If you like rolling dice and creating an army of Dragons, then Dice Roll Tribal is the right deck for you. Let’s see how we can boost our chances to get the highest roll to victory.
I love tribal decks because they combine synergy and flavor and of course power. On top of that you can find many unique cards that support a tribe and can be great budget options as those cards work only on a specific tribal deck and are bad to unplayable to any other deck. That’s why I will try building and presenting a series of decks for all those who share the love for tribal decks.
Although Tribal is a Magic slang used to describe a deck/build with a theme around one or more creature types, sometimes it is used to describe a dominant mechanic theme instead.
Dice rolling is a mechanic that creates a random effect in game play. Dice rolling formerly was not part of the official Magic rules for the regular game, but had been used in supplemental sets and was considered for Battle for Zendikar. With its introduction in Adventures in the Forgotten Realms it became a black-bordered mechanic. (MTG Wiki)
Dungeons & Dragons: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms commander deck Draconic Rage, features some great cards about dice rolling, so with some support from the follow-up set Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate, we can forge a Dice Roll Tribal build. Although you can call it a precon upgrade, my build is more a precon remake than an upgrade so you can start from zero and buy singles. The optimal building option depends on the price and availability of the cards.
The commander of our Dice Roll Tribal is Vrondiss, Rage of Ancients, a Legendary Dragon Barbarian that whenever we roll one or more dice, we may have it deal 1 damage to itself, triggering its Enrage ability and creating a 5/4 red and green Dragon Spirit creature token with “When this creature deals damage, sacrifice it.” Vrondiss can be build in several ways, but we have choosen to focus on its Enrage ability and trigger it with rolling dice. For our build we have dumped many of the Dragon Tribal support cards of the precon, as Dragons is a subtheme in our build. Now, let’s roll!
Synergy Diagram
I always like to make a simple synergy diagram in order to deeply comprehend the potential and the strategy areas that are supported by the commander when I choose top-down building.
Let’s analyze the main goals of the deck.
- Add the best Dice Rolling cards. Our top priority is to add the ones with multiple dice rolling per turn.
- Add cards with Dice Roll Tribal synergy.
- Add cards that cause ping damage.
- Add cards that synergize with high power creatures and add Dragon Tribal support, since the tokens Vrondiss, Rage of Ancients create are 5/4 Dragon Spirits.
- Add cards that synergize with our strategies. To make the best out of our strategies, we can further amplify them by adding cards that synergize with many of our strategies.
For the sake of flavor some of the choices are not optimal, but are (usually budget friendly) alternatives that fit greatly the Dice Roll Tribal theme.
The deck:
Dice Roll Tribal
Comparative Analysis
Let’s see how the deck compares to the general ratios of my deckbuilding guide.
34 Lands
16 Ramp: Journey to the Lost City, Arcane Signet , Sol Ring , Rishkar’s Expertise, Dragonstorm Globe, Bloomvine Regent, Encroaching Dragonstorm, Wild Endeavor, Component Pouch, Ebony Fly, Rampant Growth, Hoarding Ogre, Dragon’s Hoard, Druid of the Emerald Grove, Vexing Puzzlebox, Mosswort Bridge
15 Target Removal: Slight Malfunction, Staff of Nin (ping), Court of Ire, Spit Flame, Aether Flash, Earth-Cult Elemental, Return to Nature, Akoum Hellkite (ping+), Spikefield Hazard (ping), Warstorm Surge, Where Ancients Tread, Farideh’s Fireball, Underdark Rift, Desert (ping), Stump Stomp
2 Board Wipes: Thunderwave, Harbinger of the Hunt
4 Graveyard Recursion: Pair o’ Dice Lost, Song of Inspiration, The Deck of Many Things, Spit Flame (self-recursion)
2 Graveyard Hate: Return to Nature, Scavenger Grounds
1 Tutors: Vexing Puzzlebox
4 Protection: Wyll’s Reversal, Anara, Wolvid Familiar, Darksteel Plate, Mithril Coat
12 Card Draw: Priority Boarding, Outpost Siege, Return of the Wildspeaker, Rishkar’s Expertise, Shamanic Revelation, Garruk’s Uprising, Colossal Majesty, The Deck of Many Things, Dragonborn Champion, Staff of Nin, Court of Ire, Dragon’s Hoard
5 Finishers/ Surprise /Alternate win conditions: Gratuitous Violence, Thrakkus the Butcher, Overwhelming Encounter, Atarka, World Render, Return of the Wildspeaker
As we see form the comparative analysis, the rates per category are very good. There is no score below the optimal low average while there are 5 categories above the optimal high average. We see great spikes at Ramp and target removal categories, something that is intentional, as we need to cast our commander early to get advantage of the dice rolling, while ping damage can also be used as target removal for small creatures.
Deck Highlights, synergy and flavor options:
Ramp
Journey to the Lost City is an Enchantment that provides us with a free d20 roll on our upkeep, after we exile the top four cards of our library. Depending on our roll, it can act as ramp or as a Wolf Token creator. It can be a great value engine for our Dice Roll Tribal.
Bloomvine Regent is a flexible card that can be played either as ramp (if we choose to cast it as an omen) or as a Dragon that let us gain 3 life for each Dragon ETB. A great card for our build as our commander creates Dragon Tokens.
Encroaching Dragonstorm is a fine ramp card on its own, but in our Dice Roll Tribal where we expect to create Dragon Tokens each turn with the help of Vrondiss, Rage of Ancients, it can be a repeatitive ramp source and value engine.
Wild Endeavor is a card that let us roll two d4 and create a number of 3/3 green Beast creature tokens equal to the one result and ramp a number of basic land cards equal to the other result. It can be flexible but average on its own, but due to synergy with our commander it is a great card in our Dice Roll Tribal.
Component Pouch is a mana rock that let us tap it and roll a d20, to determine the number of component counters we get, while by 
and removing a component counter, we add two mana of different colors. A great addition to our Dice Roll Tribal.
Ebony Fly is another mana rock with synergy with our Dice Roll Tribal, as by paying 
we roll a d6, then until end of turn, we may have Ebony Fly become an X/X Insect artifact creature with flying, where X is the result. Moreover, whenever it attacks, another target attacking creature gains flying until end of turn.A great addition to our build.
Hoarding Ogre on attack trigger, let us roll a d20 to determine the number of treasure tokens we will create. A nice addition to our Dice Roll Tribal.
Dragon’s Hoard is a card that works wonders in Dragon Tribal decks as it combines both ramp and card draw. It also works in our Dice Roll Tribal build as we expect to create Dragon Tokens each turn with the help of Vrondiss, Rage of Ancients.
Druid of the Emerald Grove on ETB let us search our library for up to two basic land cards and then roll a d20 to determine how many of those cards will be put onto the battlefield tapped while the other are put into our hand. A nice addition to our Dice Roll Tribal.
Dragonstorm Globe is a mana rock works as a kind of Dragon Tribal Anthem, making each Dragon we control entering with an additional +1/+1 counter on it. We expect to create Dragon Tokens each turn with the help of Vrondiss, Rage of Ancients (who is also a Dragon), so it greatly fits our Dice Roll Tribal.
Target Removal
Slight Malfunction is a modal spell that can be used either as artifact removal, or for doing ping damage to X target creatures, where X is the result of rolling a d6. Nice synergy with our Dice Roll Tribal.
Court of Ire is a repeatable source of target removal as at the beginning of our upkeep, it deals 2 damage to any target. or 7 if we’re the monarch instead (on ETB we become the monarch). It can also be used to trigger the Enrage ability of our commander, so it has nice synergy with our build.
Spit Flame is a target removal instant that is recurred on Dragon ETB, something that works well with our Dragon Tokens produced by Vrondiss, Rage of Ancients, making it a repeatable removal. A great card for our Dice Roll Tribal.
Aether Flash on creature ETB, deals 2 damage to that creature. Works great as an Enrage enabler, but also it can be a great target removal spell for small threats. Nice addition to our Dice Roll Tribal.
Earth-Cult Elemental on ETB let us roll a d20 to determine the players who will sacrifice a permanent. With a high roll, it affects only opponents, so it is a nice addition to our Dice Roll Tribal.
Akoum Hellkite does ping damage on Land ETB under our control, which can be used either as an Enrage enabler, or as a target removal for small threats. If that land is a Mountain, Akoum Hellkite deals 2 damage instead. Nice synergy with our Dice Roll Tribal.
Warstorm Surge and Where Ancients Tread work wonders in our Dice Roll Tribal since we expect to create Dragon Tokens (with 5 power) each turn with the help of Vrondiss, Rage of Ancients so they can be target removal engines and even finishers.
Farideh’s Fireball does not seem optimal as a target removal spell due to its high cost, but the fact that it let us roll a d20 (to deal 2 extra damage to players or opponents) makes it a nice option for our Dice Roll Tribal.
Underdark Rift is a Land with dice roll synergy, as by paying 
, and exiling it, it let us roll a d10 at sorcery speed, to put target artifact, creature, or planeswalker into its owner’s library just beneath the top X cards of that library, where X is the result. An expensive option, but still a great addition to our Dice Roll Tribal.
Board Wipes
Thunderwave is mass removal with dice rolling synergy so it greatly fits our Dice Roll Tribal. It needs a high roll to become optimal, but it works anyway.
Harbinger of the Hunt is a repeatable Enrage enabler that also wipes small threats (or even bigger if we have much mana to dump). A great addition to our Dice Roll Tribal.
Graveyard Recursion
Pair o’ Dice Lost and Song of Inspiration offer us graveyard recursion with dice rolling synergy so they greatly fit our Dice Roll Tribal.
The Deck of Many Things can be an amazing value engine or a total disaster, depending on the roll. On average it will be a very helpful card. At a low roll we return a card at random from our graveyard to your hand. Sounds like a great fit for our Dice Roll Tribal.
Graveyard Hate
Scavenger Grounds is a staple for graveyard hate.
Tutors
Vexing Puzzlebox is a mana rock with dice rolling synergy, but after some setup, it can be used as an artifact tutor, which is very important to our build as we run some very crucial artifacts (like Darksteel Plate) for our build. A must-have card for our Dice Roll Tribal.
Protection
Wyll’s Reversal redirects target spell or ability with one or more targets and let us roll a d20 and add the greatest power among creatures we control to determine if we will copy it. Great protection spell with synergy with our Dice Roll Tribal.
Anara, Wolvid Familiar, Mithril Coat and Darksteel Plate are ways to make Vrondiss, Rage of Ancients Indestructible, which is super important for our Dice Roll Tribal as we depend a lot on our commander and they also work wonders with Enrage. Must-have cards for our build.
Card Draw
Priority Boarding has rolling dice synergy, helping us with impulse draw (depending on the roll) once each turn. It can be a draw engine in our Dice Roll Tribal.
Outpost Siege is a flexible Enchantment that can be used either as an impulse draw engine, or as a great Enrage enabler. It has great synergy with our Dragon Spirit Tokens created by Vrondiss, Rage of Ancients, as they are sacrificed when they deal damage, so they replace themselves with the help of Outpost Siege and Vrondiss.
The Deck of Many Things can also be a draw engine if we score a high roll, letting us draw 2 cards.
Garruk’s Uprising and Colossal Majesty can be card draw engines in our Dice Roll Tribal as we expect to create Dragon Tokens (with 5 power) each turn with the help of Vrondiss, Rage of Ancients.
Dragonborn Champion can also be a card draw engine, as our Dragon Tokens have 5 power and it has “Whenever a source you control deals 5 or more damage to a player, draw a card.” A top pick for our Dice Roll Tribal.
Staff of Nin costs a lot, but can be used both as an Enrage enabler (doing ping damage) and as a card draw engine, as at the beginning of our upkeep we draw a card. It can do ping damage to any target so it can even be used as a target removal for small creatures. A great pick for our Dice Roll Tribal.
Finishers/ Surprise /Alternate win conditions
Return of the Wildspeaker is flexible and can be either a great card draw source letting us draw cards equal to the greatest power among non-Human creatures we control, or a finisher, buffing non-Human creatures we control with +3/+3 until end of turn.
Gratuitous Violence is a damage doubler for our creatures, while Thrakkus the Butcher is doubling the attack power of our creatures, so they can easily become finishers with our 5 power Dragon Tokens. Great additions to our Dice Roll Tribal.
Atarka, World Render has Flying, Trample and “Whenever a Dragon you control attacks, it gains double strike until end of turn”. We run about 10 Dragons on our deck, so it can be a finisher. It it worth to be mentioned that it does not work well with our Dragon Spirit Tokens, as they are sacrificed before they can deal the second combat damage, thus it works on them just like granting them First Strike.
Overwhelming Encounter is a sorcery that buffs our creatures and gives them Trample and Vigilance so it can be a finisher. It also has synergy with our Dice Roll Tribal as it let us roll a d20 to determine the kind of buff, with low roll to be a +2/+2 until end of turn, the high roll to be two +1/+1 counters on each creature we control, while the highest roll is four +1/+1 counters on each creature we control.
Other synergy pieces
Infinite combo
Vrondiss, Rage of Ancients + Rite of Passage + Outpost Siege + Warstorm Surge are part of an infinite combo that results in infinite damage, infinite death triggers, infinite ETB, infinite LTB and infinite sacrifice triggers. The combo can be explained here (EDHREC)
Great Dice Rolling cards
Chaos Dragon has Flying and Haste, attacks each combat if able and has “At the beginning of combat on your turn, each player rolls a d20. If one or more opponents had the highest result, Chaos Dragon can’t attack those players or planeswalkers they control this combat”. With a 4/4 body it is a considerable threat for its cmc and can be a repeatable rolling source for our Dice Roll Tribal.
Delina, Wild Mage on attack trigger, let us roll a d20 to determine the number of copies of target creature we can create. The copies enter tapped and attacking except they’re not legendary and it have “At end of combat, exile this creature.” On a high roll, we get +1 copy and we roll again, so we get more dice rolling too. A great addition to our Dice Roll Tribal.
Centaur of Attention seems like an unreliable card on its own, but has high synergy with our build, as it is a dice rolling engine, meaning we can get up to 5 dice rolling each turn, giving us valuable Enrage triggers for Vrondiss, Rage of Ancients or other dice rolling payoffs. A cool card that greatly fits our Dice Roll Tribal.
Whenever Ancient Bronze Dragon deals combat damage to a player we roll a d20 and put X +1/+1 counters on each of up to two target creatures, where X is the result. It is a 7/7 Flyer that is almost a finisher by itself, while we can get a great buff from an average roll. A top card for our Dice Roll Tribal.
Velukan Dragon seems too expensive, but on attack and block trigger, let us roll a six-sided die and it gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is the result minus 1. It sounds not optimal, but the blocking trigger, can be much better than it seems at first sight. On a commander game, it can be used to block multiple times per turn and we can get multiple rolling dice triggers which translates to multiple Enrage triggers for Vrondiss, Rage of Ancients. A great addition to our Dice Roll Tribal.
Berserker’s Frenzy is a great combat manipulation spell with dice rolling synergy. It let us roll two d20 and ignore the lower roll, so it becomes more consistent. A great card pick for our Dice Roll Tribal.
Bag of Tricks by paying 
, and rolling a d8, let us reveal cards from the top of our library until we reveal a creature card with mana value equal to the result and we put that card onto the battlefield and the rest on the bottom of our library in a random order. Although average on its own, its Dice Roll Tribal synergy makes it a nice inclusion for our build.
Sword of Hours is an Equipment with Dice Roll Tribal synergy. It can give us a free roll on attacking which is very important for our build, so that alone makes it a nice inclusion to our build even without calculating the buff it gives to Equipped creature which can be quite respectable.
Wand of Wonder by paying , and rolling a d20, forces opponents to exile cards from the top of their library until they exile an instant or sorcery card and let us cast up to X instant and/or sorcery spells from among cards exiled this way without paying their mana costs, where X is determined by our d20 roll and can be 1-3. A great card for our Dice Roll Tribal.
Maddening Hex is an Aura Curse that goes around our opponents and drains them when they cast noncreature spells, while we get free dice rolls. A great addition for our Dice Roll Tribal.
(Vrontiss) Enrage Enablers : 11 cards
It is worthy to be mentioned that with our Dice Roll build and Vrondiss, Rage of Ancients, all our dice rolling cards act as Enrage enablers.
Other
Brash Taunter is a top utility card for our build, as it works wonders with our commander. By paying 
, we can make it fight Vrondiss, Rage of Ancients, triggering its enrage ability, while at the same time (since it is dealt 5 damage by Vrondiss) we can deal 5 damage to target opponent. In addition, it works as a great blocker and can be used to fight with huge creatures to deal huge blows to our opponents.
Brazen Dwarf help us drain our opponents whenever we roll dice. Can go crazy with Centaur of Attention as we can reroll 5 dice each turn. A nice inclusion for our Dice Roll Tribal.
Wyll, Blade of Frontiers is one of the best cards for our Dice Roll Tribal, as he has “If you would roll one or more dice, instead roll that many dice plus one and ignore the lowest roll”. So we get double the rolling and double the chances for fortune to be on our side. Moreover, we get double the Enrage triggers on Vrondiss when we roll a die. Last but not least, Wyll get a +1/+1 counter whenever we roll one or more dice, so he can quickly grow into a threat. Amazing utility card for our build.
Barbarian Class is another one of the best cards for our Dice Roll Tribal, as it has dice rolling synergy at lvl1 and lvl2, while at lvl3 it gives creatures we control Haste, which is important for our build.
Critical Hit gives target creature double strike until end of turn and when we roll a natural 20, we return Critical Hit from our graveyard to your hand. A flavorful addition to our Dice Roll Tribal.
Fires of Yavimaya and Rising of the Day are providing our creatures with Haste, which is important for our Dragon Tokens.
Rite of Passage works wonders with Enrage and makes Vrondiss more durable. It can be a combo material and a great utility card for our Dice Roll Tribal.
Aether Flash works both as an Enrage enabler and as removal for small creatures.
Dragon Cultist works wonders with our Dragon Spirit Tokens as they have 5 power, so whenever they deal damage, we create a 4/4 red Dragon creature token with flying. A great pick for our Dice Roll Tribal.
Let’s see some more statistics about our deck. Some important info to care about is the mana curve and the card type distribution, as it can help us understand better our deck and may indicate where there is space for improving it.
Mana Curve
The mana curve seems more middle-range centered that usual, with few drops in 1-2 position, a big spike at 5 drop position and an absence of 8+ drops.
Card Type Distribution
The Dice Roll Tribal Card Type Distribution shows a quite balanced dispersion of card types with creatures at 19 , artifacts at 14, sorceries at 8, enchantments at 17 and instants at 10. No planeswalkers or battles are present at the time.
Of course statistics and comparative analysis are great tools but they don’t always tell the whole truth, since many factors like synergy and combo pieces are hard to be measured numerically. For example in this deck, with all the deck build around Vrondiss, Rage of Ancients, all our dice rolling cards become Enrage Enablers and we can quickly and consistently create an army or Dragon Spirit Tokens, something that is not reflected in statistics.
Now you can buy the whole deck list with a click of a button!
If you liked the deck, don’t forget to revisit the article after every major new release as I will try to keep my decks updated and examine any potential upgrades. If you want to keep being updated, you can follow mtgbudgetcommander.com on social media (facebook, twitter, instagram, pinterest, linkedin, reddit, tumblr, medium).
If you like my tribal series, you can check my other tribal decks.
