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Samwise Gamgee

Legendary Creature — Halfling Peasant

Whenever another nontoken creature you control enters, create a Food token. (It's an artifact with "{2}, {T}, Sacrifice this token: You gain 3 life.")
Sacrifice three Foods: Return target historic card from your graveyard to your hand. (Artifacts, legendaries, and Sagas are historic.)

CMC
2
Mana cost
{G}{W}
Color identity
GW
Rarity
rare
Set
Tales of Middle-earth Promos
Price
—
EDHREC rank
#2331
Buy on TCGplayer
Samwise Gamgee card art
Samwise Gamgee generates a Food token every time another nontoken creature enters the battlefield under your control, turning any creature-heavy shell into a passive life-gain and sacrifice engine. The cost is two mana for a 1/1, which is negligible when Cauldron Familiar loops or Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit // Sam, Loyal Attendant triggers are doing the real work.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Frodo, Adventurous HobbitSam, Loyal Attendant

Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit // Sam, Loyal Attendant

79.9% of decks · synergy 0.68

Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit // Sam, Loyal Attendant is the native home — Samwise Gamgee is a flavor-true inclusion that also functions as the engine, producing Food to keep Frodo fed and triggering the ring-tempting plan on a near-continuous basis.

02
Merry, Warden of IsengardPippin, Warden of Isengard

Merry, Warden of Isengard // Pippin, Warden of Isengard

78.0% of decks · synergy 0.66

Merry, Warden of Isengard // Pippin, Warden of Isengard runs a token-and-sacrifice gameplan where every Food from Samwise Gamgee is both a life buffer and a sacrifice outlet trigger waiting to happen.

03
Rocco, Street Chef

Rocco, Street Chef

54.7% of decks · synergy 0.51

Rocco, Street Chef cares about Food tokens arriving and being spent, so Samwise Gamgee slotting in as a two-drop that floods the table with Food on every creature entry is an obvious include at any table speed.

04
Treebeard, Gracious Host

Treebeard, Gracious Host

52.8% of decks · synergy 0.51

Treebeard, Gracious Host scales on +1/+1 counters distributed by life gain, and Samwise Gamgee's steady Food production turns a creature-heavy green-white board into a counter-stacking machine.

05
Brenard, Ginger Sculptor

Brenard, Ginger Sculptor

25.0% of decks · synergy 0.23

Brenard, Ginger Sculptor creates Gingerbread creature tokens when nontoken creatures die, and Samwise Gamgee pairs cleanly there — new creature tokens entering can retrigger Sam, and the Food doubling up on a sacrifice loop is quietly efficient.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer not legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Commander is where Samwise Gamgee does real work — 99-card decks built around creature volume, sacrifice loops, or Food synergies give him a near-permanent trigger engine on a two-mana body. In Legacy and Vintage he's technically legal but competes against formats that don't care about incremental Food tokens, so he doesn't see meaningful play there. Modern is the most plausible competitive home outside Commander, particularly in any shell running Cauldron Familiar and sacrifice outlets, though dedicated Food builds remain fringe. He's absent from Pioneer, Standard, and Pauper, leaving Commander as the clear format of record.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

unknown tier

Pricing data for Samwise Gamgee isn't currently available in this context, so check Scryfall or TCGPlayer for the latest market rate before buying. Given the card's role as a staple in multiple Tolkien-themed commanders with high deck counts, it's worth confirming whether a reprint has moved the price before paying a premium.

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Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.