Creature (34)
- 1x Arbor Elf
- 1x Avacyn's Pilgrim
- 1x Aven Mindcensor
- 1x Birds of Paradise
- 1x Bloom Tender
- 1x Captain Sisay
- 1x Eidolon of Rhetoric
- 1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
- 1x Elvish Mystic
- 1x Fauna Shaman
- 1x Felidar Guardian
- 1x Fyndhorn Elves
- 1x Goblin Sharpshooter
- 1x Imperial Recruiter
- 1x Karmic Guide
- 1x Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
- 1x Llanowar Elves
- 1x Loyal Retainers
- 1x Magus of the Moon
- 1x Manglehorn
- 1x Mother of Runes
- 1x Odric, Lunarch Marshal
- 1x Priest of Titania
- 1x Qasali Pridemage
- 1x Quirion Ranger
- 1x Reclamation Sage
- 1x Recruiter of the Guard
- 1x Seeker of Skybreak
- 1x Sun Titan
- 1x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
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- 1x Village Bell-Ringer
- 1x Wirewood Channeler
- 1x Yisan, the Wanderer Bard
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Land (32)
- 1x Ancient Tomb
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- 1x Flooded Strand
- 6x Forest
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- 1x Plains
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-
1x
Sacred Foundry
- 1x Savannah
- 1x Scalding Tarn
- 1x Spire Garden
-
1x
Stomping Ground
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1x
Temple Garden
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Artifact (7)
Commander (1)
Enchantment (11)
- 1x Aura of Silence
- 1x Blood Moon
- 1x Carpet of Flowers
- 1x Rancor
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Instant (10)
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Sorcery (4)
Sideboard
Creature (8)
- 1x Eternal Witness
- 1x Great Oak Guardian
- 1x Kataki, War's Wage
- 1x Knight of Autumn
- 1x Linvala, Keeper of Silence
- 1x Scavenging Ooze
- 1x Timberwatch Elf
- 1x Vexing Shusher
Enchantment (2)
Artifact (6)
Sorcery (4)
Instant (6)
- 1x Abrade
- 1x Apostle's Blessing
- 1x Blossoming Defense
- 1x Noxious Revival
- 1x Sudden Shock
- 1x Vines of Vastwood
Land (1)
Maybeboard
Creature (8)
Instant (2)
Updated, now including actual factual Splinter Twin alongside Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker himself.
Samut Blood Pod is a staxy midrange deck that preys on stax decks and has strong match ups against creature-light combo decks. Naya is not a strong color combination--Green, Black, and Blue are noticeably stronger than Red and White in EDH, and by extension Naya, Jeskai, and Mardu struggle compared to other three-color combinations. So what does Samut bring to the table? A few things.
First, her haste-granting ability is excellent. It's not worth five mana, but giving mana dorks haste is good and giving utility creatures like Yisan, the Wanderer Bard and Captain Sisay haste is great. Her ability to untap those utility creatures is also valuable (albeit situational), and factors into some combo lines.
Yisan is a very strong card in EDH, and helms a very powerful deck on his own. He is notably improved, however, with the addition of red and white. Village Bell-Ringer and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker are the real standouts; if Samut plays a Yisan on the same turn a Yisan player plays Yisan, Samut's is much scarier. Of course, it's less consistent and less resilient. Still, Yisan is the most frequently tutored creature in the deck by a good margin. In many ways, Samut is a Naya Yisan deck.
The other thing Samut brings to the table is a big beatstick. She really punishes the cEDH decks that run low creature counts, and often eats important utility creatures that are forced to block. This is where Samut differentiates herself from more traditional stax decks. Other stax decks slow down the game while trying to assemble their own wins; Samut does the same while also pressuring opponents life totals. The trade off is fewer stax pieces.
Samut is strongest into other stax decks, which slow down the game but rarely have the tools to appreciably impede Samut's game plan. Samut also has very good matchups into mono-blue decks like Jace and Teferi (I haven't tested against Urza), because they can't block Samut and only their really premium counterspells hit creatures. She's also good into storm decks; most stax pieces tend to be very good against traditional storm decks, which also tend to have fewer blockers.
Samut is weakest into a pod of fast combo decks. Unlike Tana + Tymna, Samut doesn't have the card draw and tutors to consistently find the right stax pieces for each pod (which is part of why we run only the most general stax pieces); Samut really wants at least one more stax or control deck to help slow things down.
Strange Matchups:
- The Gitrog Monster: Our best Birthing Pod line uses the graveyard, so we don't run graveyard hate by default. Gitfrog also can tangle with Samut (though Gitrog players usually won't trade their precious frog for Samut, I've seen it happen). Samut has some very clear sideboard options, though, if Gitrog is a pillar of your local metagame. Rest in Peace and Scavenging Ooze are both strong, and Armageddon and Ravages of War (which are perfectly playable even in non-Gitrog pods) will actually kill The Gitrog Monster.
- Captain Sisay: RIP sweet captain.
- Najeela, the Blade-Blossom: She can't tangle with Samut in combat, but she actually dishes out much more damage than Samut does. In creature-heavy games, Samut should have an easier time of it; Najeela can get really screwed by board stalls. When there's one opponent without blockers, Najeela can generate overwhelming advantage. Samut can untap opponents' blockers to kill Najeela, notably. Also, beware of Fire Covenant.
- The easiest combo is the classic Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Village Bell-Ringer or Felidar Guardian to make infinite creatures.
- Then there's the very similar Splinter Twin + Village Bell-Ringer. Do note that Splinter Twin does not work with Felidar Guardian.
- Splinter Twin also works with Goblin Sharpshooter as long as there's a single other 1-toughness creature in play to kill. Enchant the Sharpshooter with Twin, then tap him to make a token copy. The token taps to kill a 1-toughness creature, then both Sharpshooters untap. Then you can loop: the original taps to create a token, the second copy shoots someone in the face, then the new token taps to kill itself, untapping the other two Sharpshooters. Proceed to murder everyone, in true goblin fashion.
- The easiest combo to assemble is, of course, Birthing Pod. With sufficient mana, Birthing Pod can win from most board states, barring a Null Rod or something. The classic pod line, straight from Tana/Tymna Blood Pod, is to play Birthing Pod, then sacrifice a 3 CMC creature to find Felidar Guardian, which flickers the Pod, untapping it. Then you sacrifice the Felidar Guardian to find Karmic Guide, which will bring back Felidar Guardian, who once again flickers Birthing Pod, untapping it. Then you sacrifice the Felidar Guardian again, finding Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker this time. Kiki-Jiki creates a copy of Karmic Guide, which brings back Felidar Guardian. The Guardian flickers Kiki-Jiki this time, untapping him. From there, you can loop Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and Felidar Guardian, creating infinite hasty cats.
- Toymaker Lines: the problems with the above loop are twofold: first, we don't always have access to a 3 CMC creature, unlike a Tymna the Weaver deck. Second, it's soft to graveyard hate. Birthing Pod + a 1 CMC creature and Samut, Voice of Dissent, however, still wins. We can sacrifice the 1 CMC creature to Birthing Pod to find Toymaker. Thanks to Samut, Toymaker has haste, so it can animate the Birthing Pod Then Samut can use her activated ability to untap the Birthing Pod, since it's now a creature. Then we can Pod the Toymaker into Village Bell-Ringer, which untaps the Birthing Pod. Then we can sacrifice Birthing Pod to itself, putting Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker into play. Then we can loop Kiki-Jiki with Village Bell-Ringer. I still haven't decided if the problem that Toymaker addresses (having Birthing Pod and a 1-drop but not a 3-drop) is common enough for it to be worth running an otherwise-pretty-bad creature. I am not currently running Toymaker, but I'm planning on coming back to it; take that how you will.
- Yisan, the Wanderer Bard lines: basically, Yisan with haste + Village Bell-Ringer at 3 and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker at 5 is really strong, especially since Samut, Voice of Dissent gives an extra untap. You generally go something like Quirion Ranger, Seeker of Skybreak or Priest of Titania, Village Bell-Ringer, Wirewood Channeler, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker.
Brief Summary of Birthing Pod and Yisan lines Show
Samut isn't actually a combo deck, despite winning with infinite combos. We don't have the consistency of black tutors, nor do we have a card advantage engine in the command zone. What we do have is a really big beatstick, and the ability to play a grindy mid-range game better than many decks.
Full disclaimer: games can become grinds for multiple reasons. If everybody just runs out of gas, spending their hands stopping each other from winning, Samut is just fine. She has topdecks that win on the spot (Birthing Pod, usually Survival of the Fittest), but fewer tutors means fewer draws that just win on the spot. In a game like that, Samut has a narrow window to close out the game before an opponent draws into a win. She can do it, but this list isn't tailored for those kinds of games (because games where all the combo decks run out of gas happen, but planning on them happening is a fruitless endeavor).
The kind of grindy game where Samut excels is the kind where there are stax pieces shutting everyone down. Of course, ideally everyone else's win conditions are shut off, and you're fine, but even if some clown has dropped a Grafdigger's Cage or a Cursed Totem, we've actually got a lot of game in the form of a very fast clock from Samut + any one of a handful of midrange cards. To this end, this list has a handful of the very best stax pieces--generally, if a single card shuts down multiple decks and doesn't shut down us, we're running it. It's not the full stax suite found in a deck like Blood Pod or Derevi, however, so Samut really appreciates having another slower deck at the table to help bring down the pace of the game.
Cards like Rancor and Elspeth, Knight-Errant both pump Samut and give her evasion. Odric, Lunarch Marshal turns your whole team into a double-striking murder squad, and Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite is just a beating all around, but she usually removes blockers, allowing Samut to crunch in for ten. Captain Sisay finds nearly all of these pieces, notably.
- Mox Diamond and Chrome Mox: All right, let's get this out of the way: these cards are really, really powerful. However, Samut is not necessarily looking to trade cards for speed. Landing a really early stax piece like Trinisphere can be excellent, but that requires you to both have a Mox and a stax piece in your opener, and also be going first. I don't generally find that to be worth the card disadvantage, especially since we're so light on card draw to make up for it. Still, it's worth periodically reassessing these cards, because the upside is very real. If you're playing against a lot of decks with draw-sevens, for instance, I'd definitely add these back in.
- Thorn of Amethyst, Damping Sphere and Winter Orb: Stax suites always need to be tailored to specific meta-games. In general, I've found that Winter Orb can be played around without too much issue, and Damping Sphere is not quite as good or as broadly useful as Sphere of Resistance, Thorn of Amethyst, and Thalia, Guardian of Thraben; I think it's very reasonable to run Thorn of Amethyst. If I really wanted to hose storm even harder, I'd consider adding Damping Sphere too, and if I were against some more fringe decks like Lord Windgrace
or Tatyova, Benthic Druid that put a bunch of lands into play, Winter Orb definitely looks more attractive, but at that point I'd consider mass land destruction instead. - Armageddon + Ravages of War: When these two are good, they're great. When they're bad, they're really quite bad. I think this really comes down to personal preference in most metas, but they're distinctly worse when your meta-game is leaning heavily on creature mana, because it's harder for us to shut down creatures than mana rocks (since we, too, rely on creature mana). We run Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite and can run Linvala, Keeper of Silence, but I'm not super in for needing those in play before our Armageddons are good.
- Knight of Autumn: If you need a third Reclamation Sage, this is the gal for you. There's also a world where you run Knight of Autumn over Manglehorn, but that world probably only exists after WotC prints a good enchantress commander.
- Defense of the Heart: This card is solid if you're consistently against 2+ creature decks. Its mana cost is still clunky, but it does work as a stax piece.
- Abrade, By Force: An artifact deck getting you down? These are the cards I'd go to if I needed a little more artifact hate. Maybe even Meltdown.
- Null Rod, Stony Silence, Collector Ouphe, Kataki, War's Wage: Multiple artifact decks getting you down? Null Rod and friends are awkward because they shut down Birthing Pod lines, and we don't have great ways to get rid of our own stax pieces. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do, though. Kataki is easier for us to Birthing Pod through, but it's also easier for everyone else to play around, and it actually penalizes our stax pieces in a way Null Rod does not.
- Timberwatch Elf: This card makes people do combat math, and cEDH players definitely aren't used to combat math. This card is notable because it turns any attacker into a pile of murder, not just yours. In a Tymna-heavy meta, this guy can put in work. I've found, however, that the combat cards that give Samut evasion are a little better. This guy plays around chump blockers a little, because you can pump any attacker who gets through, but not as well as something like just giving Samut trample.
- Umbral Mantle + Wirewood Lodge + Open the Armory: If I were to add one of these cards, I'd add all of them. Umbral Mantle adds another angle of attack for the deck, turning random mana dorks into infinitely large attackers. It takes quite a bit of setup, however, and I don't think the deck really needs yet another win con. If you find you Kiki-Jiki and Splinter Twin constantly getting exiled, however, it's an angle to consider. I'd maybe even consider something like Karametra's Acolyte, Selvala, Heart of the Wild, or Elvish Archdruid too. Once you're on the Umbral Mantle gameplan, Open the Armory becomes a lot more exciting, because it finds Mantle or Splinter Twin. Wirewood Lodge just gets better when we have more elves that tap for a load of mana, but the lack of colored mana is a very real cost in this deck.
- Linvala, Keeper of Silence: Linvala is good against other creature decks. She's probably good enough for the main deck even in a blind meta, because creatures are so prevalent in cEDH at the moment, but the can be rough, and we already have great 4-drops, which is enough to relegate her to the sideboard.
- Scavenging Ooze: Good if graveyard decks are a problem.
- Vines of Vastwood, Blossoming Defense, Apostle's Blessing: Good if Samut keeps eating spot removal, especially Gilded Drake. That card is Evil--I've even gone so far as to run Homeward Path to combat the Gilded Drake menace (I wouldn't recommend going that far, but it's not the worst thing either). Do note that these are listed in order of usefulness, and I think Apostle's Blessing is considerably less useful than the green protection spells. Still, it can protect your Birthing Pod or a stax piece, which is worth thinking about.
- Eternal Witness or Noxious Revival: I don't really find more recursion necessary in this list; we already run Karmic Guide for our Birthing Pod lines, and while Karmic Guide is a terrible card, it does bring creatures back if we need it to (and we don't really care about non-creatures). If you want more, though, these are the top of the list. Of the two, I've found both totally adequate; Eternal Witness is a creature, and thus is easier for us to find, while Noxious Revival is way cheaper and instant speed. I'd probably say the deciding factor between the two is whether or not you're against enough graveyard decks for Noxious Revival to matter as a piece of interaction, but it's really a matter of preference.
- Sudden Shock: Run this until you zap a Laboratory Maniac with it. Then cut it. Sudden Shock is not a good card, but making your opponents play around it is hilarious--I mean useful. It's useful.
- Gamble: Run this if your luck is better than mine. In all seriousness, Samut tends to run low on cards in hand, so this has a higher failure rate than you might be used to in a deck with better card draw.
- Purphoros, God of the Forge: This card is notable in that it allows the deck to win without entering combat during Yisan, the Wanderer Bard lines, where you tend to have a free 4-drop slot. It doesn't do anything for Birthing Pod lines, though (unless Purphoros is just chilling in play already, I guess), and I haven't really found it necessary to win at instant speed with this deck. It's a matter of preference, I suppose, but I've never found this guy to be at all necessary.
- Skullclamp: We lack card draw. Skullclamp is undeniably strong card draw. Unlike Tana, the Bloodsower or Najeela, the Blade-Blossom, however, we don't actually make 1/1s to clamp. Sure, we can clamp our Recruiters or Reclamation Sages, but clamping dorks feels pretty bad. I've never been super pleased to be using Skullclamp in Samut, and ultimately I don't think it's necessary.
- Voyaging Satyr, Skyshroud Elf: Satyr is a reasonable dork, and I think there's an argument to be made for him over Bloom Tender. It's definitely close, but I'm currently running Bloom Tender. Skyshroud Elf, on the other hand, is a bad mana dork, but hitting for Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and for Elspeth, Knight-Errant isn't always guaranteed. On a budget mana base, Skyshroud Elf becomes much more appealing.
- Sublime Archangel: This card is a lot of damage. If you're in a metagame without many creature decks, this card becomes a real consideration over something like Rancor, but given that it doesn't grant Samut evasion I don't think it quite makes the cut (though the Angel itself can fly over for a good pile of damage, that precludes Samut attacking, which is a little wasteful).
- Great Oak Guardian: GOG doesn't slot neatly into any of our combo lines, but it does a lot of things we're interested in: untapping things and pumping things. It's pretty important for this deck to have at least 1 6-drop; when push comes to shove we can Birthing Pod Samut into a 6-drop, and if Yisan gets up to 5 but Kiki-Jiki gets killed, it's awkward to miss on the 6-drop before finding Elesh Norn. GOG even untaps Yisan immediately, allowing Elesh Norn right then and there probably. However, it seems unlikely that, if you're comboing with Yisan, you have an extra untap and enough mana left over once you've found Kiki-Jiki, so you're probably going to have to wait a turn anyway. Also, there's not a lot of removal that kills Kiki-Jiki that doesn't kill Yisan. With that in mind, I'm running the more value-oriented Sun Titan in the 6-drop slot, rather than the more combo-oriented Great Oak Guardian, but I think it needs a little more testing.
- Crop Rotation: Gaea's Cradle is good. Card disadvantage is bad. In general, I don't find the extra mana provided by Crop Rotation to be worth losing two cards; I'd nearly always rather have a mana dork.
- Weathered Wayfarer: I haven't historically been impressed with this card, but I haven't tried it in years. It has some interesting potential, but needs more testing.
The maybe board is things that I think are on the cusp of being good enough, but that I ultimately don't want to run over any of the main board cards in most circumstances, or that I want to test more. The side board cards are cards that I would run over cards in the main board depending on the meta-game I was playing in.
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| Date added | 7 years |
| Last updated | 4 years |
| Legality | This deck is not Commander / EDH legal. |
| Rarity (main - side) | 14 - 2 Mythic Rares 48 - 12 Rares 18 - 10 Uncommons 13 - 3 Commons |
| Cards | 100 |
| Avg. CMC | 2.38 |
| Tokens | Copy Clone, Emblem Elspeth, Knight-Errant, Soldier 1/1 W |
| Folders | Good EDH lists, cEDH, One day |
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