Deck Overview: Hammertime in Pioneer
Main Deck Strategy:
Hammertime is an aggressive deck in the Pioneer format built around the synergy of equipping cheap creatures with powerful artifacts, particularly Colossus Hammer, to swiftly overwhelm opponents with massive damage potential. Here's how the deck operates:
Creature Base:
Cacophony Scamp, Fireblade Charger, Kellan, the Fae-Blooded, and Voldaren Thrillseeker provide early game aggression and creature options for equipping artifacts.
Smuggler's Copter not only helps with filtering draws but also serves as a carrier for equipment, enabling evasion and card advantage.
Artifact Package:
Colossus Hammer is the centerpiece, turning even the smallest creature into a colossal threat with its massive power boost.
Sigarda's Aid ensures that equipping artifacts becomes almost instantaneous.
Shadowspear provides trample and lifelink, enhancing both offensive and defensive capabilities.
Equipping Tools:
Open the Armory helps to tutor for key artifacts like Colossus Hammer or Shadowspear as needed.
Resolute Strike can act as a combat trick enhancing survivability in combat.
Finishers and Utility:
Fling and Kazuul's Fury serve as potential finishers, allowing you to sacrifice your equipped creatures for lethal damage when your opponent least expects it.
Mutavault and Rabbit Battery offer additional creature options and mana sources respectively.
Sideboard:
Aurelia, the Law Above:
When to bring in: Against matchups where additional aggression and evasion are needed, especially against slower decks or matchups where flying creatures are valuable.
Why it's useful: Aurelia provides a significant threat with flying and vigilance, synergizing well with the deck's aggressive strategy.
Deafening Silence:
When to bring in: Against combo decks or decks that rely heavily on casting multiple spells in a turn.
Why it's useful: Deafening Silence can disrupt combo decks by limiting the number of spells they can cast in a turn, slowing down their game plan significantly. It can also hinder decks that rely on chaining multiple spells together for value or tempo advantage.
Fiendslayer Paladin:
When to bring in: Against aggressive decks, especially those running black or red creatures.
Why it's useful: Fiendslayer Paladin is an excellent blocker against aggressive strategies, especially those featuring black or red creatures. With first strike, lifelink, and protection from black, it can stabilize the board while gaining life, making it difficult for opponents to race.
Fragmentize:
When to bring in: Against decks with problematic artifacts or enchantments, such as Auras or artifact-based strategies.
Why it's useful: Fragmentize provides efficient removal for problematic artifacts or enchantments, allowing you to deal with threats like opposing Colossus Hammers, key equipment pieces, or enchantments that hinder your game plan. It's particularly effective against decks relying on a few key pieces to function.
Recommission:
When to bring in: Against removal-heavy matchups or matchups where recurring artifacts is valuable.
Why it's useful: Recommission provides resilience against removal-heavy strategies by allowing you to recur important artifacts that might have been destroyed. It can help you rebuild after a board wipe or recover key pieces that are crucial for your game plan.
Rest in Peace:
When to bring in: Against graveyard-reliant strategies, such as Dredge or Reanimator decks.
Why it's useful: Rest in Peace shuts down graveyard strategies completely by exiling all cards from graveyards. This can be devastating against decks that rely on graveyard recursion or graveyard-based combos, effectively neutering their game plan.
Surge of Salvation:
When to bring in: Against matchups where additional protection or aggression is needed, depending on the game state.
Why it's useful: Surge of Salvation offers flexibility in various matchups, allowing you to choose between protection or aggression based on the game state. It can serve as a combat trick to save your creatures from removal or push through additional damage when needed, providing versatility in your game plan.
Overall, Hammertime aims to swiftly equip powerful artifacts onto its creatures and unleash devastating attacks, leveraging its speed and efficiency to overpower opponents in the Pioneer format.
