Sami, Ship's EngineerSami, Ship's Engineer | Art by Zara Alfonso

Welcome back to Plot Twist, the series where we build a Commander deck that looks like it's going to tell one kind of story only to throw out a twist for our opponents mid-game.

Last time on Plot Twist, we built a Papalymo Totolymo "Scam" deck that repeatedly sacrificed our creatures and cheated them back into play en masse. This week, we're taking a look at one of the first legendary creatures spoiled from the upcoming Edge of Eternities set: Sami, Ship's EngineerSami, Ship's Engineer.

How Does Sami, Ship's Engineer Work?

Sami, like so many Boros commanders before them, cares about our creatures being tapped, presumably from attacking, and rewards us by making a 2/2 Robot creature token on our end step as long as their condition is met.

While Sami isn't a vanilla creature, they might be the most straightforward commander we've ever built around on Plot Twist; certainly they're closer to our Sin, Spira's Punishment "No Nonland Permanents" build than our Black Panther, Wakandan King lands-Voltron deck. It's actually refreshing to have a commander with just a single triggered ability.

As long as Sami's on the battlefield and we control two or more tapped creatures at our end step, Sami will make a tapped 2/2 Robot artifact creature. That's it!

While this certainly isn't the most amazing four-mana commander ever, it is an uncommon so it's playable in Pauper Commander and cares about tokens, so there's definitely a home for it somewhere.

In looking at Sami's EDHREC Page, we can see...not a lot! That's okay though, Sami was spoiled at MagicCon: Vegas a little over a week ago (at time of writing), and there were certainly other cards from Edge of Eternities that are getting more attention.

Still, with cards like Arabella, Abandoned DollArabella, Abandoned Doll and Stonybrook SchoolmasterStonybrook Schoolmaster already bubbling to the top of Sami's page, we can see brewers are taking Sami in the direction of a go-wide aggressive deck like Anim Pakal, Thousandth MoonAnim Pakal, Thousandth Moon or Neyali, Suns' VanguardNeyali, Suns' Vanguard.

But this is Plot Twist where we don't want to do the thing that...seven other people expect us to do!

Doing the Twist

So instead of building a deck full of attackers that care about us going wide like Arabella, Abandoned DollArabella, Abandoned Doll or leaning into artifact mana dorks like Gold MyrGold Myr or Ornithopter of ParadiseOrnithopter of Paradise, we're doing something different: We're going to create a whole lot of artifact creature tokens and then tap all of our own creatures on our own turn before we can attack.

We'll use cards like Burn at the StakeBurn at the Stake and Devout InvocationDevout Invocation to get a lot in return for tapping our creatures on our own turn, and then use effects like DrumbellowerDrumbellower and Virtue of LoyaltyVirtue of Loyalty to untap our creatures almost immediately so they can block (or be tapped again).

Plus we have a handful of strange cards like Diversionary TacticsDiversionary Tactics and Ghirapur Aether GridGhirapur Aether Grid to tap as many creatures as we want or interact with our opponents.

The end result is a twiddly Boros deck that does "go wide" with artifact creature tokens but doesn't just attack. We'll be able to interact with our opponents frequently and tap out for big splashy plays like Wildfire AwakenerWildfire Awakener.

This deck should sit right at home in Upgraded Bracket (3) games, but it doesn't run any Game Changers so you should be fine to play it against a pod of precons in Core Bracket (2) games as well.

Tapping Our Own Creatures

Being able to tap our creatures serves as the core engine of this deck. Most of the time, we'll want to have Sami, Ship's EngineerSami, Ship's Engineer in play when we do so because they'll generate a free 2/2 Robot artifact creature token when we have two or more tapped creatures, creating even more creatures for us to tap on future turns.

Wildfire AwakenerWildfire Awakener seems like it'll be the best of our tapping effects since it creates extra 1/1s in the process that also ping an opponent for one damage when they become tapped. If we're able to immediately tap the tokens from Wildfire Awakener for value, then we'll be living the dream.

Burn at the StakeBurn at the Stake is the perfect card to tap these tokens with because we can potentially team the effects up to knock out one or two of our opponents at once.

Ghirapur Aether GridGhirapur Aether Grid and Kyren NegotiationsKyren Negotiations offer additional ways for us to tap our creatures to burn out an opponent, while Diversionary TacticsDiversionary Tactics can help protect us from big creatures and Voltron commanders. We'll definitely need ways to slow our opponents down or stall them out sometimes since our deck isn't running a typical go-wide finisher like Moonshaker CavalryMoonshaker Cavalry.

We're running quite a lot of artifact token makers in addition to Sami, so Thousand Moons SmithyThousand Moons Smithy does allow us to make Construct tokens repeatedly once we flip it over. These Constructs are one of the ways we can "go tall" from time to time as well if we need to. Between Thousand Moons Smithy and Devout InvocationDevout Invocation, we can occasionally turn our smaller artifact creature tokens into bigger threats.

There are also a handful of effects like Inspiring StatuaryInspiring Statuary, Peri BrownPeri Brown, and Wand of the WorldsoulWand of the Worldsoul that we can use to tap our creatures to help pay for our other spells. These function as ramp of sorts that also synergizes with what our deck wants to be doing.

If you want to see another Plot Twist deck that plays around with tapping and untapping, check out Plot Twist #20 which was built around The Wandering RescuerThe Wandering Rescuer and Templar KnightTemplar Knight.

Surprise! They Untap Too

Unlike a lot of Boros token / go-wide decks, we're not applying a ton of pressure on our opponents' life totals by attacking, so we'll need to be able to hold up blockers too. Thankfully, white is chock full of cards that allow us to untap our creatures, like Dazzling Theater // Prop RoomDazzling Theater // Prop Room, DrumbellowerDrumbellower, and Virtue of LoyaltyVirtue of Loyalty.

These effects are pretty vital to our strategy as they allow us to advance our board state with our tappers while not leaving us exposed to attacks from our opponents. We get the functional benefit of something like Serra's BlessingSerra's Blessing that grants our creatures vigilance while still being able to tap creatures on our turn.

Since we have a huge amount of artifact creature token-makers in this deck, we're running Unwinding ClockUnwinding Clock. It'll not only untap all of our artifact creatures, but a fair amount of our lands and mana rocks as well. If you haven't played with Unwinding Clock before, it might be the best version of an untapping effect in this week's list.

The last untapper worth calling out is Moraug, Fury of AkoumMoraug, Fury of Akoum. Normally, brewers like to run Moraug in decks that care about having multiple combat steps, but in our deck Moraug will also untap all of our creatures when we play a land for turn, allowing us to double up on our tapping effects for that turn. Of course, we can still get an extra combat step when we need to as well!

Swarming With Tokens

While our commander, Sami, Ship's EngineerSami, Ship's Engineer, served as the inspiration for this week's deck list, they can't be our only source of artifact creature tokens if we want to actually win games. Fortunately for us, the Boros color combination has plenty of options available to us.

Anim Pakal, Thousandth MoonAnim Pakal, Thousandth Moon; Myrel, Shield of ArgiveMyrel, Shield of Argive; Myr BattlesphereMyr Battlesphere; and Threefold ThunderhulkThreefold Thunderhulk all help supply us with a huge amount of artifact creature tokens and double as serious threats themselves. Especially in combination with our token doublers: Mondrak, Glory DominusMondrak, Glory Dominus and Ojer Taq, Deepest FoundationOjer Taq, Deepest Foundation.

Canoptek Scarab SwarmCanoptek Scarab Swarm can make us a huge batch of artifact creatures while also removing the graveyard of one of our opponents at the table for added value.

We're also trying out Genesis ChamberGenesis Chamber. Sure, it gives our opponents some extra 1/1 artifact creature tokens too, but we should hopefully be in the best position to take advantage of the extra artifact creatures Genesis Chamber makes.

Winning the Game With Sami, Ship's Engineer

The win conditions should catch our opponents off guard when they hit the battlefield for the first time. Throne of the God-PharaohThrone of the God-Pharaoh plays right into our strategy of tapping our own creatures on our turn, though it's a bit of a non-bo with our untapping effects. Angel's TrumpetAngel's Trumpet is a blast if you've never played with it before; it's somewhere between a goad spell and a burn spell that we can get around by attacking with or tapping our creatures.

Arcbound CrusherArcbound Crusher and Arcbound RavagerArcbound Ravager can both turn all of the artifact creature tokens we've been making over the course of the game into a single large attacker that can punch through. Don't forget that Arcbound Ravager can sacrifice itself and put its counters onto another artifact creature we control that isn't blocked! This is a fantastic "combat trick" we can pull off that comes straight out of the Affinity playbook.

Two other win conditions worth pointing out: City on FireCity on Fire has convoke, so we can tap our creatures to help pay for it, and it'll triple our damage output with Ghirapur Aether GridGhirapur Aether Grid and co.

Finally, we can live the Halo FountainHalo Fountain dream by tapping all of our creatures on our turn to pay for something and then untap 15 of them to win the game immediately!

A Few Additional Twists for Good Measure

Like usual, some really interesting finds from Scryfall made their way into this week's decklist. Wildfire AwakenerWildfire Awakener seems tailor-made for what we're trying to do and seems like a card that really shines in the right decklist.

Similarly, Dragonscale GeneralDragonscale General goes from draft chaff to all-star in a deck that specifically cares about tapped creatures.

Masako the HumorlessMasako the Humorless is always a card that makes your opponents do a double take when you cast it, and I'm sure you can find a home for it in one of your existing lists if you happen to have a copy.

Same goes for Bottle-Cap BlastBottle-Cap Blast. A flexible removal spell that leaves behind treasure tokens? Sign me up, please!

Sami, Ship's Engineer Commander Decklist

Here's the full decklist for you to peruse:

Roll the Credits

I hope you enjoyed reading the latest edition of Plot Twist featuring Sami, Ship's EngineerSami, Ship's Engineer. Next time you sit down for a game of Commander, see what sort of plot twists you can add to take the game's narrative in a new direction.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on today's deck and what cards could find a home in it in the comments below or on Archidekt. The Maybeboards of my deck lists are always filled with cards I thought could work but didn't make the final decklist.

You can check out my other articles here or see what decks I'm currently playing here. I recently put together the Kirri, Talented SproutKirri, Talented Sproutdeck from Plot Twist #21, and it's been an absolute blast to play in paper.

I've also started dabbling in cEDH with a relatively stock Tymna & Thrasios list, so let me know in the comments below if you'd like to see a Plot Twist deck that's designed for more competitive pods.

Stay tuned to see what other twists and turns are headed your way in the next edition of Plot Twist.