Legends Legends - Tetsuo Umezawa

Tetsuo Umezawa by Julie Baroh

What? A second Legends Legends in one week? Boy, Jeff must be really busy. I bet he's hardly had any time to play a round of Richard Garfield's Magic: The Gathering trading card game or something.

That's right, our second Legends Legends of the week is here, and today we're building around Tetsuo Umezawa, Human Archer and Grixis-aligned Imperial Champion during the Mirage War. Tetsuo's a fairly straightforward three-color rare: he taps to destroy our opponents' creatures when they overextend themselves by attacking or blocking while he's on the field.

Luckily, Commander has given us a number of fun ways to... encourage... our opponents to attack or otherwise tap their creatures, making them vulnerable to Umezawa's rain of arrows. Just how many creatures can we force into combat each turn? Let's find out!

General Thoughts

Tetsuo Umezawa is a three-mana Human Archer with two abilities. The first prevents Umezawa from being targeted by any Aura spell. The second, an activated ability, lets Umezawa tap and, for the low, low price of , destroy target tapped or blocking creature. Access to repeatable removal in the command zone is guaranteed value, especially on such a comparatively cheap Legends card.

Normally, a deck like this would use Second Wind, Pemmin's Aura, and Freed from the Real to abuse Tetsuo's ability, but we don't have that option. Instead, we'll have to use our creatures, artifacts, and non-Aura enchantments if we want to activate Tetsuo multiple times per turn. At least Tetsuo is safe from those Imprisoned in the Moons and Darksteel Mutations running around.

Tappers

Our first step along the road to turning Tetsuo into a targeted removal machine gun is getting our opponents' creatures tapped. Most players will clock Tetsuo hitting the field, see his ability, and then prefer not to swing with their valuable creatures as long as we have the available, so we'll need to gently incentivize their creatures to tap.

From Dreamshackle Geist to Disciple of the Ring, blue has no shortage of tap/untap effects. We'll make prolific use of stun counters and pseudo-stun counters, like Freeze in Place and Frost Titan.

Many of our tappers are performing double duty as untappers, as well. Fatestitcher, Niblis of the Breath, and Puppeteer can either tap an opponent's creature to prepare it for Tetsuo's attack, or untap Tetsuo to threaten another creature. While Blinding Drone and Abyssal Hunter can't untap Tetsuo, the consistency they provide for this effect makes them well worth the slot.

Hylda's Crown of Winter is one of my favorite cards from the past year, and one of the cheapest ways to repeatedly tap down our opponents' creatures.

Blustersquall is one of our best nonpermanent tappers, since it hits either the entire board or just a single creature for a comparatively cheap casting cost. Academic Dispute is one of the only spells we have access to that can force a creature to block, and for one red mana we don't care that its learn trigger fizzles. Courtly Provocateur and You've Been Caught Stealing can also force a block, letting Tetsuo line up a headshot for the target creature.

Similarly, we're running Holga, Relentless Rager as a powerful top-end attacker that can force blocks.

Flood is an old enchantment hailing from The Dark that adds a vintage edge to this deck while still playing in the same space as the rest of our tapping effects. Frozen Aether and Retreat to Coralhelm support it and round out our tapping enchantments.

Finally, of course, we've got Twiddle for when you need that one extra tap/untap. 

Untappers

Since we can't use Second Wind, Pemmin's Aura, or Freed from the Real, we're heavily reliant on artifacts to untap Tetsuo. These will more often than not be the targets of our tutors, since they're essential to making this deck run.

Puppet Strings, Magewright's Stone, and Thousand-Year Elixir are the three cards that really make Umezawa shine. Easy untaps mean we'll get that many more targeted removals from our Commander and can keep the board clear of any creature-based threats. 

Illusionist's Bracers is even better, letting us sink two creatures at once for each activation, saving us another . 

Speaking of Equipment that makes Tetsuo go nuts, Thornbite Staff will untap our commander each time he destroys a creature, letting us skip all the hooplah around untapping him and letting us spend all that juicy mana on destruction. 

Goaders

Tapping opponents' creatures directly will always the best way to get them ready for Tetsuo's destruction. However, a little known fact about Magic: The Gathering is that creatures need to tap to attack! If we can force our opponents to attack each other with goad effects, we've basically tapped them down, anyways. Even if the goaded creatures must attack us, we can use Tetsuo as soon as they're declared as attackers to clear the board of any actual threats.

Many of these goading creatures are staples in 2024 Commander decks; Disrupt Decorum and Karazikar, the Eye Tyrant, for instance, are incredibly consistent ways to keep opponents' creatures tapped down. 

One of our goaders doesn't use the term "goad" at all: Angler Turtle forces your opponents to break their creatures' bodies against the tide of combat and expose them for Tetsuo's sharp-eyed shots. 

The Fallout card Red Death, Shipwrecker might seem like its downside is too steep to justify, but a wise and wily player will use its "that player draws a card" effect to their own political advantage while maintaining a threatening presence on the board with our commander.

So... How Does This Deck Win?

That's the beauty of it! It doesn't! Not really, anyways. Mostly, this deck's strategy is to stall out the game by preventing anyone from sticking creatures (and, notably, commanders) to the battlefield. By disrupting everyone's gameplan so completely, we'll wear down our opponents until Tetsuo's little 3/3 body and his Frost Titan friend are the only threats left!

Mana Base

Tetsuo Umezawa's ability comes at a hefty price, and we want to activate it multiple times per turn, often paying even more mana to untap Tetsuo and tap the creature we want to target, as well. This means we need a lot of mana available very quickly. To that end, we're running not one, not two, but fifteen (!!!) mana rocks! Plus, we've got Solemn Simulacrum, Burnished Hart, and Wayfarer's Bauble to ramp and fix our colors so we can pay that cost as many times as we need.

Tetsuo Umezawa Decklist

Budget

This deck has an estimated cost of about $300. A significant portion of that is Tetsuo Umezawa himself. As one of the more "playable" Legends cards that lacks a Chronicles reprint, Tetsuo can go for anywhere between $80 and $100. If we ignore his cost, there are a few other expensive cards we can work around to fit our budget.

The next most expensive card behind Tetsuo is our Demonic Tutor, which can easily be replaced with a Profane Tutor. I'd caution against going below the two tutors I've included in the list, as we really need to find our Illusionist's Bracers or Thousand-Year Elixir before the game runs too long.

Besides that, Holga, Relentless Rager can be pricey since she's a Secret Lair card. Swap her out for an Agitator Ant, or even Impede Momentum or another cheap tap-down effect.

Wrap Up

At the time, Tetsuo Umezawa was rightfully feared as one of the most dangerous three-drop legendary creatures in Magic. Nowadays, we really have to tune the deck around him to make him even slightly competitive at your average Commander pod. That said, Tetsuo's undeniably one of the more powerful Legends Legends, although possibly the worst of the Grixis-aligned ones.

How would you build around Tetsuo Umezawa? Is goading our opponents' creatures worth the risk, or are there easier ways to tap down their board? Let me know in the comments!

Thanks for reading!