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Ever since I started up MTGO I had been wanting to try out dinosaurs. Not sure if it the artwork or the love of Jurassic Park but this is my attempt to play a deck that will be fun and hopefully somewhat competitive. The deck attempts to optimize the enrage ability of many of the dinosaurs so there are a decent amount of dinos with that ability added in mixed with a variety of ways to accelerate the deck so I can cast the dinos effectively. If you have some constructive criticism, I am all ears as I am always looking to improve both the deck and my own deck-building ability.

One of the difficulties I found when building a dino deck is their high CMC. To overcome this I have a number of creatures to lower the CMC and accelerate the deck such as, Kinjalli's Caller and Marauding Raptor. I am also running a number of ramping dinosaurs/enchantments like Ranging Raptors and Utopia Sprawl. In total, I have 8 creatures in the deck that lower the CMC of the dinosaurs/creatures and 7 ramping dinosaurs/enchantments giving me goods odds of being able to hit some of the big guns much quicker than usual.

In terms of triggering the enrage ability, cards like Cinderclasm hit all the creatures going for a mass enrage or removal of weaker creatures while others are more targeted enrage like Reckless Rage, Rile, and Savage Stomp. Running Marauding Raptor and Forerunner of the Empire provide some additional enrage triggers as well. In total, I have 15 ways to trigger enrage in addition to combat damage giving me good odds of being able to trigger that ability consistently.

As this deck relies heavily on having certain creatures on the field to either lower the cost of the big guns, trigger enrage, or hit hard with dinosaurs; I added in ways to "search" the deck for what I want/need. Ripjaw Raptor provides draws when dealt damage via enrage, Rile provides a cheap draw while also letting me trigger an enraged ability, The Great Henge meshes well with this deck given the big creatures the deck fields and provides me a draw ability when a creature is cast, and lastly Forerunner of the Empire provides me the way to tutor for a dino in need. That gives me 9 cards total to "search" the deck to keep the fun going.

Playtesting Feedback

  1. Determining which big dinos to include seems to be pretty tricky as each has pros and cons. Ghalta, Primal Hunger and Thrasta, Tempest's Roar can be cast for cheap if conditions are met with Thrasta being a bigger immediate threat thanks to guarantied haste. Zacama, Primal Calamity has utility options. The Tarrasque has some evasion and can help clear the board. Gishath, Sun's Avatar can cast additional dinosaurs for free if he can hit. Wakening Sun's Avatar can clear the board of all non-dinos when cast likely pushing the game into my favor...Lots of options and each is a bit situational...After playing around with things a bit I believe I have settled on running a single copy of Ghalta, Primal Hunger for my ability to cast him early for dirt cheap is pretty high, Zacama, Primal Calamity for his utility, and Gishath, Sun's Avatar for his ability to swing and flood the board with dinosaurs.

  2. Deck has no answer for enchantments like Ghostly Prison. It is a shame there is only a two dinosaurs with the ability to destroy artifacts/enchantments. Likely need to add in either a few copies of Thrashing Brontodon or at least one Zacama, Primal Calamity to have an answer for things like this. It was recommended I consider Masked Vandal over Thrashing Brontodon and I do like this. A little cheaper to cast, no sacrifice needed, and I do not need to pay to activate the ability other than exiling a creature from my graveyard.

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Updates Add

It was recommended I try to speed up the deck a bit more with additional ramp. Thus 4xUtopia Sprawl was added to the deck. As these require a forest, I did rework the lands by removing two filter lands to make way for two additional pain lands that include a forest type providing me a total of either 16 forests or ways to fetch a forest. To make room for 4xUtopia Sprawl I dropped the following:

-Forerunner of the Empirex1 -Silverclad Ferocidonsx1 -Ranging Raptorsx1 -Trapjaw Tyrantx1

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95% Casual

Competitive

Top Ranked
  • Achieved #19 position in Modern 2 years ago
  • Achieved #1 position in Modern Jank 2 years ago
  • Achieved #1 position in Modern Zoo 2 years ago
Date added 2 years
Last updated 2 years
Splash colors WR
Legality

This deck is Modern legal.

Rarity (main - side)

6 - 1 Mythic Rares

24 - 8 Rares

12 - 2 Uncommons

10 - 4 Commons

Cards 60
Avg. CMC 3.51
Tokens Dinosaur 3/3 G
Folders Build Future
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