Fleshbag Marauder | Art by Mark Zug

Anyone Else Hate the Word "Flesh"?

Hello, and welcome back to Singleton Shmingleton, where I bend the singleton rules of Commander by building decks with as many functional reprints of a certain card as possible. This week we're taking a closer look at Fleshbag Marauder (while trying our best not to look at that art). This little Zombie has long found a home in grindy Zombie decks looking to slow opponents down. It's a funny little card because it really does tend to play fair. The rate on the body is not terrible but not exciting, and the effect is both symmetrical and just not too breakable. How many times have you heard that "Edict effects aren't consistent enough to count as real removal?" But by the same measures, the card is a very good roleplayer in a lot of decks. All it takes is a little sacrifice synergy or a couple Grave Pact-style cards in a deck to make the Fleshbag pull its weight.

As such, this has been a fairly popular card in Commander since the beginning. And with popularity comes functional reprints. Fate Reforged brought us Merciless Executioner, who proved that players love this effect even outside of Zombie decks, and since then we've gotten a few more. Not dozens and dozens, but enough.

The most played of these cards is Plaguecrafter with 104,037 decks, the best version of this effect we've ever seen. Fleshbag Marauder itself comes in second with 81,981 decks, proving that being a Zombie (and being reprinted more than fifteen times) still counts for something among fans. The least played of these cards, in 24 decks, is Doomsday Confluence, but mark my words, it's going places. Flexibility puts this card much higher in my estimation than the other versions of this effect that cost more than three.

The top commanders for Fleshbag Marauder include the likes of Gisa and Geralf, Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver, and Tergrid, God of Fright. Grindy sacrifice strategies and Zombie decks seem to have quite a bit of overlap, and a lot of the top Zombie commanders show up here. Merciless Executioner, the simplest non-Zombie version, sees the most play in the other Gisa, as well as its own typal payoff in Burakos, Party Leader. In general, the top commanders all want bodies, they want sacrifice, and they want to slow down opponents.

But I want to go back in time to one of the first commanders that introduced me to sacrifice strategies. Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder was once, if not a staple, at least a menace. Offering nearly unlimited sacrifice fodder with the "downside" that we need to get rid of it before making more, he makes the symmetricity of our Fleshbags negligible. And Fleshbag Marauder and friends fit in perfectly as interaction in a deck that wants as high a creature count as possible, while also fitting well with any reanimation themes we might dip our toes into.

Snack Time! (The Snack is Thrulls)

The first thing we need to have in an Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder deck is an unfathomable density of sacrifice outlets. We need to guarantee that we can get rid of Thrulls as fast as Endrek makes them, and you'd best bet our opponents will try to take out our sacrifice outlets first. Of course we want the classics, all of the Ashnod's Altars and Skullclamps of the world, but we're also happy to play slightly more focused cards like Bloodthrone Vampire and Bloodflow Connoisseur. We want our creature count high, and these cards open up an aggressive angle to the deck. As long as we can make sure we always have an outlet, winning with Blood Artist or Mirkwood Bats happens almost on its own.

There are some abilities that pair exceptionally well with Endrek. The first, which recently got some upgrades in March of the Machine, is Convoke. Endrek makes paying for these spells trivially easy, and not many people will expect zero-mana tricks in black. Pile On and Lethal Scheme act as removal with upside, while Feaster of Fools fuels itself, making six creatures as a cast trigger that it can sacrifice to its own Devour. How does a cheap 15/15 flyer sound to you? Unfortunately, Hoarding Broodlord can't go in this deck, since casting any creature with mana value seven or more will send Endrek to the graveyard.

Another ability that works exceptionally well is a new one, Bargain. Endrek creates immense piles of tokens, making Bargain nearly free. Beseech the Mirror has proved itself in pretty much every eternal format by now, and it's great here too, casting almost anything from our deck. Lich-Knights' Conquest can get pretty nutty in this deck, especially when it's returning multiple Fleshbag Marauders to keep boards in check. And Back for Seconds also plays into a nice recursion package, working as a pseudo-Victimize.

And of course, with a five-mana, powerful commander, we're going to need a way to cast him early and often. Classic rocks help, but in this deck we can play some more abusable ramp as well. Ashnod's Altar and Phyrexian Altar go a long way to cast Endrek the second or third time, and Culling the Weak can get him out the first time as early as turn two! Of course, we also want redundant token engines so we don't just get shut down when Endrek gets removed, so pieces like Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia and Ophiomancer provide a good backup plan.

Card Spotlights

Soul Exchange: Now, I know this card is usually worse than either Victimize or Back for Seconds, but WE HAVE THE THRULLS! An auto-include for flavor alone, and a solid piece of the puzzle. The top commander for this card is Endrek by a long shot, for exactly this reason. Also, I checked, and it hasn't been errata'd to give two +1/+1 counters, which makes it one of eight cards that make +2/+2 counters.

Fallen Ideal: Not only is this Aura absolutely crazy with one-shot potential, it returns itself to hand if the creature dies, making it less susceptible to two-for-ones and more valuable as a grindy value piece. Imagine slapping it on a Thrull and sacrificing five other Thrulls to attack for eleven. What are they gonna do? Waste a removal spell? We don't lose any actual pieces of cardboard in that exchange, and threaten quite a bit of damage.

Illness in the Ranks: Why would we play a niche card that hoses specifically our strategy? Well, this card insta-kills all of our Thrulls, which is actually sort of useful. We still get any enter-the-battlefield and dies triggers on them, but we don't have to worry about getting rid of them manually. Yes, it has some serious nonbos in our deck with other things that need sacrifice fodder, but it also can just randomly hose opposing decks, which is some crazy upside. For similar reasons, we're playing Night of Souls' Betrayal and Kaervek, the Spiteful. Let's live with some danger!

Vat of Rebirth: This card fits in this deck like a finger in a glove. Or like flesh in a bag. Or like a Thrull in a grave. Anyway, it's great for rebuying our utility creatures and will almost never run out of oil counters.

Orc Sureshot: If there ever was a deck for this Orc, this is it. (And Horobi, Death's Wail). Every creature, and every Thrull that comes along with it, gives -1/-1 to something, and that scales very well with the mass of bodies we want to create. One thing to note is that the Orc's ability can't target our own creatures, which stops it from being a pseudo-sacrifice outlet, but it's funny that this is a deck where that could possibly be a downside.

The Decklist

It's refreshing to play mono-black every once in a while. Our wins are gradual and grindy, our creature interaction is perfect and our everything-else interaction is nonexistent, and there's a package of cards (You know, Cabal Coffers, Crypt Ghast, Gary) that are both extremely powerful behind any plan and quintessentially mono-black. The Fleshbag Marauders definitely add to the deck's gameplan, especially with the small-creature recursion package, but they aren't as forward as some other Shmingleton decks. And that's fine. The gameplay is fun, and Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder is a wonderful build-around.

Until Next Time

Let's put all of our eggs in one basket and then throw it at our opponents. There's no escaping the swing-iness of this card, so I guess we're gonna have to lean into it. How can this inherently bad deal turn into dealing forty damage to each opponent? Find out next time on Singleton Shmingleton!

Read More

Do Your Worst - Mono-Black Blink

Singleton Shmingleton - Ravenous Rats

Jesse Barker Plotkin

Jesse Barker Plotkin started playing Magic with Innistrad. He was disqualified from his first Commander game after he played his second copy of Goblins of the Flarg, and it's all been uphill from there. Outside of Magic, he enjoys writing and running.