Queen of the Sun Tyrants

Introduction

As an avid dinosaur buff, it was an absolute must that I build a dinosaur tribal EDH deck! I immediately set my sights on Gishath, but decided to wait until the release of RIX for a wider variety of dinosaurs with which to populate my deck, and the set brought a lot of great assets to the table, such as Forerunner of the Empire and the Elder Dinosaurs. This deck is focused on getting as many dinosaurs as possible out on the board and riling them up until they're ready to rip and tear your opponents to shreds!

Why Gishath, Sun's Avatar ?

Because she's like Mayael the Anima , except a dinosaur! If you want to play tribal dinosaurs, Gishath is the way to go, using her huge power and Trample to turn your deck over and get all those dinosaurs on to the board where they can trample your opponents underfoot!
I'm also personally a big fan of the flavor. Ixalan has me excited to see feathered dinosaurs all over the place. (Even if they're in a lot of places they shouldn't be)

Highlights

It's what we're all here for. Space is really tight in this deck, so each dinosaur is chosen for a purpose (even if that purpose is just "f***ing huge"). Each dinosaur is something you should be happy to draw or otherwise have on your board.
  • Bellowing Aegisaur : This loud boy's Enrage ability is great, and has decent combo potential.
  • Burning Sun's Avatar : I didn't include the other two Avatars that I could have, but I did include this horned tyrant because he's the best value for the mana cost, and unlike Wakening Sun's Avatar , you still get his bonus effect even if you get him onto the board using the several cheat methods or Gishath.
  • Carnage Tyrant : This card has great value for just 6 CMC! High power, Trample, difficult for your opponent to prevent or get rid of.
  • Deathgorge Scavenger : Two words: Graveyard hate. Its lower CMC also helps the curve a little bit.
  • Etali, Primal Storm : Etali is a potential tide-turner every time it attacks. How can you say no?
  • Ghalta, Primal Hunger : Ghalta should be relatively easy to get on the board, and she is huge. Built-in Trample is just the icing on the cake.
  • Goring Ceratops : One of the smaller dinosaurs in the deck for its CMC, but providing your creatures with Double Strike is a huge boon.
  • Kinjalli's Sunwing : A flying creature, which the deck sorely lacks. Also slows down opponents.
  • Needletooth Raptor : This little baby has a pretty big board presence. If you can make him just a little bigger or otherwise protect him, you can get a lot of mileage out of his Enrage ability.
  • Polyraptor : With the right board state, one Polyraptor can quickly become dozens, hundreds, thousands... an entire army of Polyraptors!
  • Raging Regisaur : A decently-sized dinosaur that can trigger an Enrage ability each time it attacks.
  • Raging Swordtooth : Slightly bigger and slightly different from the Regisaur, this one can trigger all your Enrage when it enters the battlefield.
  • Ranging Raptors : Mana ramp!
  • Regisaur Alpha : Giving all of your dinosaurs haste is exciting enough, but two creatures for 5 CMC is a huge plus.
  • Ripjaw Raptor : Card draw!
  • Silverclad Ferocidons : It's big and it makes your opponents get rid of their things.
  • Snapping Sailback : The Flash can surprise an unwary opponent, and its Enrage ability isn't half bad either.
  • Temple Altisaur : This sauropod can turn otherwise scary damage-based boardwipes into free Enrage triggers instead!
  • Thrashing Brontodon : Artifact/Enchantment removal on a decently-sized body.
  • Trapjaw Tyrant : Handy removal for your opponent's most pesky creatures.
  • Wayward Swordtooth : Mana acceleration if you find this early in the game, a 5/5 for just 3 CMC if you find him later on.
  • Zacama, Primal Calamity : Just look at this beast. I think it speaks for itself.
  • Zetalpa, Primal Dawn : A flying keyword soup that is tricky for your opponents to get rid of.
W I P
Bellowing Aegisaur and Forerunner of the Empire are both really important players in this deck, as they enable a lot of the combo potential this deck has. For example:
  • Forerunner of the Empire + Polyraptor + Some way to make sure Forerunner of the Empire Doesn't Off Himself = Infinite Polyraptors and infinite damage to creatures. When Polyraptor comes in to play, it triggers Forerunner of the Empire to deal 1 damage to all creatures, which triggers Polyraptor's enrage effect. When the copy of Polyraptor comes in to play... you see where this is going. Each Polyraptor can only stay in the loop for so long without protection, but their numbers increase exponentially, going infinite. It's only necessary to protect your Forerunner.
  • AEther Flash + Polyraptor is a dangerous combo-- it produces infinite raptors. It produces infinite raptors so well that the entire room fills with them, and all the players suffocate and die simultaneously, ending the game in a draw. To utilize this combo, you need a way to end the feedback loop. Aura Shards can blow up AEther flash once you've decided you have enough Polyraptors, or Purphoros, God of the Forge can just kill all your opponents as your raptors pile up, ending the game in a win instead of a draw. Make sure you have these out before you start this combo.
  • Bellowing Aegisaur + Walking Ballista + Protection for Bellowing Aegisaur, while not as fun or flavorful, achieves infinite +1/+1 counters for all your other creatures. Use Walking Ballista to ping Bellowing Aegisaur. Bellowing Aegisaur puts +1/+1 counters on all your creatures. Rinse and repeat! Like the Forerunner of the Empire in the above combo, however, Aegisaur can only do this more than four times if it has protection.
  • Blasphemous Act + Temple Altisaur is basically a one-sided boardwipe that triggers all your Enrage.

Closing Thoughts

This deck is still very much in the building phase, and requires a bit of playtesting before I'm ready to invest in it. I've been waffling on which and how many of the Huatli Planeswalkers I want to play. In my adjustments I've been concerned about having enough dinosaurs to get the most out of cards that have me cycle through the cards on top of the deck and getting creatures into play that way. The mana base is also pretty budget, even taking into consideration that I already own a Cavern of Souls. I'd love to hear some feedback, and especially thoughts from other Gishath players and what works for them.

Thanks for reading!

(Yes, I know the website calls Gishath a he exactly once, but I don't care)

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Revision 7 See all

(5 years ago)

-1 Lifecrafter's Bestiary main
+1 Runic Armasaur main
Date added 6 years
Last updated 5 years
Exclude colors UB
Key combos
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

8 - 0 Mythic Rares

40 - 0 Rares

26 - 0 Uncommons

13 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.91
Tokens City's Blessing, Copy Clone, Dinosaur 3/3 G w/ Trample, Emblem Domri Rade, Emblem Huatli, Radiant Champion, Spirit 1/1 C
Folders Commander
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