In the past, uncommon MTG cards making massive competitive strides was strange. It generally happens with 1-2 cards per format, but nowadays, uncommon cards seem to be everywhere. It’s not limited to the Standard format, either. One particular MTG uncommon is tearing up the likes of Modern, and even Legacy. The card isn’t appearing in fringe lists, either. It’s a return offender in some of the best decks in those formats.
No matter the format, if you’re playing a lot of colorless MTG cards, this is an uncommon you’re going to want to consider. Glaring Fleshraker isn’t legal everywhere, but it is seeing play in any format where it is legal.
Glaring Fleshraker
For three mana, Glaring Fleshraker offers a mana generator and win condition in one small package. Creating a series of infinite combos and turning multiple powerful spells into Fireballs, Glaring Fleshraker is an absolute machine.
While this card offers damage and mana every time you cast a colorless spell, Glaring Fleshraker synergizes better with particular cards. Perhaps the most explosive combination is with Kozilek’s Command. Not only will Glaring Fleshraker provide mana that you can use to cast the Command, but Kozilek’s Command smashes your opponents for tons of damage, as long as you use the Scion mode, that is. Combine that with card selection and removal, and you have a winning strategy.
Because of this explosive potential, Glaring Fleshraker has become the win condition in various colorless strategies. The recent adjustments to the winning Mystic Forge combo deck in Legacy included this card to burn the opponent out. Winning the North American Eternal Weekend, this deck would lead to the banning of Vexing Bauble in the Legacy format. If that’s not overpowered, I don’t know what is.
Glaring Fleshraker also appears in Modern Basking Broodscale combo, a deck that could compete with Energy strategies before the recent Modern ban (and is still one of the top-performing decks). Once Blade of the Bloodchief is equipped to the Broodscale, Glaring Fleshraker turns the creature’s infinite Eldrazi Scion tokens into infinite damage.
This card is even seeing play in Modern Underworld Breach decks. These decks are now killing impossibly quick, but one of the weaker parts of the deck is the fragile win condition. Most Underworld Breach decks play a single copy of Thassa’s Oracle or Grapeshot to win the game after setting up the Grinding Station combo. Glaring Fleshraker is a much more consistent win condition that has stronger applications outside of just winning the game.
Not only will Fleshraker create more mana to dig deeper into your combo, but this allows you to play Kozilek’s Command to find your combo pieces, remove opposing creatures, and provide a secondary win condition.
Glaring Fleshraker is a massive part of the best Legacy deck post-ban: Eldrazi. Glaring Fleshraker can create enormous amounts of mana, leading to blazing-fast starts that are hard to beat. The card also sees play in Vintage MUD strategies, cementing it as one of the strongest uncommons in current MTG.
What About Commander?
Glaring Fleshraker appears to be an auto-include in almost any colorless Commander deck. The card does come in the Ulalek, Fused Atrocity precon, which means that most of the decks helmed by that Commander run Glaring Fleshraker. The card is also incredibly popular in Azlask, the Swelling Scourge, The Capitoline Triad, and, less so, Zhulodok, Void Gorger.
Of all these Commanders, Azlask is the most exciting. This particular Commander wants to create as many Scions and Spawns as possible. Glaring Fleshraker is one of the best ways to do that. Because the creature is creating Scions for every colorless spell you cast, it’s easy to get a massive payoff from Azlask sooner than you may think. Not only will this create a board of creatures to grant Annihilator 1 to, but Scions can easily generate Experience Counters with Azlask.
As far as recent uncommon MTG cards go, it’s tough to beat Glaring Fleshraker. The card is seeing massive constructed play in both Legacy and Modern and is one of the stronger cards in Colorless Commander decks, period. You can consistently find copies of this card for under a dollar right now, but based on what this card can do, we wouldn’t be surprised if it stays this way forever.
