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Loyal Retainers

Creature — Human Advisor

Sacrifice this creature: Return target legendary creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield. Activate only during your turn, before attackers are declared.

CMC
3
Mana cost
{2}{W}
Color identity
W
Rarity
mythic
Set
Commander Masters
Price
$4.42
EDHREC rank
#10912
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Loyal Retainers card art
Loyal Retainers puts a legendary creature back into play from your graveyard — untapped, no questions asked — for three mana and a sacrifice. The cost is steep only if you're not already running sacrifice synergies; paired with Saffi Eriksdotter, it becomes a free, repeatable loop that wins games on the spot.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern not legal
pioneer not legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Loyal Retainers is a Commander card — full stop. The legendary restriction is a nonissue in a format built around legendary creatures, and instant-speed reanimation of your commander or any other legendary threat is exactly the kind of resilience Commander rewards. In Legacy and Vintage, the effect is real but slow; three mana at sorcery speed to reanimate one specific permanent type can't compete with Reanimate or Animate Dead, which hit anything for less. Oathbreaker is the only other format where it sees meaningful play, again because planeswalkers are legendary and the format mirrors Commander's structure.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$4.42 cheap tier

At $4.42, Loyal Retainers sits at the low end of the combo-piece price range given what it does. That price is stable — it's not a casual throw-in, but it's not a chase rare either, and any deck running the Saffi Eriksdotter loop needs exactly one copy.

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Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.