Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive – MTG Card of the Day Review

David
Fanany
Player
since
1995

You probably remember the skulk ability from the Shadows over Innistrad block. It wasn’t that long ago, after all. You may also remember how they basically announced that they had no plans to use skulk after the block, before the block was even over. You can’t see it from your seat, but my eyebrow is still raised over what they were doing with that whole scenario. However, the general concept of that ability lives on in Tetsuko Umezawa. It’s awfully specific, and there are many eligible creatures that will do little more than just chip away the opponent’s life total in frustratingly small increments. Of course, then you look through your collection and notice all the one-power or one-toughness creatures with saboteur abilities, or with power-boosting abilities (or just other power-boosting cards), and the ability to attack freely with Asylum Visitor without losing it in combat. In fact, it makes you wonder a little bit why they felt there was so little design use for skulk . . .

Constructed: 2/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 3/5
Multiplayer: 3/5
EDH/Commander: 3/5

Part of the long lineage of Umezawas, Tetsuko is a card with a lot of interesting things going on. Her major selling point is her unusual unblockability ability, letting creatures with either power or toughness 1 or less get in unscathed. This includes her; while she’s only a 20 turn clock on her own, an unblockable attacker rarely is a downside.

Tetsuko is an interesting sort of threat when paired with a lot of small creatures, as part of a “go wide” strategy, or when paired with a lot of pump spells or +X/+0 effects that come down after blockers are declared. Since you get a chance to act after blocks are made, you can pump the creatures that safely slipped through your opponent’s defenses. An interesting potential deck for Tetsuko might be Modern Infect; while she herself lacks infect, it makes Glistener Elf and the other cheap creatures harder to stop.

I think Tetsuko is interesting. She has potential to be a real sleeper, but she’s only as good as the pieces around her.

Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 4
Limited: 4
Multiplayer: 3.5
Commander: 3.75