Lesser Masticore

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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Arena Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Gladiator Legal
Highlander Legal
Historic Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Lesser Masticore

Artifact Creature — Masticore

As an additional cost to cast this spell, discard a card.

: Lesser Masticore deals 1 damage to target creature.

Persist (When this creature is put into the graveyard from the battlefield, if it had no -1/-1 counters on it, return it to the battlefield under its owner's control with a -1/-1 counter on it.)

ThatWeirdPerson on It's Just a Flesh Wound ($100 Meren)

3 weeks ago

Hey Juniordrc! Thanks for the comment, I should probably have been more clear over how the combo works in case people haven't seen it before. Basically, you sacrifice Lesser Masticore to Carrion Feeder, which triggers Disciple of the Vault and pings each opponent. When Lesser Masticore dies, persist triggers, returning it to the battlefield with a -1/-1 counter, however, Melira, Sylvok Outcast does not allow the -1/-1 counter to be placed on Lesser Masticore and so persist is free to trigger again some other time. This allows you to repeat it from the beginning and keep pinging each opponent for one, all the way up to infinite damage. Here is a commander spellbook link to the same Protean Hulk combo just using Viscera Seer over Carrion Feeder. Hope that helps!

multimedia on Liesa, Forgotten Archangel (Budget EDH, Combo)

1 year ago

Hey, this is one of the better budget Commander decks I've seen and great description. Really good job with the card choices keeping within the price restriction. If you're on card price restriction, why all foils and alternative card arts?

Activated Sleeper and Kaya's Ghostform are good budget cards when you want your creatures to die. Sleeper is another creature who infinite die combos with Karmic Guide and Ghostform infinite die combos with Sun Titan.

Thran Vigil is the new budget infinite persist enabler, it infinite combos with Twilight Shepherd or another persist creature such as Lesser Masticore. If a creature dies on your turn and you control Liesa then Vigil will trigger to put a counter on a creature for each creature who died. Tortured Existence interacts with Vigil if you activate it on your turn equal to the amount of black mana you have available as long as you have a creature in your graveyard and a creature in your hand to repeatedly swap them. Put the counters from Vigil on Liesa making her huge to threaten lethal Commander damage.

Profane Tutor is the budget lesser Demonic, it's still powerful for it's price. Because you have lots of reanimation and recursion than Vile Entomber can be great support especially to get and bin Leonin Relic-Warder. Entomber getting any card of your choice is nice with Sun Titan.

Bolas's Citadel, is less than $6, the card is amazing when your Commander can gain life, you have a lower avg. CMC and even if you don't have top of library manipulation. Children of Korlis goes well with Citadel, to sac to gain all the life back you lost casting spells. Greed interacts well with Citadel and Children, it's budget repeatable draw when you can gain life. It can help to draw land that's revealed on top of your library so that you can keep Citadel going.

Plumb the Forbidden can instant sac all creatures you control to draw for each one for 2 mana. I'm a big fan of Fanatical Devotion for a budget sac outlet that can protect your Commander from many types of removal and also protect creatures in combo while being the sac outlet in the combo.


Some changes to consider:

Good luck with your deck.

multimedia on Muldrotha, the Gravetide EDH BUDGET

1 year ago

Hey, well done version for less than $100.

How do you win, Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest? You have clear value engines, but how do you turn the value into winning?

This combo repeatedly puts +1/+1 counters on all creatures you control as well as scry equal to the amount of green mana you have available. Have any creature enchanted with Rancor, Seer sacs that creature, triggers Seer and triggers Mazirek. Rancor goes to the graveyard and then back to your hand creating a Zombie. Enchant Zombie with Rancor and repeat. Tormod, the Desecrator has uses outside of the combo since cards, any card, are leaving your graveyard with Muldrotha and/or reanimation.

Consider adding the newest budget persist combo that uses Zulaport Cutthroat or another aristocrat as a true wincon? Thran Vigil is the enabler for infinite persist and it also has other uses too since creatures and artifacts are going to be leaving your graveyard with Muldrotha and/or reanimation.

Feeder sacs Masticore it triggers Cutthroat. Masticore goes to the graveyard and then back to battlefield. Vigil removes the -1/-1 counter from Masticore and repeat.

Some changes to consider:

Good luck with your deck.

DreadKhan on Meren, currently

1 year ago

There is also Necrotic Ooze, Phyrexian Devourer and Triskelion (or Walking Ballista) which will just kill everyone as long as you have some MV in your deck left. I think you can assemble this combo pretty easily with Buried Alive or some self-mill. I use Gravecrawler/Feeder/Plunderer myself, and I dig them out with Protean Hulk, which can then generate infinite Experience for Meren, making it possible for her to reanimate it for you to find a payoff for death or etb.

Hulk can also dig out Disciple of the Vault, Melira, Sylvok Outcast, Lesser Masticore and Viscera Seer or Feeder, which will just win on the spot usually. I will say, you do have to target with Disciple, so you can get blanked if someone has protection of some kind, so I don't use this combo myself, but it seems solid (if low on redundancy). It might be worth mentioning, but your Mazirek is very useful with any Persist creatures, since Mazirek can put a +1 counter on one if you have 2 you can sacrifice separately, this will go infinite with any free sac outlet, like Viscera Seer.

If you use Hulk, there is Activated Sleeper, or Phyrexian Delver which can extend your Hulk's lifespan to dig out more stuff. I'm pretty sure there are a few more out there, but I think Sleeper is the best.

I'm guessing you're not really looking for cEDH type stuff, but if you want really spicy stuff, I could direct you to very strong Meren lists you can get ideas from. I have a Meren deck that's roughly High Power atm, able to be extremely harsh to the board but also able to combo off fairly quickly/consistently if I want to. Nel Toth Community College and Round Table is the list, which has the cards sorted into custom piles to make it easier to understand (debatable if that was a success, you can switch it at the top of the decklist). Key points I'd suggest you consider is running tons of non-artifact, non-spell ramp, mostly creature based, enough to shave lands down at least somewhat, and an emphasis on small creatures that can either sacrifice themselves or something else. I would also suggest finding ways to substitute everything else with creatures, Meren really wants to have access to creatures and sac outlets, so stuff like Dockside Chef and Skullport Merchant can be better than other, non-creature options (other than busted ones like Ashnod's Altar, Phyrexian Altar, and Altar of Dementia that are just amazing). I even run Lurking Predators to just dump creatures onto the board, usually as sacrifice fodder, because I have over 50 creatures in the deck, it's very possible to get more than 2 creatures in a cycle.

Hope some of this helps!

multimedia on It's Just a Flesh Wound ($100 Meren)

1 year ago

Hey, well done on a low budget. Phyrexian Delver or Body Snatcher reanimate Hulk to give you a second Hulk trigger.

First Hulk trigger get Delver and Viscera Seer. Delver reanimates Hulk for 7 life and Seer sacs Hulk. Second Hulk trigger you get Zulaport Cutthroat, Lesser Masticore and Melira, Sylvok Outcast. Using the first Hulk trigger to get a reanimation effect for Hulk and a sac outlet lets you skip having to get Disciple of the Vault as wincon which is subpar outside of the combos.

Viscera Seer as the main sac outlet for the combo lets you scry into protection for the combo as you are doing the combo. Since Seer can sac at instant speed this means you can do scrying to find instant protection in response to removal from opponent. Protection helps such as Tamiyo's Safekeeping and Golgari Charm if you're trying to combo win.

One drop instants that can return a creature who died right away, Feign Death and Undying Malice can also be protection for the combo and are good outside of combo with the overall strategy of sacing creatures. Riftsweeper is helpful since it can put a creature exiled by opponent back into your library. Also works on your own creature you exile such as Body Snatcher.

Other than Primal Growth since it's a sac for Meren, all the other land ramp spells here are not needed. They would be better as mana rocks if you want more ramp or not ramp at all instead instant interaction especially protection if you're trying to combo win. Eternal Witness and other green any card recursion is very good with Meren.

Good luck with your deck.

DreadKhan on Meren (becoming) cEDH

1 year ago

My Meren deck is very much eager to get her out early, and will likely recast her if necessary, so I run a lot of creature ramp. My deck isn't cEDH, so it can afford to spend turns ramping and filling out my board, and I can usually use her ability from the turn she enters. It probably is better in competitive play to not care as much about having your Commander out. That said, I think I would be more cautious about milling myself if I didn't consistently have Meren out during games, I'm not sure how else those cards are working in your favour? I'm not seeing all that many payoffs for having a big graveyard, I could be missing some though. Anyways, that could free up quite a few cards, you have a lot of mill effects.

While both Vorinclex and Sheoldred are good creatures, I would expect both to fall off in value as you get to higher power. The big issue is their high MV, they are very tough to cast and removing them isn't especially difficult. Meren will have a hard time bringing back either for you, especially if you're not farming XP like I do.

Pawn of Ulamog is less mana than Sifter, Bog Initiate can make your colourless mana sources make Black, which can help (but is otherwise a bad card, but rarely terrible). IMHO there are better Hulk Piles you could be fetching out, I think a lot of competitive decks like Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Walking Ballista to generate infinite death triggers. I've seen people using Disciple of the Vault, Lesser Masticore, Viscera Seer and Melira, Sylvok Outcast to win on the spot from a single Hulk pile regardless of what you've got out. Such a deck has less redundancy I suppose. My deck usually digs out infinite death triggers off the first Hulk Pile and then uses Meren to recur the Hulk and win on my end step, my pile uses Gravecrawler, Carrior Feeder and Pitiless Plunderer, but I have tons of other paths, especially if I have two or more uses of Hulk. I'm sure there are tons of other piles, and part of the fun is just building whatever you want, but just pointing this if you want to get more competitive.

cEDH almost never runs Enters Tapped lands, they are anathema to the format, with decks running stuff like Mana Crypt, Jeweled Lotus, Ancient Tomb alongside Sol Ring to speed their deck up instead. They also tend to run the G dorks like Llanowar Elves, there are 3. You could shave some lands period, maybe 2, especially if you add in some 'fast mana'. You probably want ~15 ramp sources, maybe more in cEDH.

ThatWeirdPerson on It's Just a Flesh Wound ($100 Meren)

1 year ago

Grimsnecrosis2, So once we have Protean Hulk we sac it and tutor Carrion Feeder, Disciple of the Vault, Melira, Sylvok Outcast, and Lesser Masticore onto the battlefield. Lesser Masticore can't die sense persist means he comes back with a -1/-1 counter and Melira, Sylvok Outcast says he cant have -1/-1 counters. So now we cant sac him to Carrion Feeder an infinite number of times. Hes an artifact meaning that every time he dies Disciple of the Vault will trigger and our opponents will each take a damage making them eventually take infinite damage. Its a very resilient combo because the only way to stop it is to exile Protean Hulk or counter his trigger. Once his ability resolves and all the creatures hit the battlefield, they can cast removal but in response you can just start the combo.

Arcaneful on A Better Belbe, Corrupted Observer

2 years ago

Hey Patrick, just wanted to say I love the content you're putting out, and you've really inspired me to start to look into Higher Power/cEDH decks to build for myself, my first high powered deck last year actually being a budget version of your Teshar list. Your videos are on repeat for me either in the background while I write papers. I would love to join the Patreon and support you, but I barely have enough funds to play magic even right now so that's out of the picture. All I can offer to you is my thanks is the statement that you're probably my favorite MTG YouTuber!

Please don't feel like you have to read any of the following, it's just my ramblings/a few questions but it may be a long read so I won't be offended if you don't read it, as I know you don't typically keep budget cards in mind persay. Also hey, if leaving a comment can maybe help this awesome deck of yours to get more traction/attention on tappedout for whatever reason, even better.

I've been building my own Belbe list over the last few days and I had a few questions about potential cards to include? I don't always play in a cEDH meta really but have some really close to cEDH decks like a more 75% Brago, a Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator + Vial Smasher the Fierce Curiosity control, and Godo Helm fairly often. I'm hoping to transition more towards cEDH in general and with this deck in particular.

As a college student with no real source of income right now I'm a bit low on funds and we don't typically use proxies in my group, so I don't particularly know if this is a good spot to ask about budget alternatives to the Mike Trike combo, but I figured I might as well give it a shot. I've watched the Cold Brew and the deck tech, but if I forget if you mentioned something from them I apologize when asking about a few cards. Do you have any particularly budget combos you would suggest that maybe you tried during testing? I recall you talking about Gravecrawler loops in the Cold Brew, and I'm thinking of maybe some of those combos as with the Bontu's Monument , Pitiless Plunderer and Carrion Feeder (already in my list) would be a solid win I feel.

Currently I'm mainly running a Protean Hulk line of Disciple of the Vault , Carrion Feeder / Viscera Seer , Melira, Sylvok Outcast , and Lesser Masticore for infinite drain. My meta doesn't run much GY hate so I'm feeling decent with this, but losing one piece usually leads to waffling out. I know you mentioned a Phyrexian Delver line so I may look more into that, maybe getting it and and a one drop sac outlet first plus Putrid Goblin / Blood Artist with the leftover mana for the second Hulk trigger? I'm unsure if that's way too clunky, but I'll have to see.

My back up win is currently a Necrotic Ooze line or two, but not Triskelion / Phyrexian Devourer lines as both together are like, over $60 which is money I can't really shell out right now. Right now I'm doing Devoted Druid + Channeler Initiate and Priest of Titania + Pili-Pala lines for infinite mana of any color. Only current outlet I really have is Walking Ballista , which while good, I can't always rely on with all the artifact hate in my groups. I was thinking of adding more creature outlets maybe as they're easier for me to tutor (only black tutor I have is Diabolic Intent since I was able to trade up for one) Perhaps Ezuri, Renegade Leader since I have Belbe and other dorks (10 Elves Total) or Kamahl, Fist of Krosa as overrun effects that I can sink infinite into? Or maybe something like Tergrid, God of Fright  Flip to use the back side for an infinite Torment of Hailfire effect?

There were also one or two cards I wanted to ask you about, just to see if you thought they were decent enough to run in the list.

  • Bolas's Citadel is something I'm trying to run in my current list. It's been fairly diffuclt to get out with 3 black pips, but with Dark Ritual (which may be cut soon I'm unsure) it's been a nice thing to have, especially when I've been testing Aetherflux Reservoir with it? Maybe add a Sensei's Divining Top (something out of my budget in general, but I do have someone willing to trade me one) for a storm win? I feel like that could be a cool win con that makes use of colorless mana, and the pieces in general aren't bad outside the combo? I do think that with the high CMC of the deck, I will take a ton of damage of Citadel, but I think hitting a few pingers/dorks in a row and just gaining some life might be good actually? I'd love some feedback on that.

  • Decree of Pain has been working wonders for me. I know Culling Ritual was a godsend, and its a very amazing card in Belbe, but if my meta is very creature dependant I thought I needed more mass removal than just Ugin, the Spirit Dragon and Culling Ritual . Toxic Deluge is a bit out of my range right now, so I was trying this and even if it is mana intensive, I think it's a very good card depending on your meta since it can be Cycled for 5 to kill all 2 or less tougness things? The cycling saved me once or twice against a Najeela deck with counter magic known to the table to be up. On the other hand while it costs 8, I've mostly payed for it with Belbe mana and drawn upwards of 6 cards off it.

  • Chalice of the Void I was able to trade for this and have been enjoying putting it on 0 for the Underworld Breach lines the Malcolm list uses in particular, or to even shut off some 3 cmc commanders after getting Belbe mana. Would it be better to trade this for another stax piece or two such as Static Orb or tanglewire?

Sorry for the long post. I hope you have a good day!

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