The Best Instants to Flashback with Toshiro Umezawa

Spellslinging is typically Izzet's game. Mono-black decks rarely play more than the essential instants and sorceries, and they tend to do one of two things: force discards, and destroy creatures. 

It's not often we take one of these listicles and focus it down on one single Commander, but Toshiro Umezawa's spellslinger-ish theme was just too juicy to pass up. Toshiro's not necessarily unpopular, with 1700 decks logged on EDHrec, but he's no Atraxa, Praetors' Voice (currently sitting at over 34,000 decks). 

While Toshiro doesn't necessarily vibe with mono-black's sorceries, he loves all of mono-black's targeted removal on instants. This black Samurai wants to destroy as many of your opponents' creatures as possible; doing so allows Toshiro to destroy even more creatures. With a little bit of mana-manipulation, like K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth, or a lot bit of Dark Rituals, Toshiro decks can run the board and prevent anyone from sticking anything to the board. Best of all, Toshiro's instants can be cast on your opponents' turns! They'll have basically no time to respond to you once you've Murderd your first creature! (well, except for Counterspells, but what can't the UU instant handle?)

So what are the best instants to stock in your Toshiro Umezawa spellslinger deck? I've assembled a list of staples, in no particular order, for a Toshiro deck to inspire your destruction-based minds.

Malicious Affliction

Toshiro Umezawa works best when he can destroy a creature, cast an instant from the graveyard that destroys a creature, and then continue casting spells that destroy creatures. If we cast Malicious Affliction from our hand, even without the Morbid trigger resolving, we'll be able to cast it again from the graveyard and get two more triggers off of Toshiro's effect, grabbing an additional two instants from our graveyard. We're getting three dead creatures and three triggers from Toshiro for just ; pretty good when you compare it to what Izzet decks do to recur spells.

Corpse Dance

Fun fact! Since Toshiro Umezawa doesn't give the spells the exact flashback wording that exiles the spell if it would go anywhere, and instead only exiles them if they hit the graveyard, we can pay the buyback on Corpse Dance after casting it from the graveyard to get it back into our hand!

Admittedly, Toshiro Umezawa decks tend not to run a critical mass of creatures, what with our instants taking up so many slots in our deck. However, this can be good recursion for any key combo piece you're trying to use to end the game. For example, returning our Crypt Ghast to the battlefield for just a turn can double the number of instants we could cast from our graveyard, turning a fair turn into an obliterating onslaught of [elDoom Blade[/el]s and Go for the Throats.

If you're so inclined, you can pull this same trick with Slaughter and Imps' Taunt, as well.

Dismember

Toshiro is best when the removal spells we use can be cast for cheap. Veteran players know that Dismember is only ever cast for 1 and four life, making it one of the best removal spells in Toshiro's arsenal. -5/-5 is usually enough to destroy a problem creature, and it gets the added bonus of getting around indestructible creatures. 

Grim Return

So, we've just cast Infernal Grasp on the MIzzix player's Charmbreaker Devils. Wouldn't it be nice if we could just grab that excellent spell recursion and use it to our end? Now we can with Grim Return, which yoinks that recently destroyed creature right out of your opponent's graveyard and onto your battlefield. For three mana, Grim Return's a little expensive in a deck without the excellent ramp that green could provide, but with Crypt Ghasts and/or Jet Medallion and K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth, we can make that spell dirt cheap. 

Entomb

Worried you're running out of great instants to recur? Entomb fetches exactly what you need! Maybe you're looking to use Chain of Smog and Professor Onyx to infinitely drain your opponents, or maybe you just need one extra removal spell to finish clearing the board. 

Hellish Rebuke

Surprising our foes in combat with Hellish Rebuke is brutal enough, but the mere threat of a second Rebuke in your graveyard should be enough to save you from any attacks for a few turns. Notably, Hellish Rebuke works on noncombat damage as well, so we can instantly destroy that dang Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind that's been relentlessly pinging us all game, getting around both any hexproof or indestructible upgrades they've slapped on him.

Sudden Spoiling

Sudden Spoiling frequently resolves as a Fog in my decks, saving me from any combat damage and associated triggers. In a Toshiro Umezawa deck, Sudden Spoiling makes your opponents' attacking creatures small enough for Toshiro to block and destroy, even if they have an anthem giving them +1/+1, thanks bushido. It also cannot be responded to, making it one of the better ways to neutralize your opponents' creatures for a turn.

Snuff Out

Snuff Out is great because there's no reason it won't be free to cast in a Toshiro deck. Blowing up one nonblack creature, then immediately blowing up another without expending any mana keeps our mana pool fresh so we can continue to flashback more and more destruction from our graveyard.

Thrilling Encore

If Grim Return is good, Thrilling Encore is great. This five-mana instant may be expensive, but it's probably the best instant to cast after four or five other removal spells have resolved. Depending on how well we've hit the field with removal this turn, we could end up with a pseudo-Rise of the Dark Realms situation. 

Withering Boon

The black counterspell Withering Boon counters creature spells. Like the Spanish Inquisition, nobody expects your mono-black deck to Essence Scatter their commander as they cast it. Withering Boon also makes great protection for your removal spells from those Venser, Shaper Savants, Spellstutter Sprites and Mystic Snakes running around.

V.A.T.S.

The Fallout card V.A.T.S. is one of my favorite new board wipes. Its "choose any number of creatures" wording means it gets around hexproof, making it great for destroying that one specific creature or an entire board of 1/1 Saproling tokens. Each of those destroyed creatures will trigger Toshiro Umezawa, lighting up the board with more than enough destruction to clear out the remaining creatures.

Force of Despair

The cycle of Force cards from Modern Horizons can all be cast by exiling a card from your hand instead of paying their mana cost. Force of Despair works awesomely when it's cast as a surprise from your hand, and can be game-warping as a loudly broadcast threat in your graveyard. I've seen Toshiro players use a single Force of Despair in their graveyard as political weight to influence when and what kind of creatures your opponents commit to the field. Even if they manage to bait out your board wipe from the graveyard, we'll have more than enough removal left over to destroy whatever actual threat they were trying to stick.

Wrap Up

I love Toshiro Umezawa for his unique effect. There aren't many ways to capitalize on black instants in a spell-slingery way, so having the option to sort of storm off with removal spells makes him one of the most interesting build-around commanders on the market. Who knew this sleeper rare from Betrayers of Kamigawa would have such staying power!

What are your favorite black instants to recur with Toshiro? How many creatures would you run alongside him? Let me know in the comments, or come harass me on Twitter and tell me why I'm wrong.

Thanks for reading!