How To Play The Samut, The Driving Force Commander Deck In Magic: The Gathering

Samut, the Driving Force features as one of the many legendary creatures found in Magic: The Gathering‘s Aetherdrift 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!).

MTG Vnwxt, Verbose Host art with the card next to it.

Magic: The Gathering – Vnwxt, Verbose Host Commander Deck Guide

Vnwxt, Verbose Host is a mono blue commander featured in the Aetherdrift set. This card is hard to spell, but its ability will make your life easier.

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.

Decklist

MTG Starting Column card with the art in the background.

Commander: Samut, the Driving Force
Adeline, Resplendent Cathar	Agate Instigator	Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon	Avacyn’s Pilgrim	Baylen, the Haymaker	Cadira, Caller of the Small
Champion of Lambholt	Endrider Catalyzer	Enduring Vitality	Hazoret, Godseeker	Jacked Rabbit	Jetmir, Nexus of Revels
Llanowar Elves	Moonshaker Cavalry	Neyali, Suns’ Vanguard	Otharri, Suns’ Glory	Purphoros, God of the Forge	Toski, Bearer of Secrets
Witty Roastmaster	Awaken the Woods	Blasphemous Act	Deploy to the Front	Ezuri’s Predation	Farseek
Finale of Glory	Form a Posse	Forth Eorlingas!	Goblin Offensive	Hop to It	Hour of Reckoning
Martial Coup	Nature’s Lore	Path of the Ghosthunter	Release the Dogs	Saproling Symbosis	Shamanic Revelation
Storm Herd	Three Visits	Visions of Glory	Call the Coppercoats	Grand Crescendo	March of the Multitudes
Path to Exile	Recruit the Worthy	Second Harvest	Secure the Wastes	Sprout Swarm	Swords to Plowshares
White Sun’s Zenith	Arcane Signet	Halo Fountain	Horn of Valhalla	Perilous Snare	Racers’ Scoreboard
Skullclamp	Sol Ring	Starting Column	Talisman of Conviction	Talisman of Unity	Beastmaster Ascension
Impact Tremors	Intangible Virtue	Point the Way	Rabble Rousing	Warleader’s Call	Amonkhet Raceway
Avishkar Raceway	Battlefield Forge	Brushland	Canopy Vista	Castle Ardenvale	Cinder Glade
Clifftop Retreat	Command Tower	Exotic Orchard	x5 Forest	Fountainport	Karplusan Forest
Kher Keep	x4 Mountain	Murganda Raceway	Overgrown Farmland	x5 Plains	Rockfall Vale
Rootbound Crag	Shivan Gorge	Sundown Pass		Sunpetal Grove

The decklist contains 19 creatures, 20 sorceries, ten instants, ten artifacts, six enchantments, and 34 lands. The deck primarily consists of token generators, or creatures with effects that trigger when a creature enters the battlefield.

MTG Mendicant Core Guidelight art with the card next to it.

Magic: The Gathering – Mendicant Core, Guidelight Commander Deck Guide

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Key Cards

Samut, The Driving Force

The commander of the deck, Samut, the Driving Force is one of the most important cards. It triggers start your engines, letting you begin to amass speed so you can take advantage of the rest of the effects it has. You want max speed as quickly as possible to 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

MTG Jetmir, Nexus of Revel card with the art in the background.

You are going to have a very large battlefield of creatures, which will make all Jetmir, Nexus of Revels’ effects active. Jetmir provides a power boost and gives your creatures solid keyword abilities. Hitting nine creatures on the battlefield is easy, especially since Jetmir 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 Haymaker turns your creature tokens into utility that lets them be used for more than just combat. Baylen can use 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 will primarily 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 actually the best token generator in the entire deck (so long as you have maximum speed). It creates a 1/1 green Saproling token, which is very important as 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 can 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

MTG Visions of Glory card with the art in the background.

A Samut, the Driving Force Commander deck builds up speed as quickly as possible to make use of Samut’s power effect. While Samut can start your engines, the better 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.

The primary 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.

The biggest 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 also need to rely on Samut to 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 can cast with Samut in play.