Vaultborn Tyrant
Creature — Dinosaur
Trample
Whenever this creature or another creature you control with power 4 or greater enters, you gain 3 life and draw a card.
When this creature dies, if it's not a token, create a token that's a copy of it, except it's an artifact in addition to its other types.
- CMC
- 7
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- G
- Rarity
- mythic
- Set
- The Big Score
- Price
- $80.56
- EDHREC rank
- #1810
Vaultborn Tyrant enters, draws you a card, and drops a 3/3 token for every creature you control with power 5 or greater — the board snowballs immediately. At seven mana it's a heavy ask, but Trudge Garden and Owen Grady, Raptor Trainer // Blue, Loyal Raptor both show up in the same lists because the token payoff is real enough to justify the cost.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Owen Grady, Raptor Trainer // Blue, Loyal Raptor
Owen Grady, Raptor Trainer // Blue, Loyal Raptor tutors up Dinosaurs with power 3 or greater, and Vaultborn Tyrant arriving into a board of those threats immediately converts them into a pile of 3/3 tokens — the enter trigger fires before blockers are declared, so the board doubles up the turn the Tyrant lands.
Kona, Rescue Beastie
Kona, Rescue Beastie cheats large creatures into play and rewards going tall over wide, and Vaultborn Tyrant's token generation scales directly with how many high-power bodies Kona has already put onto the battlefield.
Pantlaza, Sun-Favored
Pantlaza, Sun-Favored's discover trigger cascades through the Dinosaur chain, and Vaultborn Tyrant is one of the biggest payoffs at the end of that chain — hitting it off a discover means you immediately cash in every other large Dinosaur on board for a token.
Gishath, Sun's Avatar
Gishath, Sun's Avatar floods the board with Dinosaurs from the top of the library, and Vaultborn Tyrant converts that critical mass of high-power bodies into a second wave of 3/3 tokens the moment it enters.
Eshki, Temur's Roar
Eshki, Temur's Roar builds a board of large creatures quickly, and Vaultborn Tyrant rewards that density by drawing a card and multiplying the headcount the instant it arrives.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is the format Vaultborn Tyrant was built for — a seven-mana enter trigger is acceptable when a single resolved copy can end games, and the singleton card draw stapled to the front smooths the mana-intensive curve of creature-heavy decks. In Oathbreaker it occupies a narrower niche, reserved for dedicated large-creature signatures where the token count actually matters. Competitive constructed formats like Pioneer and Modern have almost no interest in a seven-mana creature without an immediate protection clause, and while Vaultborn Tyrant is technically legal in Legacy and Vintage, those formats will never cast it honestly. Standard is the only 60-card format where it sees occasional play, slotted into midrange green shells as a finisher when the board has already gone tall.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Vaultborn TyrantTrudge GardenAshnod's Altar
Infinite card draw; Near-infinite lifegain; Near-infinite lifegain triggers; Near-infinite ETB; Infinite draw triggers; Near-infinite LTB; Near-infinite death triggers; Near-infinite sacrifice triggers
View on Commander Spellbook ↗
The Locust GodVaultborn TyrantMarch of the World Ooze
Infinite card draw; Near-infinite lifegain; Near-infinite lifegain triggers; Near-infinite ETB; Infinite draw triggers; Near-infinite creature tokens with haste
View on Commander Spellbook ↗Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
Zopandrel, Hunger Dominus costs a fraction of the price and doubles power across your board, which amplifies Vaultborn Tyrant's own trigger condition if you're running both — but it doesn't replace the card draw or the token production on its own. Soul of the Harvest covers the draw half at a much lower price point, and Avenger of Zendikar mirrors the enter-and-flood-the-board effect in non-Dinosaur lists, though neither replicates the exact combination of draw plus power-gated token generation that Vaultborn Tyrant delivers in one card.
Price Context
Current price
$80.56 premium tier
At $80.56, Vaultborn Tyrant sits firmly in the premium tier — you're paying for a unique effect that no cheaper card fully replicates. It's a recent release with a dedicated audience in Dinosaur and big-creature Commander builds, so the price reflects current demand rather than a bubble likely to deflate quickly.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Trudge Garden
- Owen Grady, Raptor Trainer // Blue, Loyal Raptor
- Kona, Rescue Beastie
- Pantlaza, Sun-Favored
- Gishath, Sun's Avatar
- Eshki, Temur's Roar
- Ashnod's Altar
- The Locust God
- March of the World Ooze
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.