Commander Deck Tech: Samut, the Driving Force

In Commander, your commander dictates the rhythm and the overall strategy of your deck. The latest Magic: The Gathering set, Aetherdrift, all about speed and races, brought us a commander who perfectly embodies what "fast-paced gameplay" should be!

Samut, the Driving Force is one of the new legendary creatures in this set. With the Speed mechanic, she will accelerate your game plan and lead you to victory!

In today's article, we'll review the main synergies and interactions that highlight everything this commander can do. We'll also explore the best ways you can use this new mechanic.

Before we start discussing Samut, the Driving Force, we need to understand her main mechanic, Speed. Introduced in Aetherdrift, the cards that interact with this mechanic have two keywords. The first one is Start your Engines!, which is curious, considering Samut's artwork doesn't show her piloting any vehicle or anything with an engine - instead, she runs on her own two legs.

Start your Engines! is simply the first trigger for this mechanic. When you activate it for the first time in a match, it sets your Speed to 1. From then on, once per turn, when your opponent loses life points, your Speed goes up by one point, to, at most, 4. You can already increase your Speed on the turn you put Samut in play. Another part of this mechanic is Max Speed, which represents the moment your Speed gets to 4.

That's where this mechanic becomes a problem, and, to a point, a contradiction. For an effect that represents Speed and what a race looks like, it is a bit slow, as you'll need to spend three turns meeting a specific goal to get to Max Speed.

Speed doesn't use counters, but rather sets up an imaginary score that goes up turn after turn. This means that this mechanic doesn't interact with effects like Proliferate, so we can only increase our Speed in a few ways.

Despite this, Samut, the Driving Force is an extremely interesting commander. What makes her different is the fact she doesn't need Max Speed to be relevant because she gets value from how much Speed you have even if you aren't at Max Speed. She also gives you huge advantages throughout the game.

Her first effect gives +X/+0 to your creatures, where X is your Speed. This means that, as soon as you put her in play and set your Speed to 1, Samut will give all your creatures +1/+0 globally straight away. This buff increases according to your Speed.

Her second effect discounts the cost of noncreature spells by X, once again according to your Speed. So, Samut, the Driving Force interacts really well both with your creatures and your spells and enchantments. With her, you'll be able to create a huge advantage on your battlefield.

Samut, the Driving Force is a Naya commander, so she is red, white, and green.

Straight away, Enchantress, a theme that is usually tied to white and green, seems interesting for her, particularly considering she would add red to this strategy.

This is the deck we'll explore today:

Enchantress

The term Enchantress comes from one of the cards in this deck, Verduran Enchantress, which was originally released in the Alpha set. This term refers to creatures with a simple effect: "Whenever you cast an enchantment, draw a card." This basic effect is enough to make enchantment decks extremely consistent.

Drawing cards is one of the most valuable effects in any card game because that's your main way to refill resources and expand your choices. A card that recycles itself when you play it, like Remand, can go from mid to essential in many formats because of this. Now, imagine how powerful a deck in which each enchantment you cast draws up to two or three cards would be. This synergy explains why Enchantress decks are so consistent.

Though Enchantress cards draw cards for you when you cast enchantments, some of them also have extra effects. Sythis, Harvest's Hand, for instance, not only creates card advantage, but also gives you life whenever you play an enchantment. As for Setessan Champion, besides drawing cards, it grows with +1/+1 counters whenever an enchantment enters play under your control.

Please note that some of these abilities trigger when you cast an enchantment, and others trigger when it goes in play. This can be relevant because, that way, you can use effects like Starfield of Nyx, which puts enchantments in play directly.

To sum up, Enchantress cards are the core of this deck, as well as your main way to keep your hand always full. They're your priorities in the first few turns, and you should protect them whenever you can.

Enchantment Support

Besides Enchantress cards, this list plays a few other support cards for enchantments. Aura Shards, for instance, lets you destroy an artifact or enchantment whenever a creature enters play under your control. This effect is powerful, but you should use it carefully, because you'll have to destroy something.

Sigil of the Empty Throne turns each enchantment you put in play into a 4/4 Angel token with flying, while Archon of Sun's Grace creates 2/2 Pegasus tokens and grants all of them lifelink.

Sanctum Weaver is great to create mana, as it gives you X mana of a certain color, where X is the number of enchantments you control.

Bello, Bard of the Brambles turn all your non-Aura enchantments and non-Equipment artifacts into 4/4 creatures. Starfield of Nyx also does the same, and it also recycles enchantments from your graveyard.

Hall of Heliod’s Generosity recycles any enchantments that were destroyed, as it puts them back on the top of your deck. As for Wildsear, Scouring Maw, it grants cascade to all your enchantments, so, with it, you'll be able to cast your cards extra times for no extra cost.

X-Cost

Because Samut, the Driving Force discounts the cost of your spells, X-cost effects are great with her. Secure the Wastes, Song of Totentanz, and March of the Multitudes are great sorceries that will give you many tokens in this deck, for instance.

If you play them with effects like Parallel Lives and Divine Visitation, you will be able to create a huge number of tokens. Meanwhile, Enduring Courage gives your creatures haste and +2/+0.

And, of course, considering Samut also discounts the cost of noncreature spells, the creature tokens these spells create will grow with her ability. You'll have a large board with many powerful creatures.

You can play the early game in a few different ways. With Samut, the Driving Force, cards like Burnout Bashtronaut or Point the Way are great on turn 1 because they create value from the "Start Your Engines!" mechanic.

Wild Growth, Exploration and other ways to accelerate mana are also welcome.

Overall, the best strategy is to cast your commander as soon as you have six mana. Yes, she is a bit expensive, and, unfortunately, she doesn't discount her own mana cost. Until you can get six mana, you should put in play as many Enchantress cards as you can on your board, like Enchantress's Presence and Setessan Champion. Try to create value from your enchantments, and, if possible, put a bit of pressure on your opponent to increase your Speed - that is, if you have already activated this mechanic.

Finally, once Samut is in play, it's time to "go wide", as we say, and fill your board with buffed creatures. Take advantage of her effect to discount the cost of your heavier spells, like Sandwurm Convergence and Storm Herd.

I refined the deck above as much as I could, and tried to add the best cards for this strategy. I also added a finely tuned mana base so we can deal with games of attrition a bit better.

However, decks like this are often expensive because of a few key cards and the mana base. Here's a more accessible version:

Though I really enjoy this commander, it is a pity to see commanders like Samut, the Tested, Basri Ket, and Mu Yanling losing their sparks in the last few sets. They could have at least gotten more prestige in the game, if they were going to lose their sparks anyway.

Other than that, Samut, the Driving Force is my favorite Naya strategy. She is strong and versatile, so you can build many different lists for her to play around how slow the Speed mechanic is.

What did you think of this list? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!