(Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive | Art By Serena Malyon)

It Only Takes One...

Hello everyone, my name is Adam Hart, and I'm here with you today to share a deck that I've been playing for the last four years and is always an incredible joy: Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive infect. At the time of writing, Tetsuko has 130 infect decks on EDHREC, a number which vastly understates the potential of mono-blue, so we're going to do a deep dive on how to build and tune Tetsuko to bring about compleation every time she's brought to the table.

First, the decklist itself:

Mono-Blue Infect... Why?

Initially conceived as a deckbuilding challenge, some players from our LGS in Tampa decided to build mono-colored infect decks. At the time (April 2019), green and black were far and away the best for infecting down single opponents; cards like Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon and Triumph of the Hordes easily outpaced what most blue cards had to offer. This meant that my personal deckbuilding philosophy had to be a bit different. We had to lean into what blue does best: Control. The deck looks different today than it did all those years ago, but I believe a Phyrexian Baudrillard wouldn't be too disappointed with the current simulacra.

Tetsuko brings an extremely powerful mechanic to the table: making creatures with a power or toughness of 1 unblockable. With a converted mana cost of 2, she makes it so we can establish some threats early and immediately get a couple poison counters on the table.

The early game objective is straightforward: get at least one poison counter (preferably three or or four) on every opponent, and establish a draw engine utilizing creatures to draw us cards when they deal combat damage. Our deck runs over 20 creatures, and of those only around four don't become unblockable with our commander out (they do, however, provide some amazing value and utility in other areas, which we'll touch on later).

Great, so you get a couple poison counters out. What next?

The name of the game is Proliferate. Our primary goal was getting a single poison counter (or a couple) on all of our opponents. The second goal is to now control the game, as only blue can do. Generally, infect decks have a singularly minded objective: infect down one player at a time due to how quickly you can get 10 poison counters on an individual opponent. This usually makes the player the archenemy, as no one wants to be out of the game early. With mono-blue, we can go that route if that's your playstyle (we're actually pretty good at it with unblockable creatures equipped with Bloodforged Battle-Axe or Umezawa's Jitte); however, there is another option: stack up control, draw, and proliferate cards, then win the game all at once.

What, like it's easy? HOW?

I'm glad you asked. We have a few ways of rapidly proliferating the table. The fastest and easiest to win in a single turn is our friend the Flux Channeler, who says "Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, proliferate."

With 39 noncreature spells in the deck, six of which proliferate on their own, the game can end pretty fast. Our opponents likely know after the first few proliferates what our gameplan is, however, so it's recommended to save Flux Channeler until you are either: 1) sure you can protect them with countermagic (which then also proliferates), or 2) ready to finish at least one player. Aside from Flux, we run a ton of cards to regularly proliferate, from Karn's Bastion to the incredible Staff of Compleation. If your personal meta is a little slower, you could always add in cards like Inexorable Tide as well, although I don't personally run it in my list.

We don't need Flux Channeler to win, as it's easy enough to proliferate regularly with other cards, such as our unblockable Thrummingbird or a mana sink such as Viral Drake. The deck has a deceptively easy time in finding pieces to win the game out of nowhere since you're slowly whittling down the table most of the game. Usually by turn six or seven everyone is infected, we have a stacked hand, and we can start looking to end the game.

Specific Card Spotlights

Let's talk about some specific cards and strategies:

Prologue to Phyresis is a powerhouse in every way. It does everything we want to accomplish early game in one card while also being a tool for winning the game later on. We can tutor it with Spellseeker or Muddle the Mixture, and we can flash it back with Snapcaster Mage. It's an incredible card and we're lucky to have it as an option.

Trinket Mage is an extremely valuable card, as it's our toolbox tutor with numerous uses. Up against graveyard-based strategies, we can grab Relic of Progenitus. If we're low on lands, we can grab Seat of the Synod. If we want fast mana, we get Sol Ring. If we need a way to apply poison, we can grab Prosthetic Injector (which goes nicely on our unblockable commander, as it doesn't modify her 1 base power), and if we just really need to end someone, we can grab Bloodforged Battle-Axe. Overall, Trinket Mage is one of our most valuable cards.

Tezzeret the Seeker is everything Trinket Mage is and more. He tutors your entire artifact toolbox, can ramp you with untaps (or untap your Staff of Compleation for faster proliferates), and can even win the game with regular combat damage with his machine army. A fantastic card with countless uses.

A lot of the remaining cards not mentioned so far are control-oriented cards. Counterspell is there to stop your opponents from winning and protecting your primary win-conditions. The same goes for cards like Cyclonic Rift and Submerge, which are typically more reactive to what your opponents are doing. Keep in mind that Muddle the Mixture tutors for any two-CMC card in our deck (a lot of which are win-conditions) while also being a very effective counterspell.

Budget Options

As of the time of writing this, Archidekt lists this deck at $618. That's a high-mid budget deck, but this can easily be cut down to less than $200 with very little impact to the overall gameplan or performance. Counters such as Mana Drain, Force of Negation, and Swan Song can be easily replaced with cheaper counterparts. The same goes for cards like Cyclonic Rift, Faerie Mastermind, Tezzeret the Seeker, Rhystic Study, and Spellseeker. We can also remove the pricey lands, like Inkmoth Nexus, Urza's Saga, Ancient Tomb, and Otawara, Soaring City. Getting rid of all of these might decrease consistency slightly, but overall the deck performs admirably on a budget. All you need is Tetsuko, some poison carriers, and some counterspells!

Upgrade Options

Conversely, the deck has an easy time with upgrades. Cards such as Mana Vault and Mana Crypt can make the deck MUCH faster, and are easily tutor-able with the current toolbox. Stronger countermagic with Force of Will and Fierce Guardianship will also increase protection. We could also throw in disruption, such as Gilded Drake or Back to Basics, or even a Meekstone.

Power Level

As we're all aware, power level within Commander is a hot-button topic, so I'd like to give a little bit of my perspective on what types of decks exist in MtG, and where this fits into that pantheon.

As I see it, there are four "levels" of Commander decks:

1. Stuff I Own

These are decks which are functionally a bunch of random cards with no central unifying game plan or win-condition. Think early precons and beginner kitchen table games.

2. Battlecruiser

These decks are what the vast majority of kitchen table Magic falls into. Usually there's a gameplan or theme, with a good amount of support within the deck for that specific plan. Ramp followed up by big stompy creatures is usually a good example of these kinds of decks. The high end of this tier starts to bleed into high power decks, but generally isn't consistent enough to win semi-regularly at those pods.

3. High Power

Decks where there is a strong central goal and most, if not all of the cards in the deck are in service to advancing the specific goals set out by the deck. Infinite combos exist here; however, these are usually not the fastest or most optimal win-conditions of the format. Usually by turn five to seven, someone is attempting to win or attempting to gain an insurmountable advantage.

4. cEDH

The best decks that exist in EDH. Almost, if not every, card is completely optimal. Win-conditions are extremely specific, and the entire objective of these decks is to advance to that goal as quickly as possible. It's not infrequent to see turn-two or -three attempts (and successes) at wins, or stax players looking to lock others out.

If we take these tiers at face value, our mono-blue infect deck sits somewhere in the lower section of the high power category. It's probably too strong to always face battlecruiser tables, which you would likely find yourself in control of most games, and other players might not have fun, but it's also not going to keep up at a cEDH table. Always remember to use Rule Zero as honestly as possible.

Final Thoughts

Thanks for taking the time to read this. This deck has been my favorite I've ever built to this day, and I'm very proud of how it performs. I hope it inspires you to get out there and spread the p̶h̶y̶r̶e̶s̶i̶s̶ love!