Retriever Phoenix
Creature — Phoenix
Flying, haste
When this creature enters, if you cast it, learn. (You may reveal a Lesson card you own from outside the game and put it into your hand, or discard a card to draw a card.)
As long as this card is in your graveyard, if you would learn, you may instead return this card to the battlefield.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Strixhaven: School of Mages Promos
- Price
- $0.19
- EDHREC rank
- #25183
Retriever Phoenix enters the battlefield and immediately replaces itself by drawing a card — a 2/2 flier that generates value just by showing up. The cost is real: you need three other artifacts or creatures entering the same turn to trigger the recursion, which limits the decks that can use it.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Retriever Phoenix slots cleanly into artifact-heavy or token-flooding decks that can reliably trigger the recursion engine — think Breya, Etherium Shaper or Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle shells where the third trigger is routine rather than a stretch. In Modern and Pioneer, it found a home in combo lists that can assemble multiple ETBs in a single turn, though graveyard hate keeps it honest. Legacy and Vintage move too fast for a three-mana 2/2 to matter outside of dedicated reanimator or artifact storm shells. Across formats, Retriever Phoenix rewards the decks that were already flooding the board; it punishes anyone trying to jam it in as a standalone threat.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.19 bulk tier
At $0.19, Retriever Phoenix is deep bulk — a low-risk pickup for any deck that can consistently trigger it. Bulk rares rarely recover value without a breakout tournament result, so grab it for the synergy, not the spec.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.