Dino-Combo

Casual Dinosaurs RG (Gruul)

Andramalech

Creature (18)

• 4x Birds of Paradise
• 4x Goblin Anarchomancer
• 2x Klothys, God of Destiny
• 4x Marauding Raptor
• 4x Polyraptor

Sorcery (12)

• 4x Faithless Looting
• 4x Green Sun's Zenith
• 4x Natural Order

Land (20)

• 4x Ancient Tomb
• 4x Cragcrown Pathway  ^Flip
• 4x Dryad Arbor
• 4x Stomping Ground
• 4x Wooded Foothills

Instant (10)

• 2x Atarka's Command
• 4x Blazing Salvo
• 4x Lightning Bolt

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Sideboard

Instant (11)

• 2x Heroic Intervention
• 3x Noxious Revival
• 2x Snakeskin Veil
• 2x Veil of Summer
• 2x Vines of Vastwood

Sorcery (4)

• 2x Gaea's Blessing
• 2x Primal Command

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Maybeboard

Creature (18)

• 3x Atzocan Seer
• 3x Kinjalli's Caller
• 3x Knight of the Stampede
• 3x Otepec Huntmaster
• 3x Shifting Ceratops
• 3x Wayward Swordtooth

Instant (4)

• 2x Crop Rotation
• 2x Gods Willing

Enchantment (2)

• 2x Khalni Heart Expedition

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This Gruul-colored ({R}{G}) deck was designed around two dinosaurs that came from the Ixalan blocks, Marauding Raptor & Polyraptor. This deck uses their combo for victory. Chomp-chomp-chomp!

"How does it work?"

This combination of effects between two creatures ends up producing an infinite amount of creatures if left unchecked. With Marauding Raptor in play as Polyraptor enters the field, it triggers the effect of the first to deal damage to the newly entering Polyraptor. The damage registers and causes Polyraptor to create another one of itself.. which in turn reactivates Marauding Raptor. Without any other interaction.. this is a stalemate.

"How do I win?"

The only thing keeping the cycle going once you've started the combo is the existence of Marauding Raptor, so feel free to allow that ability to resolve at whatever threshold you want. The key component is stopping the combo with a Lightning Bolt effect. Thus, giving you infinite dinosaurs.

FAQs & Sideboard

"Why build this list? The interaction is flimsy and protecting it is hard in a competitive setting."

..because who doesn't love dinosaurs??!? I have a real big love for chompy bois and with Ixalan slated (again) in late 2023, I'm hoping to inevitably revisit these ideas.

"What pieces are competitive viable?"

Klothys, God of Destiny and Atarka's Command are both straight savage bombs in Gruul ({R}{G}) colors. I'd use these guys in any competitive build that shares both because of the pure utility for ramp, damage, and Graveyard control over your opponents.

However, some other pieces aren't too impactful. The Ancient Tomb and Green Sun's Zenith of the deck provide little to the overall functionality, it is more of a space to speed up ramp if nothing else. So more interactive pieces might benefit a playstyle better.

"What sideboard picks are we using?"

I personally believe this can be answered dependent on a few things: intent, meta, and budget.

({0}):

Under 1.00$

• Naturalize
• Abrade
• Return to Nature
• Guttural Response
• Reclaim
• Firespout
• Natural State
• Snakeskin Veil
• Primal Command

({1}):

More than 1.00$

• Atarka's Command
• Decimate
• Eternal Witness
• Anger of the Gods
• Flamebreak
• Nature's Claim
• Red Elemental Blast

({2}):

More than 5.00$

• Carnage Tyrant
• Veil of Summer
• Noxious Revival
• Shatterskull Smashing  
• Klothys, God of Destiny
• Blood Moon
• Engineered Explosives
• Pyroblast

({3}):

More than 15.00$

• Green Sun's Zenith
• Fable of the Mirror-Breaker  
• Seasoned Pyromancer
• Ensnaring Bridge
• Fury
• Heroic Intervention

({4}):

More than 25.00$

• Finale of Devastation
• Force of Vigor
• Endurance
• Wrenn and Six

Turn 1

On our first turn we emphatically need one thing: a mana dork. So what better dork than one that provides us with a flying blocker at worst? Birds of Paradise is necessary setup for turn two, where two more reduction bodies have to make it to the field.

Turn 2

On turn 2, in order to nail this combo on turn 3, you need an Ancient Tomb to make it out, so that you have access to {R}{R}{G} exactly. In order, cast Goblin Anarchomancer and THEN Marauding Raptor for only {R}.

Turn 3

On turn three, you need any Ole land down. Using Natural Order, sacrifice your Birds of Paradise to go get Polyraptor and put him into play. If I'm not mistaken, you'll have used {1}{G}{G} to have done it, leaving you with access to at least one {R} mana, which is necessary to interrupt the combo flow. Let Polyraptor resolve until you have the desired amount of dinosaurs, then casting Blazing Salvo or Lightning Bolt to end the combo, gifting you an immaculate board state.

({G}{R}{B}) Grumpy Bumpy Dinos

This panel is included so that I may detail some Jund-variant specific dinosaurs, but truthfully (much like the Naya-shard alternative) serves to surgically dissect our deck for no better purposes than maybe a nuance of playstyle choice. For instance, by name Abrupt Decay and Assassin's Trophy are the only stapled inclusions that could make sense. Not that some finagled deck-list wouldn't appreciate this effort, but for what this combo is supposed to do, I see no real reason to call this a Jund unless we include some Black Dinosaurs.

On that topic of Dinosaurs including the third color shard (in this case it's {B}), and considering when this deck was initially created, I could've said that Rotting Regisaur and Deathrite Shaman would have been the only creatures that could have done me some real justice.

Besides some Reanimator tactics through cards such as Exhume, Reanimate, Entomb, etc., you really only serve to crap on the manabase that is developed for Gruul needs, and replace our whole structure with a gas-ramp into something something profit. Personally, I don't mind the idea of a Jund-Dino-Build, but trying to recreate this shell when it's already so clearly defined for the combo, doesn't really mean we're going to improve our odds of success.

I'm gonna rate this 5/10 if the current list is 10.

({G}{R}{W}) Honkin Bonkin Dinos

Now despite how the Jund-shard color aligned materials went for this build, I believe that some White-associated cards might actually be helpful here; things like Kinjalli's Caller can enter the field turn 1 and left unabated, speed up the process pretty significantly.

At the core functionality of 'include {W}' I don't really see much of the overall playstyle changing, but I do have a chronicled list that I have had time to think about if we did, in fact include the Naya-shard.

Dromoka's Command comes to mind from when I ran a Zoo deck in Naya colors, for it's utility and ease of use.

Path to Exile seems a valuable removal at any stage of the game, honestly.

Including {W} in our list would provide us the ability to sideboard Leyline of Sanctity and even run things like Solitude, which would strictly just be better than running Path, and more useful in the slot.

I'm sure there's other associated cards that could help us accomplish this task while frivolously adding another color to worry about, and while easier than my former shard that was detailed, this shard still doesn't provide quite enough love to merit the shift.

I'm gonna say like 7/10 if the current list is 10.

Top Ranked	Achieved #40 position overall 2 years ago Achieved #4 position in Casual 2 years ago
Date added	5 years
Last updated	7 months
Legality	This deck is Casual legal.
Rarity (main - side)	10 - 0 Mythic Rares 34 - 4 Rares 4 - 7 Uncommons 12 - 4 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.35
Tokens	Copy Clone
Folders	wishlist, Decks