Obviously there isn't a card called "Jankasaurus", but this is a collection of janky dinosaurs that aren't taken particularly seriously. Take Sun-Crowned Hunters for example. Barely passable in Limited and completely overlooked in constructed. Unless you're me.
Believe it or not the Sun-Crowned Hunters are actually the basis for the entire deck. The "Sun-Crowning Achievement" if you will. Best in pairs, but even a single one of these can really take your opponent by surprise. Not all of the supporting cast in the deck is completely underwhelming, but a lot of it is at face value. I'm all about bringing the best out of budget cards and underused and underappreciated rares and mythics, and this deck is full of them. I'll break it down, starting with a few of the land.
Unclaimed Territory seems like an automatic 4 of, right? Well there's actually quite a lot of spells here and in testing I felt burdened a lot of the time with too many of these on the field. I tried 3 and still ran into the same problem, unable to cast spells when I needed to because of the limited access to color for creatures only. Two fits just right. I usually only need one or maybe two and the rest of the land does what it needs to. Since Rootbound Crag is both colors for any purpose it is the primary color fixer for the deck. Even Field of Ruin can grab whatever color is missing so long as your opponent has a nice non-basic land to destroy like a Desert or a dual land of their own. Besides, two Unclaimed territory is already pushing $5 and it just isn't always the right land to have to justify bringing the deck cost up any further.
The one drops are super important and very powerful at all stages of the game but mostly in the mid to late game. Rile is great because it replaces itself while triggering Enrage on either the Ranging Raptors or Sun-Crowned Hunters. I thought about going with more Enrage effects but Ripjaw Raptor is stupid expensive and the rest are pretty underwhelming, even for this deck. Anyway, the land drops from Ramptors (accurate typo) is super nice and can be triggered multiple times in a turn from spells and/or combat. I like it very much. Prey Upon is awesome "removal" that is usually the green equivalent to Shock with the added bonus of triggering Enrage and being flexible enough to work on your bigger creatures to take down other big creatures. Shapers' Sanctuary pretty much turns all of your creatures into weaker versions of Ripjaw that draws cards only when your opponent targets your stuff instead of whenever they take some kind of damage. It's nice to play on your first turn since there isn't anything else to do.
I started with a full playset of both Drover of the Mighty and Otepec Huntmaster for added ramp and the awesome haste ability on the Huntmaster, but just like Unclaimed Territory I found myself drawing too many. One is enough. Two is ok. Three or more is annoying. Pounce is exactly the same as Prey Upon, but worth it for one extra mana at Instant speed. This can be a nice two-for-one combat trick, especially with that Ramptor in the early stages.
Savage Stomp will never cost 3, and at one green it is a great card. The added +1/+1 counter is a nice touch and making your Dino friends a little bigger is never a bad thing. Dinosaur Stampede is a nice finisher when you have 3 or more creatures lined up to attack. The more the merrier. Rampaging Ferocidon is interesting. I like the Menace on a 3/3 for 3 but the added anti-lifegain ability takes the Vampire tribe out of the game pretty much. Ranging Raptors is a bit of an MVP in the deck as it really does provide a solid amount of land ramp.
Samut, the Tested is the most expensive card in the deck but literally only because it contains the word "Planeswalker". No love for Samut. Fine with me, that +1 is clutch. "Hello Mr. Monstrosaur!" Even the -2 that pings two creatures has synergy with the Ramptors and the Hunters. The -7 isn't likely to happen but if it does you can go get a pair of Hunters for free, or even one Hunter and another Samut to ping it with. A pair of Charging Monstrosaurs would be welcome as well.
Speaking of Monstrosaurs... it's a great 5 drop. Obviously weaker than Reality Smasher, but not by much. Certainly a lot less expensive to get your hands on at 4 for $1, and a 5/5 Trample with Haste for 5 (or less) mana could never really be seen as a "bad play". Raging Swordtooth has such a bad-ass name, and it's ability can trigger Enrage. Built in Trample doesn't suck, and as stated a 5/5 is nothing to sneeze at.
Finally the six drop, Sun-Crowned Hunters. For some reason this one is only a 5/4 instead of a 5/5 (whatever...) but this Enrage ability is quite spicy. As we worked up the mana curve it should have been sort of obvious that a fair amount of damage should have gone through by the time you drop this guy. The turn after can be lethal every time if you are left with a couple of fight cards, Rile, and run into combat swinging. Each Rile will draw you a card and deal 3 face damage for one red mana. Prey Upon can kill a small creature and do 3 face damage for one green mana. Same with Stomp. As stated before, Pounce can be a neat combat trick at Instant speed, and a two-for-one Enrage from this guy is going to be an extra 6 face damage. That's awesome!
I really wanted the Raptor Hatchling to be in the main board, but I just couldn't make the room. If I made a few changes that allowed them to survive a Rile or a Prey Upon to get multiple Enrage triggers I would totally do it. Not ready to rebuild this yet, but I could make a case for those things. They were sweet in the draft build of this. I'm sure I'll continue tweaking this deck and there should be plenty more dinosaurs to play with in the next set. I strongly considered going 3 color, but without Gishath, Sun's Avatar at the helm it just seems too weak to spread out that much. Maybe I'll try again if I get bored and want to test out another build.
This is not a turn 4 win kind of deck, but it is an "apply pressure every single turn after turn 3" kind of deck. Cheap aggro and fun with dinosaurs. No room for Regisaur Alpha and Carnage Tyrant here. We don't need your incredibly powerful and self sufficient abilities here. No sir.
