos! 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.
