Wizards has shown us, rather blatantly, how a perfect midrange curve works. Ridiculousness ensues.
With Enrage, it means blocking our guys gives us a bonus that can potentially put the game away. They'll know you have big fat fatties in the deck and giving someone lands or cards can put themselves too far behind. So they'll have to either race or find an alternate plan.
Ranging Raptors
: well if they die we get a land...so, ok. The curve goes long and our fatties get more and more potent. I like to attack with it early and then leave it back to discourage attacks.
Ripjaw Raptor
: nice booty, drawing cards is nice too. Can kill a Regisaur and live, and also presents the dilemma of blocking or giving me a card. Always like to see 1 in an opening hand, and drawing multiples just draws things out which gives us the advantage.
Regisaur Alpha
: funny thing about this "alpha" is the second one you get in play becomes the new alpha, one-upping last turn's guy by borrowing his haste. This deck is all about pressure and getting this down on turn 4 with
Otepec Huntmaster
gets a swing for 7 and a lot of potential problems if left alive. All we need is one more land to curve into the new super fatty...
Carnage Tyrant
: as Timmy as it gets. Following up Reggie gives it haste. So cool. You can't counter it or use targeted removal against it, so once you have 6 mana people are gonna start freaking. Plus, if things go right there's gonna be so much other pressure that trading itself to remove a bunch of blockers isn't that horrible.
Ghalta, Primal Hunger
can come down pretty quickly. Reggie brings in 7 power and a Huntmaster takes care of 2 more already. And both give Ghalta haste.
Gishath is for the long game and mirror, and to punish those who dared block my Ripjaw and Ranging Raptors!
Deathgorge Scavenger
helps against Aggro or Tokens with the lifegain, and can limit Golgari, Drakes, Jump-Start by eating graveyard.
Huatli, Radiant Poet: the lifegain is solid against Aggro or Burn decks, the ultimate let’s you alpha strike on a clogged board, and even the zero gets you a blocker or threat if needed. She’s tougher to eliminate than a creature. Seems to fit well in meta so went up to 2 mainboard. You might also consider dropping to 1x and adding a copy of
Vivien Reid
instead.
Ramp
Otepec Huntmaster
is the lynchpin. Not only does it "ramp" in a Dino Tribal build, but it doesn't have to tap to do so. We'll still be tapping it to activate an ability but instead of mana it gives us haste. Just plain nuts. So either you can chomped my raptors or trade with them and/or chump and give me something.
Another great aspect is it allows for a T3
Ranging Raptors
, with haste, and a
Savage Stomp
on Raptors to trigger Enrage, thus getting a land and allowing it to fight whatever they’ve played and possibly alpha strike, or force them to trade their creature in combat. Win-win-win. Set up for a T4 hasty
Carnage Tyrant
.
I currently am not running
Drover of the Mighty
. Turn 2 Is rather be playing
Thunderherd Migration
or Huntmaster as it doesn’t die to
Goblin Chainwhirler
. This is the same reason there are no
Llanowar Elves
. Just too susceptible to getting put behind a turn.
If you have 2 in hand it can set up some accelerated plays, allowing you to get a T3 second Huntmaster in pay as well as a 3-drop and then you can cast a hasty
Carnage Tyrant
T4!
Seriously fast and fun.
Get ready for everyone to start holding up mana for a removal spell as just staying alive for one turn allows this guy to get some serious value. Don't believe me? Look at this:
T2:
Otepec Huntmaster
T3:
Ripjaw Raptor
, swing for 4.
T4:
Regisaur Alpha
, use Huntmaster to give it haste, swing for 11.
T5:
Carnage Tyrant
! With haste! (GG)
Or
T1 Land
T2: Land,
Drover of the Mighty
T3: Land,
Ripjaw Raptor
T4: Land, another Drover and
Ghalta, Primal Hunger
Right? You get the idea. Nuts.
Add in his PIC
Drover of the Mighty
which can serve as copies 4-8 of
Otepec Huntmaster
but unfortunately does have to tap to help ramp and so the power/toughness bonus doesn't really get much use, particularly if using him to try and stay on the accelerated curve in the absence of Huntmaster. It's nice that it adds any color and so can be used for non-dinos.
Ranging Raptors
is a slightly less obvious source of ramp but creates the dilemma in combat of either taking the hit or letting us pull a land. In this sense, were helping the strategy either way by adding a clock through direct damage or ramping to fatties sooner.
Commune with Dinosaurs
to me is like a better
Attune with Aether
. A solid turn 1, that can be an outlet for excess mana to ensure land drops or get the creatures you need to stay on curve. Get ready to dig!
Savage Stomp
and
Pounce
can act as removal and ramp by activating Enrage. These were switched in for
Beneath the Sands
which helps in many situations but I felt like I was cycling it more often than not.
How to survive?
Obviously wraths and exile/bounce removal are an issue. Luckily
Shapers' Sanctuary
at least gives us a bonus for a Dino getting hit.
Kinjalli's Sunwing
is perfect for the mirror. It neuters haste enablers and keeps potential blockers tapped down.
Deathgorge Scavenger
can get incidental lifegain to buy time, and has the bonus of removing cards from a graveyard to slow down a number of decks.
Enrage is an incredible mechanic, allowing us to get a bonus if they try and burn a creature, wrath the board, or have the audacity to block us.
I go on beat down as soon as able. Im almost always gonna swing with a T3
Ranging Raptors
or
Ripjaw Raptor
following a T2
Otepec Huntmaster
. They'll often let in the small damage to avoid giving us land/card advantage, which is fine when we start dropping tramplers over the next 3 turns. Trading in combat just is only going to give us gas for later turns.
Leave back a
Raptor Hatchling
or
Ranging Raptors
for defense to dissuade ground-based attacks.
T2
Sunpetal Grove
and
Rootbound Crag
are nice follow ups to a T1 basic Forest or, even better, a
Stomping Ground
or
Temple Garden
if you don't have a 1-drop.
I pretty much mulligan until I get a couple lands and a 2-drop ramp creature and either a couple 3-4 drop Dinos or a
Commune with Dinosaurs
.
Turn 1 this deck wants one of 3 plays: a shock land (if I have an Ixalan dual land in hand), a
Shapers' Sanctuary
off a
Forest
(with an Ixalan dual in hand), or a
Commune with Dinosaurs
off a
Forest
if I have a solid had that's just missing one piece.
Feedback and +1's appreciated as always!
More to come...
