Welcome,to Jurassic park.
One may wonder how much room there is in my heart for giant lizards and I'm gonna say that there is enough for both Dinos and Dragons.
I tried building this deck a couple of months ago with the arrival or Ixalan and as we can all guess it downright sucked.Rivals fixed some problems the tribe had,mostly with the lack of any good beaters/finishers because let's face it, Colossal Dreadmaw and Ancient Brontodon were not very spectacular.
The 3 mono Elder dinos are all amazing and Zacama, Primal Calamity is the Naya general I never knew I wanted. We additionally got a bit more Enrage love in the form of a descent activator Forerunner of the Empire and a very juicy Polyraptor and Silverclad Ferocidons.
Now obv the tribe isn't as refined or efficient as Elves,Goblin,Slivers and etc.,but if you are looking for some prehistoric stompy fun then they are perfect for you.
I had to make the choice between playing for a fast agressive game and using Gishath, Sun's Avatar as card and board advantage or play a more control-ish and slow game with ramp and a lot of answers.
The list I chose relies on the first strategy which led to a decent amount of ramp for a fast General and not that many answers to things.
Deck tech and ideas:
Enrage- Enrage is a good mechanic for these colors. Red has plenty of ways to deal small amounts of dmg to all creatures. Green has the fight mechanic and White can provide some protection or A/D buffs.
Ripjaw Raptor is a stellar card in its colors and an excellent early drop or tutor target. Every deck need some card draw and green always has a hard time with it. This card you will never be upset to see.
Trapjaw Tyrant is a dino I think deserves a slot. Yes,he is not a Path to Exile or a Journey to Nowhere but he can temporarily remove blockers and/or problematic creatures. Has a decent body and is worth the try.
Silverclad Ferocidons is a card that looks and feels very dangerous. It can find a home in almost every red deck that likes to burn the board and it will feel scary. He performed well for me and stomped over my opponents' board states. I hate the lack of Trample,but that seems to be a given with WotC.
Polyraptor can procreate at a faster rate than a cockroach, and I swear it's ridiculous. The high mana cost doesn't justify the amount of shenanigans this card can do. Great card,great Gishath hit,and an immediate problem for your opponents should you get an activator.
Bellowing Aegisaur is that weird card that doesn't quite feel so powerful. I do like how he pumps my other enrage dinos,and with Trample it can Give Gishath a nice boost.Also works pretty nicely with Zetalpa, Primal Dawn since he has a rather low base power even with Double strike.
Ranging Raptors is an underestimated card but with an activator can provide the much needed land drops to satisfy the steep curve of the deck. Deck thinning and shuffling is always important and I wouldn't take this card out.
The activators:
Forerunner of the Empire is such a sweet card. . He can tutor a nice dino for Gishath and then Enrage it for some effects. Granted,he does kill himself,but it is a "may" clause and Bellowing Aegisaur can save the poor warrior. It can act as a pleasant board wipe against you opponents' tokens and small creatures and is repeatable.
Caltrops serves the same purpose as Forerunner and can actually hurt token decks a lot. Obv not as versatile as the aforementioned but it gets the job done. It has performed well for me so I am keeping it.
Raging Swordtooth is a not repeatable activator and that upsets me. Sometimes I prefer to let it go to the bottom of the deck and wait for a shuffle and some Enragers as to not waste him. He is a good body for 5 mana and has Trample,so I think he is worth a slot.
Raging Regisaur is the smol brother of Raging Swordtooth but he is a repeatable activator that is cheap,fits the tribe and can sometimes kill small stuff. I like him and would keep him. Would've like him to have a keyword or two.
Pyrohemia is awesome in this deck. It's a nightmare for tokens and generals with low tougness. I love this card,it is great.
Zacama, Primal Calamity is somewhat far fetched to be considered an activator,but if you happen to have Temple Altisaur it's not really that stupid and if you can afford it why not?
The Beaters:
Gishath, Sun's Avatar is obviously capable of hitting face and killing people the good old-fashioned way. He provides card advantage and creates a board state.
Zacama, Primal Calamity- when I saw this beast I was about ready to jump to the moon. Sweet,sweet toolbox for 9 mana plus with all the ramp he is not even that uncastable. He has 3 great abilities and 3 great Keywords. Don't really have much to say about it.
Etali, Primal Storm is beautiful. It's the kind of card Red wants to deal with all the unfair and powerful spells. Stealing stuff from my opponents and casting my stuff for free makes this dino one hell of a value generator. Guaranteed to draw same removals doe.I also wish he had some kind of a keyword...
Ghalta, Primal Hunger just wants to eat and trample away. She is easy to cast in this particular deck and is never a disappointment to hit form Gishath. Nothing like a 12/12 Trample to scare your oponents.
Zetalpa, Primal Dawn is a Pelican. You can't convince me that it's a dino. Joke aside,it's absolutely stellar. Makes my opponents groan when he hits the board and for a good reason. A sturdy flyer with some dmg potential is always scary with indestructibility to boost.
Carnage Tyrant is a well protected beater. Nothing more to say about it.
The Utility:
Protection and indestructibility are important. I've invested in the following:
Teferi's Protection,Heroic Intervention,Kindred Boon,Boros Charm.
Temple Altisaur is a card that can make Enrage more problematic to deal with. Blocking with a Ranging Raptors suddenly becomes so much better with this guy around. I like how it makes blocking a generally easy thing to do because Gishath leaves things behind after he hits.
Xenagos, God of Revels and Nylea, God of the Hunt are both tutorable with Enlightened Tutor, Congregation at Dawn and Worldly Tutor. They are great enablers and finishers as Trample is somewhat of an issue with such big creatures.
Atzocan Seer is a recursion effect for dinos and is a good ramp option. Haven't really had a chance to test him out.
Primal Command is a card with one important option. Giving me the chance to recover after a boardwipe or targeted mill. I feel like I want at least one more card that does that and I am thinking about Wheel of Sun and Moon.
Sun-Blessed Mount into Huatli, Dinosaur Knight. Now I know this is kind of inefficient and almost feels like a meme,but I can't help it. She rides one of these things! She does offer some nice utility,like boosting my tramplers or giving more health to my Enragers. The second ability is basically a removal so I'll take it.
The Immortal Sun. Oh,jeez,who let you out of R&D? This can easily be included in every EDH deck ever, except Superfriends. Gives me all the effects I could want in a nice package for a cheap price.
The Maybeboard:
Priest of the Wakening Sun can tutor Wakening Sun's Avatar and Zacama, Primal Calamity which are card I'd generally like to cast.
Knight of the Stampede is a card I'd try if I was playing the slower version of this deck that does not rely on Gishath so much.
More ramp?- Honestly,I am not sure If I should remove some of the creature ramp and substitute it with spells and add at least 1-2 more. It does feels more efficient,especially with the Enrage.
Oracle of Mul Daya is a card I reaaaaly want to squeeze in,but I just can't find the room. I might reconsider after playtesting.
More recursion- Getting specific card back to my hand doesn't seem like a great plan,as I'd rather be cheating them in play rather than casting.I will be looking into some more Primal Command effects and see if I can find room.
Anyway,that is for now. I'll have to play a bit more with the deck to see where it stumbles and what doesn't work as well as expected. Ideas and advice is always appreciated.
