Hello, and welcome to my Hammer primer! I’ve already written a sideboard guide for the deck that complements this article nicely – you can find it here.

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Introduction 

There are various flavours of Hammer decks but they all share the same general strategy – equip Colossus Hammer to a creature and kill the opponent with it. Sometimes it takes more than one attack step to finish the job, but that threat of a one-shot kill as fast as turn two made Hammer into a top tier deck in Modern, and it’s been up there basically ever since Urza’s Saga got printed. As for the humble beginnings of the archetype, way before MH2 and all that jazz, the waters are kinda murky on this matter. If I recall correctly, it was Tom Ross who played it soon after M20 set release with red cards like Magnetic Theft for more equip options. For quite some time, Hammer was (justifiably so) considered a meme deck, but after a slew of printings (mostly in the aforementioned second Horizons set) it became the staple of Modern that it is to this day. Throughout its lifespan, the most popular colour combination for the deck at any given time changed a few times: from RW, through Mono W to WB and finally (at least for now) UW version. It was also one of the best homes for the incredibly dominant Lurrus of the Dream-Den when it was legal. Besides obviously the name card of the deck, Hammer utilises the once banned Stoneforge Mystic and long forgotten Cheerios staple Puresteel Paladin. Do you remember how everybody went crazy about casting a bunch of 0 mana equipments into Grapeshot? Me neither. The journey from a meme, glass-cannony combo deck to a very dangerous creature combo-ish deck with fast and resilient gameplan, with option to both grind out and hate out multiple decks and strategies of the Modern format, Hammer’s origin story is definitely one of the most interesting ones out there.

Why should you play Hammer? 

We might reverse the question firstly – when and why you don’t want to play Hammer? Well, obviously when there is plenty of artifact and enchantment hate this deck will struggle. But we have a lot of tools to deal with that – from various means of spell-based protection in countermagic, discard and hexproof/protection spells, through indestructible Kaldra, the value machine in Reality Chip to Esper Sentinel and Giver of Runes putting the wrench in our opponents plans from as soon as turn one. Of course when the metagame is hostile, filled with bad matchups, Hammer might not be the best choice. But even if we face a ton of Amulet, Mill and Yawgmoth we can still pack a bunch of hate cards in the sideboard. And what’s even more important, we can steal games even in our worst matchup with the combination of fast clock and timely disruption / protection. Not going into too many details I will add one more simple example – metagame is filled with tribals? Your Spell Pierce and Esper Sentinel don’t work out well? Change it for Blacksmith’s Skill and Giver of Runes, pack extra removal, Pithing Needle and you are tuned for creature-heavy metagame. With turn two / turn three kill as the main gameplan, you don’t need much of a tuning to be competitive in any metagame. To sum it up shortly – Hammer is a deck with a very fast clock and options to protect it. Such a combination is always good in eternal formats since taking on a more grindy, attrition-based approach can backfire if you’re not well prepared for what you face during the tournament. Focus on your game, pack hate for your worst matchups and you are ready to fight and win.

Hammer’s best and worst matchups

Best matchups for Hammer, in almost any configuration (Mono W, WB, UW), are Burn and all variations of red decks. We can easily dodge their damage based removal with Colossus Hammers, produce huge tokens with Urza’s Saga and gain life with Shadowspear. All sorts of interaction (white protection, blue countermagic or black discard) are great tools against their sideboard hate. Usually one hit with Hammer or one shot of lifegain with Shadowspear ends the game. Worst matchups are Amulet, BG Yawgmoth and Mill. Amulet can kill as fast as we – turn 2. Moreover they have blockers with reach (Arboreal Grazer) and maindeck interaction (Boseiju, Who Endures). On the other hand our interaction is quite weak as they don’t cast too many noncreature spells (both Spell Pierce and Esper Sentinel are rather useless). BG Yawgmoth produces plenty of chump blockers, Grist, The Hunger Tide can kill any of our creatures and Yawgmoth, Thran Physician’s ability can easily stop us from ever connecting with a Hammered-up creature. Mill attacks from a completely different angle – their black or white removal can kill any creature, no matter how big, and Tasha’s Hideous Laughter can one-shot us on turn three if there was some light milling involved earlier on via Crabs or Fractured Sanity. On top of that, we search our library a lot (Stoneforge Mystic, Urza’s Saga, Steelshaper’s Gift) so Archive Trap is almost always a free spell. 

Decklist analysis – card by card

Maindeck cards – the core and flex slots 

Remember that this is your deck and the final choice of cards is up to you, but there is definitely a proven core of the deck, which is a starting point for the deckbuilding process. You should not change it unless you have a very good reason to do so. Ways to tutor and equip Hammer, as well as some crucial artifacts are just uncuttable, and if you’re considering trimming them then most likely it’s not a good time to play the deck. The most powerful and necessary lands are there as well. 

Creatures

Zero drops

You need fast artifact creatures to enable mana development with Springleaf Drum and Metalcraft, to carry Hammer and grow Urza’s Saga tokens. Whether you choose four or eight, whether you choose Memnite or Ornithopter, it is your decision. It often depends on the metagame – Memnite is better against Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer while Ornithopter is better in the mirror and against Yawgmoth. Don’t go too low on your zero drops as you might lose speed and consistency. 

Esper Sentinel

Your best card advantage engine, which gets even better with Hammer or Shadowspear on it. It’s a really unassuming card, but it glues the deck together exceptionally well by feeding into a bunch of overlapping synergies (a cheap artifact, a creature to carry equipments/utilise Springleaf Drum and so on). Sentinel pressures opponent and passively draws us cards while punishing opponent for tempo plays. He makes our aggressive strategy even better – it is easy to pay an extra mana on turn eight, not so much on turn two with Sigarda’s Aid in play. Obviously Sentinel does not perform well against decks filled with creatures (Amulet Titan, Elves, Goblins, Merfolks, etc.), but even then he can draw you a card when opponents cast Aether Vial, Amulet of Vigor, Dismember or Force of Negation. 

Puresteel Paladin

The beating heart of the deck. He draws you cards, equips Hammers, re-equips Kaldra Compleat if necessary. Without Paladin there would be no Hammer, and I’m sure of it.

Stoneforge Mystic

Our value, tutor, toolbox – Stoneforge does it all. Thanks to Stoneforge we can play so many one-of equipments like Shadowspear, Kaldra Compleat, Nettlecyst and The Reality Chip. You can even play Paradise Mantle and Batterskull if you want. Stoneforge is always a must include in four copies, and I would gladly play more if I was allowed to do so.

Noncreature spells

Sigarda’s Aid

Just like Paladin, it’s a centrepiece of the deck. It enables equipping on instant speed, which makes our Hammers and Shadowspears not only into deadly weapons, but also into combat tricks and protection (at least from burn spells). Play four copies, never less.

Colossus Hammer

The namesake card of the deck. With its printing Hammer decks were brought to existence.

Shadowspear

Our swiss army knife, Mr. Does-It-All, Jack of All Trades, or however else you want to call it. Shadowspear gains life, gives evasion, occasionally even kills Boggles or Kaldra’s Compleat Germ token. We don’t need more than a single copy due to many search effects, but I don’t think you ever want to cut it from your starting sixty.

Springleaf Drum

It looks rather bleak in comparison to the now-banned Mox Opal, but we play with whatever toys WotC allows us to do so. This is our ramp, enabler of turn two kills and a way to fix our mana. Thanks to the Drum, we can play the second colour almost at no cost (which I encourage you to do). Metalcraft and bigger Saga tokens are a great bonus as well. We don’t need a full playset, since, similarly to ramp spells, you want to have it early, you hate to draw it in the late game. However, between Urza’s Saga activations, it being sacrificed after the last chapter, and all other mana sinks (Inkmoth Nexus, canopy-lands if you decide to play those), we usually have plenty of uses for mana later on in the game, so those Drums will have some value even then. If your metagame is value-oriented and you can’t present fast kills consistently, you can always consider cutting some of those. But be careful – those cards enable important synergies in our deck. Do not cut too many cause the deck might stop doing its thing. 

Lands

Inkmoth Nexus

Our evasion, anti-lifegain strategy and yet another multitasking land that can help us get Metalcraft or win games post-sweeper. In the Mono White version you can consider four copies, but in two colour versions there are too many colourless lands between Nexus and Saga. Cut down to two copies if you expect a Blood Moon heavy metagame, but be very careful – I won with infect countless times, and you don’t want to take away that angle of attack from yourself entirely. 

Urza’s Saga

An absolute powerhouse – it’s an uncounterable three for one, produces huge bodies at instant speed, puts Hammer on the board under Chalice of the Void and does other shenanigans of questionable fairness. I can’t imagine playing without it and neither should you. Of course there is plenty of hate for Saga but that’s what happens to all powerful cards – get yourself a playset of it as you will use it a lot. 

Basics

Play three or four basics in two colour Hammer decks, and as many as you can fit in the Mono White builds. There’s a temptation to load up on cards like canopy lands or even something like Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire, but don’t get too greedy – Blood Moon, Magus of the Moon and some other effects might be too punishing for you if you do so. We already play a lot of colourless nonbasics. 

Nonbasics

Depending on the version of your deck I encourage you to either follow the rules below or google other prominent Hammer pilots and study their manabase configuration. If you splash blue, go for one Hallowed Fountain, four Seachrome Coasts and five to six fetchlands (diversify fetchlands to protect from Pithing Needle effects and Surgical extraction; make sure they all search for Plains). If you splash black, you can try some copies of Silent Clearing, cutting fetchlands accordingly. You don’t have to thin your library as you often just draw cards from extra lands. Since there is no UW canopy land in Modern (yet), I don’t think you should include any “off-colour” ones in UW Hammer. I almost never miss them in the UW builds anyways, since our lands do a lot and sometimes even die (Inkmoth Nexus, Urza’s Saga). The more lands you play the more tempting canopy lands get. I play 21 lands but if you feel short on mana a lot, you can add extra Silent Clearing and test it yourself. 

What about the rest? 

While building the core of the deck remains fairly straightforward, filling out those flex slots is a bit more complex. Some cards are good in certain metagames, some work nicely together, but in the end it is all up to the pilot of the deck. The exact configuration you bring depends on the metagame you predict, what you want to prepare for, what are your favourite cards, etc. Below I will shortly discuss the most popular maindeck cards.

Mishra’s Bauble – I like this card a lot; it can fix draws combined with fetchlands, enables fast metalcraft, nice Saga target if you need some more draws and it works nicely with Ingenious Smith

Paradise Mantle – it provides a bit of acceleration when paired with Sigarda’s Aid, and it’s a  nice tutor target if you need some fixing or redraws from Paladin while tight on resources. On top of that, you can generate tons of mana with your creatures and Paladin on the board.

Welding Jar – it’s a protection that can be found via Urza’s Saga but can’t protect your nonartifacts. It’s probably too situational in a metagame full of exile and bounce effects, yet it remains a possible Saga target

Blacksmith’s Skill – great protection spell: it saves everything in our deck, and it’s one of very few answers for Boseiju

Giver of Runes – great addition or replacement for Esper Sentinel. Its synergizes well with Stoneforge (search for a big equipment, protect from removal, deploy), great in creature/tribal metagame

Gingerbrute – additional target for Urza’s Saga tutor effect, another option for evasion

Portable Hole – great removal, it catches a whole lot of threats in Modern

Spell Pierce – fast answer for plenty of decks (Living End, Rhinos, walkers in 4c Yorion, etc.). Combined with Sentinel’s tax effect it can remain effective even later in the game

Steelshaper’s Gift – fast Hammer tutor, great in combo/tempo oriented metagame

Cranial Plating – used to be a great threat in Affinity, but it’s not as impressive in Hammer. Most likely too weak of a card in comparison with Colossus Hammer and Saga tokens, especially since attaching it for BB in combat will come up very rarely

Ingenious Smith – nice midrange card, it shines against RBx, URx and UWx midrange/control decks

The Reality Chip – a card advantage machine, which (if used wisely) can win otherwise unwinnable games

Nettlecyst – tutorable 2-for-1, cheaper (and bigger) version of Batterskull

Batterskull – great against Burn, quite weak otherwise, as both of its activated abilities are a bit too expensive by today’s standards. On top of that, if Stoneforge survives you would rather deploy Kaldra

Kaldra Compleat – the only threat in the deck that can win games on its own against a bunch of interaction. Be wary of many exile and bounce effects that are present in Modern, and even more so of Archmage’s Charm that can steal the token with its last mode

Sideboard cards

Unlike the starting sixty, there’s no “core” in the sideboard, as it depends entirely on the expected metagame. There was a time when I wouldn’t leave the house without a pair of Sanctifier en-Vec for months, and at this point it’s been almost a year since the last time I’ve had it in my seventy five. There’s a chance it might be a decent option again with the rise of RB Scam, but I’m not sure of that yet. I will list sideboard options against most popular strategies below, then after that I will go through the rest of potential sideboard cards with a short description and matchups where you might want them. 

Graveyard decks

There are countless options to choose from when it comes to graveyard hate. As it usually is in life, each option has its upsides and downsides – you need to decide whether you want speed or card advantage, whether you want to play around Leyline of Sanctity, whether you care about your own graveyard, etc. There are dozens of cards you can technically include in your deck, but I usually choose something from this short list: Tormod’s Crypt, Nihil Spellbomb, Relic of Progenitus or Soul-Guide Lantern. Other choices like Rest in Peace or Surgical Extraction are too slow, too narrow or simply worse than artifact hate I just listed. Grafdigger’s Cage is an interesting choice as we can shut down Chord of Calling effects (honestly the only target is BG Yawgmoth, which we’d rather stop with removal and Pithing Needle), but it doesn’t do anything against both Murktide and Living End, which are other popular strategies which we can possibly want some sort of graveyard interaction against.

Cascade decks

Just like with graveyard hate, we have various options to choose from, and I found countermagic to be the most effective one. It forces them to act and spend resources to attempt to combo off before we deny them this opportunity. Discard spells and permanent-based hate are usually too situational or too easy to deal with. If there are more creature combo decks in the format, countermagic might not be as useful, but right now it’s not the case. As far as other combo decks go (Belcher, Calibrated Blast, Creativity), countermagic also is better than other options available. Regardless of my feelings about counterspell versus other forms of hate, I’ll provide you with a fairly comprehensive list of hate cards that I usually choose from: Chalice of the Void, Duress, Flusterstorm, Inquisition of Kozilek, Pithing Needle (narrow part of combo decks), Spell Pierce, Thoughtseize, Lavinia, Azorius Renegade, Drannith Magistrate, Meddling Mage, Void Mirror, Metallic Rebuke, Teferi, Time Raveler.

Midrange decks

First of all, let me clarify what I mean by “midrange decks” here:  to me, midrange matchups are those where you will not be able to kill fast and you have a chance in the late game. There might be some creatures / permanents to remove and some hate cards to fight. There are two main categories of cards that I like in those matchups: a) removal in all forms (Fatal Push, March of Otherworldly Light, Path to Exile, Prismatic Ending) to remove Ledger Shredder, Wrenn and Six, etc., and b) value cards (Ingenious Smith, Nettlecyst, Batterskull). I used to play Hangarback Walker and Bitterblossom but with the current popularity of Prismatic Ending neither of those look promising. Similarly, Dark Confidant was once a staple of WB Hammer, but there are too many Wrenn and Sixes around to rely on a one toughness body. To find out what cards I like in specific midrange matchups, check out my sideboard guide here.

Control decks

Honestly I think there are only two control decks in current Modern – Four Colour Yorion and UW Control. Obviously there is no single card to beat a late game oriented control deck, but we have tools to help us win those matchups nonetheless. Countermagic is very effective as we can stop their key spells while trading up on mana. Blacksmith’s Skill is a powerful and versatile protection to stop almost anything your opponent can throw at you and your cards. Lavinia, Azorius Renegade stops Evoke Elementals and potential Forces. She is only decent against Four Colour Yorion and I would not side her in against UW Control. Teferi, Time Raveler is an answer to almost all permanents you can see on the other side of the table (Kataki, War’s Wage, Stony Silence, etc.), and it also stops countermagic and protects us from basically any interaction on our turn (besides Boseiju, Who Endures, Otawara Soaring City and cycled Shark Typhoon). Lastly, Nettlecyst is a nice value card that’s a bit harder to answer for the opponent, and it turns each of our creatures into a potent threat. If you play BW Hammer then discard in all forms is great (Duress, Inquisition of Kozilek, Thoughtseize), as well as value engines like Bitterblossom and Dark Confidant.

Other sideboard cards

Aether Spellbomb – creature interaction tutorable via Saga with an option for a redraw; good against tokens and Murktide Regent

On Thin Ice – very flexible creature removal – it can target virtually any creature, but it has a number of downsides: first of all, it’s a sorcery speed card. Secondly, it can be very problematic to cast in versions other than Mono White. Lastly, either it or a land it’s attached to can be destroyed to free the creature that’s underneath it. Even though in current metagame lands are rather safe from destruction, March of Otherworldly Light, Prismatic Ending and Boseiju, Who Endures can prevent On Thin Ice from staying on the battlefield for too long

Auriok Champion – lifegain and appropriate protections makes this a good card against various Rx aggro and RBx midrange decks, but in my opinion it is just a bit worse version of Sanctifier en-Vec

Cathar Commando – similar to Seal of Cleansing, but instead of a zero mana activation we get a nice body and Flash, which makes it a good card against various control decks which can deploy Chalice of the Void or Ensnaring Bridge against us

Hushbringer – stops Evoke Elementals and ETB triggers (you can also play Tocatli Honor Guard); when Elementals are on the rise, you can play Hushbringer instead of Lavinia

Manriki-Gusari – great card in the mirror, unplayable anywhere else 

Seal of Cleansing – nice answer to multiple cards in the mirror, as well as to Chalice, Stony Silence, Ensnaring Bridge and basically anything out of Affinity

Sanctifier en-Vec – a knock-out card against RBx decks and Dredge. Do not overestimate its abilities, as Sanctifier is rather weak against decks that do not rely fully on red and/or black cards. For example I never play it against UR Murktide as they can easily get delirium with blue cards, fetchlands and Mishra’s Bauble, as well as present blue blockers in form of their namesake card, as well as Ledger Shredder.

Why are there so many different Hammer decks?

As presented above, there are plenty of cards which can be played in Hammer in a couple of colour combinations. The question is why do people keep playing various decklists? Well, it’s not so simple: Hammer can be so fast and powerful that even with some bad sideboard choices and maindeck decisions we can keep winning. I 5-0’d and top8’d events with cards I never played again (like Treasure Vault) many times. In the current era of digital Magic, information travels very quickly and often without the proper context, which means that strange card choices might get copied by other players and get popular. Another thing is that metagame is changing and various variants of the deck are better in different matchups. That’s why a certain version of the deck might be good right now, but another build will present itself as a better choice next week. On top of that, players have their pet cards, myself included. Finally, the core of the deck is so fast and consistent that a couple of flex slots might not matter even in a big tournament. You can win a GP and not even realise that a card you played was underperforming.

Gameplay and tricks

The main gameplan of Hammer is fairly straightforward – get Colossus Hammer attached to a creature and attack them till they’re dead. Things get more complicated when you face various obstacles, like blockers or interaction. The question of when to take the risk and go for the kill and when to wait and maximise value require a lot of experience. I have already covered some play patterns in my sideboard guide. Here’s some more tips and tricks that are useful while playing Hammer. 

• It is probably well-known, but when you animate Inkmoth Nexus and equip Hammer to it, it loses flying. However, you can animate it again so it gains flying once more. 
• When you play Saga and Springleaf Drum on turn one, remember that you can keep your zero drop for a later turn. You can save it from removal and have better chances to start making tokens as soon as turn two. Of course it might get discarded, but it is much less possible.
• Dress Down is difficult to play around. Its interaction with Inkmoth Nexus, Shadowspear and a couple other cards is very tricky. It might depend on the timing – which effect resolves first and which goes after that. Google some rules or ask a judge if you are not sure!
• With two Sigarda’s Aid on the board you can protect your creatures from damage based removal spells. You stack triggers from both Aids to different creatures. If the first gets killed, you still can equip the second one.
• Both Stoneforge Mystic and Urza’s Saga can sneak Hammer under Chalice of the Void with one counter on it.
• Remember that Esper Sentinel’s trigger scales with its power. It often comes up when the opponent targets it with a removal spell and only one mana to pay for the Sentinel tax. If you have Blacksmith’s Skill at the ready, you can respond to your own creature’s trigger and save it while netting yourself a card (Sentinel will have three power by the time its trigger resolves, and your opponent won’t be able to pay for it).
• Archmage’s Charm stealing Hammer does nothing if it is already equipped or if the Equip/Aid’s attaching ability already is on the stack. 
• Keep some zero drops for turn two if you have multiple and if you play Ingenious Smith.
• Speaking of Smith – you can pump him on your turn with any artifact and on your opponent’s turn with either Saga token or instant speed equipment thanks to Aid.
• Do not crack Baubles too early if you have Saga tokens, as that extra point of power might be important.
• Speaking of Saga tokens – our nightmare card is Dress Down. Remember that it does not kill tokens that have equipment that grants bonus stats attached to them. Blacksmith’s Skill works similarly – your token will not die as it gets +2/+2.
• Getting Kaldra with Stoneforge is risky, since you can end up with a blank in hand if Stoneforge dies prior to deploying the equipment. If you have another Stoneforge or Steelshaper’s Gift in hand, you can get something cheap with the first Stoneforge and then get Kaldra next turn. If your opponent doesn’t respond to the search trigger/Gift, they won’t have a window to remove your active Stoneforge before you use it.
• Remember that you can activate Stoneforge with no equipment in hand (or just choose to not put anything with it) just to force some sort of action.
• You can cast Blacksmith’s Skill on Inkmoth Nexus while it is still a land. Later, when you animate it, it will still have hexproof and indestructible. It is especially important when you face Yawgmoth, Thran Physician.
• There’s a lot of subtle back-and-forth with the last chapter of Saga. If you’re facing onboard Explosives for example, you can decide to neither make a token nor float mana. Then, if your opponent doesn’t do anything, you can go ahead and find Pithing Needle and render their EE useless. If they crack it before you search with Saga, you can still make another token and then grab a Hammer/anything else you need. Remember that once you’re already searching, your opponent won’t have time to respond to you naming things with Needle, finding Drum, etc. It mostly comes up with Needle, but it’s sometimes useful in other cases.
• When you cast/put Nettlecyst or Kaldra Compleat in play with Sigarda’s Aid on the board, you need to stack triggers correctly. If you want to equip it onto a creature, Living Weapon needs to resolve first, as it’s not a “may” trigger, unlike Aid. If you resolve Sigarda’s Aid trigger first, then the Living Weapon trigger will create a Germ after that and requip your artifact to it.
• Remember that you can make mana with Reality Chip (or any equipment with Living Weapon) via Springleaf Drum before it gets equipped.
• Teferi, Time Raveler protects you on your turn from almost everything. Almost! Opponents can still cycle cards and use Channel abilities. Most common ones include Boseiju, Who Endures, Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire, Otawara Soaring City, Shark Typhoon and Colossal Skyturtle.
• Playing against cascade with Sentinel on the board, remember about the trigger. Often they can’t/won’t pay and you can draw into an answer (most likely Spell Pierce).

Keep or mulligan

Game 1, 7 card hand, unknown opponent, on the play.

KEEP. This hand has a clean plan of Giver into Stoneforge for Kaldra and protects it well. You don’t even need Paladin or Aid, this hand has enough pressure on its own.

Game 1, 6 card hand, unknown opponent, on the draw 

MULLIGAN. This hand is too weak against too many strategies. While it can be good against decks that are heavy in noncreature spells, if we’re up against somebody slinging monsters from turn one, we will be very far behind. There is a wide range of five card hands that can provide wins against various strategies. For example: Sentinel, Aid, Hammer, two lands or Giver, Stoneforge and two lands. 

Game 1, 7 card hand, unknown opponent, on the draw.

MULLIGAN. For starters, we have an uncastable Kaldra Compleat, which makes this hand into effectively a six carder. Also we have only one land and no Hammer or way to find one. A lot of things can go south as we strongly rely on Memnite and Giver to produce mana, and we need multiple cards (at least one land and a Hammer) to produce a somewhat quick kill.

Game 1, 6 card hand, unknown opponent, on the play.

KEEP, but the interesting decision here is what you’re putting back – you either bottom one Hammer or Shadowspear. The first option is safer, as you can just pay mana to equip Shadowspear and push some damage, and you still have one Hammer left (as well as Stoneforge to possibly find another one). Second option is more risky but also is a higher reward play. Once you draw a way to equip your Hammers, you can kill very fast. I think there is no need for two Hammers as we can always search it with Stoneforge or get with Saga. Now as for how I would play this hand: you start with Fountain into Drum. Now let’s have some fun. Your opponent plays an untapped Steam Vents. What do you do? How do you play it, what do you search for with Stoneforge? I searched for Reality Chip with Stoneforge as it is unlikely that it survives, so my chances of getting Kaldra into play seemed dubious at best. Opponent bolted my Stoneforge, I drew Aid and things were easy from this point. If this was a postboard game, I would go for Nettlecyst as this is our best value equipment.

Game 1, 7 card hand, unknown opponent, on the play.

KEEP. Turn one Sentinel often provides more cards, and Smith will dig even deeper. Everything we do is strong enough to provide time to draw Paladin or Aid if we have to play defence, and  provide enough pressure to force some sort of action, or even a sweeper (which was the case in this game). 

Opponent was playing UW Control. They cast Verdict onto Sentinel, 4/4 Smith and 3/3 Smith and then died to Paladin – Hammer – Nexus on the following turn.

Game 1, 6 card hand, unknown opponent, on the play.

KEEP, but once again the question is what are you shipping back. Sentinel is necessary as a one drop. We need two lands and at least one equipper. I’ve chosen to put Bauble back in order to have two equippers if Aid gets removed. Putting back Paladin could also be good, as Bauble increases our chances of hitting third land drop. Saga might provide Hammer at some point, but I advise against bottoming Stoneforge. One Hammer sometimes is not enough, and between two tutors for Hammer we can beat almost any defence.

Game 1, 7 card hand, unknown opponent, on the draw.

KEEP. But how to play it out? My advice is to go turn one Shadowspear – we want metalcraft as soon as possible. So turn one: Memnite, Ornithopter, fetch for Plains and Shadowspear. What’s next? Depending on the draw and opponent’s deck: if you expect removal, wait with Paladin. Go for Stoneforge into Hammer, play Hammer next turn and then cast Paladin. If Paladin resolves, equip Hammer onto any non-Paladin creature. If it gets removed, we re-equip Hammer and Paladin stays alive. If the matchup is fast and non-interactive, go for Paladin on turn two – if we naturally draw Hammer, we might have a turn three kill.