DARK
2Vampire Retainer
Archetype:
Vampire
ATK:
1200
DEF:
0
View:
3643
If this card is Special Summoned: You can pay 500 LP; add 1 "Vampire" Spell/Trap from your Deck to your hand. 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 Retainer" once per turn.
Vampire Retainer — Power Evaluation
Final Score: 56 ± 7 · Confidence: Medium
- Intrinsic: 55 · Deck: 57 · Meta: provisional
- Primary role: Searcher/Tutor · Secondary: Recovery/Recursion, Material body
Why it scores here
Vampire Retainer converts a Special Summon into a Vampire Spell/Trap tutor (pay 500 LP) and converts a Vampire card in hand or on field into a recurring Level 2 body from the GY, so its real value is archetype engine density rather than board presence. It does nothing on its own — it must be Special Summoned to search and costs a card to revive itself — so it never reaches one-card-board levels, and it brings no disruption itself, only a route to Vampire Domination. Its 1200 ATK and Level 2 Zombie body earn points only as generic-ish material and as a Vampire Sucker/Level-2 enabler, not as a stat line; the ceiling is set by archetype lock-in and the missing combo data.
Axis scores
| Axis | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Accessibility | 55 | It is run in 303 recorded decks at 2.38 average copies with 100% inclusion in one Vampires build, but its own search only fires after it is Special Summoned, so it needs another enabler first (verified/observed). |
| Combo & Conversion | 50 | Text shows it produces one body plus one searched Spell/Trap when enabled, i.e. a fair engine extension rather than a full board, and no recorded combos exist to confirm more (inferred). |
| Resource Economy | 56 | The search is a straight +1 for 500 LP, while the GY revive trades one Vampire card for one body, so it trends slightly positive without being a refuel engine (verified). |
| Effect & Interaction | 30 | The card itself provides no negation or removal; its only interaction access is tutoring a Vampire Spell/Trap such as Vampire Domination, which appears in 85.1% of its decks (verified). |
| Material Utility | 65 | A Level 2 DARK Zombie is clean material for Vampire Sucker and Level-2/Zombie lines, and it still functions as material when its effects are blanked (inferred). |
| Resilience & Flexibility | 62 | It operates from hand (Special Summon trigger) and from the GY (self-revive, banished on leaving the field), giving multi-zone reach but one use per effect per turn (verified). |
| Deck-Building Efficiency | 55 | It is a cheap 2–3 slot archetype card with no locks or garnet risk, but both effects reference 'Vampire' cards, so it is nearly dead outside Vampire/Zombie builds (inferred). |
Calculation
Weight profile: 0.7 Searcher/Tutor + 0.3 Recovery/Recursion. Intrinsic ≈ 55, Deck ≈ 57, Meta = provisional. Modifiers: none. Final formula: 0.40*Intrinsic + 0.60*Deck
Strengths
- Tutors a Vampire Spell/Trap (Vampire Domination, Vampire's Domain, Vampire's Desire) on any Special Summon for only 500 LP
- Self-recurs from the GY by sending a Vampire card from hand or face-up field, extending Vampire lines and feeding Zombie fodder
- Level 2 DARK Zombie body that is valid material for Vampire Sucker and Level-2/Zombie plays even when its effects are negated
- Consistently played at 2.38 average copies (164 lists run 3) across 303 recorded decks with no locks or restrictions
Weaknesses
- Its search is conditional on being Special Summoned, so it is not a standalone starter
- Both effects are hard-locked to 'Vampire' cards, making it near-dead in non-Vampire decks
- Each effect is once per turn, and the GY revival banishes it when it leaves the field
- Provides no direct negation, removal, or interaction of its own
Counters / choke points
- Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring negates the Deck-to-hand search
- Called by the Grave or D.D. Crow removes it before the GY revival can be used
- Abyss Dweller or other GY-hate stops the self-revival line
- Negating the Special Summon that triggers it blanks the search entirely
Best use
Archetype searcher and recurring Vampire body that fetches Vampire Spell/Traps and re-establishes itself from the GY. Decks: Vampires, Zombie Vampire variants.
Evidence & gaps
- Verified: Card text: on Special Summon, pay 500 LP to add 1 'Vampire' Spell/Trap from Deck to hand; Card text: from the 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; Card text: each effect of 'Vampire Retainer' can only be used once per turn; Card is a Level 2 DARK Zombie, 1200 ATK / 0 DEF, archetype Vampire, legal in TCG/OCG/Master Duel/Duel Links; Decks evidence: 303 decks run it, average 2.38 copies, 100% main deck, 41 distinct archetypes tagged
- Observed: Top partners co-deck rates: Vampire Domination 85.1%, Vampire Familiar 82.8%, Vampire Sucker 76.6%, Vampire's Domain 74.3%; Usage statistics: 100% inclusion in the Vampires archetype sample, typical 1 copy in that dataset vs 2.38 in recent lists; No combo appearances recorded (0 of all tracked combos), so no measured starter/material/payoff role; Three Vampire guides list it in core/overview sections alongside Vampire Familiar, Vampire Ghost and Vampire's Desire
- Inferred: Because the 500 LP search requires a Special Summon first, the card is an extender/engine piece rather than a self-sufficient one-card starter; A Level 2 DARK Zombie is usable as material for Vampire Sucker and Level-2/Zombie lines even with effects negated; The GY revival trades a Vampire card for a body, which is roughly card-neutral rather than advantage-generating; High inclusion in Kashtira/Spright/Azamina lists is consistent with Level-2 Zombie engine usage rather than generic splashability
- Data gaps: no combos supplied — combo conversion is text-only inference no banlist token — assumed 3 copies (unlimited) no metagame sample, so meta_power is null and the score is provisional on observed play only usage_statistics covers only one archetype with typical_copies 1, conflicting with the 2.38 copies seen in recent decks