Pauper Commander

Mono Blue Aggro with Tetsuko Umezawa

15 Oct 2021 - 10 min read

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What’s up everybody, considering it’s one of the rare weeks where spoilers/a set/etc has not been released we’re doing a good old fashioned deck tech! This one is a real blast from the past featuring one of my favorite underloved commanders of the last five years.

Some of you may remember my first brew featuring Tetsuko came as a Brawl commander back when Dominaria released. In fact, I documented some of that adventure in the Introduction to Brawl article we ran last year…but that’s enough about a format with access to silver and gold expansion symbols, we’re here for the COMMONer and let me be the first to tell you, Tetsuko kicks some major Pauper ass. Let’s dive in.

Off the bat it’s easy to see that Tetsuko has a lot of potential. You don’t see lines like “creatures you control…can’t be blocked” every day, and for two mana she will most certainly be getting your plan online in short order. Now, there is the stipulation of “creatures with power or toughness one or less” so no free Ulamog’s Crusher connects here but frankly we don’t even need big uglies when there is…

Infect

When you can only sneak small creatures through our enemies’ defenses, you gotta make sure the punches count. Now, I’m as much a fan of death by 30 cuts as the next guy but it’s much more efficient to only have to cut 10 times and just make each really really poisonous, right? Infect puts in big work when your creatures are predominantly going to be outclassed in every other way. You’ve got the three powerhouses highlighted above to start that poison counter train and a solid support team in Thrummingbird and Guildpact Informant to proliferate those poison counters when our infected front line eventually get targeted or wiped out by a rogue Gangrenous Zombies . And worst case, Corpse Cur can get us back a helping hand.

Combat Damage

There’s a reason most decks aren’t composed entirely of 3/1s and 1/2s, and that’s because your opponents will be old and gray by the time they finally make a difference. So, like we covered with the infect picks above, you’re better off using your weenies as a vehicle for other triggers and effects as opposed to relying on their weak kicks and puny punches. This deck is running plenty of “combat damage” effects outside of the damage itself. Whether a Library Larcenist or Scroll Thief is drawing you into the rest of your deck hopefully averaging draw of 2-3 cards per turn, or maybe you’re playing it a little meaner with Sigil of Sleep which has to be one of my favorite cards discovered in the process of brewing this deck. A lot of PDH matches end with aggressive plays and having the ability to continuously bounce threatening creatures will definitely have a large impact on the game. Although sometimes, a Hidden Strings or Hands of Binding will be enough, perpetually keeping some big ugly tapped down while you can work your magic.

Bottom line, this is where the majority of power in the deck should be focused - making the most of the attacks you have with powerful abilities.

That’s no 1/1…

Imagine this scenario: your infect buddies are dead, your control strategies are not having the effect you’d like…it’s time to make something big happen. If you’re not familiar, allow me to introduce you to a fun little engine available in mono-blue that allows you to infinitely cast non-creature spells. Alone, this will just bore your opponents to death which is a strategy! Just not a strongly condoned one. Anyway, start this puppy up with either of the following two creatures on the battlefield and soon your opponents will be dealing with an Avenger-level threat:

You’re hoping for the spellfist, but Jhessian Thief will do it for a defenseless opponent. An infinitely big creature from a deck dedicated to small stabs? How’s that for a game changer!

Now, this is a four-card sorcery-speed combo so it definitely takes some setting up (and staying alive while you collect your resources). To that end, I’m running a solid collection of PDH control through counterspells, Winter’s Rest , and Kasmina’s Transmutation effects - hoping to pull the game long. This deck also features all your classic Transmute abilities so you can Muddle the Mixture for your Spellfist or Dizzy Spell the Retraction Helix. Point is, it’s easier than you think to get this thing going.

Room for Creativity

One of the “benefits”’ of PDH is that not every creature or effect is going to be top of the line, and besides the key lines of play there can be a lot of room to express yourself and still find a decently competitive end result. In this deck if you’re not infectin’ and you’re not combo-in’ you’re probably getting in for whatever damage you can to lower everyone else’s’ health and use a legion of chump blockers to keep afloat. I shouldn’t need to tell you there are a TON of one power or toughness creatures out there and this is a great opportunity to try them all! One of the more recent changes to this deck was leaning into Snow-covered Island s so I can run Winter’s Rest and Rimewind Taskmage. Adding more tap control and a cheaper Charmed Sleep effect feels a little bit like a no brainer. Sometimes I also felt a little light on graveyard removal so outside of a Relic of Progenitus , I wanted to take advantage of another repeatable solution which led me to one of the all-stars from Tetsuko’s Brawl days - Graven Abomination.

Finally, Calcite Snapper just seems ridiculous. Shroud and Hexproof are incredibly powerful in PDH, and while you can only make the snapper attack as a crazy 4/1 maybe half the time…call me a dreamer. Point is you have a lot of flexibility with these slots to adapt and metagame against whatever is beating down your door…

The Big Weakness

Unfortunately for Tetsuko, wraths in PDH are primarily damage based and - as Oakley’s powerful Gray Merchant of Asphodel deck shows us - plentiful. These effects have a much greater impact on Tetsuko and other weenie strategies compared to more traditional creature packages and you have to be ready for the constant pressure a Pestilence can produce. In blue, our main resource for dealing with them is going to be countermagic, of which I’m packing a hefty amount, but you could probably add some more bounce effects like Into the Roil or Capsize if they become a persistent threat. Worst case, these are the cards most worthy of a Introduction to Annihilation since they can completely lock you out of the game.

Conclusion

Tetsuko is one of those commanders who really lends themselves to interesting deck construction. Whether you try to take heads through combat and tricks like Ninjutsu, Cipher, or going a more traditionally blue combo route and using the creatures as a backup plan or source of control - the choice is yours. Let me know what you think in the comments below! And of course, you can find the full decklist here or on our Moxfield!

See ya next week!

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Commander PDH