Magic the Gathering (MTG) Commander - Fumiko the Lowblood

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       

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