The Predator of Predators

Commander / EDH Dinosaurs Enrage Infinite Combo Primer Ramp RGW (Naya)

Mortlocke

Land (36)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Battlefield Forge
• 1x Boseiju, Who Endures
• 1x Branchloft Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Brushland
• 1x Castle Garenbrig
• 1x Cavern of Souls
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Fire-Lit Thicket
• 8x Forest
• 1x Homeward Path
• 1x Karplusan Forest
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Mountain
• 1x Plateau
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 1x Sanctum of Eternity
• 1x Savannah
• 1x Shivan Gorge
• 1x Stomping Ground
• 1x Taiga
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Timbercrown Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Turntimber, Serpentine Wood  ^Flip
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Bastion
• 1x Wooded Foothills
• 1x Yavimaya Hollow

Instant (9)

• 1x Comet Storm
• 1x Deflecting Swat
• 1x Eladamri's Call
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Flawless Maneuver
• 1x Generous Gift
• 1x Heroic Intervention
• 1x Teferi's Protection
• 1x Worldly Tutor

Creature (18)

• 1x Etali, Primal Conqueror  ^Flip
• 1x Etali, Primal Storm
• 1x Forerunner of the Empire
• 1x Gishath, Sun's Avatar
• 1x Marauding Raptor
• 1x Polyraptor
• 1x Ranging Raptors
• 1x Regal Behemoth
• 1x Regisaur Alpha
• 1x Ripjaw Raptor
• 1x Silverclad Ferocidons
• 1x Temple Altisaur
• 1x Temur Sabertooth
• 1x Topiary Stomper
• 1x Trapjaw Tyrant
• 1x Wakening Sun's Avatar
• 1x Wayward Swordtooth
• 1x Zetalpa, Primal Dawn

Sorcery (11)

• 1x Finale of Devastation
• 1x Jeska's Will
• 1x Kodama's Reach
• 1x Nature's Lore
• 1x Pir's Whim
• 1x Rampant Growth
• 1x Skyshroud Claim
• 1x Sylvan Tutor
• 1x Three Visits
• 1x Wheel of Fortune
• 1x Winds of Abandon

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Huatli, Warrior Poet

Commander (1)

Enchantment (14)

• 1x Abundance
• 1x Aggravated Assault
• 1x Asceticism
• 1x Bear Umbra
• 1x Exploration
• 1x Mana Reflection
• 1x Mirari's Wake
• 1x Mirri's Guile
• 1x Pyrohemia
• 1x Rhythm of the Wild
• 1x Rite of Passage
• 1x Smothering Tithe
• 1x Smuggler's Share
• 1x Sylvan Library

Artifact (10)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Cloudstone Curio
• 1x Herald's Horn
• 1x Jeweled Lotus
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Sword of Feast and Famine
• 1x Sword of Hearth and Home
• 1x The Great Henge
• 1x Urza's Incubator

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The Threefold Sun Incarnate

Behold Destruction!

What is best in life? Crushing your enemies. See them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women. - Conan, The Barbarian

Since you haven't already run away in fear...then clearly this is the deck and more importantly - Commander for you. Zacama can easily overrun and terrorize the battlefield all by herself, but there are times when you may need to employ a pack and it's tools to crush a wily foe. The design of this deck is as simple as nature: dominate and destroy all before you using the embodiment of pure savagery and might.

The Hunting Grounds

This deck's aim is to be a Dinosaur tribal Mid-range deck that can threaten to win between turns 6 - 8, fitting within the Focused category as defined in the video How to Power up your Commander deck by The Command Zone. The deck rarely builds a threatening board state early game, but can easily overwhelm and overrun the board given the right cards (ideally, a turn 1 Exploration or multiple early game ramp spells create the best scenarios). In terms of strategy the deck appeals to a more Timmy focused mindset, as you definitely play the big stompies - with a few sprinklings of Johnny. The Zacama based combos will require the Quick Maths to prove to the table that you have infinite mana - and you must do this in a timely fashion to keep from ruining the fun at the table. All the key cards and game winning/momentum shifting combos are all discussed in the "Tooth and Nail" tab of the accordion.

tl;dr - The best Defense is the Best Offense. Explode big threats onto the field and kill all through Combat Damage or Infinite Combos.

To get to victory, the deck requires a steady stream of cards while having enough big scary creatures to fend off other players who may wish to deny Zacama her due. Touching on that, the deck's primary weakness is that it's politically weak. For some reason having all the removal options attached to my commander makes it something of a target while just sitting (probably loudly) in the command zone, so making friends is important! Additionally, the mana base is very complicated - containing many different lands that provide multiple forms of utility. Ranging from direct damage to opponents, returning commander to hand, ramp, removal, and regeneration, knowing which lands to pursue at any given point of a game is difficult - requiring careful threat and resource assessment.

The positives of piloting a Giant 3-headed Tyrannosaurs Rex who absolutely does not give an iota of a care about whatever is in her way speaks for itself. But to have an obscene amount of utility stapled to a voluptuous 9/9 body with a buffet of keywords is simply too hard to pass up. I would say that the expensive {6}{R}{G}{W} converted mana cost would be a disadvantage, but since this commander is in Green, that issue can be somewhat mitigated. With the synergy of Enrage a simple gang of armored brutes can provide removal or even a soft lock "stax" utility to lock down the board and/or flood said board with an army of 5/5s with a bad case of multiplicity. But, for all this deck's complexity and utility simply turning right and winning fight is a perfectly viable option to smash your puny opponents.

Tooth and Nail

• Temur Sabertooth + Zacama, Primal Calamity + *12 Lands (or 6 lands and a mana doubler) - Infinite Mana, Critical Mass - During the main phase with Temur Sabertooth and 12 untapped lands in play, cast Commander. This results in {3} floating mana and an ETB trigger. When her ETB trigger resolves use two of the floating {3} to activate Temur Sabertooth’s ability targeting Zacama leaving {1} mana floating. Tap all 12 lands once again and cast Zacama leaving {4} floating mana and another ETB trigger. Use {2} to activate Temur Sabertooth again, and now I am at a net positive of {2} floating mana. Repeating the process will net one additional mana every time in {G}{R} or {W}.
  • With infinite mana I can reach critical mass by funneling it directly into Zacama – removing all of my opponents (non-indestructible) non-land permanents through multiple instances of her first or second abilities. Then I funnel the mana into her third ability to give me an arbitrarily high life total.
  • With this ultimate offense on the board it will be hard for my opponents to get a foothold on the battlefield, and I can easily kill them off one by one with Commander damage. This process is slow and not very flashy unless I have a Aggravated Assault and at least one other creature able to attack. Alternatively, I could funnel the infinite mana into Comet Storm or take advantage of Zacama’s ETB trigger and use Shivan Gorge to have my opponents swallowed up by hostile earth.
• Cloudstone Curio + Zacama, Primal Calamity + Other Creature – Infinite Mana, Absolute Destruction - This combo must be played during the main phase with Zacama ready to be cast, Cloudstone Curio, and one Other Creature in play. Lastly, the player must have access to an amount of mana at least equal to (Zacama’s Casting Cost) + (The Other Creature’s Casting Cost) + 1. Upon casting Zacama, all land sources must be tapped. Once Zacama’s ETB trigger resolves the player will have an amount of floating mana equal to The Creature’s Casting Cost + 1. Cloudstone Curio will trigger because of Zacama hitting the battlefield. The Other Creature must be chosen as the Curio’s target to return to hand. Cast the Other Creature, once it enters the battlefield the amount of mana left floating will be {1}. A Cloudstone Curio trigger will occur and Zacama will be chosen as the target. Cast her tapping all lands once again and the amount of floating mana remaining should be equivalent to The Other Creature’s Casting Cost + {2}. Access to infinite mana has been proven…what next?
• If Etali, Primal Conqueror   (or Dreadsteel Colossus as I call it) is The Other Creature on board with Zacama, then infinite Dreadsteel   triggers will be the death of your opponents as all of their non-land permanents will be exiled from their libraries. What’s more is that you can cast each exiled spell for free.
• Forerunner of the Empire + Polyraptor + Rite of Passage - P.O.U.S - Polyraptors of Unusual Size - Infinite* Polyraptors - To explain this combo, i will just quote the article Brewer's Minute: Rivals-Seven Modern Combos by SaffronOlive: "The basic idea of the combo is that we get Rite of Passage on the battlefield, use Forerunner of the Empire to find our Polyraptor, and then when Polyraptor enters the battlefield (perhaps with the help of something like Through the Breach or Dramatic Entrance), we make an infinite number of infinitely huge Polyraptors! Each time a Polyraptor enters the battlefield, Forerunner of the Empire does one damage to everything. Normally, this would kill off the Forerunner of the Empire after three pings, but with a Rite of Passage on the battlefield, every time Forerunner of the Empire pings our creatures, our team also gets a +1/+1 counter! The end result is we make as many Polyraptors as we want while also sweeping away all of our opponent's creatures and making all of our Dinosaurs huge with +1/+1 counters!"
• Bear Umbra + Polyraptor + Pyrohemia - Polyraptors... - Infinite Polyraptors - Step 1. Cast Bear Umbra targeting Polyraptor with Pyrohemia in play. Step 2. Activate Pyrohemia up to 6 times - each time triggering Polyraptor(s) Enrage ability. On the first trigger 1 copy is made - (two raptors in total). Second trigger - 2 more raptor copies are made (four in total). Third trigger - 4 raptor copies(eight in total), Fourth - 8 (sixteen in total), Fifth - 16 (thirty one in total), Sixth - 32 (sixty three in total - note the 1st raptor copy died. The original raptor with Bear Umbra has 6 damage.). Step 3. Attack with the "original" Polyraptor with Bear Umbra untapping all of your lands, enabling you to repeat the process on the next opponent's turn. (Also, any creature your opponents control with toughness less than 6 is dead.)
• Forerunner of the Empire + Marauding Raptor + Polyraptor - The Raptor Breeder - Infinite* Polyraptors - Note, this combo requires that Polyraptor be the last card cast. When Polyraptor enters the battlefield, it's Enrage trigger will be on the stack due to Marauding Raptor's passive first ability "when another creature you control enters the battlefield, Marauding deals 2 damage to it". A new Polyraptor will enter play, which will also have it's Enrage trigger activate - ad infinitum. To prevent the infinite Enrage triggers from stalling out the game (resulting in a draw), trigger Forerunner of the Empire's ability - "Whenever a Dinosaur enters the battlefield under your control, you may have Forerunner of the Empire deal 1 damage to each creature." 3 times. Note: Forerunner's ability is a "may" ability - so you can choose trigger it after you generate {X} number of Polyraptors first. The 3 Forerunner ability activations will kill all creatures with toughness 3 or less - removing itself along with Marauding Raptor - ending an infinite trigger loop and leaving behind an army of Polyraptors.
• Pyrohemia + Rite of Passage + Silverclad Ferocidons - Armored Monsters Cloaked in Fire - With all of the previously mentioned cards in play, activate Pyrohemia, each player and creature will take 1 point of damage - each creature on your side of the board will get a "This creature gains a +1/+1 counter" trigger and each opponent will get a "Sacrifice a permanent" trigger. After enough activations of Pyrohemia and the Ferocidons, your opponents will hardly have enough of a boardstate to oppose your angry dinosaurs with (ideally) many +1/+1 counters.
• Marauding Raptor + Polyraptor + Zacama, Primal Calamity - Herald of Raptors - Infinite* Polyraptors - With 9 lands (and access to Naya), Marauding Raptor and Zacama in play - cast Polyraptor. Marauding Raptor's ability triggers off on each instance of Polyraptor entering the battlefield. After creating an arbitrarily large number of Polyraptors, end the infinite Polyraptor triggers with an activation of Zacama's first ability targeting Marauding Raptor. Note: the order in which these cards are played matters - make sure Polyraptor is the last card to be cast.
• Sanctum of Eternity + Zacama, Primal Calamity + *13 Lands (or 7 lands and a mana doubler) - Sanctum of Infinite Calamity - Infinite floating Mana - With 13 lands (or 7 with a mana doubler) and Sanctum of Eternity - cast Zacama, (note: you are always tapping all lands except Sanctum of Eternity). Once Zacama's ETB effect triggers, you'll have {4} floating. Use {2} to activate Sanctum of Eternity, returning Zacama to hand. You will have {2} floating. Recast Zacama and you'll have {5} floating. Use {2} to activate Sanctum returning Zacama to hand. You'll have {3} floating, netting you {1} mana. Recast Zacama, and you'll have {6} floating, netting {2} mana. Pay {2} to activate Sanctum returning Zacama to hand - you'll have {4} floating, and then after casting her - you'll then have {7} mana, netting you {3} . Upon proving you have infinite mana, you gain infinite life, infinite Artifact/Enchantment destruction, infinite damage to creatures and unlimited power!...except you don't end the game necessarily.
• Etali, Primal Conqueror + Sword of Hearth and Home - Conqueror’s Onslaught - With Dreadsteel Colossus   equipped with the Sword of Hearth and Home each successful assignment of combat damage will result in another Dreadsteel ETB trigger due to the “flicker” effect of the sword bringing in an additional basic land. Simple, but effective.

Grimlock

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to this deck, as there is an alternate commander (it is legal to swap commanders between games).However, the alternate commander of this deck is not actually legal- enter Grimlock, Dinobot Leader  . He is the epitome of what makes Dinosaurs cool - but turned to 11. If you disagree then I would like to officially inform you that you are wrong. Good day to you. At one point, silver-bordered cards were temporarily legal in commander from December 01 2017 until January 15th 2018. But I maintain that if your playgroup is cool with the use of silver-bordered cards, and that it isn't too disruptive (refer to the silver-bordered cards that were banned (or remained banned) during the Jan 15th legal period) then it's appropriate for play. With Grimlock   at the helm, the deck does lose a lot of it's ability to control the board - therefore it's definitely for a more casual game/meta (threatening to win between turns 8 and 10). But, the deck does gain a more streamlined approach: Play Dinos. Turn Right. Win Fight. - providing the ultimate Timmy experience.

Additionally, you get to live out the fantasy of the following episode of transformers:

If you were wondering about what transformer I use to pay for Grimlock  's activation cost I chose the MP-08 Grimlock Masterpiece, pictured below:

Grimlock @ Amazing Spiral Show

Top Ranked	Achieved #10 position overall 5 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Primer 4 years ago
Date added	5 years
Last updated	1 month
Key combos	Temur Sabertooth + Zacama, Primal Calamity Cloudstone Curio + Zacama, Primal Calamity Forerunner of the Empire + Polyraptor + Rite of Passage Bear Umbra + Polyraptor + Pyrohemia Marauding Raptor + Polyraptor + Zacama, Primal Calamity Forerunner of the Empire + Marauding Raptor + Polyraptor Pyrohemia + Rite of Passage + Silverclad Ferocidons Etali, Primal Conqueror + Sword of Hearth and Home
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	20 - 0 Mythic Rares 56 - 0 Rares 10 - 0 Uncommons 4 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.64
Tokens	City's Blessing, Copy Clone, Dinosaur 3/3 G, Elephant 3/3 G, Monarch Emblem, Treasure
Folders	Dinosaurs are the Best, im gonna build but its too much money, Deck ideas, Interesting Commander Decks, Future deck ideas, Decks to Reference, decks to try, Decks to Get, Decks to look at, Cool Concepts, See all 119