DARK
2Vampire Retainer
Archetype:
Vampire
ATK:
1200
DEF:
0
View:
3648
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