Dinosaur Tribal

Commander / EDH Aggro Creature Cheat Dinosaurs Enrage Kaheera, the Orphanguard Protection RGW (Naya) Stompy

bushido_man96

Dinos (37)

• 1x Apex Altisaur
• 1x Bellowing Aegisaur
• 1x Burning Sun's Avatar
• 1x Cacophodon
• 1x Etali, Primal Storm
• 1x Frilled Deathspitter
• 1x Ghalta, Primal Hunger
• 1x Goring Ceratops
• 1x Kinjalli's Sunwing
• 1x Majestic Heliopterus
• 1x Marauding Raptor
• 1x Polyraptor
• 1x Quartzwood Crasher
• 1x Raging Regisaur
• 1x Raging Swordtooth
• 1x Rampaging Brontodon
• 1x Ranging Raptors
• 1x Raptor Hatchling
• 1x Regisaur Alpha
• 1x Ripjaw Raptor
• 1x Ripscale Predator
• 1x Runic Armasaur
• 1x Shifting Ceratops
• 1x Siegehorn Ceratops
• 1x Silverclad Ferocidons
• 1x Snapping Sailback
• 1x Sun-Crowned Hunters
• 1x Temple Altisaur
• 1x Thrashing Brontodon
• 1x Thrasta, Tempest's Roar
• 1x Thundering Spineback
• 1x Titanoth Rex
• 1x Trapjaw Tyrant
• 1x Verdant Sun's Avatar
• 1x Wakening Sun's Avatar
• 1x Wayward Swordtooth
• 1x Zetalpa, Primal Dawn

Protection (7)

• 1x Boros Charm
• 1x Heroic Intervention
• 1x Make a Stand
• 1x Rootborn Defenses
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Teferi's Protection
• 1x Temple Altisaur

Anthems (5)

• 1x Garruk's Uprising
• 1x Goring Ceratops
• 1x Kinjalli's Sunwing
• 1x Majestic Heliopterus
• 1x Regisaur Alpha

Land (37)

• 1x Arctic Treeline
• 1x Battlefield Forge
• 1x Blossoming Sands
• 1x Brushland
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Elfhame Palace
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 5x Forest
• 1x Gaea's Cradle
• 1x Gruul Guildgate
• 1x Jungle Shrine
• 1x Karplusan Forest
• 4x Mountain
• 4x Plains
• 1x Plateau
• 1x Rith's Grove
• 1x Rootbound Crag
• 1x Rugged Highlands
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 1x Savannah
• 1x Shivan Oasis
• 1x Spectator Seating
• 1x Sunpetal Grove
• 1x Taiga
• 1x Wasteland
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Yavimaya Hollow

Removal (9)

• 1x Apex Altisaur
• 1x Aura Shards
• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Burning Sun's Avatar
• 1x Krosan Grip
• 1x Naya Charm
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Thrashing Brontodon
• 1x Trapjaw Tyrant

Enrage Triggers (7)

• 1x AEther Flash
• 1x Caltrops
• 1x Marauding Raptor
• 1x Pyrohemia
• 1x Raging Regisaur
• 1x Raging Swordtooth
• 1x Task Mage Assembly

Overrun (3)

• 1x Boros Charm
• 1x Naya Charm
• 1x Return of the Wildspeaker

Finisher (1)

• 1x Warstorm Surge

Commander (1)

Companion (1)

Enrage Payoffs (11)

• 1x Bellowing Aegisaur
• 1x Cacophodon
• 1x Frilled Deathspitter
• 1x Polyraptor
• 1x Ranging Raptors
• 1x Raptor Hatchling
• 1x Ripjaw Raptor
• 1x Siegehorn Ceratops
• 1x Silverclad Ferocidons
• 1x Sun-Crowned Hunters
• 1x Trapjaw Tyrant

Draw (8)

• 1x Elemental Bond
• 1x Etali, Primal Storm
• 1x Garruk's Uprising
• 1x Return of the Wildspeaker
• 1x Ripjaw Raptor
• 1x Rishkar's Expertise
• 1x Runic Armasaur
• 1x Scroll Rack

Ramp (7)

• 1x Cultivate
• 1x Marauding Raptor
• 1x Mirari's Wake
• 1x Rampant Growth
• 1x Ranging Raptors
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Wayward Swordtooth

Boardwipes (1)

• 1x Wakening Sun's Avatar

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Sideboard

Other (4)

• 1x Kaheera, the Orphanguard
• 1x Kavu Lair
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Sun-Blessed Mount

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Maybeboard

Other (6)

• 1x Etali, Primal Storm
• 1x Generous Gift
• 1x Powerstone Minefield
• 1x Rampaging Brontodon
• 1x Splintering Wind
• 1x Warstorm Surge

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Deck #1 in the Big Dumb Tribal Series

Introduction

This deck is the first in what has become my collection of Big Dumb Tribal Decks. This one came about with the release of Ixilan, and my then 7-year-old son being a dinosaur nut (taking after his old man; I was much the same as a child). He had just started playing Magic with me, and when I told him there were dinosaurs coming out in the Ixilan set, he had to have a dinosaur tribal deck, so here we are.

Gishath, Sun's Avatar was originally in the 99, and I ran Mayael of the Anima as the Commander, my reasoning being that she would facilitate getting dinosaurs into play nicely, and her mechanic mimicked that of Call of the Wild, a favorite card of mine from my first time around in Magic. However, I found the build using Mayael unsatisfactory, made the change to Gishath, and the deck is much better for it.

Ixilan provided plenty of dinos for the deck, but they weren't all great to have in the deck; many made the cut just because they were dinos. But when Rivals of Ixilan came out, dinosaurs really got ramped up, and there were many that were worthy of inclusion, and thus the deck sits as it is today, with more of a focus on the Enrage ability and cheating big dumb dinosaurs into play.

The big trick I find in building these Big Dumb Tribal Decks is cheating the mana curve. Something like Elf Tribal or Goblin Tribal is easy; you can average a CMC between 2 and 3 with no problem. Doing so with something like Dinosaurs is bit more tricky. I try to build my decks using The Command Zone's template, trying to have at least 10 mana ramp spells, 10 card draw spells, 5 single-target removal, and 5 boardwipes (although I do tend to flex on the boardwipes). Following is the layout of how I filled this template and some explanation on choices.

Mana Ramp

The initial build had a mix of mana rocks and land ramp. I've made the change to run fewer rocks. A few land ramp spells, Mirari's Wake, and some tribal staples like Urza's Incubator and Herald's Horn. These two artifacts help to bring down the curve of the deck. With access to , I think it's the better way to go. And since Gishath has a high casting cost anyway, the I didn't feel the focus on two-mana rocks was necessary, nor advantageous. Growing Rites of Itlimoc   is usually very easy to flip into Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun.

Card Draw

Sources for repeatable card draw include the aforementioned Ripjaw Raptor, Elemental Bond, and Kavu Lair. Rishkar's Expertise and Return of the Wildspeaker provide great burst draws due to the size of creatures in the deck.

I don't have 10 draw spells in the deck, but Gishath, Sun's Avatar provides card advantage of his own. A well-timed Boros Charm can really net a lot of creatures off the top of the library. Lurking Predators provides a nice little bonus when my opponents cast spells. If I end up with a handful of dinos I'd rather get out for free, I can use Scroll Rack to throw them on top of the library in response to Gishath's combat damage trigger.

Single-Target Removal & Boardwipes

For more "traditional" single-target removal, I've got Krosan Grip (which comes in handy when the AEther Flash + Polyraptor combo is going), Swords to Plowshares, Beast Within, and Aura Shards. That's only four, but the Enrage mechanic helps me pick up a few more. Silverclad Ferocidons and Trapjaw Tyrant do lots of work, too.

As for boardwipes....like I said, I tend to flex on this one. I was listening to an episode of The Commander's Brew one day, and one of them mentioned that they don't like to run a lot of wipes, mainly because it can slow the game down and really draw it out. Part of his idea of Commander is seeing decks do what they want to do, and I like this take on boardwipes. That, and I just didn't leave much room for them. I could slide out some of the Overrun spells to make room for a few, but I doubt I will. I am running Pyrohemia, which can wipe the board if needed, but is mainly in here to trigger the Enrage mechanic. Wakening Sun's Avatar provides a nice tribal-theme wipe, and Apex Altisaur can remove quite a few threats as well.

The Enrage Mechanic

Now Gishath, Sun's Avatar has a fantastic combat ability, and the deck takes off when he gets out and swings. Enrage is the icing on the cake for this deck. The Enrage mechanic offers so many fun interactions in this deck, and makes the Big Dumb Animals even more fun than it is to just turn them sideways. Here we have a nice mix of Dinos with an Enrage trigger, and Dinos that have an effect or ability that can trigger Enrage, really bringing out the tribal synergy in the deck. There are also some non-Dino Enrage triggers included as well to help round out the consistency.

Enrage Triggers

Caltrops, Pyrohemia, and AEther Flash are some of the staple cards that can trigger Enrage. Another one I've found to be quite useful is Task Mage Assembly. I find it useful in that I can reach out and get a single target if I just want that effect, unlike Pyrohemia, which will hit everything on the board. The downside is that the other players at the table can make use of it, too, so it requires some planning to use.

The tribal themed cards that trigger Enrage include Raging Regisaur and Raging Swordtooth.

Key Enrage Abilities

Bellowing Aegisaur can boost the whole team, and Siegehorn Ceratops and Snapping Sailback can buff themselves, and I find they get out of control very quickly if not dealt with. Raptor Hatchling and Polyraptor make more Dino tokens. Ripjaw Raptor is great for card draw. Silverclad Ferocidons and Frilled Deathspitter provide just a bit more damage to spread around. Temple Altisaur is great for damage control, making more Enrage triggers per turn possible.

Dinosaur Lords/Anthems

Tribal decks will typically run anthem effects or "lords" to buff the tribal army, and I've got some of that going on in here, too. Although the goal of this deck is to not necessarily make big creatures bigger, some of the Dinos and some of the Enrage effects do help the tribe out.

Anthem Effects

Static anthem affects are provided by Mirari's Wake and Thundering Spineback. Regisaur Alpha provides haste. Majestic Heliopterus and Goring Ceratops provide nice combat boosts when they attack. Temple Altisaur doesn't provide a buff, but he does a good job of nullifying enemy attackers.

Companion

The initial build of this deck ran a lot of the Human support cards that were in the Ixilan block, like Forerunner of the Empire and Knight of the Stampede. Although some of the tutoring and ramp effects that these cards provided were nice, I found that I needed to cram more Dinos into the deck in order to really take advantage of Gishath's combat damage trigger. So I trimmed the fat, leaving only Dinosaur creatures in the deck, and added Kaheera, the Orphanguard as the deck's Companion. Kaheera is the best anthem in the deck, providing a small combat boost, but more importantly gives all the Dinos vigilance. This helps immensely, allowing for big combat swings while not leaving me open to big counter attacks. It was a worthy inclusion to the list.

Combos

AEther Flash + Polyraptor is the only combo in the deck that can go infinite, but Cacophodon + Gaea's Cradle have very nice synergy.

Protection

This is a creature-heavy deck, very focused on attacking and winning with combat damage. To this end, it's important to make sure to protect the herd. I went heavy on spells to do this; heavier than I would in most of my decks. Teferi's Protection, Boros Charm, Heroic Intervention, Make a Stand, and Rootborn Defenses.

So that is Dinosaur Tribal, the first in the Big Dumb Tribal series I have. I always appreciate comments and suggestions, and I thank you for taking the time to read this over.

Other decks in the Big Dumb Tribal Series Show

• WUBRG Dragon Tribal
• Sea Monster Tribal
• Giant Tribal
• Zombo-Combo
• Daxos the Returned Enchantment Tribal

Top Ranked	Achieved #44 position overall 2 years ago Achieved #42 position in Commander / EDH 2 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH RGW (Naya) 4 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Tribal 4 years ago
Date added	7 years
Last updated	2 years
Key combos	AEther Flash + Polyraptor
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 0 Mythic Rares 40 - 3 Rares 30 - 1 Uncommons 11 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	4.62
Tokens	Beast 3/3 G, City's Blessing, Copy Clone, Dinosaur 3/3 G, Dinosaur Beast */* G
Folders	Saved Decks, Cool Decks, Naya EDH Decks I Have, Cool Decks, Big Dumb Tribal Decks, Commander, Dinosaur, challenge, stuffs, Commander