MTG dice: spindowns, d20s and how to decide who goes first
Which dice Magic actually uses, why a spindown is a life counter and not a random roller, what the rules say about rolling dice and flipping coins, and how to pick who goes first.
In this article
Most Magic players own more dice than they ever roll. The 20-sided die from a Bundle sits in front of you as a life counter, a pile of d6s marks +1/+1 counters, and then a card says “roll a d20” and everyone looks for a die that isn’t already counting something.
The dice Magic actually uses
| Die | What it’s used for |
|---|---|
| d20 (spindown) | Life totals. Turn it down one step at a time |
| d20 (regular) | Deciding who goes first, d20 cards like Delina |
| d6 | +1/+1 counters, loyalty, tokens, the planar die in Planechase |
| d4, d8, d10, d12 | Cards from the D&D sets that ask for them |
| Coin | Coin-flip cards like Krark |
Most of the time a die on the table is a counter, not a random number. That’s fine, but it causes trouble when a card asks for a real roll.
Spindown vs regular d20
A spindown is a d20 with the numbers in order: 20 is next to 19, 19 is next to 18, all the way down. That’s what makes it good for life: you take 1 damage, you turn the die to the face right next to it.
It’s also why it’s a bad random roller. On a regular d20, opposite faces add up to 21 and high and low numbers are spread around the die. On a spindown, the high numbers are all on one side. A soft roll, or a die that only tips over once, lands close to where it started. If someone rolls for first turn with their spindown that’s been sitting on 20, ask them to use a real d20.
What the rules say about dice
Rule 706.1a sets the standard every die has to meet:
Such an effect may refer to an “N-sided die,” “N-sided dice,” or one or more “dN,” where N is a positive integer. In those cases, the die must have N equally likely outcomes, numbered from 1 to N.
A few more rules you’ll run into:
- Digital dice are fine. Rule 706.1b lets players agree on another method, including a digital one, as long as it has the same number of equally likely outcomes.
- Natural result vs result. The number on the die is the natural result. Modifiers like +1 change the final result, not the natural one (706.2). Cards that care about a “natural 20” look at the die itself.
- Rolling with advantage. Pixie Guide, Barbarian Class and the commander Wyll make you roll one extra die and ignore the lowest roll.
Coin flips
Coin flips work the same way (rule 705). The coin needs two sides that are equally likely, and you can swap it for something else, like odd/even on a die, if everyone agrees.
One detail matters for Commander decks built around flips. For effects that ask you to win or lose a flip, the player flipping calls heads or tails, and only that player can win or lose (705.2). So an opponent’s flip never counts as your win for Tavern Scoundrel or Chance Encounter. Krark's Thumb lets you flip two coins and ignore one, which is how Krark decks win more flips than they lose. edh.wiki has a list of coin flip commanders.
Deciding who goes first
The rules leave this to the players. Rule 103.1:
In the first game of a match (including a single-game match), the players may use any mutually agreeable method (flipping a coin, rolling dice, etc.) to do so.
Strictly, the winner of that roll chooses who takes the first turn. Almost every Commander table just lets the highest roll go first. Then:
- Turn order goes clockwise from the starting player.
- Ties usually reroll. Only the tied players roll again. That’s a table habit, not a rule.
- In a match, the loser of the previous game chooses who starts the next one.
- In Archenemy, nobody rolls: the archenemy always goes first (103.1b).
In a two-player game the starting player skips their first draw. In Commander nobody does. The turn phases guide has the details.
The planar die
Planechase (a casual variant) uses its own six-sided die: one Planeswalker symbol, one chaos symbol and four blank faces (901.3a). On your turn, during a main phase with an empty stack, you can roll it. The first roll each turn is free, and each extra roll costs 
more than the last (901.9).
The planar die is a die for triggers but not for numbers. Rolling it triggers Brazen Dwarf, but effects that care about the result of a roll ignore it (901.9d).
Dice at the table, minus the pile
The problem with physical dice in Commander is that they do two jobs. The d20 that tracks someone’s commander damage is the one they grab when Delina attacks, and suddenly nobody knows what the life total was. Keeping counters and random rolls on separate things fixes that.
Lotus has a dice roller with d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20, a custom die of any size and a coin flip. You can pin one die to the main screen. High Roll rolls a d20 for every player at once, rerolls ties, and can set the starting player for the turn tracker.
