- Samut, Voice of Dissent.
Introduction
Around two weeks later, WotC revealed Amonkhet, the Exert mechanic, and Samut.
...sometimes, all the signs converge, and you're able to escape from making a questionable Johan-based life decision. This was one of those times.
This is a deck built to maximize the value of creatures with tap abilities.
Commander Analysis
Samut hails from the plane of Amonkhet, an Egypt-inspired plane reshaped by Nicol Bolas. She was raised as a member of the Tah crop to eventually become an Eternal and fight in Bolas's army, but became a dissenter and left her crop after discovering the truth. Samut eventually sparked after Bolas's return, and she participated in the final showdown against him in War of the Spark.
In terms of powers, Samut is characterized primarily by her speed - she was one of the strongest fighters in her crop, capable of taking down a manticore by herself, but she was also able to ferry other members of her crop across hazards and obstacles.
Mana cost:
Samut inherently provides us access to both red and green, and her final ability also gives access to white mana, for a composite Naya color identity. As a shard, Naya is traditionally associated with aggressive, creature-based strategies. The center of the shard, green, provides many incentives for playing creatures. Meanwhile, white provides ways to go wide, and red provides ways to go fast. We don't make much use of the aggressive tools available to us, but we certainly have a lot of creature support.
At five mana, Samut is somewhat middle of commander mana costs. We won't always have access to her early, but neither do we need to require to devote a large percentage of our deck to the ramp necessary to cast her. She can get expensive to recast if she dies a few times, but we do have access to ramp if necessary.
In terms of color identity, Naya has access to most effects we care about - we're able to interact with artifacts, enchantments, and creatures, but we don't have much stack interaction. Red and white traditionally don't have a lot of access to card advantage or ramp, which means that we need to rely more on green for those duties.
Type: Legendary Creature - Human Warrior.
Humans are one of the most widespread tribes, appearing in almost nearly set. They don't have as much tribal support as something like Elves, but there are still some support cards available, such as Thalia's Lieutenant and Devout Chaplain.
Warriors have some tribal support from Tarkir and Battlebond. Samut also has planeswalker versions if you want to make some sort of Samut tribal deck, although not nearly as many versions as other walkers such as Jace and Nicol Bolas.
Stats: 3/4
Three power is somewhat low for an aggressive commander, but Samut makes up for this elsewhere in her text box. On the other hand, four toughness protects Samut from a significant percentage of damage-based removal. I would describe Samut as a 'mid-sized' creature - she won't win every combat by herself, but she is very capable of getting in the red zone.
Flash
A very powerful keyword. This allows Samut to dodge a surprising percentage of board wipes and sorcery-speed removal by being cast afterwards. Much more commonly, Samut is able to serve as a surprise blocker - even with her face up in the command zone, many opponents are going to forget some of her text. You could also use her at the helm of a flash-based deck, backed up by piles of instants.
Double strike, vigilance, haste
That is a lot of keywords. Double strike lets Samut hit hard by herself - 6 hasty damage for 5 mana is pretty respectable, and serves as a four-hit commander damage kill. It also means that Samut works very well with equipment, especially if you give her some swords. Vigilance is a useful defensive keyword, and means you can often attack freely into an open board. Finally, haste means you can start beating down with her immediately. All together, these keywords make Samut a very solid voltron commander, especially all the synergies Red and White have with equipment.
....we're squandering pretty much all of that potential in this decklist.
Other creatures you control have haste
The primary reason why we're running Samut as the commander - if you're using creatures with tap abilities, being able to activate them immediately is really, really important. My general heuristic for creature lifespans is you can only expect them to live for around one turn cycle, so being able to activate our creatures twice instead of only once is a big deal. Combine with Samut's flash, and you can occasionally surprise opponents with activations they aren't expecting. Alternatively, granting global haste can also make Samut an excellent commander for an aggro deck, or a deck with many attack triggers.
,: Untap another target creature.
But wait, there's more! For the low, low price of adding another color to her color identity, Samut also has the ability to let us double-dip on a tap ability activation. It also works pretty well with her vigilance, since we don't have to choose between attacking and untapping. You can also use this to untap another creature you want to use as a blocker.
Putting it all together:
Samut's abilities point us in two possible directions: either make use of her combat prowess and keywords to helm a Voltron deck, or make use of her support abilities to support the other creatures in our deck. This deck focuses primarily on the latter, making use of Samut's ability to grant haste and untap creatures to supercharge our other creatures. This allows us to play creatures with tap abilities and attack triggers, which may not be playable if we needed to wait a full turn cycle to use them.
- you want all your cards to always be good
- your meta is hostile to creatures
- you prefer a reactive gameplan
- you're not comfortable with needlessly complicated combo finishers
- you like tap abilities
- you enjoy playing with niche cards that don't see play elsewhere
- you like complicated boardstates
- you enjoy winning without combat
- Aurelia, the Warleader - capable of untapping your entire team, and a scary aggro commander. Works very well with swords and creatures with attack triggers, similar to Samut.
- Derevi, Empyrial Tactician - likely the strongest commander, in terms of raw untapping ability. Blue has a lot of good tap abilities, and Derevi turns any evasive creatures you have into more untap triggers.
- Johan - vigilance is a useful ability, but.... don't. Just don't.
- Mayael the Anima - usually based around bigger creatures, which may or may not have useful tap abilities. Consider both her and Samut as potential commanders for a deck built around beating down with fatties.
- Merieke Ri Berit - usually more concerned about untapping herself, but another commander that enjoys having access to many untap effects.
- Marath, Will of the Wild - worth consideration if you specifically want to play pingers - Marath works really well with ways to grant deathtouch.
- Najeela, the Blade-Blossom - probably the best commander available if you want a Warrior tribal deck.
Decklist
Card Discussion
This deck does get a lot of its power from some more expensive cards (such as Maze of Ith and Mirari's Wake), and there are a lot of creatures with powerful tap abilities I'm not running due to price (such as Captain Sisay and Stoneforge Mystic). If you want suggestions for what to look out for, take a look at the 'other options' sections.
- Quirion Ranger - one of the most efficient untap effects available. Works well with Burgeoning to allow an untap (or landfall trigger) whenever an opponent plays a land.
- Illusionist's Bracers - allows us to double-dip on tap abilities. Can be equipped to a specific creature that we plan to use a bunch, or to Samut so we can spread around the triggers. Can also function as a combo piece.
- Magewright's Stone - another untap effect. Being on an artifact makes it a bit more resilient for removal.
- Scryb Ranger - as with Quirion Ranger, it's an efficient untap effect. Flying and protection also allow it to serve as a decent blocker sometimes, since this deck is a bit light on removal and fliers.
- Seeker of Skybreak - another really useful untap effect. It is also unique in that it is a 1-card infinite combo, since you can tap it to untap itself. Combo piece.
- Elmar, Ulvenwald Informant - provides untaps and card draw to fuel further untaps.
- Halo Fountain - I'd run this card just for the 'untap two creatures' ability, and this throws in the ability to generate tokens and draw cards for some additional value. The final mode probably won't come up often, but it's not impossible either.
- Ertha Jo, Frontier Mentor - copies all your abilities that target creatures or players, including most untap effects. Goes infinite with Seeker of Skybreak.
- Saryth, the Viper's Fang - untaps creatures (and lands), gives pingers deathtouch, and protects our stuff - a wonderful collection of extremely useful abilities.
- Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker - clones any nonlegendary creature, which can allow for a ton of value in the form of more tap abilities. Also an extremely powerful combo piece when built around.
- Seedborn Muse - capable of dominating games on its own. This deck doesn't abuse it to its full potential due to a lack of instants and mana sinks, but even just giving us extra usages of our tap abilities is already really powerful.
- Moraug, Fury of Akoum - turns landfall triggers into untaps, allowing for a lot of activations. Moraug can also represent a ton of raw damage if you attack with Samut or another beater repeatedly.
- Thousand-Year Elixir - serves as a backup Samut, granting pseudo-haste and an untap. An excellent inclusion.
- Quest for Renewal - very easy to turn on, and it provides a lot of extra untaps.
- Staff of Domination - capable of untapping creatures, among other things. This deck doesn't have any mana critters that can tap for enough mana to go infinite with it, but it is capable of generating large amounts of mana in other ways. Consider it if you want to play more mana critters.
- Thornbite Staff - turns any creature into Goblin Sharpshooter. If you want to build around it, consider running creatures with deathtouch (or Basilisk Collar to grant it). Also a potent combo piece alongside sacrifice outlets, although a bit pricy to get going.
- Puppet Strings, Sword of the Paruns, Umbral Mantle and other untap effects - all reasonable inclusions. I recommend trying to stick to cheaper activation costs when possible, since you'll want to be using these often.
- Rhythm of the Wild - one of the better haste-granting effects available - it still does something if Samut is out by providing a +1/+1 counter. Enchantment makes it hard to kill, and can't-be-countered clause is also quite relevant.
- Anger, Fires of Yavimaya, Urabrask the Hidden, and other haste effects - Samut is usually sufficient, but having a backup isn't a terrible idea.
- Village Bell-Ringer, Benefactor's Draught, and other one-shot untap effects - usually not worth it in my opinion, but they do open up some interesting lines. Village Bell-Ringer can function as a combo piece alongside Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker if you're running it, and any mass untap effects can function as powerful rituals if you have enough creature-based mana production.
- Aggravated Assault - some decks care about the extra combat steps, but we mostly care about untapping all our creatures. Goes infinite with sufficient mana production from creatures. Getting extra Sun Titan or Etali, Primal Storm triggers is pretty strong though.
- Aurelia the Warleader and Combat Celebrant - again, they're usually better if you have ways to make use of the extra combat steps, but they also untap all our creatures.
- Basilisk Collar - tuns any ping ability into actual removal.
Notably, this deck leans towards a land-based ramp strategy, playing no mana rocks and almost no mana critters. An alternative version of this deck that could be worth pursuing is an elfball-style deck, focused on using creatures like Priest of Titania and Marwyn, the Nurturer to produce very large amounts of mana. This does make you more vulnerable to board clears, but can potentially be even more explosive.
- Burgeoning - enables some very explosive starts if you draw it early, but can be an awkward topdeck. Synergizes with effects that bounce lands to hand.
- Exploration - similar to Burgeoning, it can enable some very explosive starts. Works well with Ramunap Excavator and other ways to get more lands to play.
- Armored Scrapgorger - a mana dork combined with some grave hate.
- Budoka Gardener - another way to ramp out lands. Spawns giant tokens when it flips, making it still useful when you already have a bunch of lands.
- Nature's Lore - efficient ramp, particularly if you have nonbasic Forests to fetch.
- Nylea's Intervention - a toolbox card - we're running a suite of utility lands to fetch up. The more utility lands you're running, the more this goes up in value, and the more you'll want to consider other ways to fetch those lands. Can also fetch up cycling lands to turn into card draw.
- Cultivate - one of the better ramp spells available. Ramps one into play, and lets you hit your next land drop too.
- Freestrider Lookout - turns crimes into ramp. Great with pingers, but also works with Samut and other untap effects.
- Knight of the Reliquary - as mentioned previously, we're running a suite of utility lands it can tutor up. Also fills a bunch of other functions - serving as a large beater/blocker, feeding Ramunap Excavator, providing a little acceleration (the land it fetches is untapped), etc.
- Kodama's Reach - see Cultivate. Also an arcane card, not that we have any synergies with that.
- Krosan Restorer - taps to untap lands, so we can maximize our theme. Also works very well alongside any mana doublers and any effects that fill the graveyard. Combo piece with Maze of Ith.
- Tireless Provisioner - turns land drops into treasure or food, and works well with fetchlands and other landfall enablers.
- Elvish Piper - doesn't generate mana directly, but it does allow us to cheat in expensive creatures at an incredibly efficient rate.
- Keeper of Progenitus - one of the more unique payoffs for playing Naya colors. Note that this effect is symmetric, so you may want to hold back on it if there are other decks at the table that will benefit from it. Note also that this cares about basic land types, but doesn't only affect basic lands - we want to run a high count of these lands to support it.
- Ley Weaver - as above, fantastic with mana doublers, and a combo piece.
- Selvala, Eager Trailblazer - potentially taps for a bunch of mana, and also generates tokens.
- Stone-Seeder Hierophant - lets you untap lands when you ramp, which makes it particularly useful with stuff like Thawing Glaciers.
- Mirari's Wake - another mana doubler, which also pumps the team. Works well with land untap effects.
- Ezzaroot Channeler - cost reduction for creatures, plus a little lifegain. It makes it very possible to play 3+ creatures in a single turn. Reach isn't irrelevant either.
- Mana Reflection - another mana doubler, which actually doubles your mana. This is also somewhat unique in that it increases mana from creatures, and not just lands. Beware of Damping Sphere.
- Boundless Realms - when you want to get all the basics out of your deck, no questions asked. Try to keep track of how many basics you have remaining, and prioritize fetching nonbasics when possible - it is possible to run out. Also a way to turn on Hermit Druid.
- Zendikar Resurgent - yet another mana doubler. Also turns creatures into cards, which is powerful when you're running a lot of creatures.
- Open the Way - a nice early/midgame ramp spell.
- Harvest Season - one of the most dramatic payoffs for a tap-based strategy, and capable of pulling very large numbers of basics out of the deck. Note that it also works well with haste, since you can play a creature, attack (or tap) with it immediately, and then get an extra land.
- Expedition Map - a toolbox card - we're running a suite of utility lands to fetch up. The more utility lands you're running, the more this goes up in value, and the more you'll want to consider other ways to fetch those lands.
- Pir's Whim - mostly here to fetch up utility lands, but providing some incidental hate for artifacts and enchantments (or making a friend) is also useful.
- Farseek, Wild Growth, and other cheap ramp - all good options if you want to be a bit faster. I generally value reaching larger amounts of mana (12+), hence all the mana doublers, but ramp packages often come down to personal preference - this deck doesn't need to ramp out its general on turn 3 to function.
- Sakura-Tribe Elder, Farhaven Elf, Wood Elves, and other creature-based land ramp - we have cards like Skullclamp that care about expendable bodies and creatures in general. A bit off-theme, and can run into some tension if you're running Torpor Orb though.
- Sakura-Tribe Scout, Llanowar Scout, and Walking Atlas - more ways to get lands from hand into play, which work well with ways to get lands into hand.
- Argothian Elder - Ley Weaver #2.
- Oracle of Mul Daya - provides a bit of card advantage and ramp. Works well if we need to bounce many of our lands to Quirion Ranger. You could build into it more with a top-of-deck matters theme, with cards like Sensei's Divining Top, Sylvan Library, and Dryad Greenseeker.
- Arbor Elf, Priest of Titania, Marwyn, the Nurturer, Joraga Treespeaker, and other mana elves - I made an explicit choice when building this deck to avoid making an elfball deck. However, these cards all work very well with untap effects, and could result in a faster deck. Some can also go infinite with untap effects like Umbral Mantle.
- Overgrowth - powers up any land untapping effects, and also just a good ramp spell if you're heavy on green.
- Selvala, Explorer Returned - generates mana, gains life, and draw cards. Symmetric draw can be awkward, but you'll never run out of gas.
- Somberwald Sage - produces a lot of mana, although only for casting creatures.
- Bloom Tender and Faeburrow Elder - these are mana-postive when untapped by Samut, which makes them even more potent mana producers.
- Shaman of Forgotten Ways - another mana critter, with a side helping of Biorhythm. This makes taking your opponents out via combat damage significantly easier.
- Nylea's Intervention - not ramp, but it fetches a pile of utility lands. Good if you have ways to accelerate your land drops. Also kills fliers in a pinch.
- Realms Uncharted, Crop Rotation, Sylvan Scrying, and other ways to fetch nonbasic lands to hand - again, these go up in value when you have more utility lands worth fetching.
- Elvish Reclaimer, Tempt with Discovery, Hour of Promise, and ways to fetch nonbasics to play - more solid inclusions, especially if you want to build more around utility lands.
- Weathered Wayfarer - another way to fetch up nonbasic lands, assuming you can stay behind on total lands. Consider running karoos like Selesnya Sanctuary and friends as a way to artificially decrease your land count.
- Growing Rites of Itlimoc - cantrips and generates a lot of mana. A very powerful option to untap.
- Thaumatic Compass - hitting land drops is good. The flipside is also relevant, since most of our creatures are small and bad at blocking.
- Sol Ring, Gruul Signet, and other mana rocks - this deck has many synergies with lands and creatures, so it currently isn't running any mana rocks. Running Sol Ring is probably a reasonable choice though. On the other hand, not relying on mana rocks opens up options like Bane of Progress, Stony Silence, Collector Ouphe, and other mass artifact hate spells.
- Rude Awakening, Early Harvest, Mana Geyser, and other rituals - can be useful if you find yourself wanting one-shot effects, but this deck isn't particularly well built to take advantage of them - you really want to have a lot of mana sinks to make use of them.
- Svella, Ice Shaper - acts as a repeatable ramp spell by generating a bunch of Icy Manaliths. Can also act as a mana sink if you have excess mana.
- Shigeki, Jukai Visionary - a repeatable ramp option that also fills the graveyard. In the lategame, you can channel it for a very strong (and uncounterable) recursion effect.
- Perilous Forays - turns excess bodies (or tokens) into more lands. Again, can fetch nonbasics. Also serves as a sac outlet, which can be useful if you are expecting a board wipe. It's also a powerful landfall enabler if you're running cards like Rampaging Baloths or Lotus Cobra.
- Eladamri's Call - running lots of creatures makes this a very powerful tutor - we have a lot of good targets.
- Hermit Druid - actually being played relatively fairly here, since Naya doesn't have something like Laboratory Maniac to just win off an empty library. Still, it helps hit land drops, and feeds the graveyard for our various recursion options. Keep track of how many basic lands you've gotten out - this card is capable of milling the entire deck in a couple of turn cycles, and it is a very powerful graveyard enabler.
- Humble Defector - Sometimes, you can use this to make a friend. Most of the time, you'll give it away to draw six to eight cards, and never see it again. Not a bad deal for two mana in red.
- Embrace the Unknown - mid/lategame draw engine, turning excess lands into more cards.
- Tireless Tracker - works well with all our land-based ramp to draw a lot of cards. Very silly with stuff like Quirion Ranger that helps us trigger landfall.
- Queen Kayla bin-Kroog - lets you cash in your entire hand and dig extremely deep. You can also cheat out some cheap creatures / artifacts, which potentially pays back the four mana activation cost. She does get weaker if you're empty-handed though.
- Yes Man, Personal Securitron - Humble Defector #2, this time with protection from shenanigans.
- Case of the Locked Hothouse - extra land drops are nice, but the real appeal here is the Future Sight ability - this deck is heavy on creatures and lands, so it's possible to chain multiple cards per turn off it.
- Guardian Project - turns creatures into card draw at an efficient rate.
- Krenko, Mob Boss - gets special mention as a token producer due to producing exponentially more tokens per untap, which means that winning by attacking with 1/1 tokens is actually a fairly realistic possibility.
- Etali, Primal Storm - not technically card draw, but free spells are close enough. Also works really well with haste. Plus, who doesn't love dinosaurs?
- Skullclamp - we're running a lot of small creatures, and cashing them in for cards is sometimes their best usage. Alternatively, find a sacrifice outlet or token production.
- Mentor of the Meek - we're running a lot of small creatures, and turning them into card draw is quite useful.
- Pride Sovereign - not card draw by itself, but it feeds into a few synergies with cards like Skullclamp and Mentor of the Meek. Alternatively, just use it to flood the board (or make chump blockers) - extra 1/1 bodies will always find a use.
- Genesis Wave - my general heuristic is that Genesis Wave is like Blackjack - if you resolve one for 21, you win. It's a very powerful payoff for a ramp strategy, but casting it for X=7 or so is also capable of providing a significant tempo boost.
- Yisan, the Wanderer Bard - a repeatable tutor on legs. We're not built around it as much as a dedicated deck may be, but it's still possible to go very far up the chain in a single turn cycle. Note that putting a counter on is part of the cost, not on resolution, which means you can do some interesting tricks by untapping in response to an activation.
- Magus of the Library - not as good as the real Library of Alexandria, but if you can keep a full hand, it's one of the most efficient card draw engines available. Also taps for mana in a pinch.
- Atla Palani, Nest Tender - another token producer, who happens to work really well with sacrifice outlets.
- Sunbird's Invocation - generates a lot of value and digs through the deck pretty quickly if it sticks around.
- Thraben Doomsayer - repeatably makes tokens, but with a free activation cost.
- Harmonize, Shamanic Revelation, and other green card draw spells - if you find yourself in need of more card draw, there are many good options.
- Sylvan Library, Mirri's Guile, Sensei's Divining Top, Gilt-Leaf Seer, and other filtering effects - there are some interesting tap abilities that care about the top card of your deck, such as Dryad Greenseeker and Bloodline Shaman, plus cards like Zoologist, Nylea, Keen-Eyed, and Call of the WIld. Consider it as another direction the deck could take.
- Dryad Greenseeker and Fa'adiyah Seer - Greenseeker only draws lands, but Seer also works with Life From the Loam.
- Rummaging Goblin, Dismissive Pyromancer, and other looting effects - improves card quality and fills the graveyard for any recursion we have available.
- Syr Carah, the Bold - taps to effectively draw a card. Can also ping down utility creatures.
- Deal Broker - fuels graveyard interactions and filters through the deck so we can find what we're looking for.
- Beast Whisperer, Lifecrafter's Bestiary, and other creature-based draw effects - more ways to capitalize on our high creature count.
- Ulvenwald Mysteries - turns dead creatures into card draw (and tokens!). Softens the blow of board wipes like Wrath of God, since we can use the clues to recover, but it also works well with sacrifice outlets.
- Worldly Tutor, Survival of the Fittest, Fauna Shaman, Captain Sisay, and other tutors - if you want something specific, efficient tutors are a good way to get it. Consider adding more silver bullet targets if you go heavier on tutors.
- Birthing Pod, Tooth and Nail, Green Sun's Zenith, Finale of Devastation, and other tutor-into-play effects - again, useful if you want to go even heavier into a dedicated combo deck, or if you are playing more silver bullets.
- Godsire, Oviya Pashiri, Sage Lifecrafter, Rhys the Redeemed, Rakka Mar, and other token producers - we're not a dedicated token deck, but we can definitely get value from them. Larger tokens can also serve as a win condition.
- Stoneforge Mystic - we run a few pieces of equipment as combo pieces, and these are a great way to tutor them up. This deck would function very well with an equipment package - either for voltron-ing Samut, or giving pingers deathtouch with Basilisk Collar.
- Plargg, Dean of Chaos // Augusta, Dean of Order - rummages to provide card selection or just cheats out cheap spells on the front half, while Augusta acts as an untapper on the backside.
- Jaxis, the Troublemaker - somewhat similar to Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, although with less combo potential. Still, it provides a bit of nice card filtering and the ability to generate some silly piles of value.
- Stonehewer Giant - tutors up equipment as necessary. This deck has a nice selection of options, and it's possible to lean in by running even more equipment - Samut is fantastic at carrying swords.
- Treeshaker Chimera - play it with haste, take out some blockers, then draw some cards. A nice package of abilities.
- Bag of Tricks - cheats random creatures into play for a fair price. Hard to predict what you're going to get, but it's possible to control it somewhat by only running 1-2 creatures at a given mana value.
- Experimental Frenzy - capable of generating a lot of card advantage, assuming you don't run into too many lands and have plenty of mana. Works well with extra land drops and Burgeoning effects.
- Escape to the Wilds - five mana for five cards is a pretty good deal, even if it is time-limited. A free extra land drop is also nice.
- Swords to Plowshares - cheap and efficient spot removal. This deck struggles with certain creatures such as Linvala, Keeper of Silence, so it's nice to have answers.
- Goblin Sharpshooter - pings down X/1s, and acts as a Plague Wind if you can give it deathtouch.
- Heliod's Intervention - shoots down as many problems as you have mana for.
- Decimate - flexible removal. It can be awkward if a card type (usually enchantment) is missing, but blowing up a spent Burgeoning or Exploration can be okay in a pinch.
- Aerial Extortionist - it isn't permanent removal, but it does provide a bit of nice disruption and card advantage.
- Bladegriff Prototype - requires a bit of diplomancy, but it can provide a repeatable Vindicate effect if someone is willing to help you out.
- Roxanne, Starfall Savant - a mix of Primeval Titan and Inferno Titan, throwing meteors at opponents' stuff.
- Tragic Arrogance - a semi-asymmetric board wipe. Keep your favorite stuff, while your opponents can keep something less useful.
- Kogla, the Titan Ape - fights something on ETB, then chews through artifacts and enchantments. Kogla can also protect your humans, including Samut.
- Steel Hellkite - another way to repeatedly blow stuff up. It can be a bit mana-intensive, but blowing up tokens is always free.
- Ezuri's Predation - an asymmetric board wipe that can kill a bunch of opposing creatures while generating a bunch of bodies. Capable of killing opponents out of nowhere alongside haste from Samut.
- Living Inferno - capable of eating all sorts of small creatures repeatedly. As always, works well with untap effects - this isn't a fight effect, so the damage is dealt even if the Inferno dies.
- Pest Infestation - blows up a bunch of problematic cards, plus it generates a ton of tokens.
- Mother of Runes - makes our stuff very resilient to targeted removal and damage-based removal. Also works well with haste and untap effects.
- Goblin Bombardment - an option to ping down small creatures. Also a great combo finisher.
- Scavenging Ooze - one of the better graveyard hate cards available - grows bigger and gains a bit of life in the process.
- Intrepid Hero - repeatable removal for large creatures. Works well as a rattlesnake to point attacks in different directions.
- Mangara of Corondor - deals with any permanent. Works well with untap effects to deal with multiple problems, and sacrifice effects to occasionally be recurred.
- Glissa Sunseeker - more artifact removal. Free activation is nice, but needing to have mana floating can make things sort of weird.
- Kamahl, Pit Fighter - bolting things is an upgrade to pinging - Kamahl's damage can add up very fast.
- Torpor Orb, Hushwing Gryff, and Hushbringer - unlike most creature-based Commander decks, we're pretty light on enters-the-battlefield effects, which gives us access to these very powerful hate cards.
- Decimate, Hull Breach, and other one-shot spells - if you find yourself having difficulty sticking creatures, consider more spell-based interaction.
- Austere Command and other board wipes - we don't necessarily want to blow up all of our own creatures, but there are some flexible options that can keep our important stuff alive.
- Path to Exile and other creature removal - if you find yourself having difficulty dealing with creatures, consider more removal.
- Aura Shards - a very powerful tool, capable of keeping artifact and enchantment-based strategies in check by itself.
- Boros Charm, Heroic Intervention, and Teferi's Protection - if you want to protect your stuff, consider more protection. As a deck that relies on having a lot of creatures in play, we really dislike board wipes.
- Nullmage Advocate - deals with problematic artifacts and enchantments, and can occasionally mess with reanimation. Note that you can untap it and target the same cards in a graveyard repeatedly, or exile them with grave hate. It's also a potent political tool - give an opponent a counterspell in response to Torment of Hailfire, or removal for a problematic permanent. Note that you can untap and target the same cards in a graveyard in response to its ability.
- Starke of Rath - deals with a variety of things, and works well with untap effects.
- Brigid, Hero of Kinsbaile - capable of warding off many attacks, especially backed by untap effects.
- Prodigal Pyromancer and other pingers - these cards often get better in multiples. Consider adding more ways to grant deathtouch if you want to build into this.
- Martyr's Cause - another option for a free sacrifice outlet, but can also negate particularly large attacks.
- Turn the Earth - a cheap way to shuffle key cards in a graveyard back into their owner's library. Also a combo piece with Hermit Druid.
- Ondu Inversion // Ondu Skyruins - a board wipe that an also be a land in the early game. This deck doesn't like having its board wiped, but it also runs enough land-based ramp to not be set back too far.
- Inferno Titan - a big pinger, capable of mowing down hordes of small creatures.
- Brash Taunter - a janky rattlesnake, or a way to burn out your opponents (assuming they have something big to fight).
- Life from the Loam - hit all your land drops alongside any fetchlands, or draw cards with cycling lands. It's on the slow side, but it provides a lot of card advantage. Consider running Buried Ruin or Haunted Fengraf if you want more recursion, or any other lands that sacrifice themselves.
- Pulsemage Advocate - free reanimation, with an asterisk. Note that you can untap and activate it again, targeting the same cards in opponents' graveyards... or you can use grave hate to disrupt the downside entirely.
- Ramunap Excavator - another way to recur lands - usually fetches or cycling lands, but can also grab back utility lands that have been destroyed.
- Conduit of Worlds - lets you replay lands from the graveyard, plus you can recur a nonland card once per turn. It works well if you have other mana sinks, or stuff to cast on your opponents' turns.
- Dusk // Dawn - front half kills big things, back half recurs little things. A lot of our creatures are on the smaller side to take advantage of this.
- Sun Titan - reanimates small things, including our equipment and lands. Works well with haste.
- Feldon of the Third Path - creates token copies of any creatures we may want. Excellent way to get a Sun Titan or Etali, Primal Storm into play. Also works well with Mangara of Corondor, since we don't care about losing the token.
- Seasons Past - a fantastic recursion spell, which also tucks itself back in for the future. Note that it doesn't target, so it is difficult to stop with targeted exile such as Scavenging Ooze.
- Rally the Ancestors - a very strong mass reanimation effect, with some significant limitations due to the exile clause. Fortunately, we have plenty of access to haste to make full use of those creatures.
- Storm of Souls - a very powerful mass reanimation effect. The creatures are just 1/1s, but their tap abilities aren't affected. Win condition alongside Hermit Druid.
- Adarkar Valkyrie - can't grab things that were already in the graveyard, but does a good job at protecting our stuff. If an opponent's creature is going to die, we can also steal it with the Valkyrie if we target it beforehand.
- Regrowth, Restock, Wildest Dreams, Reap, and other one-shot recursion effects - they vary in efficiency and power, but worth a look if you find yourself needing something specific.
- Praetor's Counsel - grabs back your entire graveyard. Expensive, but you get what you pay for.
- Eternal Witness, Den Protector, Greenwarden of Murasa, and other creature-based recursion - we have synergies with creatures, and have ways to recur them.
- Hua Tuo, Honored Physician - card disadvantage, but we have ways to cycle through creatures to make up for it (or just replay a creature that generates card advantage directly).
- Angel of Glory's Rise, Grave Sifter, and other tribal-based recursion - if you run enough of the appropriate tribes, these can be powerful cards when built around.
- The Mending of Dominaria - grabs back creatures, then grabs back lands. It's also a way to shuffle arbitrary cards back into our deck that we don't have recursion for, if we expect to be able to tutor them back up.
- Splendid Reclamation, World Shaper, and Crucible of Worlds - several additional ways to recur lands. If you're running them, consider running more ways to dump lands (or other cards) into your graveyard.
- Emeria Shepherd - turns any ramp spell into recursion. Also works very well alongside Perilous Forays.
- Genesis - a bit slow, but it grabs back whatever creature we care about every turn.
- Restoration Specialist - not quite as versatile as Eternal Witness, but it also grabs two cards. Most of our recursion is for just creatures, so having some variety is appreciated.
- Sevinne's Reclamation - recurs lands, small creatures, and other cards of value. It also has flashback, which opens up some interesting options, such as going all-in on Hermit Druid.
- Arch of Orazca - card draw on a land. A bit expensive, but it serves well as a mana sink.
- Emeria, the Sky Ruin - a repeatable reanimation engine if you can get enough Plains onto the battlefield. Works well with cards like Dryad of the Ilysian Grove, of just recur Krosan Verge a few times.
- Kessig Wolf Run - a mana sink that can turn any creature into a threat, and very, very scary alongside Samut. Can also be used politically, if an opponent is attacking another opponent. Some other niche uses if you have power-based removal like Intrepid Hero.
- Thawing Glaciers - a bit slow, but it works great with untap effects and extra land drops. Also a good landfall enabler.
- Maze of Ith - a solid defensive option, if you want to stop your opponents from hitting you. It also has a secret mode of untapping our own creatures. Combo piece, and a strong reason to run a bunch of land tutors in the first place.
- Shivan Gorge - pings opponents for a bit of damage. It's also a potential win condition if you can untap it infinite times.
- Opal Palace - we're not a dedicated voltron deck, but it's capable of turning Samut into a 3-shot or 2-shot kill.
- Strip Mine, Wasteland, Ghost Quarter, Field of Ruin, and Dust Bowl - there are a lot of ways to trade our lands for our opponents' utility lands. Backed up by recursion and extra land drops, these are also capable of locking opponents out of the game, if you're into that sort of thing. Usually will be sent after Cabal Coffers or other high-value lands.
- Flamekin Village - another way to grant haste if we really need it. We're not running many elementals though, so will usually enter tapped.
- Gavony Township - a way to pump your entire team. Can protect utility creatures from some damage-based removal.
- Mistveil Plains - bringing it up here to mention that this deck doesn't run enough white permanents to support it. However, it can be worth consideration in a version that it heavier on white cards. Mistveil Plains is also particularly useful if you plan to mill yourself out with Hermit Druid.
- Buried Ruin, Haunted Fengraf, Petrified Field - recursion on a land.
- Wirewood Lodge - we're not running enough elves, but it is a powerful tool in an elfball version of the deck. Can act as a combo piece with land untappers such as Argothian Elder.
- Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle, Dark Depths, Thespian's Stage, Field of the Dead - several options for land-based win conditions.
- Forest (x4) - our primary color is green, and we have cards which specifically fetch Forests. Also, most of our fixing is green, which makes it the most important color to have first.
- Mountain (x2) and Plains (x2) - our other colors.
- Alpine Meadow, Arctic Treeline, and Highland Forest - enter tapped, but basic land types are useful. Can also enable snow synergies, if you have any.
- Canopy Vista, Cinder Glade - basic land types are great. Often enters untapped.
- Rootbound Crag, Sunpetal Grove - usually enters untapped.
- Command Tower - the single best fixing land in the format.
- Evolving Wilds, Terramorphic Expanse, Cabaretti Courtyard - mostly here to help Ramunap Excavator and friends.
- Exotic Orchard - enters untapped, and usually produces several colors of mana. Can be inconsistent though.
- Jetmir's Garden - enters tapped, but we get all our colors. Can also be cycled if necessary.
- Krosan Verge - a bit of ramp in the land slot. Can fetch nonbasics.
- Myriad Landscape - more ramp in the land slot.
- Path of Ancestry - enters tapped, but produces all of our colors and provides filtering when casting humans and warriors, of which this deck has a few.
- Radiant Grove and Sacred Peaks - tapped Plains for Emeria, the Sky Ruin.
- Scattered Groves, Sheltered Thicket - basic land types are great, or you can cycle it.
- Selesnya Sanctuary - good if you have extra land drops, fantastic when you can untap it repeatedly.
- Plateau, Temple Garden, and other lands with basic land types - all fantastic, and worth running if you have them. These are particularly valuable due to Keeper of Progenitus.
- Windswept Heath and other fetchlands - also fantastic, and work well with landfall and graveyard synergies. These work really well with Life from the Loam and other land recursion.
- Temple of Abandon, Kazandu Refuge, and other tapped lands - usually not worth running over a basic, since we have so much green fixing, and care about basic land types.
- Ash Barrens - cycles for a basic, or you can play it untapped in a pinch.
Strategy
In contrast, the lines on Samut we care about the most are her support abilities: Other creatures you control have haste and Untap another target creature. As a result, while we may plan to play out Samut and use our other creatures' tap abilities repeatedly, our exact gameplan is going to vary wildly depending on what tap abilities we have available - a game where we can utilize Magus of the Library or Humble Defector repeatedly to draw cards is going to look very different from a game where we're ramping repeatedly with Budoka Gardener or Krosan Restorer, or trying to control the board with Kamahl, Pit Fighter and Glissa Sunseeker. Sometimes we'll have a more graveyard-focused game with Hermit Druid and Feldon of the Third Path, while other games we won't touch our graveyard at all.
Fundamentally, we're not heading for a landmark - we're navigating a twisty set of back-alleys, and while we may be generally headed for some point, we won't always know how far away it is, or what paths we'll be taking to get there. Our journey is going to be further complicated by how often our path branches - if we have a bunch of tap abilities available, a limited amount of mana, and a limited number of untap effects, we'll need to determine the best way to spend our mana and untaps to achieve our goals.
So instead of focusing on the journey, I'll actually recommend starting by looking at the map from a bird's-eye view and working backwards from your destination: what do you need to win? How do you get to that position? And if we're not sure what the best path to take is, how can we make our path easier to travel?
Phrased differently and working backwards, our overall strategy can be broken into three components:
- Identifying a win condition - whether it be assembling a combo, attacking with an army of tokens, or something else
- Digging for that win condition - whether it be via pure card draw, tutoring for individual pieces, or filling our graveyard and recurring what we want
- Accelerating our digging - whether it be by ramping so we can spend more mana digging, or playing untap effects so we can use our creatures to dig faster.
Navigating the Game
For our opening hand, we'll usually want 2-4 lands and some form of acceleration or ramp. In a best-case scenario, we'll also have a creature with a tap ability that we can use to generate some repeatable card advantage. At this point in time, don't worry too much about combo pieces or expensive spells - we can draw into them later. Untappers are also useful to have - your gameplan going forward will often depend on what tap abilities you have access to, and untap effects will make those abilities much more useful.
Pretty sketchy, but keepable. We may have to use Skullclamp on the Ranger or the Hero to hit land drops, but Seasons Past means we can recur them later. Quirion Ranger can also function as a mana dork in a pinch - if you fetch a Forest with Evolving Wilds, you can bounce and replay it with the Ranger to give access to a third mana.
This hand looks sweet. Turn 1 Burgeoning lets us ramp into a Turn 3 Mirari's Wake if we hit any land, and Turn 4 Zendikar Resurgent. At that point, we'll have a ton of mana, and every creature draws us more cards. It could wither and die if we don't draw anything (or, more likely, our opponents have removal for our enchantments), but this is a hand where we'll be happy drawing any land or any creature.
We run a lot of cheap acceration, but a lot of it comes with card disadvantage - Exploration, Budoka Gardener, and Burgeoning let us jump quickly into the midgame, but will usually result in us being empty-handed when we get there. If you have some way to recoup that lost card advantage (such as Tireless Tracker or Magus of the Library), consider slowing down a bit to prevent this situation.
Mid Game Once you reach around 5 mana, consider deploying Samut - she makes the rest of the deck significantly better. Activating our creatures' tap abilities immediately and multiple times per turn is a massive boost to them. At this point in time, mana starts to become more of a concern - using Samut or another untapper will be a tax on our mana, so try to continue ramping while extracting as much value from tap abilities as possible. Card draw is also pretty valuable here. Alternatively, try to stick a mana doubler to turbo-charge future turns.
At this point in time, board wipes like Wrath of God may start to get played. If you're expecting them, consider prioritizing card advantage or noncreature spells. We do have some ways to recur our creatures, but losing them still hurts. Still, it may be worth extending into a board wipe if you have Perilous Forays or another way to benefit from those creatures. Sometimes, activating a creature's tap ability once is all you need.
Late Game Once you have enough mana, start to focus in on how you intend to close out the game. If you have several combo pieces in hand, try digging for whatever you're missing. If you have Genesis Wave, deploy a mana doubler and set up for a big turn. If you have card draw, then use that to dig through your deck, then redeploy if your board gets dealt with. If you're missing all of the above, just find a useful tap ability and activate it a bunch of times - even something like Thaben Doomsayer will win the game given sufficient activations (although you'll hopefully be able to find something a bit more impactful).
At this point in time, our deck can start to resemble a storm deck - between Skullclamp, Mentor of the Meek, Zendikar Resurgent, and other draw effects, we have a lot of ways to chain creatures into each other. Similarly, with mana doublers and untap effects, we're capable of generating a lot of mana off Krosan Restorer and other mana creatures. Add in all the tapping and untapping we do, and board states can get pretty complicated. Try to keep track of what tools you have available, and identify the best path to victory.
Things to Watch Out For
This deck is a bit light on interaction, and most of its interaction is in the form of tap abilities on creatures. As a result, there are some cards and situations that can give us a headache. We can recover from most of them, but if they come up often in your meta, consider running more answers.
Fortunately, this deck tends to not be particularly threatening - most of our creatures are small, we don't threaten to lock our opponents out, and we aren't as obviously graveyard-focused as a reanimator deck. As a result, it's possible to keep a low profile and not draw too much hate. We can be pretty threatening if we do a ton of ramping and play out a mana doubler though. Consider holding back resources if you expect your opponents to throw removal at your stuff before you can benefit from it.
If your board gets wiped: in an ideal situation, we'll have already drawn cards from our creatures off Mentor of the Meek or some other effect. Otherwise, hunt for a recursion spell like Genesis or Dawn.
If a combo piece gets exiled: we have some redundancy, but not a ton. This is usually best dealt with via prevention - don't play out combo pieces if you don't have a plan for them. Otherwise, switch gears to a different win condition.
If Samut gets stolen: not that big of a deal. We're not that reliant on Samut - losing haste certainly slows us down, but only by a turn cycle. Still, if this is a recurring problem, consider running more sacrifice outlets or something like Homeward Path. Note also that Samut has flash, so we can hold off on playing her if we expect sorcery-speed interaction.
If an opponent plays scary things: Maze of Ith is one of the better defenses here, since we're a bit light on interaction - otherwise, find some tokens to chump block with. Mangara of Corondor is always an excellent rattlesnake, at least.
If an opponent plays a hate card: Linvala, Keeper of Silence, Cursed Totem, Humility, Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite... there are a lot of cards that make us miserable, and, again, we're somewhat light on interaction. We do have access to stuff like Swords to Plowshares and Beast Within - if these are common cards in your meta, adapt your interaction to deal with them.
Notable Interactions and Combos
- Samut, Voice of Dissent + creatures with summoning sickness - arguably the interaction the entire deck is built around. Being in the command zone isn't particularly subtle, but flashing her out to let us activate something like Mother of Runes in response to removal is pretty relevant.
- Samut, Voice of Dissent + tapped creatures - again, flash allows us to get another activation out of a tapped creature in response to removal. Alternatively, use her to untap a blocker, or use her as a blocker directly - you'd be amazed how often people just attack into Samut mana because they forgot about flash.
- Samut, Voice of Dissent (tapped) + Goblin Bombardment or another sacrifice outlet - flash lets us sacrifice Samut and replay her untapped, which is relevant if she gets locked down by something like Frost Titan. Again, useful if we really need a blocker or to untap something.
- Seeker of Skybreak + Illusionist's Bracers - Seeker can, uniquely, target itself. If you copy its ability, you can have Seeker untap both itself and another creature, giving you infinite untaps.
- Thornbite Staff + Thraben Doomsayer, Adarkar Valkyrie, or another token producer + Goblin Bombardment (or another sacrifice outlet) - tap creature, generate token, sacrifice token, untap creature. Valkyrie operates similarly, but also lets us use any tap abilities our sacrificed creature may have.
- Seeker of Skybreak + Adarkar Valkyrie + sacrifice outlet - similar to above, but with Seeker functioning in place of Thornbite Staff. Samut also works here, although untapping costs a mana.
- Krosan Restorer or Ley Weaver + Maze of Ith - attack with the creature, then use Maze to untap it, and the creature to untap Maze and another land. Allows infinite untapping of your lands. Note that this provides infinite mana, but only during combat, which means you'll need some sort of mana sink for it.
Add in Illusionist's Bracers and you can untap Maze of Ith twice, allowing you to untap all your attacking creatures.
Add in Arch of Orazca to draw your deck.
Add in Shivan Gorge to ping your opponents to death. - Burgeoning + Quirion Ranger / Scryb Ranger - return a land you control in response to the Burgeoning trigger and replay it. This allows you to get a free untap any time your opponents play a land (once per turn).
- Yisan, the Wanderer Bard - putting a verse counter on Yisan is done as part of the cost, not the resolution. This means you can untap Yisan and activate him again in response to his ability to fetch multiple creatures with the same mana cost. Yisan is also a one-card combo engine, albeit one that takes a lot of mana and untaps to use.
The default Yisan chain is Quirion Ranger → Seeker of Skybreak → Knight of the Reliquary (who grabs Maze of Ith + Shivan Gorge) → Ley Weaver, which is enough to win with the Maze of Ith combo above.
If you need redundancy, protection, or recursion, consider fetching Mother of Runes, Scryb Ranger, or Feldon of the Third Path.
Scavenging Ooze, Mangara of Corondor, and Brigid, Hero of Kinsbaile are fantastic surprises to flash in.
If you already have a bunch of counters on Yisan, grabbing Adarkar Valkyrie in response to a board wipe is a way to rebuild quickly. - If you're running them, Fauna Shaman, Captain Sisay, and Stoneforge Mystic are also all powerful cards for expanding a tutor chain.
- Mangara of Corondor, Living Inferno, and Humble Defector - all of these go away on resolution of their abilities, which means there is no downside to activating them multiple times in response to the first activation, or sacrificing them before those abilities resolve.
- Life from the Loam, Deal Broker, Hermit Druid, and other ways to fill our graveyard + Ramunap Excavator, Genesis, Sun Titan, and other recursion - we're not a totally graveyard-based deck, but we do have a fair number of ways to generate card advantage using our graveyard.
- Hermit Druid + no basics left in deck = mill your entire deck. From there, you can use Turn the Earth to shuffle Storm of Souls back in, which will allow for you to reanimate all the milled creatures - reanimating everything will usually be enough for a combo win.
Another line is Dawn → Restoration Specialist to get back any important artifacts / enchantments. Assuming Samut is out and all other creatures are in your graveyard, one potential line that wins with 11 lands is:
Dawn → Keeper of Progenitus → Krosan Restorer → untap 6 lands (with Restorer and Samut) → Restoration Specialist → Illusionist's Bracers + Seeker of Skybreak → any useful tap ability.
Change Log
8/16/2019 - tweaking formatting
2/1/2020 - THB swaps
2/12/2020 Tuning for my meta
8/24/2021 Tuning for a new meta
9/28/2021 MID changes, and a bunch of others
10/2/2022 Shifting gears
1/22/2023 reducing Hermit Druid support
3/26/2023 Cutting Maze of Ith
5/13/2024 OTJ Updates