While Magic’s wide range of subtle strategies is undoubtedly one of the game’s biggest strengths, sometimes you just want to bash some face in with Dragons. Despite being one of the most interesting Commanders for this popular MTG strategy, Vrondiss, Rage of Ancients is surprisingly underplayed right now. This is a crying shame, given its propensity for easy Dragon generation and combo wins.
Vrondiss, Rage Of Ancients MTG
With Vrondiss, a nasty 5/4 Dragon token is only ever a single point of damage away. This turns pingers like Pyrohemia and Viridian Longbow into easy creature generators. Since Vrondiss can also trigger itself when you roll dice, adding in cards like Chaos Dragon and Vexing Puzzlebox can help build your Dragon army, too.
By default, you can only get three Dragons a turn out of Vrondiss at most, but you can extend that by granting it Indestructible with cards like Darksteel Plate and Hammer of Nazahn. For a funkier option, Rite of Passage essentially undoes all your pings on Vrondiss, while building it into a real threat at the same time.
Once you’re all set up, Vrondiss can make a ton of tokens each turn, giving you a terrifying attack force when paired with a Haste granter like Anger. You’ll also be able to tap into some potent Dragon synergy pieces, like Crucible of Fire and Thrakkus the Butcher. Add in Scourge of Valkas to clear the way, and a speedy combat damage win is well within Vrondiss’s reach.
Dragon synergy aside, having chunky creatures enter regularly can get you a ton of draw from Elemental Bond, too, and serious damage from Warstorm Surge. Add in token doublers like Parallel Lives and Doubling Season, and it’s easy to overwhelm your opponents with value this way.
While Vrondiss’s tokens only stick around until they’ve dealt damage, there are plenty of ways to get value even as they pass. Sacrifice outlets like Greater Good and Spawning Pit can cash them in for value even as their sacrifice triggers are on the stack. You can also bring in Goblin Bombardment and Blasting Station to trade expiring tokens for brand new ones by pinging Vrondiss again.
The Dance Of The Dragons
Vrondiss is frankly scary enough when played fairly, but you can take things to another level by tapping into its pool of infinite combos. By pairing it with Terror of the Peaks and an Indestructible granter like Mithril Coat, for instance, you can make infinite Dragon tokens. Each token Vrondiss makes will let Terror damage Vrondiss again, creating an easy infinite loop.
A similar combo is also possible with cards like Dragon Tempest and Pandemonium, but since the tokens deal damage in those cases, they’ll die on entry. This will still net you infinite enters/dies triggers, however, so wins with Altar of the Brood and Hissing Iguanar are very much possible here.
Though it’s certainly a potent Commander, Vrondiss, Rage of Ancients has flown somewhat under the MTG radar so far. According to EDHREC data, just 2,881 players run the card in the command zone, which feels incredibly low. It fares a bit better in the 99, showing up in around 7,270 lists, but even that feels underwhelming given its strong potential.
While this low play rate is unfortunate for Vrondiss, it’s great for players who want to pick it up on the cheap. You can grab near-mint base copies of the card on TCGplayer right now for just $0.55, or $2.57 if you want the fancy extended art version.
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