Loyal Apprentice
Creature — Human Artificer
Haste
Lieutenant — At the beginning of combat on your turn, if you control your commander, create a 1/1 colorless Thopter artifact creature token with flying. That token gains haste until end of turn.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Phyrexia: All Will Be One Commander
- Price
- $0.54
- EDHREC rank
- #716
Loyal Apprentice generates a free 1/1 Thopter with flying and haste on each of your combat steps as long as your commander is on the battlefield — that's guaranteed, incremental air power stapled to nothing but your commander's presence. The two-mana cost is nearly free for what it offers, and in decks that abuse combat steps or token counts, Breath of Fury and Goro-Goro and Satoru turn those Thopters into a full engine.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Goro-Goro and Satoru
Loyal Apprentice is in 78% of Goro-Goro and Satoru decks because it does exactly what the commander demands: it generates a hasty attacker every combat, which Goro-Goro and Satoru can convert into a Dragon token, then double those tokens once you've hit five power.
Winota, Joiner of Forces
Loyal Apprentice gives Winota, Joiner of Forces a reliable non-Human attacker each turn, which is precisely the trigger condition the commander needs to start cheating Humans out of the library.
Ognis, the Dragon's Lash
Every Thopter that Loyal Apprentice creates has haste, so each one triggers Ognis, the Dragon's Lash for a Treasure on the same turn it enters — that's immediate mana acceleration with zero extra setup.
Neyali, Suns' Vanguard
Loyal Apprentice feeds a steady stream of tokens into Neyali, Suns' Vanguard's attack trigger, giving the deck consistent card advantage and a growing air force without dedicating additional card slots.
Mishra, Claimed by Gix
Loyal Apprentice produces attackers every combat, which reliably fuels Mishra, Claimed by Gix's triggered ability and keeps the pressure engine running even through board wipes that hit larger creatures.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is where Loyal Apprentice does its best work — the lieutenant mechanic is built around commander-centric play patterns, and the payoff compounds quickly in a multiplayer game where you take multiple combat steps or rebuild after a wipe. In Legacy and Vintage, it's technically legal but irrelevant; two mana for a 1/1 that requires your commander to be in play isn't competitive in those formats, and neither format lends itself to the token-accumulation strategies where Loyal Apprentice shines. Oathbreaker is a reasonable home given that the planeswalker commander is almost always present, but the card still peaks in EDH where the token count has time to snowball across a long game.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Breath of FuryLoyal Apprentice
Infinite combat damage; Infinite combat phases; Infinite death triggers; Infinite ETB; Infinite LTB; Infinite mana creatures you control can produce; Infinite sacrifice triggers; Infinite untap of creatures you control
View on Commander Spellbook ↗
Time SieveMyr BattlesphereTeleportation CircleLoyal Apprentice
Infinite turns; Lock
View on Commander Spellbook ↗Price Context
Current price
$0.54 bulk tier
At $0.54, Loyal Apprentice is deep bulk — it costs less than a sleeve and consistently overperforms relative to that price point. Bulk rares at this price rarely maintain a floor, but the card's near-universal inclusion rate in several high-population Commander decks keeps demand steady enough that it won't sink further.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.