- Bill the Pony, Treebeard, Gracious Host, and Farmer Cotton are critical cards because they are Legends that come with more food. Bill and Treebeard actually make enough food to be rebought ad nauseam! Farmer does so as well at X as low as 2, making him the best of this trio as he just keeps growing and scaling - at X = 5, he rebuys himself and another card, at X=8 he rebuys two other cards, etc., etc.
- I was also on the lookout for cards that trigger Sam and double Sam's triggers. Sadly, my budget meant right now that's just Peregrin Took which makes each creature, himself included, into TWO foods. As soon as they're in stock and budget allows, hopefully I'll add to this with Gandalf the White, Mondrak, Glory Dominus, and Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines (in roughly that priority order). Doubling Season makes an appearance, however, as just a super strong card for the deck.
- With my budget and SLC's stock of cards styming that, the next stop is to get more than just a rebought legend from all our food. Academy Manufactor is the big star here, turning each Food into a Clue and a Treasure in addition. Rosie Cotton of South Lane is the next best card, turning each food into a +1/+1 counter (actually each token, so she's great with some other cards in the deck too). Merry, Warden of Isengard gives us a free 1/1 dork. Trail of Crumbs is awesome here as well, as it doesn't care if we sac the food to Sam's ability or its own, and can draw us a ton of cards. Similarly critical, Jaheira, Friend of the Forest and Inspiring Statuary turn food we have laying around waiting to be cooked into mana. Again I'm missing a few great cards here - Elanor Gardner got sold out fast, or she'd be in the list for sure. Also sad to not have been able to nab a copy of Idol of Oblivion or Bennie Bracks, Zoologist.
- Sam is the heart of the deck, just as he's the heart of the films and books, and keeping him around is key. Fortunately, there are legends that do that. Saffi Eriksdotter and Boromir, Warden of the Tower are the strongest of them - Saffi because she will get an extra "trigger" out of Sam potentially if she protects anyone else, Boromir because he protects our whole board and incidentally hoses cheaty combo and copy decks. Lena, Selfless Champion is a less efficient Boromir that's still good. Arwen, Mortal Queen is another less efficient card but one that's really fun with Doubling Season. Gilraen, Dúnedain Protector is even less efficient, but has some properties as a manasink with some of our strong EtB cards. Related to this are graveyard recursion cards like Samwise the Stouthearted and Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle which let us yank cards out of the 'yard.
A running thing you may notice there is that every card I just mentioned can be recurred by Sam, making this deck insanely resilient, and almost all of those cards also trigger Sam, making the deck consistent. The rest of the deck is filled with some standard removal, draw, and ramp (with an emphasis on creatures, especially Legendary creatures, and other Historic cards), a few fun-ofs, some Lifegain payoffs since I often find I have more than enough Food to be able to afford saccing that food for life and triggers, and a few finishers.
In terms of actually winning - well, that's not my strength! I built an engine to drive forever, not to end the game ya'll. But there's a few avenues.
- Go big by making a few creatures massive with Rosie Cotton of South Lane (likely fueled by a Farmer Cotton loop), Nettlecyst, and Field-Tested Frying Pan, or by the text of Treebeard, Gracious Host and Lathiel, the Bounteous Dawn. Samwise himself, as your commander, is a great target for those cards but so are Treebeard, Lathiel, Aragorn, Company Leader, Banquet Guests (which might just get massive enough to win without help!) and Gwaihir, Greatest of the Eagles.
- Go wide by making a massive army, likely with Farmer Cotton, Lena, or Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit looped over and over. Those dorks are small, but can be made large with Motivated Pony or lethal by volume by giving them double strike off a timely War of the Last Alliance or making them all functionally unblockable thanks to Odric, Master Tactician leading the charge.
- Frodo Baggins getting you to level 4 of The Ring turbo quickly can also contribute a fair chunk of chip damage.
Note again that almost every card mentioned there is recurrable by Sam, and most of them trigger Sam - resilient and inevitable.
Samwise the Brave
Approximate Total Cost:
Very open to feedback! I do have to order chunks of this deck, and have decided Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines is a budgetary bridge too far (Mondrak may be too, we'll see). The maybeboard:
. I have no doubt Bennie is one of the better draw effects in the deck if you can get him, probably blowing out everyone except 
