DARK
1Vampire Familiar
Archetype:
Vampire
ATK:
500
DEF:
0
View:
3872
If this card is Special Summoned: You can pay 500 LP; add 1 "Vampire" monster from your Deck to your hand, except "Vampire Familiar". If this card is in your GY: You can send 1 "Vampire" card from your hand or face-up field to the GY; Special Summon this card, but banish it when it leaves the field. You can only use each effect of "Vampire Familiar" once per turn.
Vampire Familiar — Power Evaluation
Final Score: 63 ± 7 · Confidence: Medium
- Intrinsic: 61.3 · Deck: 64.6 · Meta: provisional
- Primary role: Searcher/Tutor · Secondary: Recovery/Recursion, Material body
Why it scores here
Vampire Familiar is a compact, archetype-locked engine piece: 257 recent decks run it at an average of 2.67 copies (184 of them at 3), and its Level 1 DARK Zombie body feeds Vampire Sucker and other Zombie extra-deck lines. It is not a standalone starter — the search only fires if the card is Special Summoned and only grabs 'Vampire' monsters — so it converts an enabler into one searched Vampire monster plus a re-usable body rather than a one-card board. Its 500 ATK / 0 DEF contribute nothing; the score comes from search access, GY recursion and material value, tempered by archetype-locked targets and a required discard. With no combo sample supplied, the conversion estimate is text-only and confidence is Medium.
Axis scores
| Axis | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Accessibility | 70 | It is a 3-of core in its home deck (184 of 257 decks run 3 copies, 100% inclusion in the Vampires statistics sample), but its search trigger needs a Special Summon rather than a Normal Summon (observed). |
| Combo & Conversion | 62 | No combo sample exists, so from text alone it turns one Special Summon enabler into one searched Vampire monster plus a Level 1 body, an extension line rather than a one-card full board (inferred). |
| Resource Economy | 62 | Paying 500 LP to add a Vampire monster is a net +1, and the GY effect trades one Vampire card from hand/field for a body that returns to the field (verified). |
| Effect & Interaction | 22 | The card itself provides no disruption or removal; any interaction is only indirect via the Vampire cards it searches (inferred). |
| Material Utility | 70 | A Level 1 DARK Zombie is clean material for Vampire Sucker, The Zombie Vampire and generic Zombie Synchro/Xyz lines, and its GY revive re-supplies that material even when its effect is negated (inferred). |
| Resilience & Flexibility | 62 | It operates from Deck, hand, field and GY and revives itself as a repeat body, though the revived copy is banished when it leaves the field and the line stops if the search is negated (verified). |
| Deck-Building Efficiency | 58 | Three copies are near-free in Vampire decks with no lock or extra-deck garnet, but the search is restricted to 'Vampire' monsters and the revive needs a Vampire card as fodder (observed). |
Calculation
Weight profile: 0.7 Searcher/Tutor + 0.3 Recovery/Recursion. Intrinsic ≈ 61.3, Deck ≈ 64.6, Meta = provisional. Modifiers: none. Final formula: 0.40*Intrinsic + 0.60*Deck
Strengths
- Core 3-of engine card: 257 recent decks run it, 184 at the maximum 3 copies
- On a Special Summon it adds any 'Vampire' monster (except itself) from Deck for only 500 LP
- Self-revives from the GY by sending a 'Vampire' card from hand or face-up field, giving repeated bodies
- Level 1 DARK Zombie is ideal material for Vampire Sucker, The Zombie Vampire and Zombie Synchro/Xyz lines
- Pairs with Vampire Retainer (97.7% co-deck) as a mirrored Level 1 search engine
Weaknesses
- No Normal Summon effect — it needs an external Special Summon enabler to do anything
- Search targets are archetype-locked to 'Vampire' monsters only
- GY revive costs a 'Vampire' card from hand or face-up field, which can be a real card-advantage drain
- The revived copy is banished when it leaves the field, so the recursion is not permanent
- 500 ATK / 0 DEF body is trivially removed once it is on field
- No combo evidence supplied, so its real extension ceiling is unverified
Counters / choke points
- Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring (negates the Special Summon search)
- Called by the Grave / D.D. Crow (removes it before the GY revive)
- Graveyard hate such as Abyss Dweller or Macro Cosmos-style effects
- Generic monster negation on the revive or on the searched Vampire play
- Removing the Vampire enabler (e.g. Zombie World / Uni-Zombie lines) leaves it stranded in hand
Best use
Searchable Vampire engine piece and repeatable GY body. Decks: Vampire, Zombie World / Zombie pile, Vampire + Vendread or Bystial Zombie mixes. Suggested copies: 3.
Evidence & gaps
- Verified: Card text: on Special Summon, pay 500 LP to add 1 'Vampire' monster from Deck, except 'Vampire Familiar'; Card text: from GY, send 1 'Vampire' card from hand or face-up field to GY to Special Summon this card, banishing it when it leaves the field; Each effect is once per turn; It is a Level 1 DARK Zombie with 500 ATK / 0 DEF
- Observed: 257 recent decks run it, all in the main deck, average 2.67 copies (184 decks at 3); 100% inclusion in the Vampires archetype statistics sample with typical 2 copies; Vampire Retainer is a partner in 97.7% of those decks; Vampire Sucker 90.3%; Vampire's Domain 87.2%; Foolish Burial (64.2%), Uni-Zombie (58.4%) and Zombie World (54.9%) co-occur frequently; Three community guides list it in the Vampire core
- Inferred: Because the search requires a Special Summon, it is not a standalone starter and needs an enabler; Level 1 DARK Zombie status makes it strong material for Vampire Sucker and other Zombie extra-deck plays; Archetype-locked search targets keep its portability low outside Vampire/Zombie decks; The GY revive can trade a live Vampire card for a body, which is only positive when that card is dead or being recurred
- Data gaps: no combos supplied — combo conversion is text-only inference no banlist token — assumed 3 copies (unlimited) legal_copies per format is empty no dated metagame sample, so Meta is null combo appearance/board power index unavailable