I Was Told

Hold The Heathen Hammer High has achieved the basic level of success: I can do alright vs. friends. I like how this deck plays and what it can do.

But in the larger meta I'm playing in, whoooo does it get ripped. 

I did get one very cool suggestion that I'm testing out; Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh. The nod came from someone playing at the Friday Night events and is a wild idea but mana is tight in HTHHH, Rograkh is free and has a suite of abilities that are incredibly helpful for my deck!

One casualty of the deck is Cloudsteel Kirin. I really want to like it-flying is a great ability and the 'can't lose the game' clause is neat!

But is it relevant? 

I want to get my opponent dead when I cast these Reconfigure creatures. The Kirin doesn't add to power/toughness, so under the best circumstances I am paying three mana to let a creature fly. 

I can do better.

As a pure amusement, I'm trying out Molten Psyche in the deck. It won't work, the slot should belong to Galvanic Blast or Path to Exile and I know it. But I kinda can't help myself. I want to give at least a couple games with the Psyche a shot-card draw is always neat, right? 

That all said, I think some things have been settled. This isn't quite ready for prime time, even with an upgraded manabase. It IS a lot of fun and should be kept in mind as new cards arrive.

For now, I'll leave it at this:

1 Batterskull
1 Kaldra Compleat 
3 Nettlecyst 
 4 Colossus Hammer
1 Shadowspear

3 Lizard Blades
3 Sram, Senior Edificer
4 Puresteel Paladin
1 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Rabbit Battery
4 Esper Sentinel
1 Halvar, God of Battle
3 Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh

4 Sigarda's Aid

1 Galvanic Blast
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Path to Exile

7 Mountain
10 Plains
4 Rustvale Bridge

Sideboard
1 Sword of the Realms 
 2 Sword of Fire and Ice
3 Unlicensed Hearse
4 Path to Exile
3 Red Elemental Blast
3 Wear // Tear

Matt suggested a main deck Enlightened Tutor and that seems like a pretty useful idea. I did cut the Molten Psyche for a Galvanic Blast and a Path to Exile-because for some reason, I only have one Galvanic Blast. (They're probably in another deck.)

Hidden High

I had a one-of Goblin Engineer in here and I just was never quite thrilled with it. 

I kept the card in Hold for a long time because I couldn't figure out if it was good or not. It seems good, right? A way to fetch some crucial equipment like Shadowspear, while also allowing me to bring a Reconfigure creature back for a land, if needed. 

It could help re-trigger Sigarda's Aid, so I could equip a creature immediately too, if the Aid was on the battlefield. 

But, when I would get it active, it just didn't feel like I was doing something. This might be a flaw in goldfishing: as a one of, seeing Engineer was rare in games. 

Still, the tests were good-this is one reason I decided to upgrade this deck. Attacking for 11+ damage out of nowhere was a Good Thing and most of my friends weren't ready for it.

I also had a flash in the pan usage of Magnetic Theft when I cut the Engineer. But I never saw the card in action and honestly just felt silly having it in. Maybe that was hasty and I should've given it more time. Especially since the equip costs in this deck hit five mana and last time I checked, one was much less than five. 

Sword By Side

The first couple games were great: they were a surprise to opponents and there really is something to be said for attacking for 10+ damage. Adding a Shadowspear or being able to pull up a Kaldera Compleat is pretty fun too.

In addition, the card draw effects of Sram, Paladin and Sentinel are cool. Sure, in the more rigorous setting of a Friday Night tournament, up against control decks...maybe not so much. But good in many other ways!

The drawbacks of having Den of the Bugbear and Cave of the White Dragon became clear though, even in goldfishing. I didn't want to remove these lands, because they gave me extra creatures to attach my equipment to.

Except that was why I was running the deck I was: Reconfigure cards are creatures!

It hasn't been perfect-as you might imagine-but it has been fun, and needs a few more tweaks.

0-2-1

Sigh.

I thought I made some good changes to the deck, cutting the Cloudsteel Kirin, two lands, and moving Sword of Fire & Ice to the sideboard for three copies of Path to Exile (with a fourth in the SB), and four copies of Patchwork Automaton. 

Patchwork was a card I was really excited about, because like Esper Sentinel, it would put a tax on my opponent's mana. A difficult to remove threat that scales? Sounds good, right?

The sideboard consisted of 3 Sword of Fire & Ice, 3 Red Elemental Blasts, 1 Path to Exile, 3 Wear/Tear, 3 Unlicensed Hearse, and 2 Price of Progress. I saw a lot of non-basics my last time out and thought that would be a good addition.

My matchups didn't work out very well, though.

Rd 1 vs Nathan on UW Standstill

Game 1: got locked out. Thanks Teferi, Time Raveler. (I hate this card).

G 2: Turn 3 with a 11/11 and him at 9, he conceded. This is what I was hoping for!

G 3: a slog. I couldn’t remove his Teferi, again, and he couldn’t eliminate my creatures. It eventually ended in a tie.

As he's scooping up his cards he says, "I think I had you, in the end."

What can I say to that? He didn't, so...my reply was "On a long enough timeline, everyone dies."

Rd 2 vs Tyler on UWR Counterbalance

G1: I kept up a good fight, but eventually succumbed to an ultimated Jace, the Mind Sculptor, despite fighting through a Teferi, Time Raveler.

G2: I started off with an Automaton, got it to 3, but my opponent's removal was eventually too much-there were Swords to Plowshares and Prismatic Endings all over the place- and I conceded once I had a hand of nothing but a land and no board presence. Thanks, Telferi, Time Raveler. (I hate this card).

G 3: William

No Show as you can see from the pic. Sigh. This is 'technically' a win but in this instance, being technically correct isn't the best kind of correct at all.

Game 4: Derek on Nic Fit

G 1: a Path to Exile saves me from taking 18 from two Greater Gargadons and he concedes.

G2: Collector Ouphe stalls me out and then it's twin Mayhem Devils to whittle my life total to zero.

G3: Nic Fit decks love Korvold, Fae-Cursed King. They especially love it when the opponent cannot find a Path to Exile.

What a drag. Winning 4 out of 17 games is rough. 

Some of this was matchup driven; if my opponent can produce plenty of mana, effects like Patchwork Automaton or Esper Sentinel really don't matter. I faced two control decks in this event and both of them were easily able to work around my cards. 

Some of this is a matter of consistency: Hold The Heathen Hammer High needs more Sigarda's Aid effects to consistently do what it wants to do. Puresteel Paladin helps, but I might've been on the right track with Magnetic Theft, too.

It would certainly be useful for the times when I've got a Colossus Hammer on the table but not enough mana to equip a creature. 

However, that consistency is part of the problem, too. Only twice, in all the games I played, was I able to actually do the thing this deck wants to do. 

If I can't et things to happen until turn 4, this aggro deck isn't aggro enough.

On the upside, this is a hell of a fun casual deck. So let's talk about that.

Hold The Heathen Hammer High

Let's just forgo the tease: 

1 Batterskull
1 Kaldra Compleat
3 Nettlecyst
1 Colossus Hammer
1 Shadowspear

3 Cloudsteel Kirin
4 Lizard Blades
3 Sram, Senior Edificer
4 Puresteel Paladin
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Goblin Engineer
4 Rabbit Battery
4 Esper Sentinel
1 Kor Outfitter
1 Halvar, God of Battle

4 Sigarda's Aid

7 Mountain
10 Plains
4 Rustvale Bridge
1 Den of the Bugbear
1 Cave of the Frost Dragon

Here's a wild bunch. It's already undergone some shifts (Magnetic Theft came out to add Halvar) and yes, it's clearly based on the Hammertime decks from Modern. But interaction between Sigarda's Aid and the new equipment creatures from Neon Dynasty is that now, I can play creatures with flash. 

So let's raise the Heathen Hammer High. 

The mana base is downscaled and as this was the first iteration of the deck, I was experimenting with a Goblin Engineer. The idea was that I could bring back equipment or even search for a creature if I was having trouble finding one. For a deck that was going into an event, I didn't want to risk that. 

I did some testing with this deck though and we'll talk about how it did next week!

1-3

So here's the "tournament version" of a deck I thought up.

1 Batterskull
1 Kaldra Compleat
3 Nettlecyst
2 Colossus Hammer
1 Shadowspear
2 Sword of Fire and Ice

3 Cloudsteel Kirin
3 Lizard Blades
3 Sram, Senior Edificer
4 Puresteel Paladin
1 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Rabbit Battery
4 Esper Sentinel
1 Halvar, God of Battle
1 Lion Sash

4 Sigarda's Aid

3 Mountain
6 Plains
4 Rustvale Bridge
4 Plateau
4 Arid Mesa
2 Sacred Fountry

Sideboard

1 Sword of the Realms (here so I wouldn't have to flip my Halvar every time I wanted to play it(

2 Sword of Fire and Ice
3 Unlicensed Hearse
4 Path to Exile
3 Red Elemental Blast
3 Wear // Tear

The sideboard thinking went like this: Path to Exile for sudden big creatures, Unlicensed Hearse for graveyard stuff, Sword of Fire & Ice for the Delver match, Red Elemental Blast for blue nonsense, and Wear/Tear because artifacts are a thing.

And here's how the rounds went:

Match 1 vs David, Dark Depth Lands

1. I was doing OK until the he cast Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger twice in one turrn by generating 20 mana and using Karakas. 

2 Force of Vigor blew me out early and I couldn't recover. 

Match 2 vs Mike, Fireflux Squad mono R

1 Fury took out my creatures and I died to overwhelming Fireflux Squads.

2 I drew 6 land and 3 creatures: It did not work out.

Match 3 vs Kade on Yorion Stoneblade

1 Won-despite blocks with True-Name Nemesis because he couldn't draw into another creature.

2 Lost when he got True-Name and Jitte active. Can't get a creature to stick when that happens.

3 Won on Kirin attacks while Kade got a Tefri out but not much else.

Rd 4 Thomas on Omnath landfall

1 Lost because I couldn’t remove Omnath, Locus of Creation.

2 Also lost because I couldn’t remove Omnath and had double Force of Vigor cast at my permanents.

So, what did I learn?

First, I need to run four Colossus Hammer. I should be giving myself the most opportunities to have a turn one play, with a turn two Sigarda's Aid and Hammer, attack for 11 event. 

Second, I have trouble closing games. This adds to point one, where if I had been able to do more damage early, perhaps that would've changed the outcomes.

My final opponent, Thomas, thought my deck idea was neat and took a look at it. He suggested running fewer lands-down to 20-and that Cloudsteel Kirin was probably not strong enough for a turn three play. 

He's probably right about the Kirin; while flying is a relevant thing, it really needs to come with some more pressure. Cutting down to 20 lands though feels far too risky. 

Third, I need a way to deal with Force of Vigor. The card was rough on this deck and might be enough splash damage that the deck isn't a good one to run. I got hammered twice by it and couldn't find ways to get back into the game. 

I think it's worth taking the deck for another spin, honestly. But I think it needs some tune ups if I want to play in an event and improve on the record. 

However, I'll start by talking about the casual version of this, on Thursday.