Your good ol' bigstuff deck in the format. Yes, it resembles RG Dinos quite a bit, but I find the additions and subtractions are worth being called a new variations. This one's significantly more rampy, and Fumigate-proofed. Leave comments below if you have any feedback, positive or constructive! :)
CREATURES AND PSEUDO-CREATURES (RAMP)
4x Drover of the Mighty: The better ramp in the deck. The Drover serves as an early-game accelerator and a late-game attacker. Too bad it doesn't avoid Lightning Strike or Abrade, but every ramp card dies to Fatal Push anyway, so oh well.
4x
Channeler Initiate
: The more feel-bad ramp creature. Yes, it sucks to play a 0/1 for 2, but it's correct to play it before Drover of the Mighty due to it being a better late-game finisher and activator.
3x Cultivator's Caravan: What?? That's right, I love this card in this deck. A 5/5 for 3 is insane, and it ramps the turn it comes down, should you want that. A great play is Turn 3 this and then another ramper or a Lightning Strike. It also avoids Fumigate, allowing a 5-damage attack the next turn if you've played smart.
CREATURES (BIGSTUFF)
3x Rhonas the Indomitable: A major change to Dinos. I could have pt Deathgorge Scavenger in here, but the way I see it, a sorcery-speed graveyard hater doesn't solve many problems in the current format. I'd rather have an amazing defender and attacker, who avoids Fumigate well and is an excellent source of pseudo-card-advantage with her 3-mana pump ability. It's won me a few games alone.
4x Ripjaw Raptor: The card I think of as the best Dino. It makes an incredible blocker and an even better solo attacker, as nobody wants to block it under any circumstance. Pretty much, it demands a black or white answer in a format where the best of those are 4 mana.
3x Glorybringer: Surprise! It's quick dragon. It doesn't synergize with anything in this deck, but who cares? It's freaking Glorybringer. Nuff said.
2x Regisaur Alpha: Just awesome. 7/7 on the field for 5 is ridiculous, and having a hasty trampler come down is comparable to Glorybringer in power. I prefer 3 to 2 in terms of the two five-drops, and I probably won't add more, but I'm unsure about which. I definitely want both, but someone could convince me of 1 to 4 or 4 to 1.
3x Carnage Tyrant: The Tarantula is not a very imposing finisher, but it demolishes control and has an excellent chance of coming down turn 4 in this build.
SPELLS
4x Commune with Dinosaurs: A great Turn 1 play and a great Turn 10 play. Not much more to say about it, except it might convince me to run more Dinosaurs. I don't know, I'm happy with it for now.
4x Abrade: I'm not a huge fan of this versus Lightning Strike, but in a format with God-Pharaoh's Gift running rampant and Heart of Kiran being a surprise play, I'm pretty happy with it.
2x Lightning Strike: The card I love. Having this in your hand just feels good, as you know the opponent is gonna hurt no matter who you target.
LANDBASE (NON-BASICS)
4x Sheltered Thicket: I hate this card. I do. The upside to it is eliminating downside. Alas, I gotta play a set.
4x Rootbound Crag: Duh.
SIDEBOARD
Not gonna list every one here. I've got most of the bases covered, but I still need to look at screwing over energy and red. I'm thinking I should add
Chandra's Defeat
, and probably not gonna splash, but Solemnity.
SYNERGIES
Channeler Initiate
+
Cultivator's Caravan
: Check this out. Say you have a Cultivator's Caravan on the board Turn 4. You play a
Channeler Initiate
, and therefore, can't crew up the vehicle that turn due to the counters. HOWEVER, since the trigger occurs when the Initiate enters the battlefield, while it's on the stack, you can crew up Cultivator's Caravan before the counters are put on the ramper. Nice!
Cultivator's Caravan
+
Rhonas the Indomitable
: This gives Rhonas something to do when she isn't able to attack or block. Yay for Crew!
Carnage Tyrant
+
Regisaur Alpha
: Turn 4 Regisaur Alpha, Turn 5 Carnage Tyrant gives you 14 attacking power at least that turn.
Burn spells and Ripjaw Raptor: With the Dino out, your 6 burn spells now have Cycling for 2.
