by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist
Did you know: there are only two Legendary Creatures (as of this writing) that have names starting with the letter "F" in Magic the Gathering? They are Feldon of the Third Path and Fumiko the Lowblood. As cool as Feldon is as a Commander who loves graveyard shenanigans, I’d like to focus on Fumiko the Lowblood. She’s a Commander that many players were introduced to when she was reprinted in the Commander 2015 set.
Bushido is the key mechanic used for Samurai in the Betrayers of Kamigawa set. Usually, Bushido really only helps other Samurai. But in this case, you don’t need to worry about even playing other Samurai. Her Bushido X ability allows her to gain +X/+X whenever she is blocked or blocks, where X is the number of attacking creatures. This ability works on both offense and defense. But it’s the second ability on her that makes her especially interesting. She forces your opponent’s creatures to always attack if able.
Unfortunately, mono-red doesn’t have a ton of ways to really take advantage of these attacks directly, besides having tough enough creatures that will happily receive these incoming attacks. You can play cards like the artifact Caltrops, which deals 1 damage to each attacking creature. There can also be shenanigans like Crown of Doom from Commander 2014, which you can donate to another player for 2 mana. It makes any creature that attacks the controlling player gain +2/+0 until end of turn. You don’t even have to worry about it coming back to you, since it can’t return to its owner.
Really, by forcing your opponents to attack, you leave them vulnerable to your own attacks. That is, as long as those creatures have to tap when they attack - any creatures with vigilance or effects that give those creatures vigilance can be a problem. So you basically just have to flood the board with creatures and hope that they run out of life before you do.
To help with this, you have several key Enchantments. One is War’s Toll, which forces an opponent to tap all of their lands whenever he or she taps a land for mana. Interestingly enough, this Enchantment also can force your opponent to attack with all of their creatures whenever they try to attack with just one. These effects can buy you some time. To finish off your opponents quickly, you have Mass Hysteria, which gives all creatures on the board Haste. You then have Rage Reflection to give all of your creatures double strike. There’s also an artifact, Crawlspace, that doesn’t allow your opponents to attack you with more than two creatures at a time. You’ll only want to play this if your opponents are getting too far ahead on the board.
On the spell side, Savage Beating can give your creatures double strike for a turn, but also can either give you an extra combat phase, or give you both effects for only 1R more. If your opponents end up controlling more creatures than you can control, you can steal them with Insurrection or Mass Mutiny.
Here’s an example of a Fumiko the Lowblood list:
Commander:
Fumiko the Lowblood
Creatures (25)
1 Slumbering Dragon r
1 Bloodmark Mentor 1r
1 Archetype of Aggression 1rr
1 Taurean Mauler 2r
1 Goblin Snowman 3r
1 Lord of Shatterskull Pass 3r
1 Obsidian Fireheart 1rrr
1 Solemn Simulacrum 4
1 Hunted Dragon 3rr
1 Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs 3rr
1 Stuffy Doll 5
1 Urabrask the Hidden 3rr
1 Zealous Conscripts 4r
1 Hellkite Charger 4rr
1 Hellkite Tyrant 4rr
1 Hoard-Smelter Dragon 4rr
1 Inferno Titan 4rr
1 Moonveil Dragon 3rrr
1 Rapacious One 5r
1 Steel Hellkite 6
1 Wurmcoil Engine 6
1 Balefire Dragon 5rr
1 Molten Primordial 5rr
1 Tyrant's Familiar 5rr
1 Avatar of Fury 6rr
Non Creature Spells (39)
1 Expedition Map 1
1 Mass Hysteria r
1 Shattering Spree r
1 Sol Ring 1
1 Vandalblast r
1 Fire Diamond 2
1 Lightning Greaves 2
1 Swiftfoot Boots 2
1 Veteran's Armaments 2
1 Chaos Warp 2r
1 Crawlspace 3
1 Darksteel Ingot 3
1 Loxodon Warhammer 3
1 Oathkeeper, Takeno's Daisho 3
1 Quietus Spike 3
1 Reiterate 1rr
1 Repercussion 1rr
1 Strata Scythe 3
1 Vow of Lightning 2r
1 Wheel of Fortune 2r
1 Aftershock 2rr
1 Koth of the Hammer 2rr
1 Shield of Kaldra 4
1 Stranglehold 3r
1 Thran Dynamo 4
1 War's Toll 3r
1 Wild Ricochet 2rr
1 Fissure 3rr
1 Gauntlet of Power 5
1 Gilded Lotus 5
1 Mass Mutiny 3rr
1 Mind's Eye 5
1 Reforge the Soul 3rr
1 Savage Beating 3rr
1 Caged Sun 6
1 Rage Reflection 4rr
1 Staff of Nin 6
1 Insurrection 5rrr
1 Blasphemous Act 8r
Lands (35)
1 Forgotten Cave
1 Kher Keep
28 Mountain
1 Myriad Landscape
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
1 Temple of the False God
1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
Bushido is the key mechanic used for Samurai in the Betrayers of Kamigawa set. Usually, Bushido really only helps other Samurai. But in this case, you don’t need to worry about even playing other Samurai. Her Bushido X ability allows her to gain +X/+X whenever she is blocked or blocks, where X is the number of attacking creatures. This ability works on both offense and defense. But it’s the second ability on her that makes her especially interesting. She forces your opponent’s creatures to always attack if able.
Unfortunately, mono-red doesn’t have a ton of ways to really take advantage of these attacks directly, besides having tough enough creatures that will happily receive these incoming attacks. You can play cards like the artifact Caltrops, which deals 1 damage to each attacking creature. There can also be shenanigans like Crown of Doom from Commander 2014, which you can donate to another player for 2 mana. It makes any creature that attacks the controlling player gain +2/+0 until end of turn. You don’t even have to worry about it coming back to you, since it can’t return to its owner.
Really, by forcing your opponents to attack, you leave them vulnerable to your own attacks. That is, as long as those creatures have to tap when they attack - any creatures with vigilance or effects that give those creatures vigilance can be a problem. So you basically just have to flood the board with creatures and hope that they run out of life before you do.
To help with this, you have several key Enchantments. One is War’s Toll, which forces an opponent to tap all of their lands whenever he or she taps a land for mana. Interestingly enough, this Enchantment also can force your opponent to attack with all of their creatures whenever they try to attack with just one. These effects can buy you some time. To finish off your opponents quickly, you have Mass Hysteria, which gives all creatures on the board Haste. You then have Rage Reflection to give all of your creatures double strike. There’s also an artifact, Crawlspace, that doesn’t allow your opponents to attack you with more than two creatures at a time. You’ll only want to play this if your opponents are getting too far ahead on the board.
On the spell side, Savage Beating can give your creatures double strike for a turn, but also can either give you an extra combat phase, or give you both effects for only 1R more. If your opponents end up controlling more creatures than you can control, you can steal them with Insurrection or Mass Mutiny.
Here’s an example of a Fumiko the Lowblood list:
Commander:
Fumiko the Lowblood
Creatures (25)
1 Slumbering Dragon r
1 Bloodmark Mentor 1r
1 Archetype of Aggression 1rr
1 Taurean Mauler 2r
1 Goblin Snowman 3r
1 Lord of Shatterskull Pass 3r
1 Obsidian Fireheart 1rrr
1 Solemn Simulacrum 4
1 Hunted Dragon 3rr
1 Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs 3rr
1 Stuffy Doll 5
1 Urabrask the Hidden 3rr
1 Zealous Conscripts 4r
1 Hellkite Charger 4rr
1 Hellkite Tyrant 4rr
1 Hoard-Smelter Dragon 4rr
1 Inferno Titan 4rr
1 Moonveil Dragon 3rrr
1 Rapacious One 5r
1 Steel Hellkite 6
1 Wurmcoil Engine 6
1 Balefire Dragon 5rr
1 Molten Primordial 5rr
1 Tyrant's Familiar 5rr
1 Avatar of Fury 6rr
Non Creature Spells (39)
1 Expedition Map 1
1 Mass Hysteria r
1 Shattering Spree r
1 Sol Ring 1
1 Vandalblast r
1 Fire Diamond 2
1 Lightning Greaves 2
1 Swiftfoot Boots 2
1 Veteran's Armaments 2
1 Chaos Warp 2r
1 Crawlspace 3
1 Darksteel Ingot 3
1 Loxodon Warhammer 3
1 Oathkeeper, Takeno's Daisho 3
1 Quietus Spike 3
1 Reiterate 1rr
1 Repercussion 1rr
1 Strata Scythe 3
1 Vow of Lightning 2r
1 Wheel of Fortune 2r
1 Aftershock 2rr
1 Koth of the Hammer 2rr
1 Shield of Kaldra 4
1 Stranglehold 3r
1 Thran Dynamo 4
1 War's Toll 3r
1 Wild Ricochet 2rr
1 Fissure 3rr
1 Gauntlet of Power 5
1 Gilded Lotus 5
1 Mass Mutiny 3rr
1 Mind's Eye 5
1 Reforge the Soul 3rr
1 Savage Beating 3rr
1 Caged Sun 6
1 Rage Reflection 4rr
1 Staff of Nin 6
1 Insurrection 5rrr
1 Blasphemous Act 8r
Lands (35)
1 Forgotten Cave
1 Kher Keep
28 Mountain
1 Myriad Landscape
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
1 Temple of the False God
1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
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