Myr Retriever MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 9 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost2
RarityUncommon
TypeArtifact Creature — Myr
Power 1
Toughness 1

Key Takeaways

  1. Myr Retriever is essential for returning important artifacts, ensuring sustained resource advantage in games.
  2. Pairs with instant-speed sac outlets, offering strategic flexibility and reactive plays to outmaneuver opponents.
  3. While powerful, its colorless mana cost and absence of innate discard synergy could limit its deck compatibility.

Text of card

When Myr Retriever is put into a graveyard from play, return another target artifact card from your graveyard to your hand.

Mephidross gives up treasure easily . . . as long as you take its place.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Myr Retriever can function as a crucial tool in recapturing key pieces from your graveyard. When it’s put into a graveyard from the battlefield, you can return another target artifact card from your graveyard to your hand, maintaining or reclaiming your resources and giving you an edge over opponents who might be relying on graveyard disruption.

Resource Acceleration: While Myr Retriever doesn’t directly provide mana, its ability to retrieve artifacts can indirectly contribute to resource acceleration. By bringing back artifacts with mana-producing capabilities or cost-reducing effects, it acts as a catalyst in ramping up your mana availability for future turns.

Instant Speed: While Myr Retriever itself is not an instant, its triggered ability can be strategically paired with sacrifice outlets that operate at instant speed. This synergy allows for reactive gameplay, using the Retriever’s death-triggered ability to adapt to a rapidly changing board state, ensuring that you always have the right artifact in hand when you need it.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: The Myr Retriever card lacks a discard effect which limits its synergy within strategies that capitalize on graveyard recycling and discard mechanics, possibly causing it to be overlooked in such deck constructs.

Specific Mana Cost: Myr Retriever has a mana cost that includes generic mana only, which can restrict its optimization in mana-fixing decks that, despite being colorless, cannot always afford to sparingly use the often more valuable colorless mana slots.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: For its ability to return another artifact card from your graveyard to your hand upon death, Myr Retriever’s cost may be seen as steep compared to other artifact creatures that offer more immediate board presence or lower-costed recursion effects.


Reasons to Include Myr Retriever in Your Collection

Versatility: Myr Retriever is a flexible card that can be incorporated into numerous deck archetypes. It shines in decks that focus on artifacts, and due to its low casting cost, it can be easily played in the early game or recycled in the later stages to maximize value.

Combo Potential: This card’s ability to return another artifact from your graveyard to your hand when it dies makes it a cornerstone in several combo decks. It pairs well with sacrifice outlets and recursion strategies, enabling a loop that can often lead to game-ending scenarios.

Meta-Relevance: In a playing environment where artifact strategies are prevalent or graveyard manipulation is a powerful tool, Myr Retriever proves to be a highly relevant card. Its capacity to recur key pieces from the graveyard gives it an edge in maintaining board presence and resources against a variety of opposing decks.


How to beat

Myr Retriever is a unique fixture in the landscape of Magic: The Gathering artifacts, often providing players with a strategic edge through its ability to return another artifact from the graveyard to one’s hand upon its demise. Unlike strategies that rely on direct artifact destruction, players can adopt a more nuanced approach to mitigate the Retriever’s effectiveness.

One method is to utilize graveyard exile effects, which preemptively remove artifacts from the game, leaving the Myr Retriever with no targets for its retrieval ability. In this regard, cards like Tormod’s Crypt and Relic of Progenitus exhibit their true value, ensuring that even when the Myr Retriever is sacrificed or destroyed, its ability cannot be capitalized on.

Controlling the board state is also essential. Employing counters to prevent the Myr Retriever from touching the field or using instant-speed removal in response to its death-triggered ability can disrupt your opponent’s plans. By being one step ahead and controlling the flow of the game, the advantage that Myr Retriever could have potentially provided can be significantly dulled or nullified entirely.

Devising a plan that circumvents the Myr Retriever’s benefits requires careful thought and an understanding of its mechanics. By incorporating cards and strategies that disrupt graveyard interaction, players can ensure the resilience and daunting recursion Myr Retriever offers becomes a non-issue.


BurnMana Recommendations

Mastering the art of MTG revolves around strategic choices and an understanding of each card’s potential to turn the tide of play. With Myr Retriever as a focus, its capabilities to reclaim pivotal artifacts and create looping strategies cannot be overlooked. As part of advancing your game, consider the value Myr Retriever adds to your deck, weighing its inclusion against the specific demands of your strategy. If you’re intrigued by the combo potential and versatility of Myr Retriever and eager to explore artifact recursion on a deeper level, our comprehensive insights on these mechanisms are just a click away. Enhance your MTG savvy and outmaneuver your opponents with our extensive knowledge base.


Cards like Myr Retriever

Myr Retriever finds its place in the world of artifact creatures within Magic the Gathering. Sharing similarities with cards such as Junk Diver, Myr Retriever’s principal ability to bring an artifact from the graveyard to your hand upon its demise creates strategic opportunities for players. While both creatures offer a retrieval cycle for artifacts, Junk Diver carries a higher mana cost but compensates with flying, granting it a defensive edge.

Looking further, Scrap Trawler presents an alternative with a broader recuperative potential. Unlike Myr Retriever, which targets any artifact in the graveyard, Scrap Trawler’s ability is contingent on the mana cost of the artifacts, favoring a more cost-centric strategy. Still, Myr Retriever’s lower casting cost gives it an early game advantage, especially in artifact-heavy decks that can exploit its synergistic potential.

In essence, the Myr Retriever offers a unique blend of low-cost recovery that can fit seamlessly into numerous artifact strategies, occupying a special niche alongside its peers in the MTG arena. Its presence highlights the rich variety of options available to players who wish to incorporate artifact recursion into their gameplay.

Junk Diver - MTG Card versions
Scrap Trawler - MTG Card versions
Junk Diver - Urza's Destiny (UDS)
Scrap Trawler - Aether Revolt (AER)

Cards similar to Myr Retriever by color, type and mana cost

Chaos Orb - MTG Card versions
Winter Orb - MTG Card versions
Amulet of Kroog - MTG Card versions
Nacre Talisman - MTG Card versions
Howling Mine - MTG Card versions
Essence Bottle - MTG Card versions
Emerald Medallion - MTG Card versions
Scrying Glass - MTG Card versions
Cursed Totem - MTG Card versions
Tsabo's Web - MTG Card versions
Millikin - MTG Card versions
Ark of Blight - MTG Card versions
Surestrike Trident - MTG Card versions
Energy Chamber - MTG Card versions
Water Gun Balloon Game - MTG Card versions
Angel's Feather - MTG Card versions
Demon's Horn - MTG Card versions
Elsewhere Flask - MTG Card versions
Steel Overseer - MTG Card versions
Wurm's Tooth - MTG Card versions
Chaos Orb - Unlimited Edition (2ED)
Winter Orb - 30th Anniversary Edition (30A)
Amulet of Kroog - Rinascimento (RIN)
Nacre Talisman - Ice Age (ICE)
Howling Mine - Fifth Edition (5ED)
Essence Bottle - Tempest (TMP)
Emerald Medallion - Commander Anthology (CMA)
Scrying Glass - Urza's Destiny (UDS)
Cursed Totem - World Championship Decks 2000 (WC00)
Tsabo's Web - World Championship Decks 2001 (WC01)
Millikin - Odyssey (ODY)
Ark of Blight - Scourge (SCG)
Surestrike Trident - Darksteel (DST)
Energy Chamber - Fifth Dawn (5DN)
Water Gun Balloon Game - Unhinged (UNH)
Angel's Feather - Ninth Edition (9ED)
Demon's Horn - Ninth Edition (9ED)
Elsewhere Flask - Shadowmoor (SHM)
Steel Overseer - Magic 2011 (M11)
Wurm's Tooth - Magic 2011 (M11)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Myr Retriever MTG card by a specific set like Mirrodin and Duel Decks: Mirrodin Pure vs. New Phyrexia, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Myr Retriever and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Myr Retriever Magic the Gathering card was released in 9 different sets between 2003-10-02 and 2020-08-07. Illustrated by Trevor Hairsine.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12003-10-02MirrodinMRD 2152003normalblackTrevor Hairsine
22011-05-14Duel Decks: Mirrodin Pure vs. New PhyrexiaTD2 72003normalblackTrevor Hairsine
32013-06-07Modern MastersMMA 2102003normalblackTrevor Hairsine
42014-11-07Commander 2014C14 2552015normalblackTrevor Hairsine
52016-11-11Commander 2016C16 2642015normalblackTrevor Hairsine
62018-06-08Commander Anthology Volume IICM2 2032015normalblackTrevor Hairsine
72019-11-07Mystery BoosterMB1 16132015normalblackTrevor Hairsine
82020-08-07Double Masters2XM 2772015normalblackTrevor Hairsine
92020-09-26The ListPLST CM2-2032015normalblackTrevor Hairsine

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Myr Retriever has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
PaupercommanderLegal
ModernLegal
OathbreakerLegal
PauperLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
PredhLegal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Myr Retriever card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

DateText
2020-08-07 If Myr Retriever dies at the same time as another artifact you own, its ability can target that other artifact card.

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