If you love Dinosaurs since you were a child and dream to restore them to rule the Earth (and the game), then Dinosaur Tribal is the right deck for you! Let’s see how you can command their primal rage to devastate your opponents!
I love tribal decks because they combine synergy and flavor and of course power. On top of that you can find many unique cards that support a tribe and can be great budget options as those cards work only on a specific tribal deck and are bad to unplayable to any other deck. That’s why I will try building and presenting a series of decks for all those who share the love for tribal decks.
Pygmy Allosaurus from Ice Age was the first card to be printed with the creature type Dinosaur. The type was dropped in the Grand Creature Type Update and subsequent Dinosaurs were printed as Lizard Beasts. The creature type would be restored later: In September 2017, 13 older cards were updated to have the subtype. With this, Fungusaur from Alpha retroactively became the earliest card with the subtype. In the Ixalan block, Dinosaurs are one of the four main supported tribes. The Lost Caverns of Ixalan also has a dinosaur Typal theme. (source: MtG Wiki)
There are many legendary Dinosaurs that can lead the tribe, but the most powerful and popular are the Naya (
) commanders Gishath, Sun’s Avatar and Pantlaza, Sun-Favored. Gishath was the optimal choice for years but with the coming of Pantlaza he found a strong competitor. Both are great choices and it is quite hard to tell which one is better. In short, Gishath is an expensive but explosive EtB commander while Pantlaza is a less expensive value engine but needs more time to get great value. Both help with ramp, but Pantlaza is a safer option with less value, while Gishath has to attack which is more risky but has Haste and Trample and can ramp on the battlefield in the same turn a handful of Dinosaurs (and even hit hard and become a finisher).
Gishath, Sun’s Avatar is my personal choice for Dinosaur Tribal because I believe greater instant value gives Gishath an advantage in our Dinosaur Tribal build, but Pantlaza, Sun-Favored is a great addition in the 99. One way to empower our build, is to amplify the effect of Gishath by directly empowering his stats or doubling his trigger, but that comes with the risk of becoming too dependant on him and empowering effects are not optimal in Dinosaurs since most of them have great stats already and feels like a win more strategy. Another option to amplify his effectiveness is to try going full Tribal. Instead of trying to multiply his effect, we can add more Dinosaurs to our deck so that he can hit more Dinosaurs because of the increased ratio. Nowdays, Dinosaurs are a tribe with rich effects attached on them so we can replace staple cards (like instants, sorceries and enchantments) with Dinosaurs that have same/similar utility.
The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Commander deck Veloci-RAMP-Tor, is a great starting point for building Dinosaur Tribal since it features many great Dinosaur cards. Despite that, there is plenty of space for upgrades. Although you can call this article a precon upgrade, you can start from zero and buy singles. The optimal building option depends on the price and availability of the cards.
Synergy Diagram
I always like to make a simple synergy diagram in order to deeply comprehend the potential and the strategy areas that are supported by the commander when I choose top-down building. But in some cases, I do a mix of top-down and bottom-up building.
In some tribes there are mechanics that are bound to a tribe. In our case a mechanic bound to some Dinosaurs is Enrage. In such cases we can build a subtheme on our deck giving it more depth, without sacrificing its tribal focus.
Let’s analyze the main goals of the deck:
- Add the best Dinosaurs. Our priority is to add the ones with attached abilities (card draw, ramp, removal, etc.) and Enrage synergy.
- Add Dinosaur Tribal support. Cards that support Dinosaur Tribal seem a great choice for our build.
- Add Enrage synergy cards. Since there are some Dinosaurs with powerful Enrage abilities, cards that synergize with Enrage are very strong in our build.
- Add many ramp cards. Ramp is the way to get our (mana expensive) Dinosaurs into play sooner, so it is a necessary part of our build.
- Add cards that synergize with our strategies. To make the best out of our strategies, we can further amplify them by adding cards that support many of our strategies.
For the sake of flavor some of the choices are not optimal, but are (usually budget friendly) alternatives that greatly fit the Dinosaur tribal theme.
The deck:
Dinosaur Tribal
Comparative Analysis
Let’s see how the deck compares to the general ratios of my deckbuilding guide.
35 Lands
24 Ramp: Kinjalli’s Caller , Mosswort Bridge , Arcane Signet , Sol Ring , Otepec Huntmaster , Atzocan Seer , Huatli, Poet of Unity , Hunting Velociraptor , Ranging Raptors , Topiary Stomper , Wayward Swordtooth , Cacophodon, Hulking Raptor, Knight of the Stampede, Pantlaza, Sun-Favored, Regal Behemoth, Trumpeting Carnosaur, Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant, Gishath, Sun’s Avatar, Zacama, Primal Calamity, Thunderherd Migration, Savage Order, Welcome to . . ., Castle Garenbrig
14 Target Removal: Itzquinth, Firstborn of Gishath , Thrashing Brontodon , Tranquil Frillback , Wayta, Trainer Prodigy , Bronzebeak Foragers , Raging Regisaur (ping), Trapjaw Tyrant , Wrathful Raptors , Kogla and Yidaro, Trumpeting Carnosaur, Silverclad Ferocidons, Apex Altisaur, Zacama, Primal Calamity, Savage Stomp, Welcome to . . . (kinda)
5 Board Wipes: Forerunner of the Empire (ping), Raging Swordtooth (ping), Wakening Sun’s Avatar, Breath of Darigaaz, Pyrohemia
3 Graveyard Recursion: Atzocan Seer , Monster Manual (kinda), Welcome to . . .
1 Graveyard Hate: Tranquil Frillback
5 Tutors: Huatli, Poet of Unity , Forerunner of the Empire , Savage Order , Gishath, Sun’s Avatar (kinda), Pantlaza, Sun-Favored (kinda)
5 Protection: Hulking Raptor (self-protection), Temple Altisaur , Carnage Tyrant (self-protection), Your Temple Is Under Attack , Rhythm of the Wild (counterspells)
11,5 Card Draw: Runic Armasaur , Curious Altisaur , Ripjaw Raptor , Earthshaker Dreadmaw , Etali, Primal Storm (card advantage), Regal Behemoth , Kogla and Yidaro (1/2), Etali, Primal Conqueror (card advantage), Your Temple Is Under Attack , Colossal Majesty , Garruk’s Uprising , Vaultborn Tyrant
16 Finishers/ Surprise /Alternate win conditions: Huatli, Poet of Unity , Dinosaurs on a Spaceship , Kogla and Yidaro , Etali, Primal Conqueror, Ghalta and Mavren, Goring Ceratops, Rampaging Brontodon, Silverclad Ferocidons, Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant, Gishath, Sun’s Avatar, Zetalpa, Primal Dawn, Apex Altisaur, Zacama, Primal Calamity, Ghalta, Primal Hunger, Pyrohemia, Sawhorn Nemesis
As we see from the comparative analysis, the rates per category are very good. There is no score below the optimal low average and seven categories are above the optimal max average. We see three great spikes, Ramp at 24, Finishers/ Surprise /Alternate win conditions at 16 and Target Removal at 14 which are a result of our strategies: We need extreme Ramp to be able to play our big Dinosaurs that many act as Finishers and both them and our Enrage strategy lead us to have strong Target Removal.
Deck Highlights, synergy and flavor options:
Ramp
Gishath, Sun’s Avatar provides a ton of ramp once he hits an opponent. Although of his heavy mana cost, he can pay us back instantly, ramping many Dinosaurs into the battlefield and turning the tide to our favor, as we have already analized. The true leader of Dinosaur Tribal.
Kinjalli’s Caller, Otepec Huntmaster and Knight of the Stampede are some of the few creatures in our deck that are not Dinosaurs but they greatly support our Dinosaur Tribal theme (and greatly fit its flavor) as they are Dinosaur mana cost reducers. I prefer them over other Dinosaur mana dorks like Ixalli’s Lorekeeper which seem better (as they produce colored mana) but in our build, their toughness makes them unable to withstand mass ping effects that may be caused by our Enrage enablers. Otepec Huntmaster by 
can also give target Dinosaur Haste until end of turn which is very valuable for our build.
Atzocan Seer by can produce one mana of any color, but in addition he can be sacrificed to return target Dinosaur from our graveyard to our hand. Great utility for Dinosaur Tribal.
Huatli, Poet of Unity // Roar of the Fifth People is a great utility card that can be used as a land tutor in the early game, by paying 
and exiling her we can trigger her transformation into a Saga and create two 3/3 Dinosaur tokens at I, turn all our creatures into mana producers (: Add , or )at II, tutor a Dinosaur from our library to our hand at III and becomes an amazing finisher by giving all our creatures double strike and trample at IV. It needs some setup but it can flood us with value in our Dinosaur Tribal build.
Hunting Velociraptor is one of the best cards for Dinosaur Tribal since it gives Dinosaurs spells we cast Prowl
and thus by dealing any amount of combat damage with a Dinosaur, we can easily ramp any big hitter with such a reduced mana cost that almost feels like cheating. No wonder why its price has skyrocketed, since it is an amazing card for Dinosaur Tribal which is quite popular.
Ranging Raptors on Enrage trigger let us enjoy a free Rampant Growth effect. With our Dinosaur Tribal build, we can trigger it many times during the game and get amazing value. Topiary Stomper has also a free Rampant Growth effect on ETB trigger but that comes with a drawback: It can’t attack or block unless we control seven or more cards. Paying just one more to have a free 4/4 Dinosaur with Vigilance in late game sounds like a good investment and on top of that we get more Tribal synergy.
Wayward Swordtooth is a great source of Ramp since it let us play an additional land each turn. It can’t attack or block until late game (until we have the city’s blessing) but that’s hadly a problem. It’s 5/5 statline make it safe from small threats such as small removal spells/abilities. Great card for Dinosaur Tribal.
Cacophodon is a combo material. It can be part of an infinite combo with Pyrohemia and spells that protects our creatures from dying like Your Temple Is Under Attack, causing infinite damage. Moreover, it can be part of an infinite combo with Wayta, Trainer Prodigy and Polyraptor causing infinite creature tokens, infinite death triggers, infinite ETB and infinite LTB. The latter combo can be explained in detail here (EDHREC). Even without the infinite combo, it can be a reliable ramp source with all our Enrage enablers. Excellent choice for our Dinosaur Tribal.
Hulking Raptor is a great mana producer as at the beginning of our precombat main phase, we add . Having Ward is great for self-protection and its power makes it a considerable threat too. Another excellent choice for our Dinosaur Tribal.
Pantlaza, Sun-Favored on Dinosaur ETB let us Discover X where X is that creature’s toughness. The limit of one trigger per turn slighty limits her potential, but it is enough to make her a great ramp source. She is the original face commander of the precon and a very powerful card, even as part of the 99 of our Dinosaur Tribal.
Regal Behemoth introduces the monarch mechanic to Dinosaur Tribal and we can get great value if we can keep being the monarch: It doubles the mana production and helps in color fixing while at the same time it help us with card draw which is always very important. A great pick for our deck.
Trumpeting Carnosaur on ETB has Discover 5 which is a nice ramp ability. Moreover, by paying and discarding it, it can be used as target removal dealing 3 damage to targer creature or planeswalker. Its flexibility make it a great pick for our Dinosaur Tribal.
Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant on ETB let us put all creatures from our hand onto the battlefield. Insane value in a Dinosaur Tribal deck full of huge threats. In addition with a huge 12/12 body and Trample she can act as a finisher on her own. One of the most powerful Dinosaurs and her power is on par with Gishath, Sun’s Avatar.
Thunderherd Migration in our Dinosaur Tribal will nearly always be a Rampant Growth. I choose it over Rampant Growth just for the flavor.
Welcome to . . . // Jurassic Park is one of the best cards for Dinosaur Tribal and one of the most iconic and flavorful ones of Jurassic Park crossover. When it transforms into a Legendary Land, it becomes a Gaea’s Cradle for Dinosaurs. (to understand its power/value, at the time of writing of this article, Gaea’s Cradle costs 700-900$). That is without evaluating its other utilities. (that will be analized in the relative categories later in this article) A must-have card for Dinosaur Tribal.
Castle Garenbrig is a great ramp source for our Dinosaur Tribal, since we have an extremely high number of creatures and many very high mana drops. By paying , we add six but only to cast creatures or abilities of creatures. Perfect land for our build!
Mosswort Bridge can act as a ramp source as long as we pay , and control creatures with total power 10 or greater. That sounds easy in our Dinosaur Tribal and our chances are high to hit an important creature with Hidaway.
Target Removal
Zacama, Primal Calamity is one of the most powerful Naya Dinosaurs and the only reason it doesn’t compete for the commander position, is that is doesn’t care for Dinosaur Tribal but it is mostly a combo commander. Nevertheless, it works wonders as a part of the 99, being a huge threat and a finisher with a 9/9 body and Vigilance, Reach and Trample, refunding its cost (if we casted it) letting us either ramp (by untapping all our lands) or use its abilities on the same turn. Those abilities include target damage, artifct/enchantment removal and gaining life. What an amazing Elder Dinosaur!
Thrashing Brontodon, Tranquil Frillback and Kogla and Yidaro are all Dinosaurs that can be used instead of spells for artifact/enchantment removal on our Dinosaur Tribal. Thrashing Brontodon is the weakest since we have to sacrifice it and pay 
to activate its removal. Tranquil Frillback needs us to pay on ETB (but also is flexible and offers us more options), while Kogla and Yidaro needs us to pay and discard it to activate its artifact/enchantment removal but then it is shuffled into our library and we draw a card. Kogla and Yidaro can also act as a target creature removal as on ETB we can choose it to fight target creature we don’t control and as a finisher by gaining Trample and Haste until end of turn. Amazing utility card! Welcome to . . . // Jurassic Park can also act as a weird noncreature artifact removal option as it turns them into artifact creature walls at I and destroys them later at III.
Itzquinth, Firstborn of Gishath on ETB let us pay to have target Dinosaur we control deal damage equal to its power to target creature. Cool removal option and It greatly fits the flavor of our Dinosaur Tribal with Gishath, Sun’s Avatar as our commander.
Wayta, Trainer Prodigy could be a great Enrage commander since she is in fact an Enrage doubler, she comes with Haste and by paying just she can make two creatures we control fight each other. Nevertheless, she works wonders as a part of the 99 of our Dinosaur Tribal since we run the best Enrage Dinosaurs. In addition, by paying , she can act as a repeatable target creature removal making target creature we control fight another target creature. Great value and synergy with our deck. As we have analized above, she can also be part of an infinite combo with Cacophodon and Polyraptor. She is the alternate commander of Veloci-RAMP-Tor precon, so her art greatly fits the flavor of the deck too.
Bronzebeak Foragers and Trapjaw Tyrant are dinosaurs that have temporary removal (Bronzebeak Foragers exiling nonland permanents on ETB and Trapjaw Tyrant exiling creatures on Enrage trigger) until they leave the battlefield. Bronzebeak Foragers can make the effect permanent (moving the exiled card to graveyard) by paying 
where X is the mana value of the exiled card (and we also gain X life). On the other hand Trapjaw Tyrant can be triggered many times with our Enrage enablers and even double them with Wayta, Trainer Prodigy so we can get amazing value. Both are great removal options for Dinosaur Tribal.
Raging Regisaur on attack trigger deals 1 damage to any target. Although we could use it as removal for small threats, we mostly want to use the ping damage to activate our Enrage abilities. Nice synergy with our Dinosaur Tribal build.
Wrathful Raptors makes all our Dinosaurs reflect any damage dealt to them to any non-Dinosaur target. It is an amazing card for Dinosaur Tribal as it greatly multiplies our damage potential. It also works wonders with Enrage as we can both trigger Enrage on our creatures and direct the damage dealt by our Enrage enablers to our opponents gaining multiplied value.
Trumpeting Carnosaur as we have analized previously, by paying and discarding it, can be used as target removal dealing 3 damage to target creature or planeswalker.
Silverclad Ferocidons costs a lot but has a very strong Enrage ability as on Enrage trigger each opponent sacrifices a permanent. With our Enrage enablers and Wayta, Trainer Prodigy we can get amazing value. One of the best Enrage Dinosaurs for our Dinosaur Tribal.
Apex Altisaur is another high cost Dinosaur with a very strong Enrage ability as on Enrage trigger it fights up to one target creature we don’t control. With a 10/10 body, the fight can always be in our favor. Moreover, it fights target creature we don’t control on ETB, so we can get instant value. Another one of the best Enrage Dinosaurs for our Dinosaur Tribal.
Savage Stomp in Dinosaur Tribal becomes a better Prey Upon as it will always target a Dinosaur and it will also buff it with +1/+1. Combined with the huge bodies of our Dinosaurs, it can be highly effective and is flavorful too!
Board Wipes
Wakening Sun’s Avatar needs to be cast from our hand to become an one-sided board wipe, destroying all non-Dinosaur creatures. And it comes along with a 7/7 body. It worth its high mana cost as it is the perfect wipe for Dinosaur Tribal.
Breath of Darigaaz is great in our Dinosaur Tribal for its flexibility. It can either be cast for dealing mass ping damage (and triggering our Enrage abilities) or we can pay an additional for its Kicker cost and it deals 4 damage to each creature withour flying and each player instead.
Pyrohemia has great synergy with our Dinosaur Tribal since it is a repeatable Enrage enabler and at the same time it can deal a considerable amount of damage to each creature and each player and become a board wipe or even a finisher. As we have analized above, it can also be part of an infinite damage combo with Cacophodon and spells that protects our creatures from dying like Your Temple Is Under Attack. One of the best cards for our build!
Raging Swordtooth and Forerunner of the Empire are not actually board wipes but more mass Enrage enablers, but since they do mass ping damage they can also remove small threats.
Graveyard Recursion
Atzocan Seer, apart from being a mana producer, can be sacrificed to return target Dinosaur from our graveyard to our hand. Great utility for Dinosaur Tribal.
Welcome to . . . // Jurassic Park when it becomes transformed into Jurassic Park, apart from being an amazing ramp source as we have already analized, becomes an amazing graveyard recursion engine, as it gives all our Dinosaurs Escape, with the Escape cost to be equal to their mana cost plus exiling three cards from our graveyard. I have to say it again, it is AMAZING for Dinosaur Tribal.
Graveyard Hate
Tranquil Frillback apart from being an artifact/enchantent removal as we have seen above, is flexible and can be the perfect graveyard hate card for Dinosaur Tribal, exiling target player’s graveyard on ETB by paying an extra . Among the other options is to gain 4 life which seems not so big deal, but the flexibility is its true power.
Tutors
Forerunner of the Empire on ETB let us tutor a Dinosaur on top of our library while at the same time it works as an Enrage enabler dealing mass ping damage on Dinosaur ETB. A great tutor for Dinosaur Tribal with extra synergy for Enrage strategy. A must-have card for our build.
Savage Order is an amazing tutor for Dinosaur Tribal as it tutors any Dinosaur from our library into the battlefield and with it we can ramp a huge threat into the battlefield, early in the game. It has the drawback that it need us to sacrifice a creature with power 4 or greater as an additional cost, but in our build we have plenty Dinosaurs with 4+ power so it won’t be a problem. In addition the tutored Dinosaur also gains indestructible until our next turn which is great for protecting it. One of the best tutors for our deck!
Gishath, Sun’s Avatar and Pantlaza, Sun-Favored are not exactly tutors but triggering their abilities let us do a limited search in our library and ramp creatures to the battlefield directly from it, so they give us kinda semi-tutor abilities that provide us with great card advantage. I count them both as ramp and tutor tools since their effect is a mix of ramp and card advantage.
Protection
Temple Altisaur is a great protection tool for Dinosaur Tribal since it limits any damage from a source that targets other Dinosaurs we control to 1 damage. It has great synergy with Enrage too as 1 damage is the optimal proc for our Enrage abilities.
Your Temple Is Under Attack is a great flexible instant spell that can be used either as mass protection (giving all our creatures indestructible until end of turn) or for card draw (both for us and for target player). It power lies in its flexibility.
Rhythm of the Wild protects our creatures from counterspells, which is not a small deal in our Dinosaur Tribal where we run an extremely high number of creatures. In addition it gives them Riot and that is huge since Haste on our Big threats turns them into finishers. Great utility card in any creature-heavy deck!
Carnage Tyrant and Hulking Raptor have self-protection. Carnage Tyrant in particular is very hard to be removed since it can’t be countered and has Hexproof and Trample, making it a serious threat and a potential finisher.
Card Draw
Ripjaw Raptor is a great Enrage Dinosaur that let us draw a card on Enrage trigger. In our Dinosaur Tribal build we can proc it multiple times to draw many cards. A great inclusion!
Runic Armasaur let us draw a card whenever an opponent activates an ability of a creature or land that isn’t a mana ability. In commander, we have great chances to draw many cards since activated abilities are very common. A nice alternative card draw source for our Dinosaur Tribal.
Curious Altisaur is an amazing card draw engine for Dinosaur Tribal as it let us draw a card whenever a Dinosaur we control deals combat damage to a player. We can expect to draw many cards from it. One of the best card draw picks for our build.
Everyone loves a playable Colossal Dreadmaw! Drawing a card for each Dinosaur we control on ETB, is enough to earn its place in our Dinosaur Tribal.
Etali, Primal Storm and Etali, Primal Conqueror // Etali, Primal Sickness give us great card advantage. Etali, Primal Storm on attack trigger exiles the top card of each player’s library and let us cast any of them for free, while Etali, Primal Conqueror // Etali, Primal Sickness gives us the same effect on ETB trigger and has a terrifying transformation: By paying 
it becomes 11/11 with Trample and Indestructible and “Whenever Etali, Primal Sickness deals combat damage to a player, they get that many poison counters”. Needless to say, it can be an amazing finisher too.
Colossal Majesty and Garruk’s Uprising are enchantments with similar utility, as on creature ETB with 4+ power they let us draw a card. Garruk’s Uprising also has draw a card on ETB if we control a creature with 4+ attack and gives our creatures Trample which is very important for a build with so many big threats. Both are great options for Dinosaur Tribal. Love the fact that the original art greatly fits the flavor of our deck too!
Vaultborn Tyrant is a powerful Dinosaur as it can be a card draw and life gain engine (whenever a creatue with power 4+ ETB under our control). In addition, it has a respectable 6/6 body and Trample and on death trigger, if it’s not a token, we create a copy of it so it is quite durable. An top card for Dinosaur Tribal.
Finishers/ Surprise /Alternate win conditions
Goring Ceratops on attack trigger lets our other creatures gain double strike until end of turn (while it also has double strike), so it can easily turn most of our dinosaurs to finishers and our swings to lethal. Great card for Dinosaur Tribal.
Huatli, Poet of Unity // Roar of the Fifth People as we have already analized above, needs some setup but is a great multipurpose card that ends as an amazing finisher by giving all our creatures double strike and trample.
Dinosaurs on a Spaceship gives other Dinosaurs +1/+1 and Vigilance and Trample. While the buff is minimal, combined with Trample, huge Dinosaur bodies, and the fact that we can attack with no regrets for defence (due to Vigilance) makes it a potential finisher. It has itself a respectble 7/7 body with Vigilance and Trample and a Suspend ability which is not that great, but in any case it is a nice extra option.
Any of our big Dinosaurs that have trample are potential finishers. Kogla and Yidaro on ETB can have Trample and Haste and becomes an instant threat, Etali, Primal Conqueror // Etali, Primal Sickness has an alternate win condition as we have analized above, Rampaging Brontodon can easily have double+ stats depending on our lands, Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant, Ghalta and Mavren and Ghalta, Primal Hunger have huge 12/12 bodies, while Gishath, Sun’s Avatar, Zacama, Primal Calamity and Zetalpa, Primal Dawn have multiple great keyword abilities that make them huge threats and great finishers for our Dinosaur Tribal.
Any creature with 8+ power can also be a potential finisher so Silverclad Ferocidons and Apex Altisaur can also help us finish games, especially if we give them Trample or Double Strike.
Sawhorn Nemesis is a great addition to our Dinosaur Tribal as it is a damage doubler (to target player) and it greatly synergizes with our commander Gishath, Sun’s Avatar as doubling his damage doubles the effectiveness of his ramp ability which is insane. Moreover, with our buffy dinosaurs and our big tramplers, doubling their damage can lead to ground shaking, terrifying and devastating blows which is a very flavorful way to play and greatly fits Dinosaur Tribal. It makes most of our creatures finishers and doubles the effectiveness of the ones that were already considered finishers making our build more consistent.
As we have already analized above in the Board Wipes section, Pyrohemia can also act as a finisher. A great utility card for our Dinosaur Tribal deck.
Other synergy pieces
Great Dinosaurs
Quartzwood Crasher follows closely our big finishers with a 6/6 body and Trample and even creates a X/X green Dinosaur Beast creature token with trample each time we deal damage to a player with a creature with Trample, where X is the amount of damage those creatures dealt to that player. Very powerful effect and body for its mana cost and a great option for Dinosaur Tribal.
Regisaur Alpha creates a 3/3 green Dinosaur creature token with trample on ETB and gives other Dinosaurs we control Haste, which is very important for our Dinosaur Tribal.
Bellowing Aegisaur can easily buff our Dinosaurs with many +1/+1 counters with our Enrage strategy and synergizes well with Pyrohemia enabling us to make it a one-sided board wipe.
Verdant Sun’s Avatar let us gain life on creature ETB, equal to that creature’s toughness. In Dinosaur Tribal we can repeatedly gain huge amounts of life which is always a good thing and may keep us alive.
Polyraptor can alone work greatly with our Enrage strategy, but is mostly known for being a combo material, creating infinite tokens. We have described such a combo with Wayta, Trainer Prodigy and Cacophodon, above in the ramp section of our Dinosaur Tribal build.
Dinosaurs with Enrage : 8 cards
For our Dinosaur Tribal build we have picked the best Dinosaurs with Enrage. We expect to trigger their abilities many times and get great value.
Enrage Enablers : 7 cards
Because Enrage can trigger by any damage, we run enough Enrage Enablers so that we can trigger Enrage abilities more often and more times and multiply the value we get.
Let’s see some more statistics about our deck. Some important info to care about is the mana curve and the card type distribution, as it can help us understand better our deck and may indicate where there is space for improving it.
Mana Curve
The mana curve is abnormal, as there are many high mana drops at positions 6-10 but also a low number of 1-2 drops. Surprizingly, at middle range (positions 3-5) the curve is ideal. In general the curve seems somewhat unbalanced and that is the result of many high mana costed Dinosaurs.
In the future we should monitor the new sets for any good low mana Dinosaurs as we could make our deck more balanced by dropping some high mana Dinosaurs to add some on the 1-2 drop positions. The extreme ramp provided by our deck can somewhat help us overcome the abscence of many low mana drops.
Card Type Distribution
The Dinosaur Tribal Card Type Distribution shows the dominant tribal creature-heavy theme with 53 creatures. All other categories have a smaller presence with Enchantments at 5, Sorceries at 4, Artifacts at 2 and Instants at 1. No Planeswalkers or Battles are present for the time.
Of course statistics and comparative analysis are great tools but they don’t always tell the whole truth, since many factors like synergy and combo pieces are hard to be measured numerically. For example in this deck, with a heavy ramp strategy and Gishath, Sun’s Avatar, we expect to be able to cheat/ramp our bigger Dinosaurs into play rather than actually cast them and with Gishath, Sun’s Avatar that is much more consistent than the statistics numbers shown.
Update v1 (Outlaws of Thunder Junction)
Update v2 (Modern Horizons 3)
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