Lesser Masticore

Lesser Masticore card image

Lesser Masticore: Artifact Creature - Masticore, Modern Horizons. As an additional cost to cast this spell, discard a card. Prices and printings on Mana Grove.

Mana cost
{2}
Mana value
2
Type
Artifact Creature - Masticore
Colour identity
Colourless
Power / toughness
2/2
Rarity
Uncommon
Set
Modern Horizons (MH1)
Released
2019-06-14
Collector number
225
Artist
Wisnu Tan
Commander rank
7,584 (by how often it appears in Commander decks)
Keywords
Persist

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About Lesser Masticore

Lesser Masticore is a Magic: The Gathering card, an uncommon colourless artifact creature from Modern Horizons (MH1), a draft-focused set released in June 2019. It is collector number 225 in that set, with art by Wisnu Tan. It costs {2} (two generic mana) to cast, for a mana value of 2. It is a 2/2 creature. It has no colour identity. It is legal in Modern, Legacy, Vintage, Commander, Duel Commander and Oathbreaker. Modern Horizons is its only printing so far. The latest aggregated market price for this printing is $0.33 (normal finish, as of 2026-11-12).

Card text

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.)

Market price

Latest aggregated market price for the normal finish of this printing: $0.33 (as of 2026-11-12).

The figure covers this printing only; other printings carry their own price on their own page.

Format legality

Legality of Lesser Masticore by format. Formats in which it is not legal are not listed.

ModernLegal
LegacyLegal
VintageLegal
CommanderLegal
Duel CommanderLegal
OathbreakerLegal

Official rulings

Five official rulings apply to Lesser Masticore, newest first.

  • Once persist returns the creature, it's considered a new object with no relation to the object that it was. Auras that were attached to it won't return to the battlefield. Equipment that was attached to it will remain unattached. Any counters that were on it won't be put on the new creature.
  • You must discard exactly one card to cast Lesser Masticore; you can't cast it without discarding a card, and you can't discard additional cards. If Lesser Masticore enters the battlefield without being cast (perhaps because of its persist ability) you don't discard a card.
  • If a card with persist is removed from the graveyard after it dies but before the ability trigger resolves, it won't be returned to the battlefield.
  • If a creature with persist that has +1/+1 counters on it receives enough -1/-1 counters to cause it to be destroyed by lethal damage or put into its owner's graveyard for having 0 or less toughness, persist won't trigger and the card won't return to the battlefield. That's because persist checks the creature as it last existed on the battlefield, and it still had -1/-1 counters on it at that point.
  • If a creature has +1/+1 counters and -1/-1 counters on it, state-based actions remove the same number of each so that it has only one kind of those of counters on it. Lesser Masticore's persist ability can bring it back again if its -1/-1 counters are removed this way.

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