Gishath's Dino Rampage

Commander / EDH Aggro RGW (Naya)

baea1996

Creature (32)

• 1x Apex Altisaur
• 1x Burning Sun's Avatar
• 1x Carnage Tyrant
• 1x Deathgorge Scavenger
• 1x Drover of the Mighty
• 1x Etali, Primal Storm
• 1x Forerunner of the Empire
• 1x Ghalta, Primal Hunger
• 1x Gigantosaurus
• 1x Goring Ceratops
• 1x Kinjalli's Caller
• 1x Kinjalli's Sunwing
• 1x Marauding Raptor
• 1x Otepec Huntmaster
• 1x Polyraptor
• 1x Quartzwood Crasher
• 1x Raging Regisaur
• 1x Rampaging Ferocidon
• 1x Ranging Raptors
• 1x Regisaur Alpha
• 1x Ripjaw Raptor
• 1x Runic Armasaur
• 1x Temple Altisaur
• 1x Thrashing Brontodon
• 1x Thundering Spineback
• 1x Trapjaw Tyrant
• 1x Verdant Sun's Avatar
• 1x Wakening Sun's Avatar
• 1x Wayward Swordtooth
• 1x Xenagos, God of Revels
• 1x Zacama, Primal Calamity
• 1x Zetalpa, Primal Dawn

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Domri Rade
• 1x Huatli, Dinosaur Knight

Land (36)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Boros Garrison
• 1x Bountiful Promenade
• 1x Canopy Vista
• 1x Cavern of Souls
• 1x Cinder Glade
• 1x Clifftop Retreat
• 1x Command Tower
• 4x Forest
• 1x Gruul Turf
• 1x Jungle Shrine
• 1x Krosan Verge
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 3x Mountain
• 1x Path of Ancestry
• 2x Plains
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Rootbound Crag
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 1x Scattered Groves
• 1x Selesnya Sanctuary
• 1x Sheltered Thicket
• 1x Spire Garden
• 1x Stomping Ground
• 1x Sunpetal Grove
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Unclaimed Territory
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Artifact (6)

• 1x Herald's Horn
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Scroll Rack
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Urza's Incubator

Commander (1)

Sorcery (9)

• 1x Blasphemous Act
• 1x Cultivate
• 1x Farseek
• 1x Finale of Devastation
• 1x Gamble
• 1x Kodama's Reach
• 1x Nature's Lore
• 1x Rishkar's Expertise
• 1x Skyshroud Claim

Instant (7)

• 1x Boros Charm
• 1x Congregation at Dawn
• 1x Eladamri's Call
• 1x Heroic Intervention
• 1x Naya Charm
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Worldly Tutor

Enchantment (7)

• 1x Elemental Bond
• 1x Furnace of Rath
• 1x Growing Rites of Itlimoc  ^Flip
• 1x Mirari's Wake
• 1x Pyrohemia
• 1x Rhythm of the Wild
• 1x Warstorm Surge

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Overview

Must go faster... So we can get this Dino train online! Welcome to my Gishath Dino tribal EDG deck! He’s one of my favorite decks for a number of reasons! First, I love dinosaurs from an academic perspective. Secondly, this deck is the perfect balance of power, aggro, and memes. It’s memey because it lacks a solid win condition other than flooding the board with dinos. With that being said, excessive play testing has proven that winning through flipping dinos of the top is a very serious win condition and needs to be respected. This deck is very powerful and consistent, while also making the game fun for everyone. Even though your opponents may be terrified of your board. They will also be laughing their asses off at how ridiculous and swingy this deck is. It’s a ton of fun, and I hope you guys enjoy the build!

PS. This is supposed to be an optimized Gishath build so any suggestions are welcome and encouraged.

TLDR Stats

Tier: 4 (http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/list-multiplayer-edh-generals-by-tier/)

Archetype: Aggro

Theme: Dinosaur Tribal; Enrage

Win Cons: Swing wide; Commander Damage; Polyraptor+Forerunner of the Empire Tokens

Why Gishath?

Ever since I was a kid, I have been fascinated by dinosaurs. To think that these gigantic creatures (pun intended) dominated life on Earth before us is mind boggling to me. Little did I know that my interest in dinosaurs would come back to magic. Gishath embodies everything I want in a commander. I love the aggressive playstyle (unless I'm playing GAA4) that Gishath offers. Tribal decks are incredibly interesting to me, and he is not considered a top tier threat in EDH. I love taking mid tier commanders, and achieving the maximum power for each of them. As a result, we have the deck before you today!

Playstyle

When playing this deck, you are as aggressive as a hungry shark that sees a dead seal. We want to hit the mana ramp early, as we want to cast Gishath at least a turn or two early. Once Gishath is out, you are swinging at the opponent with the least amount of creatures, even if they are not the problematic player. It may seem mean, but your deck doesn’t do anything if it’s not flipping at least 4 cards each Gishath trigger. Usually you can politic your way into a blocker free swing to take care of the player threatening to win (unless that player is you).

Once you have a few dinos and Gishath out, your commander will immediately become the target of a ton of hate. To counter this you want to keep the aggression with swings, and hopefully flip a ton of threatening creatures to take some of the heat off of Gishath.

By the late game, you should have either won already, or be dead. This deck doesn’t necessarily have a strategy for the late game since we’re looking to overwhelm our opponents with dinos early and mid.

Win Cons

Commander Damage

Gishath has a fantastic power number of 7, potentially putting someone on a 3 turn clock. Normally I wouldn’t say commander damage is a main win con for a deck, but it definitely is in this one. 3 turns is quicker than you think, especially when each of Gishath’s swings can put multiple dinosaurs on the board.

Swing wide

If commander damage doesn’t kill your opponents, the amount of dinos that you flip sure will. Not much to talk about here. Just manipulate your top so you can cheat a bunch of high power dinos in and swing!

Infinite Polyraptors

While very mana intensive, this combo is really really cool and synergizes well with the enrage mechanic.

Cards you need: Polyraptor , Forerunner of the Empire , and Heroic Intervention or Boros Charm

1. Have Forerunner on the field and cast Boros Charm or Heroic Intervention.

2. Cast Polyraptor, allow the Forerunner ping trigger to resolve.

3. Polyraptor gets pinged and creates a copy of itself.

4. Repeat this process until you have infinite polyraptors and your opponents' boards are clear of creatures.

Pros and Cons

Positives

• Easy to Play: Gishath’s style of play is very simplistic in that there aren't any weird combos that are difficult to find/explain. All you need to do is swing as often as you can and you'll be set!

• So much Fun!: no deck has made my friends smile from losing as much as Gishath has. It’s such a ridiculous concept of a commander, but it surprisingly works. Everyone will have a great time playing with or against the deck, and that will definitely lighten a playgroup full of optimized competitive decks

• Different Tribe: Dinosaurs are such an interesting tribe in Magic since Ixalan was the first set to feature them. Idk about you guys, but I’m a bit bored of Merfolk, Vampires, Zombies and Goblins as tribes. Nothing wrong with any of them; I just seem so many decks on them and they all seem to play the same. Gishath brings a completely new tribe and strategy to the game, that’s really really cool.

Negatives

• Mana Screwed: You do not want to be mana screwed with this deck. Gishath needs to be on the field swinging. Not to mention almost all of your Dinosaurs are a considerable amount of mana to use.

• Hard Counters: This deck, more than any, relies on generating a lot of mana. If mana sources are wasted/destroyed, the deck really suffers and feels the effects. This makes land hate/destruction decks and themes a pretty brutal counter to Arahbo. Likewise, oppressive control strategies will stop early swings.

• Skill ceiling: While super fun, its power level has a very low ceiling, due to its simplistic style of play. Yes, the Polyraptor combo is nice, but the deck can't, and will not get that combo off consistently. Gishath is not built for anything close to cEDH, nor is it meant to compete with anything Tier 2 or above. For the more casual EDH players, this will not bother you. For those who are into more competitive decks, this may turn you to another direction.

Notable Inclusions

Zacama, Primal Calamity : While we do not cast her from our hand very often, top decking Zacama with Gishath is nothing to scoff at. A 9/9 beater will always be scary in Magic, no matter what format you're playing.

Staff of Nin : While extremely expensive to play, Nin is really nice for pinging not only our opponents, but also our own creatures. Enrage is very prominent in this deck so a pinger we can control is very nice.

Zetalpa, Primal Dawn : Same as Zacama! Huge dinosaur with Keyword soup is pretty nice.

Notable Exclusions

Fetch Lands: My budget for this deck isn't infinite, especially since it's not cEDH, so I felt like the fetch lands were not necessary. And honestly, fetch lands don't power up this deck significantly. We have a ton of lands that tap for every color we need where fetches will not be super beneficial. Yes, they can thin our deck a tad, but that is something I am willing to forego to keep my money.

Date added	6 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	12 - 0 Mythic Rares 46 - 0 Rares 23 - 0 Uncommons 10 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	4.16
Tokens	City's Blessing, Copy Clone, Dinosaur 3/3 G, Dinosaur Beast */* G, Emblem Domri Rade