Hammer Time decks have been around for quite some time. While the archetype isn’t quite as feared as it once was, the combination of Colossus Hammer and ways to bypass its massive equip cost continues to make an impact in Modern.
Now, thanks to a multitude of recent printings, it appears the deck may even have some legs in Pioneer. Boros Hammer Time put up a solid performance in a tournament yesterday, abusing the power of a handful of Final Fantasy legends and one prominent piece of Tarkir: Dragonstorm equipment.
These new tools make your gameplan more consistent and provide a decent backup plan against removal-heavy strategies, something Pioneer Hammer Time decks of old were lacking. Let’s take a closer look at this unique build.
Main Objective
As expected, the main goal behind this Pioneer version of Hammer Time is to get Colossus Hammer attached to one of your creatures in a timely manner. Of course, without Puresteel Paladin and Stoneforge Mystic in the mix, you need to look elsewhere for ways to find Colossus Hammer and equip it for free.
Fortunately, two new Final Fantasy cards do a decent job filling in. In place of Stoneforge Mystic, we have Cloud, Midgar Mercenary. Cloud is the closest thing to Stoneforge Mystic we’ve ever seen in the format. You may not be able to cheat costly equipment into play, but you still get a cheap equipment tutor that holds Colossus Hammer nicely.
As for Puresteel Paladin’s replacement, Raubahn, Bull of Ala Mhigo has a lot going for it. When you attack, you can attach Colossus Hammer to any of your attacking creatures. Thanks to its Ward ability, once Colossus Hammer gets equipped to Raubahn, your opponent won’t be able to remove it without taking a ton of damage.
Beyond Raubahn, both Sigarda’s Aid and Kemba, Kha Enduring work to enable huge attacks, too. Your opponent does have a window to kill Raubahn or Kemba before Colossus Hammer gets equipped, so be careful about when to set things up.
The presence of Zack Fair does help protect these more impactful two-drops from opposing kill spells, which is nice. With so many legendary creatures appearing in the decklist, you even get to maximize Mox Amber as a mana accelerant. As such, this shell is capable of some very fast draws.
Grinding Through Removal
The obvious weakness of Colossus Hammer decks in Pioneer even with these upgrades, though, is that your gameplan falls apart if the opponent has a high density of cheap removal. Even with Zack Fair, you only have 16 creatures in the decklist.
Cards like Sigarda’s Aid don’t do anything on their own, which makes it difficult to win attrition battles via your traditional gameplan. You don’t have something like Urza’s Saga that can pull you ahead on resources at little cost, either.
The good news, however, is that in slower matchups, the addition of Cori-Steel Cutter is a game changer. Everyone knows how good Cori-Steel Cutter is in Prowess shells. It isn’t quite as consistent here at producing tokens turn after turn, yet with so many cheap spells (including Mox Amber), it isn’t hard to get multiple creatures out of the deal.
Against decks like mono-black midrange that you know have a pile of kill spells and simultaneously can’t remove your equipment cards once they hit the board, you’ll often want to search for Cutter instead of Hammer with Cloud. Playing multiple Cutters is your best avenue to victory in this style of matchup.
In this sense, Cutter provides a decent alternative angle of attack. The Trample and Haste Cutter provides also bolsters your main gameplan. In games that go long, playing Kemba or Raubahn, suiting them up with Hammer and Cutter, and attacking for a ton of damage all at once is a reasonable line of play. Cutter makes it a lot easier to beat board wipes in this way.
Innovation
Overall, these new cards do give Pioneer Hammer Time some hope for the future. We’re likely a long way away from this deck being a formidable competitive option, but this shell provides a good starting point.
We mentioned removal-heavy decks as being a pretty big obstacle for Boros Hammer Time. Well, any archetype utilizing Temporary Lockdown can be a major struggle. Temporary Lockdown engulfs all of your creatures and nearly every equipment you could play all at once, and you don’t have much in the way of answers.
Meanwhile, mono-red is capable of putting a ton of early pressure on you. Combine this with red’s super efficient removal options, and you risk dying before you get off the ground.
Perhaps adding some additional anti-removal tech like Surge of Salvation to the sideboard to help with some of your tougher matchups could serve as an improvement. Regardless, it’s nice to see such an innovative strategy make an appearance in Pioneer.
There’s plenty of room to explore with these Final Fantasy and Tarkir: Dragonstorm inclusions. We’re excited to see if Boros Hammer Time makes a bigger splash moving forward.
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