Forerunner of the Empire

Creature — Human Soldier

When Forerunner of the Empire enters the battlefield, you may search your library for a Dinosaur card, reveal it, then shuffle your library and put that card on top of it.

Whenever a Dinosaur enters the battlefield under your control, you may have Forerunner of the Empire deal 1 damage to each creature.

Discussion (48)

lhetrick13 on Prehistoric Rumble!

2 days ago

Radiant_Draconis - Good stuff! Maybe I will see if I can add one more Marauding Raptor in then. Between him and Forerunner of the Empire those are excellent cards to get enrage going and it is great to drop in like Trapjaw Tyrant and clear two creatures from the board. Now if only there was a dinosaur that gave other dinosaurs hexproof or some useful skill! They are so big and costly and in modern, removal spells are so prevalent it is so sad to see a 9 CMC dino get taken out by a 3 CMC instant.

Kinda makes sense you like Heaven / Earth for some personal flair. I mean, you are running a big meteor in a dino deck. Ironic and appropriate! Just wanted to make sure you did know there are options :)

You are preaching to the choir my friend about that high CMC! I have found I gravitate towards heavily aggressive decks by nature but they are not the most fun for my friends to play against. I think this my dino deck I am putting together will be a better mixture of keeping things competitive for them and fun for me. Our decks are pretty different but thanks for the ideas and inspiration to actually put one together!

bushido_man96 on Ixalan Park

2 months ago

I've got a dinosaur tribal deck led by Gishath, Sun's Avatar, and I've tweaked it quite a bit recently.

I used to run ramp pieces like Urza's Incubator and the creatures that help cut dinosaur casting costs, like Kinjalli's Caller, and I ran things like Forerunner of the Empire, too. The issue with ramp like this are: 1) they don't mesh with Gishath's ability to get dinosaurs out of the library and into play, and 2), these pieces only ramp for the dinosaurs in the deck; looks like 30 in your case. They don't ramp for your instant, sorcery, artifact spells, etc. I like my ramp to work for the whole deck; having access to green, I stuck with land ramp and some dinos that have some ramping abilities.

The problem I ran into was having a critical mass of dinosaurs so that I'm getting at least a few out every time I hit with Gishath. Those human helpers don't help with that. I cut all creatures from the deck that weren't dinosaurs, and I don't run any planewalkers, either. I've got 37 dinosaurs in my deck now, and I feel it has much more consistency. Another bonus to this approach was being able to add Kaheera, the Orphanguard as a companion. Giving the whole team vigilance is great.

When evaluating my deck's purpose, I went back to the commander. Gishath wants to get onto the field, swing, and pull dinosaurs out of the library. Although the commander doesn't provide card draw, his ability is very much one of card advantage, and I found that I actually hinder the usefulness of Gishath's ability by getting too many dinosaurs in hand. I still run some card draw, but my goal is to get Gishath out soon, and then let him handle getting the herd onto the battlefield. With that in mind, I was able to focus things much more clearly. From there, after getting the herd out, protecting the herd was the next important step, and you've got good support for that.

Anyways, hope this helps. I can share my list if you'd like to see it.

Mortlocke on Gang Gang Gishath

6 months ago

Pikobyte, including Forerunner of the Empire as a Tutor and with 3 triggers can break the infinite Polyraptor loop. Sadly it's not a Dino though. Also, the infinite loop results in a draw. Not a loss.

CheddarBones on We're back! A Dinosaur's Story

7 months ago

Heaven / Earth / earth - choice to deal with pesky flyers or kill all eggs for 3 Downdraft - dont try to fly over the egg wall Call of the Wild - topdeck a creature Ghired's Belligerence - good burn with the option of sacing an egg as well plus you get a populate Reinforcements - put three dinos on top of deck yummy Aura Shards - sideboard for when you face Mario. each egg naturalizes. Not Forgotten - top of library a dinosaur and get a populate target Mwonvuli Beast Tracker - literally every dinosaur has trample. top of the library. Forerunner of the Empire - same deal. costs more but you can wipe your eggs all out at once when a dinosaur comes into play

multimedia on The old bois

8 months ago

Hey, there's not much to say yet as this is just a list of cards you want to play, nice Swordtooth. Most of what you have so far on the low budget is good, but Decree of Savagery is not playable and Sun-Crested Pterodon, Elfhame Palace, Stone Quarry are really lackluster.

Do you own Gishath? I don't see him here, but I do see Atla. If you don't own Gishath then he's really not worth getting for $20 if you're on such a low budget. Atla is a fine Commander for Dinos and you have her. For $20 you could get many budget cards that are good with Atla rather than just Gishath.

Atla and Gishath will play very differently. Gishath is more straight forward, ramp and Dinos. Atla is more complex since you want ramp, sac outlets for Eggs and Dinos. Marauding Raptor is a combo Dino with Atla to kill an Egg right when it ETB. It also triggers enrage when a Dino ETB.

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Some budget Dinos to consider adding:

• Marauding Raptor
• Quartzwood Crasher
• Apex Altisaur
• Ripjaw Raptor
• Thrasta, Tempest's Roar
• The Tarrasque
• Runic Armasaur
• Thrashing Brontodon
• Ranging Raptors

Some budget cards that have good interactions with Atla and/or Dinos or are ramp:

• Mirror Entity: is a Dino, is an Egg, can turn all creatures you control into Eggs, is a sac outlet.
• Garruk's Uprising: repeatable draw when Dinos ETB and give all Dinos trample.
• Goblin Bombardment: sac outlet for Eggs and each Egg that's saced can do 1 damage to another Egg to kill it too.
• Swiftfoot Boots: haste and hexproof protection for Atla.
• Arcane Signet: staple budget mana rock.
• Fellwar Stone
• Fertile Ground
• Wild Growth
• Farseek with Cinder Glade, Canopy Vista and Alpine Meadow.
• Forerunner of the Empire: puts the Dino on the top of your library to then sac an Egg. It can also kill Eggs.
• Mwonvuli Beast Tracker: puts the Dino with trample on the top of your library to then sac an Egg.
• High Market: sac outlet.
• Tyrite Sanctum: repeatable to make Atla bigger with +1/+1 counters and then give her indestructible.
• Fanatical Devotion: sac outlet and protection from most removal.
• Court of Bounty: can cheat a Dino from your hand onto the battlefield as well as be repeatable draw at your end step.
• Battlemage's Bracers: haste and double the Egg trigger of Atla.
• Fires of Yavimaya: haste enabler for all creatures you control including tokens.

Some budget land upgrades to consider:

• Exotic Orchard
• Path of Ancestry
• Jungle Shrine
• Opal Palace: cast Atla with it to give her one or more +1/+1 counter.
• Unclaimed Territory
• High Market
• Tyrite Sanctum
• Battlefield Forge
• Cinder Glade
• Canopy Vista
• Alpine Meadow
• Game Trail
• Fortified Village

Good luck with your deck.

khunkao on

1 year ago

I would suggest adding more Dinos that have "Enrage" in order to take advantage of having 4x Forerunner of the Empire in. For instance, Needletooth Raptor is great for removing small to medium threats. Polyraptor is a great card to take advantage of this, obviously. So is Siegehorn Ceratops , though the Siegehorn doesn't pair well with Marauding Raptor

paxanimus on Hatchling Eggs

1 year ago

You don't get infinite 3/3 dinos. They newly created ones would take damage from Forerunner of the Empire You'd only get 3, one untouched, one with 1 point damage, 1 with 2.

multimedia on First Dino deck :o

1 year ago

Hey, good start on a low budget.

Sol Ring , Arcane Signet and Command Tower are three staples cards for Commander. Dinos and Gishath can benefit from ramp since Gishath is 8 mana and the better Dinos are also high CMC. Ramp can come from mana rocks such as Sol Ring, but you're playing green thus you also have access to lots of other ramp options (land ramp spells, mana dorks, land auras). Land ramp spells can search for and put a dual land or basic land onto the battlefield. Mana dorks are creatures who can tap for mana and land auras are enchantments that can enchant a land to tap that land for more mana then you can normally make.

• Sol Ring
• Arcane Signet
• Drover of the Mighty
• Faeburrow Elder
• Sakura-Tribe Elder
• Farseek : can search for a dual land such as Cinder Glade or Alpine Meadow
• Cultivate
• Fertile Ground
• Overgrowth

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Some budget Dinos to consider adding:

• Quartzwood Crasher : can create Dino tokens with trample.
• Etali, Primal Storm : attack ability gives you a lot of value in multiplayer Commander.
• Regisaur Alpha
• Annoyed Altisaur
• Realmwalker : Changelings are Dinos.
• Silverclad Ferocidons

Creature tutors, repeatable draw sources and other ways to cheat Dinos onto the battlefield are all helpful effects to have.

• Forerunner of the Empire
• Fierce Empath
• Garruk's Uprising
• Elemental Bond
• Court of Bounty

If you would like I offer more advice. Good luck with your deck.