Devoted Retainer
Creature — Human Samurai
Bushido 1 (Whenever this creature blocks or becomes blocked, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn.)
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- W
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Champions of Kamigawa
- Price
- $0.16
- EDHREC rank
- #19571
Devoted Retainer is a 1/1 Samurai for one white mana with Bushido 1 — a vanilla-adjacent creature whose combat bonus only triggers when it blocks or is blocked. The floor is too low and the ceiling too narrow to justify the slot in nearly any powered list.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Devoted Retainer sees fringe play in Samurai tribal builds where tribal synergies and lords prop up otherwise underpowered bodies, but even there it competes poorly for the one-drop slot. In Pauper, the common legality is irrelevant — Bushido 1 on a 1/1 does not clear the bar for any competitive archetype. Legacy and Vintage are non-starters; Devoted Retainer has no business being anywhere near those formats. The honest read across every format: this card exists to fill out Samurai creature counts, and that's the full extent of its application.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.16 bulk tier
At $0.16, Devoted Retainer is deep bulk — the kind of card that ends up in a common box at a card shop. That price is unlikely to move without a significant Samurai-tribal commander printing that turns headcount into a real resource.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.