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Lesser Masticore

Artifact Creature — Masticore

As an additional cost to cast this spell, discard a card.
{4}: This creature deals 1 damage to target creature.
Persist (When this creature dies, 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.)

CMC
2
Mana cost
{2}
Color identity
C
Rarity
uncommon
Set
Modern Horizons
Price
$0.35
EDHREC rank
#7563
Buy on TCGplayer
Lesser Masticore card art
Lesser Masticore is a self-recurring sacrifice outlet that pings for 1 on demand — the combo upside is real, but you're paying two cards on cast (discard a card) plus mana to reactivate it each loop. Pair it with Viscera Seer and a counter-doubler and it goes infinite; play it without a combo shell and you've got a mediocre 2/1 that taxes your hand every time it comes back. Celes, Rune Knight is the poster commander for why this card earns a slot.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Celes, Rune Knight

Celes, Rune Knight

51.1% of decks · synergy 0.50

Celes, Rune Knight runs Lesser Masticore in over half her decks for one reason: it's a free, repeatable sacrifice trigger on a body that keeps coming back. Celes cares about creatures entering and dying, and Lesser Masticore short-circuits that engine — discard, sac, recur, repeat as many times as you can fund the mana.

02
Gev, Scaled Scorch

Gev, Scaled Scorch

17.9% of decks · synergy 0.17

Gev, Scaled Scorch wants cheap creatures that deal small damage reliably, and Lesser Masticore's 1-damage activated ability feeds Gev's 'dealt damage this turn' triggers without requiring attacks. The discard cost stings, but the recursive body means Gev always has a target on the board.

03
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed

Mikaeus, the Unhallowed

15.0% of decks · synergy 0.15

Mikaeus, the Unhallowed plus Lesser Masticore is a classic two-card engine: Mikaeus gives it undying, Lesser Masticore is a non-Human, so it comes back with a +1/+1 counter after dying — add any free sac outlet and you have infinite death triggers. The discard-on-recur clause barely matters when the loop never has to end.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer not legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Commander is where Lesser Masticore actually matters — infinite combo potential with Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and similar undying or persist enablers makes it a real deckbuilding target rather than a curiosity. In Legacy and Vintage it's legal but effectively invisible; the card simply doesn't compete with the raw power level of those formats, and the discard-on-cast clause is a steep tax when alternatives exist. Modern is the same story: Lesser Masticore sees fringe play at best, mostly in niche aristocrats or sacrifice shells that need a cheap recursive body and have no better option. It's not in Pioneer or Standard, which is where the bulk of casual players live — so outside of Commander, its audience is small.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$0.35 bulk tier

At $0.35, Lesser Masticore is true bulk — easy to acquire as a throw-in or cheap pickup without any financial friction. Combo staples at this price tier rarely spike hard unless they break into a popular new archetype, so treat it as a pure utility buy rather than anything worth speculating on.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.