Imperial Ceratops

Creature — Dinosaur

Enrage — Whenever Imperial Ceratops is dealt damage, you gain 2 life.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (9)

Licecolony on NayaDinos

1 year ago

I'd add 6 or so lands. There's just not near enough there. It also seems you're expecting a really long game with cards to reshuffle stuff into your library and gain life. You start at 40 health. If you're taking that much damage, the extra 5 here or there aren't saving you. And reshuffling cards from the graveyard into the library is only going to be useful if you're playing against a mill deck or you somehow draw your entire deck. Both somewhat uncommon situations.

Cards under $3 that you might consider:
Nature's Lore
Rishkar's Expertise
Cultivate
Rampant Growth
Farseek
Kodama's Reach
Colossal Majesty
Return of the Wildspeaker
Beast Within
Nature's Claim
Thunderfoot Baloth
Rootweaver Druid
Reclamation Sage
Cathar Commando
Knight of Autumn
Qasali Pridemage
Thrashing Brontodon
Ranging Raptors
Regisaur Alpha
Shifting Ceratops
Territorial Hammerskull
Territorial Allosaurus
Topiary Stomper
Atzocan Seer
Tribal Forcemage
Naya Charm
Road of Return
Boros Charm

Cards that I would call easily expendable:
Suncleanser
Cacophodon
Looming Altisaur
Imperial Ceratops
Wilderness Reclamation
Verdant Haven
Gift of Paradise
Fertile Ground
Oketra's Last Mercy
Rolling Thunder
Serene Remembrance
Elixir of Immortality
Oketra's Monument
Alhammarret's Archive
Sanguine Sacrament
Slice in Twain
Enter the Unknown
Boros Signet
Gruul Signet
Selesnya Signet

TCK_Green on TempesT's Smash face dinos

3 years ago

Nice work - big dinos rock! :D I think your mana ratio is pretty good, well done with the lands.

I think the sweet spot in your deck is probably hitting those 2-land ramp spells on T4. If you can usually guarantee 6 mana on T5, then you're in a good position to even have Gishath out and possibly swinging to win on T6. There are a couple of useful card probability calculators out there to tell you how like you are to hit the draws you want, and I've plugged your numbers into one of those to check your odds. With 36 lands you have a ~40% of not having 4 lands on turn 4, meaning that everything else would be delayed by at least one turn. It doesn't sound like much, but putting two more lands in the deck drops that to ~32%, meaning there are ~1/12 more games where you hit that T4 plan. (Going up to 40 drops it to ~27%, but this is where the balance between dinos and non-dinos comes in!) It's not directly correlated, but I reckon that would increase your win rate by ~1/12 as well.

Trying to hit that optimal T4 also means you want to take advantage of that free mulligan that you get each game. Since you're playing Gishath I'd mulligan all hands with less than 3 lands, and I might even be tempted to keep a 7-land hand, as well as looking for that all-important ramp spells. Your deck needs a lot of mana to get roaring - there's no point having a hand full of spells if you've not got mana on the table to cast them! So, what can we drop to get a couple more lands in?

• Territorial Hammerskull - this doesn't feel like it adds much to the deck plan
• Wayward Swordtooth - looking at your deck, in practice you're almost never going to have 10 permanents before T6, meaning that you this card doesn't do much in the deck. Don't get me wrong, it's a good card, but it doesn't help you get get Gishath out, and it's not the best card to see when you're pulling dinos off the top of your library.
• Sarkhan's Unsealing - I'd be tempted to take this out as well. In practice this deck wants to cheat out the expensive creatures using Gishath - you're probably only going to be actually casting 3-4 big dinos each game. This is where the Warstorm Surge in your deck works much better - it triggers on ETB, so all your new dino buddies from Gishath will trigger it!
• Ravenous Daggertooth - similar to my comment about Imperial Ceratops above, I don't think the 2 life gain is going to help much in the long-term plan
• Growing Rites of Itlimoc  ^Flip - by the time this flips you'll probably already have Gishath out
• Blasphemous Act - mind if I ask why this is there? I get that it damages your own creatures, but it'll probably also kill them! Thoughts on something like a Harsh Mercy instead?
• Primal Command - doesn't feel hugely impactful in the deck
• Gravity Well - you've got some flyers, so this is a little bit of a non-bo. If you're worried about people swinging at you with flyers - just get your dinos to eat them out of the sky with their abilities :D

Make sure not to remove too many dinos though! If you want to hit at least 2 dinos with Gishath's 7 damage (4 if you've got double-strike out) then you need ~28 dinos in the deck (excluding Gishath of course). You currently have 29, so perhaps it might be worth cutting some of the non-dino non-land cards instead of the ones I suggested further up. Oh - Crested Herdcaller has a decent ETB for the deck and brings two trampling bodies, which works nicely with the Quartzwood Crasher that's now in the deck :) haha, I could go on making suggestions all day!

Looking back through the deck again, I see that we're pretty low on non-creature interaction. Your dinos do a good job of taking out problematic creatures, but there's not much to deal with artifacts/enchantments. Maybe look at some flexible removal like Beast Within, Generous Gift, or Return to Dust?

Hope that's given you some more food for thought. Do feel free to ignore my suggestions - I'm just chucking my thoughts onto the page for you to pick what you like from :) what matters most at the end of the day is that you enjoy playing your deck!

TCK_Green on TempesT's Smash face dinos

3 years ago

"Gishath Strong! Gishath Quick! Gishath gonna stomp your face!" :D

Of course WTTempesT, happy to offer what little wisdom I have :) had I known you were all part of the same playgroup I would have told you to scrap your plans, all build creature-based Mathas, Fiend Seeker decks, and watch the carnage unfold! :D (that actually sounds quite fun now that I think of it...)

Be warned, I've never built a Dinosour tribal deck so my advice might not be amazing, but I'll advise the best I can :) the first thing that strikes me about Gishath is that his ability triggers on combat damage dealt to players. That means you're incentivised to make Gishath (A) super-stronk and (B) 'quick' (i.e. unblockable) so that you flip more cards and get the biggest dinosaurs. It's also important the Gishath is (C) evasive so that he doesn't just disappear to removal when you try to attack.

Quick caveat before you start the essay below - don't see the huge wall of text as meaning there's lots to fix with your deck! It's more the case that I think as I write, and seeing as you're asking me about a deck type I've never thought about before, I've got lots more to think through than I've had for either of your friends! :) and with that...

Gishath Strong!

There's a few options here - you could buff Gishath specifically, put out some anthems to make all your dinosaurs stronger, or make his attacks do more damage. Personally, since he's already got Trample I'd go in a double-strike direction, and add cards like Duelist's Heritage, Blood Mist or Berserkers' Onslaught to go alongside your Goring Ceratops. Alternatively, since you've already got Odric, Lunarch Marshal you could just go 'keyword soup' and chuck in cards like Momentum Rumbler and Ridgetop Raptor, but that's quite clunky and doesn't really fit the theme. (Oh, Silverblade Paladin is another decent way of giving double-strike, but again, it doesn't really fit your theme.)

If we're looking at giving Gishath double strike, then it might be worth thinking of ways to buff his power by 4. 11 power is the sweet spot for a One-Hit KO by a double strike commander. For example, if you've already got Citadel Siege and Sight of the Scalelords then you could cast Gishath and kill someone on the same turn. Alternatively, Xenagos, God of Revels does this 'better', but is a little more expensive. (Theoretically this is already possible with how your deck is set up with Bellowing Aegisaur and some of your 'deal 1 damage' creatures, but it's convoluted!)

You'll note that I didn't mention Overwhelming Stampede above. In my mind this is more of a 'win-more' card - great if you've already got a board established and untap with Gishath already out - but if you're in that position then chances are you're already won :) it's worth thinking how you're going to catch up if others are ahead, but I'll leave you to think about that.

The other way to get the damage through (and a way of getting super-synergy value if you have a way of giving your creatures haste) is to have ways of giving extra combat steps. Can't kill someone with combat damage in one swing? That's fine, just swing twice! I'd say the best combat-'doubler' with haste is Breath of Fury since you can move the enchantment onto some of the new dinosaurs that you're hitting, and the best without haste would be Aggravated Assault. Alternatively, if you have creatures with vigilance (e.g. Gishath), then you could go funky and use something like Godo, Bandit Warlord as your combat doubler :)

Gishath Quick!

Unblockable Gishath is good. I like the Rogue's Passage in the deck - I'd also be tempted to chuck a Key to the City in there as well :) some other great cards to consider are Glaring Spotlight which can make your whole board unblockable for 3 mana and Whispersilk Cloak, especially since it gives the bonus of 'thick skin' shroud protection. (It would mean that you couldn't target him with your own abilities and spells, so that might be something to think about.) Other things to consider are ways of giving Gishath evasion - Sky Terror works well with the keyword soup route, though it's a jump through a hoop which the Majestic Heliopterus you already have in the deck doesn't require. Another alternative I'd suggest is Skyshaper - I quite like this as a one-time way to give your board flying, not to mention that it's free to sacrifice and can therefore be used the turn Gishath is played!

One question to ask is 'how many sources of unblockable or other evasion do I need in my deck'. Let's say that you're preparing to play Gishath on T8 and want to have your unblockable ready to go by T7. Assuming that you've not drawn any extra cards, then during T7 you'll have seen 15/99 of the cards in your deck - more if you have any card draw. At that rate you only need 7 sources of something for it to be fairly likely to have on in hand by then. If you're optimising this then you might put more in, if you're not hugely bothered then you might have less. Personally I think Rogue's Passage, Key to the City, Glaring Spotlight and Whispersilk Cloak are enough ways to reliably get Gishath unblockable on T8-9 without needing flying/etc, but that depends on how much you want to rely on Gishath. Remember that the more non-dinosaurs you put in the deck, the less likely you are to not hit useful things with Gishath's triggers!

Gishath is king over aaaall land!

Speaking of 'how many sources to have in a deck', let's talk about your lands and ramp. The best way to be 'quicker' than your opponents is to make sure that you've got enough lands down and have ramped to your key point before they have. The standard method for number of lands in an EDH deck is to start ~40 lands and cut 1 land for every 3 other sources of mana. You have ~10 pieces of accelleration, so I'd estimate ~37 lands, especially since you're trying to get up to 8 mana to cast your commander. 34 lands is definitely too low when your average CMC is ~4!

Further, 15 of your lands enter tapped. I said this to one of your friends, but as much as you want to ensure having the right coloured mana available at the right time you should be careful of adding too many tap-lands. Think of it this way - if all of your lands were tap-lands, then every turn you'd have one less mana than everyone else and would be 1 turn behind with every spell. The stats show that thep layer who goes first is most likely to win since they get to certain amounts of mana before the others - playing all tap-lands is like willingly cutting off a foot. 15/34 lands isn't quite the same, but it's like cutting off a couple of toes; how would you feel finally drawing a land on T10 when you've been waiting to play Gishath, only for that to be a tap-land and for someone else to win on T11 before you get a chance to untap? Yeah - don't run too many tap-lands :P

One of the great things Gishath has going for him is that his identity includes green, meaning that you have access to the best land ramp spells in the game! Well done for putting some ramp in the deck. I'd be tempted to swap out one of them for Skyshroud Claim (since it can fetch your Shock lands), and I'd also be 'tempted' to add Tempt with Discovery (always fun in multiplayer games). Also, the Ikoria Migration Path is a direct upgrade to some of the ramp spells. Either way, I'd really add some more basic lands into the deck; you barely have enough of them to ramp with, let alone play, and you could easily get blown out by an overloaded Winds of Abandon and not have any lands to actually fetch.

As for land choices themselves - as above, fewer tap-lands and more basics. You'd be surprised In most decks I'm not a huge fan of Temple of the False God, but in your deck I can see it working. I don't really like Rupture Spire either, would much prefer Path of Ancestry. You could quite easily add Spinerock Knoll in for the free hideaway spell. Oh, and Krosan Verge is a pretty good card for multicoloured decks that include white and green - it allows you to fetch the shocklands/bicycle lands to have all of your colours in one go :)

Gishath Thick-Skinned!

If we're going to make Gishath big, then we need to make sure that he doesn't just get removed straightaway. Cards like Swiftfoot Boots and Lightning Greaves are really useful here - as well as Whispersilk Cloak above - but my top pick for this category is Favor of the Mighty. It's a fairly innocuous enchantment, but it's very unlikely that anyone else will have a CMC 8+ creature when you're casting gishath, and 'protection from all colours' is a really strong ability. Another great way of protecting Gishath the turn he comes in is by casting Shielded by Faith on another creature the turn before, then moving this onto Gishath. (It doesn't protect you from targeted exile, but it would stop Gishath dieing to destructive/damaging board wipes.) A card that's a little slower but could be interesting is Shield of the Oversoul - gives indestructible, but also gives flying - which is a keyword that Gishath doesn't have naturally.

It's a little pricey (~$10?), but I highly value Asceticism as a way of protecting creatures. Not only does it stop your opponents from targeting them, it also gives you a way of getting them back if your enemies destory them with spells or in combat. Other instant options to give Gishath hexproof include Blossoming Defense and Woodcutter's Grit (which both have the benefit of buffing Gishath at the same time), or the pricier Heroic Intervention which gives hexproof and indestructible at the same time.

Gishath have many Friends!

Since Gishath basically gives you free dinosaurs, you definitely want to be putting in the biggest and best dinosaurs you can to swing for the win the turn after. However, if you're sat there with a giant board then it's quite likely that some sort of Star of Extinction will wipe out your dinosaurs before your next turn. Choosing the right dinos for your super-squad who are going to stick around is key.

Some thoughts on dinosaurs you could add:

• Apex Altisaur - repetive great creature removal. Would highly recommend!
• Quartzwood Crasher - new from Ikoria, this guy is really good in any decks that do lots of trampling. Add it!
• Titanoth Rex - big tramply dinosaur, can cycle to give trample to something else
• Rampaging Brontodon - gets big if you get to swing with it
• Verdant Sun's Avatar - a great way of stacking a huge amount of life. Great to have if you decide to cut all of your small stuff and just go late-game instead.
• Regal Behemoth - errata'd in 2018 to be a dinosaur instead of a lizard. A very good way of setting up the turn before casting Gishath to have extra mana left over.
• Sun-Crowned Hunters - it's not got quite the value I'd like, but if you're going heavy into the 'damage to my own creatures' theme then this might be a good card to add
• Snapping Sailback - as above, if you're leaning heavy into the 'damage my own creatures' theme then this could be decent to add
• Ranging Raptors - as above, great in the 'damage my own creatures' deck
• Atla Palani, Nest Tender - alternatively, if you decide to go heavy in the 'big dinos' direction, then Atla from C19 could be fun to have in the 99 as another way of getting big dinos out

Some thoughts on dinosaurs you could remove:

• Cacophodon - what's it doing in the deck, other than occasionally untapping a land?
• Draconic Disciple - I think a mana rock or ramp would be better here, the other ability is expensive enough that you have many other options to use first
• Imperial Ceratops - depending on how agressive your playgroup is, you might find that the life gain from this doesn't really help your gameplan
• Kinjalli's Sunwing - a great card if you're going aggro-heavy, but EDH games tend to go long and one round of creatures being tapped won't change much. How would you feel if this was the only dinosaur you find in one of Gishath's attack triggers?
• Kinjalli's Caller - unless you're regularly playing multiple dinosaurs per turn, this is effectively a mana-rock on a creature which is easily killed (including by some of your own creatures). It also means you have to have extra white lands in your deck to try and get it out. I'd just cut this and put some land ramp or a mana rock in instead.
• Zetalpa, Primal Dawn - if it wasn't for the keyword-soup then I'd remove Zetalpa. Most of the other elder dinosaurs are just better, but if you can reliably get Odric out then Zetalpa could work in this deck.
• Ulvenwald Tracker - whilst I like the ability to fight your dinos against others, the fact it's a 1/1 means it dies too easily to everything (including your own stuff!). I'd much prefer something like Domri, Anarch of Bolas instead, especially since it also 'pumps' your creatures and can act as a mana rock. (Okay, it can't fight multiple creatures in a turn, but it's rare that you'll be needing to do lots of fighting at once.)

Other thoughts

As I looked through your deck I noticed lots of 'do damage when enters the battlefield' synergy and combos. I really like the look of it, and it almost feels like that's your main win-con with giant dinosaurs led by Gishath as your backup. Either way, it's a fun theme and game plan, and I'd be interested in how it turns out. A few things to think about:

• Marauding Raptor and Polyraptor is infinite in a bad way. Since it's not a 'may', triggering this goes uncontrollably infinite unless someone has a way of breaking the chain, and according to MtG rules uncontrollable infinites results in a draw - which is a bit of a naff way to end the game if you've all been playing for an hour!
• You don't have much white in your early game. I'd be tempted to take out some of your white lands and most of your white 1-3 CMC cards - if you can cut your early game down to 2 colours and mostly fetch to get your white, then you can also remove your need for so many tap lands. This will make your games much more consistent and faster.
• On a related note, pay attention to the colour wheels in the corner. You currently have ~equal sources of white/red/green, even though over half of the coloured mana requirements in your deck are for green. At the moment you could quite easily end up with green spells in hand but not enough green mana to play them. Further, because green is the colour of fixing, you want more green mana so you can more easily guarantee fetching the other lands that you need when you need them later. Balance your lands for (A) when you need specific colours and (B) how much you need in total to cast the spells that are important to you (e.g. Gishath).

Lastly, some cards to consider adding:

• Furious Rise - it's an extra Colossal Majesty, and extra card draw is always good
• Helm of the Host - why have one Gishath when you could have two?!? You'd want to make sure to play and equip this when Gishath is already on the board otherwise it would be too big a threat for people to leave on the table. (Also, this combos as an insta-win with Godo, Bandit Warlord - though I don't know if that's a negative or a positive for you!)
• The Great Henge - this is especially good with Gishath since all the dinos Gishath puts into play trigger the 'add a +1/+1 and draw a card', meaning that Gishath ends up drawing you a couple of cards as well as cheating out some dinos. Extra gas is always good!
• Finale of Devastation - slightly pricey, but this could be a decent upgrade to Overwhelming Stampede down the line, allowing you to both fetch a creature and pump your board at the same time.

And some cards to perhaps remove:

• Herald's Horn - you've only got 29/100 cards which are dinosaurs. Okay, this gets your commander out one turn earlier, but so does every mana rock. Okay, this card gives you ~0.3 extra card draw each turn, but in the turns between getting this out (~T3) and when you think the game might end (~T10) this would only 'draw' you ~2.1 extra cards. I'd take a simple mana-rock over this since it gives you the flexibility to cast any of your 30 non-creature spells, which Herald's Horn wouldn't help you with at all.
• Lurking Predators is fun, but as with Herald's Horn - you won't hit things often, so this is mostly a 6-mana 'do nothing' or 6-mana 'get a ~4CMC creature'. The biggest benefit is that it deters people from swinging at you - especially with multiple creatures - but it doesn't feel like it helps your strategy in the same way.
• Gaea's Blessing - what does this do for you?
• Primal Rage - I don't think you need this in the deck. Enough of your creatures already have trample, and the rest will anyway if you had Odric out.

Final thought - this would be the ultimate flex, but if you somehow find some way to get Colossification onto Gishath during the combat step... Currently the only methods I can think of are (1) playing it on another creature then using Flicker of Fate during combat to move it to Gishath, (2) sacrificing Academy Rector during combat, (3) having it on another creature that you kill then casting Second Sunrise during combat... That's about all of the ways I can think of, let me know if you think of any more! (I guess an easier way would be to just cast it in main phase 1 and find a way to untap him. Hey ho!)

I should have gone to bed a few hours ago, but I thought I'd finish writing this before I went to bed... Little did I know how deep the rabbit hole went!

Stay safe! ^_^

swaretappedout on Dinosaurs

4 years ago

I saw your list and there is a similar deck in my playgroup that has frequently ended games quickly. From looking over your list, I have the following suggestions, that you can take with a grain of salt.

First off, I think that for explosive, fast games with Dinosaur tribal, Gishath, Sun's Avatar is a better fit as the commander. While Zacama, Primal Calamity is a great commander with toolbox removal stamped on it, I think it is most effective as commander in a deck that wants to mess around with casting it, un-tapping your lands, re-casting it, and abusing the mana you get. Something for you to think about.

Your ramp is mainly a mix of creatures that reduce Dinosaur costs like Knight of the Stampede and artifacts like Chromatic Lantern . My suggestion is that you replace some of your colorless ramp artifacts like Worn Powerstone or Fountain of Ichor with cards like Rampant Growth and/or Farseek , 2 CMC land-based ramp will speed up how quickly you can cast your commander, and will be better abused with Zacama's untap ability. Cultivate , Kodama's Reach , Explosive Vegetation all will help accelerate you into your commander, and are all fairly budget friendly options. Skyshroud Claim is great as it can grab 2 Forests which come into play untapped, which is often overlooked. If creature based ramp is more your thing, Llanowar Elves or Birds of Paradise are solid turn one plays. Also your land-count is on the low side, and I personally try to run between 36-38 lands in most of my EDH decks.

The card draw seems a little light as well, which can be an issue when you run out your whole hand. This being an aggro deck, that tends to happen quite often. Some good options are Soul's Majesty , Harmonize , and Rishkar's Expertise . 2 more cards that will be better than they look at face value are Lifecrafter's Bestiary and Runic Armasaur , the latter being a dinosaur which fits your theme!

Because you are likely going to be the threat at the table, I would look at cutting Fog and replacing it with some protection for your big beaters. Lightning Greaves , or Swiftfoot Boots do double duty of protection and granting your creatures haste, letting you swing the turn you cast them. Safe Passage is strictly worse then Make a Stand , so I would swap that out, as it can save your creatures from a "destroy-all" kind of board-wipe. Some cuts you could consider are as follows

Imperial Ceratops cut for Soul's Majesty

Fog cut for Lightning Greaves

Huatli, Dinosaur Knight cut for Lifecrafter's Bestiary

Imperial Ceratops cut for Harmonize

Fungusaur cut for Rhythm of the Wild (This one is a great card, as it shuts down counterspells nicely while also giving you the option of haste or pumping your creatures).

Overall your list looks like a fun deck to pilot, and I hope some of my suggestions were helpful. Happy brewing!

Xindlepete on Press F for Dinos in the fall.

4 years ago

Draconos89: I appreciate the shout-out, but I must admit I don't play Arena or MTGO, so my knowledge base isn't well suited to decks in those metas. Off the top, I definitely understand a lot of the reasoning that Lambofan217 has in his above breakdown, and would recommend going more in that direction for your deck as well.

In general, lifegain strategies are really only beneficial against aggro decks, so cards like Verdant Sun's Avatar and Imperial Ceratops fare much better in your sideboard against faster/more aggressive decks.

Rather than Kinjalli's Caller for ramp, why not Drover of the Mighty and/or Otepec Huntmaster ? If you draw into Drover after you have Marauding Raptor on the field, it is a 3/3 and thus will survive the Raptor's attack. While Huntmaster won't survive post-Marauding Raptor, it acts like another Raptor in the deck by also being a 2cmc creature that reduces the cost of your Dinos, but also has the upside of haste-ing whichever dinos enter the board after it. This helps keep pressure up on your opponent until you can drop Regisaur Alpha for the blanket haste as well. I think these non-Dino ramp creatures will be more effective in your deck than Kinjalli's Caller.

I don't really understand why you have Wilderness Reclamation in this deck, since you don't utilize any instant-speed effects besides Icon of Ancestry that benefit you keeping the mana open. I think if you keep this, you should consider adding some more mana-sinks you can activate at instant speed, like Thundering Spineback to use your mana to start building up a herd of 4/4 trample dino tokens.

I honestly think the deck is better served without Wilderness Reclamation, and replacing it with more dig/search effects to take some pressure off of Vivien. Commune with Dinosaurs seems like it would be really good in Dino tribal, since if you somehow whiff and find no dinosaurs in the top 5, you can at least grab a land instead and filter out 5 cards to get you closer to more dinos. Plus, if you include Thunderherd Migration , you can T1 Commune to dig and find a dino, then T2 Thunderherd Migration revealing the same dino you found with Commune and continue ramping to get your big dinos out faster.

Savage Stomp seems like an auto-include in any dinos deck, but especially one utilizing the Enrage mechanic. It only costs G when you target a dino, and since Fighting has the opponent's creature deal damage back it is a guaranteed Enrage trigger on top of targeted removal. That seems incredibly useful. I would probably also include one or two copies of Dinosaur Stampede as a win-con, since it is a combat trick and grants all your dinos Trample to push through that last bit of lethal damage.

Again, take all of this with a grain of salt, since I don't know very much about the MTGA meta, or what type of "typical dinosaur decks" you are trying to be different from. Either way, Dinos are pretty freaking badass though, and it seems like you have strong bones in this deck to improve upon!

Lambofan217 on Press F for Dinos in the fall.

4 years ago

I have been playing Dinosaur Tribal ever since Ixalan came out and have a few things to suggest. The main problem still is that the white dinosaurs kind of suck in today's standard. I had splashed into Jund dinos way back in Guilds of Ravnica and find it much more consistent and competitive against the top tier decks of the meta. With the support that those colors got in M20, its safe to say that that is still going to be your best option. Now for individual reasons about cards.

1. Kinjalli's Caller : Though the mana reduction and the high health body is very attractive, the main focus for dinosaur decks is to push damage through. With this having 0 power, it does literally nothing on its own.

2. Forerunner of the Empire : Unfortunately, this card is only used for Polyraptor combos. Being a 4 mana 1/3 is way to slow and doesn't affect the board in any big way when it hits.

3. Imperial Ceratops : Even with Maruading Raptor being able to hit this as it comes down, lifegain generally isn't revelant in a ramp style deck. Granted, it does well against aggro, so I would use this in your sideboard if you keep with the white color.

4. Trapjaw Tyrant : When this card first came out I was stoked. Unfortunately, paying 5 mana for a Deputy of Detention effect just isn't worth it. Especially when it can be removed for a lot cheaper.

5. I'm gonna put Verdant Sun's Avatar and Silverclad Ferocidons together here. These bad boys cost 7 mana. That alone is a huge thing to make happen. 4/5 times you will find these stuck in your hand and unable to be played.

6. Blood Sun : I understand that this meant to combo with Lotus Field however having a 3 mana enchantment that doesn't affect your board at all is really bad. I was recommend playing Ripjaw Raptor instead. With Marauding Raptor , it's essentially 3 mana and it gives you a creature that can continue to draw more.

7. Wilderness Reclamation : I see that you want to run Vivien, Champion of the Wilds in your deck and that's completely fine, however, you will probably find that you will rarely end up playing anything at instant speed, making the extra mana unusable. Also, if you draw this late, it ends up being a dead draw.

8. Raptor Hatchling : I love this card don't get me wrong. However, I think this is better save as a sideboard option against aggro, especially mono red.

Now a couple of cards that I would recommend would be Regisaur Alpha , Ripjaw Raptor , Savage Stomp , and Domri, Anarch of Bolas as they speed up your deck and add more power to the board, as well as giving you some removal options and enrage triggers. If you want cards to use against control, Carnage Tyrant still typically gets the job done.

Danielj111 on

5 years ago

I would recommend, if you want to keep green, use it more for ramp than you are atm. I would also recomend replacing Slash of Talons with Lightning Bolt, Crested Herdcaller with Regisaur Alpha, Two Huatli's Snubhorn with Temple Altisaur's, Everdawn Champion with Atzocan Seer, balance the land a little more, maybe some Dual Shots and Ranging Raptors for ramp and enrage triggers, maybe one Ravenous Daggertooth instead of an Imperial Ceratops so you can get enrage lifegain earlier, it's also more of an earlier bait target for removal which will benefit you. Also Regrowth, Destructive Revelry for your sideboard. Otherwise removing green, adding in more red like Silverclad Ferocidons, Raptor Hatchling and Charging Monstrosaur and the white and red Ixalan Avatars, if you cut out the green you could also lean into more of the lifegain aspect with some give lifelink spells on your fliers then you can chump block small boys with either face or enrage dinos.

MyMask69 on famished paladin brewers challenge!

6 years ago

So, you're wanting some hilarious "wtf?!, did that just happen?" moments. I would personally make things difficult for myself and try to do Famished Paladin turned to artifact with Saheeli's Artistry and given Quicksmith Rebel tap to do 2 damage ability and use it on a Sheltering Light 'ed Imperial Ceratops. I might even try to do something with lifelink and Quicksmith Genius to draw with The Locust God and Makeshift Munitions. Or, Heroic Intervention and Squire's Devotion on a Fervent Paincaster , exerting him to damage Cacophodon and untap/gain life. Then draw with the Saheeli's Artistry+Famished Paladin+Quicksmith Genius thing......IDK there's so many possibilities....