Deck and SB guide, effective 7/3/23

Hello hello hello everyone, and welcome to yet another month filled with Bonking.

All hail and/or fear The One Ring!!! It's Sauron’s world and we are just living in it.

As an attempt to adapt, I am currently tooling around with multiple variants, so the SB guide will be less tested than usual.

***I say this every month, but this is *especially important this month*, as the meta is very much in flux.*** As usual, make sure to adjust your mid-match decisions based on the specifics of any list you face and use this as a guideline, rather than a hard and fast rule!

Lonely Hammer

Linear Lonely Hammer

UW Hammer

SB Guide(s) - check the different tabs to see the various builds

See my thoughts on the metagame here

Reasons to play the different configurations (extended thoughts on Solitude builds here)

-”Stock” Lonely Hammer - This version has been proven as recently as a couple weeks ago. It is powerful, resilient, and Solitude gives you flexible interaction. The extra land helps support all these cards. I will be toying around with the other versions, but I’m very happy with where this list is as.

-”Linear” Lonely Hammer - This version’s goal is to be highly redundant (Steelshaper’s Gift) and wants to just jam repeatedly. No Solitudes in the maindeck meant that I’m fine cutting the extra land, and the 2 surge/2 giver still gives you a bit of protection game 1 to jam. This is the version I’m most intrigued by, and I’ll be testing it out more.

-UW Hammer - You can see my thoughts on “Can we splash a second color AND play Solitude?” here. The main reason to splash blue right now is the countermagic. Both Pierce and Annul seem very well-positioned. That being said, I have my concerns about countermagic:

• Delighted Halfling turns it all off.
• T3f turns it all off.
• Chalice is good against us already, and turns it off.
• Some of the Ring decks will simply be able to pay for pierce anyway (Coffers, Tron, etc).

That said, Pierce is definitely better-positioned than it has been in a while, and if you think that the utility of pierce outweighs the utility of Solitude, you can definitely approach the deck that way.

*Taps the Sign*

Current Deck Configuration Notes:

-Lost to Legend - This card is a very unique printing. Tucking something 4 deep at instant speed is effectively removal (it is actually removal if you catch them in response to a fetch/search effect). Here are the notable cards that this tags which brought it into the fold for me: T3f, W6, Karn, Omnath, Construct Tokens, Walking Ballista, Ravager, The One Ring, Hammer, Kaldra, Spear, Amulet, Chalice, Ensnaring Bridge, and the list continues. ***One thing I want to note is that if you Lost the One Ring in response to its first activation, they will draw 0 cards. Additionally, I prefer a card like Lost as opposed to something like Reprieve for the simple reason that you have more flexible timing. You don't have to find a spot to hold up 2 mana or lose the game (Chalice, T3f, etc). You can simply tap out, and then tuck one of these cards on your turn. Oftentimes I would want something like March vs. Chalice decks, but it was often pretty terrible against every non-chalice card, that I often regretted having it in the deck. Lost to Legend is a chalice answer that we actually want vs. UW control and E Tron, since it tucks both T3f and Karn. The card is very flexible, and I strongly encourage people to try it out.

-Forge Anew - Go check out my LotR review for a more detailed breakdown if you're interested in my expanded thoughts. This card has really performed, simply being an excellent equipper. It’s “reanimation” text does a good amount of work letting you jam early hammers into countermagic or chalice, only to rebuy the card on turn 3. That said, you could definitely run 1 if you wanted to cut things to make room.

-Protection - You will see I vary from 3-6 protection effects across these lists, and this is definitely a number you can play around with. Giver is generally the best option right now, as it carries a hammer and is good game 1 regardless of how much interaction they have. Surge is very good, but often much better post-board where you know people will have a higher density of removal and FoV/etc. Pierce is great, but obviously requires the blue splash.

-1 Paradise Mantle - Mantle continues to be the best it's ever been, probably even more than with Chip. That said, if you want to go *really* linear, you could cut this for another drum. I will still be playing the mantle because it is a fairly low cost to play,  and has an insane ceiling.

-4 Drannith - Living End is *EVERYWHERE*, so I am hard-pressed to not max out on this card.

-2 Orvar - Orvar is your single best card vs Creativity as long as you can pressure them. While Creativity is on the downswing, I am unconvinced that people will not register it. As such, I still want to respect the deck.

-No "fair" equipment (cyst/sword) - This is actually something I am revisiting in theory, but have yet to be convinced by it. I think with FoV being less popular than in the past, coupled with Forge Anew and Surge to protect/rebuy a fair equipment, I am intrigued by it. As a note, I think that Nettlecyst, Sword of Fire and Ice, and Sword of War and Peace are the three I would consider. Cyst is a body, SoFaI is a generically powerful effect (and lets you tag a t3f by hitting the OP), and SoWaP has by far the best protection (Red and White), and a very high ceiling vs people drawing a pile of cards with the Ring. One thing to note is that SoWaP on a creature means that you cannot target that creature with Sigarda’s Aid. Not common, but important to remember.

-0 Sanctifier - You can see my expanded thoughts on why I’ve cut the card here

-Mana TIthe - This card is incredibly funny when it works, but I am still unsure about it. I think the card is absolutely reasonable to play in some number, but I only like boarding it in against primarily Chalice, T3f, and very degenerate decks like Belcher/Oops. Tithe is a more a “Scalpel”, and less a “Hammer”. I would like the card vs. 4C Ring decks, but if Delighted Halfling sticks around as stock, I’m not all that happy to play countermagic.