"Haste From the Command Zone: Red Samut Wants to Throw Hands."

"Haste From the Command Zone: Red Samut Wants to Throw Hands."

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr. MD

Much has been said about the new Blue Samut, the Echoverse version of the original Samut from Amonkhet.

And honestly, I get it.

Split second is all the rage right now.

But then you meet a hasty beef boy who is perfectly willing to punch you in the nose.

And suddenly, you remember that haste is pretty damn good too.

Sure, there are plenty of red creatures that already have haste.

But there are also a ridiculous number of red creatures that don't.

And that is where Red Samut starts getting interesting.

There are other enchantments that can give all your creatures haste, of course.

But having that ability attached to your commander?

That's a completely different story.

You don't have to draw it.

You don't have to tutor for it.

You don't even have to wait for it to show up.

It's sitting there in the Command Zone, waiting for you to cast it and tell your creatures:

“Okay, boys. Let's go.”

Of course, there is Sneak Attack.

That card can already come down on Turn Two and do some truly ridiculous things.

Imagine:

Turn One:

Mountain.

Sol Ring.

Arcane Signet.

Turn Two:

Sneak Attack.

And suddenly, you could be dropping something like Blightsteel Colossus onto the battlefield and potentially taking somebody out before they have even had time to understand what happened.

That's hilarious.

But Sneak Attack comes with a problem.

Eventually, you need something more sustainable.

And that's where I think Samut has a very interesting role.

Imagine having a board full of mana dorks that suddenly have haste.

You don't have to wait a turn before they start producing mana.

You can play them and immediately tap them.

And that can make a huge difference in how quickly your deck gets moving.

Or imagine dropping a surprise Krenko and immediately being able to tap him.

Suddenly, you're not waiting around for your Goblin engine to start.

Samut Goblins.

I actually really like the sound of that.

And that's the thing about haste.

It has so many applications beyond simply attacking immediately.

It lets your mana creatures generate value right away.

It lets tap abilities become immediately relevant.

It lets creatures with powerful activated abilities do their thing the moment they arrive.

And, of course, sometimes you just want your giant red creature to enter the battlefield and immediately punch somebody in the face.

There is something wonderfully simple about that.

So yes, I know Blue Samut is getting a lot of attention right now.

Split second is flashy.

It is powerful.

And I understand why people are excited about it.

But I'm still looking at Red Samut and thinking that having haste from the Command Zone is nothing to sneeze at.

Especially when your deck is filled with creatures that were apparently designed with the words:

“If only this had haste…”

Now they do.

And that opens up a lot of possibilities.

Besides...

This is also my way of consoling myself because I got the Red version instead of the Blue one.

Sorry, Samut.

You're going into the deck.

Now go punch somebody.