Modern Musings: Hardened Scales
Modern may have its top dogs, but there are many, many decks that can aim to catch a good player off-guard. Several decks from the history of the format have been making a return, and our good old friend Hardened Scales aims to topple the opposition with mathematics (it's not just for blockers anymore!). If you're the type of person who enjoys making the most efficient use of mana, and combining that with the most efficient use of replacement effects, this is the deck for you. Oh, and did we mention that you usually put all your eggs in one basket? Risk is the name of the game with Hardened Scales! Check out this list:
Hardened Scales utilizes replacement effects to increase creature size to lethal proportions, all at instant speed. Older decks would sacrifice their entire board, including lands, all for a single unblocked attacker. These days, the deck is a little more balanced, with Hangarback Walker and Walking Ballista doing more of the heavy lifting. Create a large board presence with many artifacts, attack, and then use Arcbound Ravager or Zabaz to sacrifice artifacts, moving +1/+1 counters around until they land on a lethal attacker (usually an Inkmoth Nexus or Walking Ballista). Recent years have added The Ozolith to the mix, giving a redundancy that was not always present in the deck's sordid history. If your opponent happens to have removal when all is said and done, your +1/+1 counters are safe and sound on your Ozolith, waiting to be moved to your next attacker.
First and foremost, this is an aggressive deck. Most of the time, you will be setting the tempo of the game, and it's important to notice if that ever needs to change. Usually, the answer is no – if your opponent is starting to stabilize, it's time to push harder. Sometimes it can be helpful to hold back a turn and gather multiple threats, but generally, you want to be applying non-stop pressure on your opponent's game plan. This works exceedingly well against combo decks, as their lack of interaction means you're in a prime position to wear them down even more quickly than most decks.
Also important is the addition of Urza's Saga, giving you access to additional artifacts, but more importantly, the ability to seek out many key pieces to your game plan. The Ozolith gives you the ability to survive multiple sources of removal, isn't affected by cards like Pithing Needle, Collector Ouphe, or Stony Silence, and means that you are constantly threatening damage. Plus, with Hardened Scales on the field, the counters you place on creatures are increased yet again. If more mana is required, Saga can find Springleaf Drum, and if you need to survive against destruction effects or combat, a Welding Jar is perfect.
Finally, a note about board awareness. When playing this deck, it can be easy to get lost in your own board state, as you need to be constantly aware of all possible lines. Sacrificing the correct artifacts in the correct order can take a lot of brain power, and it can be easy to forget those two untapped Islands on the other side of the table…
Sideboard
As an artifact deck with slight access to green mana, our sideboard is rather monochrome, and filled with silver bullets useful against the current meta. Grafdigger's Cage, Pithing Needle, and Relic are all good Saga fetch targets, and shut down many of the top decks' game plans. That said, much of our sideboard is also defensive, and meant to keep our permanents on board as much as possible. Tamiyo's Safekeeping in particular is a good sideboard card that keeps your creatures safe as they deliver the killing blow.
Finally, remember that Void Mirror stops evoked elementals and Force spells – last weekend at an RCQ, I watched as a player cast Force of Vigor, targeting their opponent's Void Mirror. The player sighed as they placed the Mirror in the graveyard, forgetting their own Mirror trigger. It happens to the best of us, but staying aware keeps us from poor play patterns!
Overall, Hardened Scales is a great deck that can run away with the game if left unchecked, and it gives you all the tools to make sure that's exactly what happens!
Today's skill testing question: If my Hangarback Walker has 3 +1/+1 counters on it, and it dies because of my opponent's Black Sun's Zenith X=3, what happens? How many Thopters do I get? Let me know your answer @Melitius!
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