Movers and Shakers - Myr Retriver

Myr Retriever | Art by Trevor Hairsine

Marvel Super Heroes was full of interesting card releases, from Iron Man, Armored Avenger to Iron Man, Bleeding Edge, and even Iron Man, Futurist Paragon! There's so much for comic fans to enjoy.

But, beyond the 11 cards that mention Iron Man, there's a ton of exciting stuff that released in this set. Some new cards have made big splashes in eternal formats, like The Fantasticar!

For just , this legendary Vehicle is a flying 4/4 that automatically becomes an artifact creature for a turn when we cast a noncreature spell, but here's the kicker: when we cast our fourth noncreature spell in a turn, we sacrifice this Vehicle and creature four 4/4 tokens with flying and haste.

That's a crazy amount of power and toughness to dump on the board. We can hit an opponent for 16 damage out of the blue, ending games quite quickly unless they've got access to a Meltdown. Decks that accelerate towards The Fantasticar, and sacrifice it quickly, are very difficult to deal with effectively.

Where does Myr Retriever Come In?

The Fantasticar works well when paired with cheap, disposable artifacts. We want to consistently chain together multiple noncreature spells to trigger this legend's self-sacrificing ability, and artifacts generally host the highest volume of noncreature spells with low mana costs.

Lotus Petal, Mishra's Bauble, and even Welding Jar are all fantastic cheerios that Fantasticar pilots will seek to chain together. These zero-drops provide a small amount of value once they're on the board, but are primarily included in decklists because of their mana cost.

If we're playing all of these self-sacrificing artifacts, we'll have a graveyard full of juicy targets for Myr Retriver to bring back to our hand. If we use a Deadly Dispute or similar to sacrifice this Myr, we can generate card advantage, mana advantage, and continue looping cheap spells to generate value!

This is a classic Magic play pattern, and The Fantasticar acts as a fantastic (no pun intended) payoff for this strategy. As we loop cheap artifacts between the hand and graveyard, The Fantasticar will provide us with an increasingly scary board of evasive constructs.

What Formats Do Myr Retriever and The Fantasticar Work Well In?

This combo has a home in powerful 60-card formats and Commander alike.

In 60-card formats, we can run a shell with access to cheap noncreature spells, like Dark Ritual and Mana Crypt, to power out The Fantasticar quickly. Those spells can even be used after we've got the car on board to cause it to be sacrificed. Mishra's Workshop, of course, can be used to get this Vehicle on the board as early as turn one.

It's also of note that running multiple copies of this Vehicle in our deck isn't a bad thing. is a decently cheap mana cost, so we can use a copy of The Fantasticar in our hand as our fourth noncreature spell in a turn, causing an on-board car to sacrifice itself and be replaced with a brand new copy.

This works extremely well with Myr Retriever, of course, allowing us to rebuy used Fantasticars from the graveyard for future reuse. This used-car-dealership-style looping is a fun play pattern that will let us create a constant stream of 4/4 Construct tokens.

In Commander, though, things are a bit more interesting. If we place The Fantasticar in our command zone, we can fill our 99 with tons of low-cost artifacts, including some with neat effects, like Expedition Map and Sensei's Divining Top. Commander's deep card pool gives us access to the best utility artifacts in the game while also giving us access to payoffs for those artifacts, like Metalwork Colossus and Glaring Fleshraker.

Using sacrifice outlets, like Krark-Clan Ironworks and Grinding Station, we can maximize the effectiveness of Myr Retriever and its friends (Scrap Trawler, Junk Diver, and Workshop Assistant).

While Myr Retriever is already widely known as a multi-format artifact all-star, The Fantasticar is yet another fantastic card to pair it with!

What's Going on With Myr Retriever's Price?

Before Marvel Super Heroes previews started, Myr Retriever was trading at about $1.80. Its price had remained relatively constant, with a few individually high trades bringing the Myr's average index price from January to June to $2.04.

But, since spoilers for this Hero-centric set began, Myr Retriever's average index price has shot up to $2.64! That's a 31% increase in the last 30 days, indicating that there's certainly a market for this artifact creature. Interestingly, though, only the Double Masters and Mirrodin printings of this card are seeing trade volume. Despite having the same frame and art as the others, the Commander Masters' version of Myr Retriever hasn't seen a single trade since before Marvel Super Heroes.

It's possible that Myr Retriever's price will spike even harder in the future. In the recent Banned and Restricted announcement from Wizards of the Coast, The Fantasticar dodged the proverbial ban hammer. It was acknowledged, though, that it is a bit of a power outlier. Dumping four 4/4s onto the field before an opponent has had the chance to take a single game action is quite strong and may eventually prove problematic. But, at least for now, the car stays legal in Magic's most powerful 60-card formats.

Given this card's current legality in Vintage, Myr Retriever may find a home in more decklists. This is certainly not financial advice, but we may see this artifact creature's price climb even higher as deckbuilders experiment with their main decks and side boards. This is certainly a card to watch over the next few weeks.

In Closing

Have you found space for Myr Retriever in your Fantasticar commander decks? Or maybe as a recursion engine in your vintage lists? Let me know in the comments below, and I'll be back next week for another edition of Movers and Shakers!