Need help with Samwise Gamgee
Commander Deck Help forum
Posted on Sept. 11, 2023, 5:26 p.m. by SirFowler
Hey everyone! I need some help with my Samwise Gamgee deck that's listed here. I wanted to make a Samwise Gamgee deck for a while. Mostly because I was nicknamed Samwise Gamgee by some of my friends, but also because artifact/food manipulation is fun.
However, while playing the deck, I never seem quite happy with it. Whether it's not closing the game out quickly enough or just getting overwhelmed with all of the triggers that happen all at once, I just find myself kinda disappointed.
For starters, I'm not sure on the direction I want to take with this deck. Do I go with a more artifact heavy theme? Should it be more mill/reanimator? Or what about a legends matter theme that plays a bunch of sweet legends throughout Magic history? How about a mix of all of the above?
Idk how I want this deck to function. Can anyone help? Also, I'm not in a position to purchase a lot of expensive cards atm, so try not suggest anything over 5 bucks. The more pricey cards in here are just cards that I happened to obtain over the years, so it's not like it's a budget deck, but going forward I might not be able to get some cards if they're too expensive. Thanks in advance!
@enpc Thanks for the suggestions. I was sorta thinking about that sort of loop in here, I even have that kind of loop in a few of my other decks. I just wasn't sure if I wanted to add the same combo again because I have it in so many other decks. However, it is a nice and consistent way to end the game.
Do you have any suggestions for what to take out? There a few cards I'm not too sure on, but I'd like to hear your thoughts.
September 11, 2023 10:10 p.m.
Personally, I would cut:
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Daxos, Blessed by the Sun - He's a glorified blocker
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Avacyn, Angel of Hope - indestructible is nice but especially if you go down the graveyard combo route you don't really care. And that mana cost.
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Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant  Flip - There are better cards if you really care about this effect but I feel like this card is in the deck only because it's legendary
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Nettlecyst - If you're looking at churning through tokens, this card isn't as good as if you're just amassing them. And I think you want to be benefiting from cracking food
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At least one of your wrath effects - you have a lot and you don't need that many, especially if you're trying to make the deck faster
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Loran, Disciple of History -I'm on the fence about this one - if you wanted to lean into Myr Retriever like artifact combo stuff then keep it, otherwise Sammy-boi already does this enough.
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Karametra, God of Harvests - You need more dorks to make her work. If you wanna add more cards like Llanowar Elves, Avacyn's Pilgrim, Elvish Mystic etc. then keep her, but right now she doesn't do enough. She's also always been a catch 22 card and I think unless you build around her, she hinders more than helps.
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Mirari's Wake - you're not really a lands themed deck and if you go down the graveyard loops then you'll wanna add Skullclamp. And dumb as this might sound, antheming your creatures can disable clamp's value.
In general, I think you need to pick between leaning into the lands effects (which is doable but will require some reworking) or going for food token artifact engines. The deck is currently sitting in this awkard spot where it kind of does both but doesn't do either well. And that will probably help cutting some cards.
September 12, 2023 midnight
I forgot. I already replaced Loran, Disciple of History with Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle, but other than that, the rest of the deck remained the same. I'm not sure why Teshar's link is broken, but it seemed to fit well in this deck.
Yeah, I see where you're coming from with these picks. Personally I liked having Avacyn, Angel of Hope as a sort of insurance against opponents so that you can control when your stuff dies, but it is a little pricey to cast.
I can see cutting cutting these cards. I'll see about getting some cards that you suggested. Thanks for your help.
Also, I was able to find some cheap replacements for Archangel of Thune with stuff like Lathiel, the Bounteous Dawn/Nykthos Paragon. Thoughts?
September 12, 2023 12:52 a.m.
They both look like good budget alternatives. Teshar seems like a good option too, there are a bunch of Scrap Trawler/Myr Retriever combos that you could potentially look into if you wanted to lean even more into artifacts.
Part of me also wonders if Kodama of the East Tree might be an interesting include if you're running a bunch of dumb loops, but that would be something I'd have to have a play around with.
September 12, 2023 1:55 a.m.
I appreciate you taking the time to help me, so thank you. I'll try to obtain the cards you suggested and update the list.
September 12, 2023 7:54 p.m.
GodzSoldier says... #8
All I can do is recommend my list and my interpretation of the deck. I got my inspiration from the game knights version where it's more historic based, but Im using cards to make food tap for Mana to pay for insane x spells to try close the game faster. After playing the deck though, I don't think the deck has the highest ceiling, so don't expect it to compete on the same level as other higher casual decks. That's just the reality of him not offering true advantage
September 12, 2023 11:46 p.m.
Could possibly run a cheerios-esque style deck. Sprinkle a few artifact cost reducers in there like Foundry Inspector to reduce 1 or 2 drop artifact creatures to 0. Being budget though you lose out on Doubling Season and Anointed Procession which you could utilize with Ashnod's AltarPhyrexian Altar/Krark-Clan Ironworks to net mana while sacrificing the tokens and or nontoken creatures. But I'm not sure how effective it would be without these. Blasting Station or Grinding Station (works well with your Altar of the Brood) could finish out games.
Though you could potentially make a large Darksteel Juggernaut with a large amount of food tokens and cheap 0-1-2 drop artifact creatures (whose cost could be further reduced) which would be budget. Easily tutorable in Green/White and throw a Mirrorworks or something in there to copy it. Sculpting Steel it too just to have 2-3 big bois roaming around would be comical. Anthems and trample enablers (instants/sorceries/enchantments/equipment) are plenty in these colors too. This would be on the more casual side.
September 15, 2023 10:48 a.m.
@GodzSoldier I checked out your list and there were a few cards in there that I might be interested in adding, but overall it just seemed alright. Idk if that's quite the direction I'm looking for. I tried a more historic focused build early on, but it just felt not as synergistic to me as I would have liked. Granted, I mostly just threw left over historic cards that I had laying around in the deck just to test it out, but still. Plus, I'm not really trying to make this super competitive, but just well enough that it feels consistent and is fun to play.
@Flagellum I'm hoping to get a Krark-Clan Ironworks for this deck, but it is pretty expensive at this point of time, even if you get the championship version. I do already have a cheerios style deck with Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle as the commander. It has a bunch of different loops and is mostly an artifact based deck that works pretty well. I just fear that if I steer this deck in that direction, it would basically just be the same deck, but with green and is a little less inconsistent. I wish Darksteel Juggernaut had trample or some sort of evasion to help it punch through. Plus, the fact that it has to attack means it can't block unless you can untap it or give it vigilance. Mirrorworks might be fun, copying something like a Panharmonicon for extra value. Thanks for the suggestion.
enpc says... #2
I run a Saffi Eriksdotter list and there was a bit of discussion about Samwise Gamgee in Saffi when he was first spoiled.
If you wanted, you could look at coming at it from the other angle with Samwise as the commander and then use Saffi Eriksdotter + cards like Karmic Guide / Sun Titan + Blasting Station / Altar of Dementia to close the game out. The benefit in this case with Samwise as your commander is you can pair him with cards like Kuldotha Forgemaster (easy enough to tutor in green/white as it's a creature) to generate some tokens and then cheat Blasting Station into play. And the fact that Sam gives you graveyard recursion in case an opponent removes your sac outlet is nice tech.
Long term, I would also look to try and obtain an Archangel of Thune, though I appreciate that it's currently out of your price range.
September 11, 2023 8:28 p.m.