Samut, the Driving Force features as one of the many legendary creatures found inMagic: The Gathering’sAetherdrift set. Samut has had multiple appearances in Magic over the years, with her first Naya (red/green/white) dipping into one of Aetherdrift’s mechanics (start your engines!).
The effect of Samut, the Driving Force makes for a very varied commander, with multiple ways to build a Commander deck with Samut at the helm. For this guide, it will be looking at Samut as a token commander, utilizing Samut, the Driving Force’s effects to make it easier to cast spells that make tokens and make them more threatening attackers.
Deploy to the Front
Path of the Ghosthunter
March of the Multitudes
x5 Forest
x4 Mountain
x5 Plains
Sundown Pass
Sunpetal Grove
The decklistcontains 19 creatures, 20 sorceries, ten instants, ten artifacts, six enchantments,and34 lands. The deck primarily consists of token generators, or creatures with effects that trigger when a creature enters the battlefield.
Key Cards
Samut, The Driving Force
The commander of the deck, Samut, the Driving Force is one of the most important cards.Ittriggers start your engines, letting youbegin to amass speedso you may take advantage of the rest of the effects it has. Youwant max speed as quickly as possibleto boost up the rest of your board state.
Samut, the Driving Force costs a lot of mana to cast, but you want to speed up as quickly as possible. Due to this, other cheaper cards that trigger start your engines earlier will be the main way to get speed moving.
Once you have maximum speed,all of your spells that make tokens will be discounted by four mana. This makes many of your best spells only cost one colored mana to cast. The stat boost is also nothing to scoff at, as a four-power boost combined with other effects can deal devastating damage.
Jetmir, Nexus Of Revels
You are going to have a very large battlefield of creatures, which will make all Jetmir, Nexus of Revels' effects active. Jetmirprovides a power boost and gives your creatures solid keyword abilities. Hitting nine creatures on the battlefield is easy, especially sinceJetmir counts itself for its effect.
All of the power boosts stack with each other, meaning if you have nine or more creatures, they will get a +3/+0 stat boost. Jetmir, combined with all the other effects that boost stats, can often lead you to win the game in just one attack.
Baylen, The Haymaker
Baylen, the Haymakerturns your creature tokens into utility that lets them be used for more than just combat. Baylen canuse tokens to ramp, draw cards, or boost up its own stats. The effects can be done at instant speed, which is particularly useful for the stat-boosting effect to suddenly turn Baylen into a threatening blocker.
You willprimarily be using Baylen to draw cards. There aren’t a ton of ways to naturally draw cards in the deck, so Baylen helps you to keep your hand fresh. Baylen acts as a kind of sub-commander, helping you to push your advantage even further while Samut delivers the final blows.
Sprout Swarm
While Sprout Swarm may seem weak on paper, it is actuallythebest token generatorin the entire deck(so long as you have maximum speed). It creates a 1/1 green Saproling token, which is very importantas this lets you tap it to make a green mana when convoking Sprout Swarm.
If you have maximum speed while Samut is on the battlefield, you may cast Sprout Swarm an infinite number of times. This combo can be done at instant speed,letting you create a game-ending battlefield out of nowhere.
The combo works as follows.
Prerequisites: Samut, the Driving Force is on the battlefield. You have maximum speed. Sprout Swarm is in the hand. Either one green mana or one untapped green creature.
Step 1: Cast Sprout Swarm with buyback, either by convoking it with your green creature or paying one green mana. Since you have Samut and max speed, the generic mana costs for both the buyback and Sprout Swarm itself will be discounted and not need to be paid for.
Step 2: One green Saproling token will be created, and Sprout Swarm will return to the hand.
Step 3: Cast Sprout Swarm with buyback again, using the newly made green Saproling token to pay for Sprout Swarm with convoke.
Step 4: Repeat steps 2 and 3 for an infinite number of Saproling tokens and enter the battlefield triggers.
This combo is best done at the end step before your turn starts since your tokens will need to be tapped for convoke to make the loop.
How To Play The Deck
A Samut, the Driving Force Commander deckbuilds up speed as quickly as possible to make use of Samut’s power effect. While Samut can start your engines, thebetter cards to do so are Starting Column, Point the Way, and the Raceway land cycle. Samut is costly in mana, and if you wait until Samut starts your engines, it’ll be too hard to build up speed since your opponents will already be set up.
A lot of creatures enter the battlefield, so cards that deal burn damage when a creature enters are vital for bringing life totals down quicker. Impact Tremors, Warleader’s Call, and Agate Instigator are a few of these, and you’ll want them on the battlefield before you start generating tokens.
Theprimary win condition is winning through combat. Once you have maximum speed, Samut floods the battlefield with creature tokens by casting spells that create them at steep discounts. Cards with an X in their mana cost let you dump your excess mana into them to create even more tokens. Beastmaster Ascension, Samut, and Jetmir all help to give stat boosts to bring life totals down to zero quickly.
Thebiggest downside of the deck is the reliance on speed. There aren’t a ton of great ways to start your engines, so if you don’t draw them early, it can be rough. You’ll alsoneed to rely on Samutto make giant impacts, otherwise, you’ll spend your turn only being able to cast one or two spells at most as opposed to the explosive number you may cast with Samut in play.
