Be sure to look at my deck too lol its a fun deck

EDH is the best. It's about all I play, partially because I don't have time to get to the LGS much.... But also because I think it is a great social, large-game format and stompy-dinos with mass destruction embodies EDH well

You've got a great deck, and I'm a huge fan of dinosaurs and EDH, so this is a gold mine for me. I've been really stuck between two strategies for my dinosaur EDH deck; either land destruction like yours or a pseudo-cascade strategy with cards like Sunbird's Invocation and See the Unwritten. On the one hand, the pseudo-cascade strategy is a great way to cheat out more dinosaurs (I saw it on a Commander VS video and it worked really well) and it helps to cheat dinosaurs with Gishath (or without him if he leaves) but it doesn't seem to be the popular choice. On the other hand, land destruction is mean once you get Gishath out but all those spells are dead cards while you're still ramping.

What made you pick land destruction? Is there some great reasoning as to which strategy is better?

I've included the link to my deck...it's still a prototype and I have cards I need to cut. I want to build this deck on paper but I don't want to spend close to $1,000 on it. I think that cutting the really expensive lands will help with the cost but I think that may lead me away from land destruction?

Anyway, you've definitely got a great deck and I would love your guidance!!!

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/jurassic-commander-fallen-kingdom/

SpeedOfLightning, the short answer is this--I've always wanted to work land destruction into an EDH deck in a meaningful way. Generally, land destruction decks, similar to infinite combo decks and infect decks, get a lot of hate for simply abusing rules mechanics to win games. Upon seeing Gishath, Sun's Avatar for the first time, I immediately liked its ability to cheat out dinosaur cards absent any mana pool. My mind went straight to land destruction, so that was my mission here.

The long answer is this. Land destruction with Gishath on the board is a great win condition, but it is not necessarily optimized to automatically provide you a win. There is a lot of tempered destruction here, and it requires a bit of patience and bluffing to get your board state set up. As a player, I like big dumb creatures and aggro, but I also like a little bit of control in my pocket and board-state chaos. This deck provides me with all of those things.

At the same time, however, it sacrifices being the best dino-aggro deck it can be. There are cheaper, better, and more synergistic alternatives for a pure aggro build to get dinosaurs out faster and more powerfully than I am doing here. There are some expensive cards in this deck, but I feel that it requires them to be competitive. Pure aggro can easily go without them.

Your deck looks great. Thanks for checking mine out!

Condenserhead Thanks for the help!!! Yeah, I definitely prefer to go aggro and rush Winn more creatures. Id love to have you take a look at my deck once I finish it!!

Would it be worth adding Ravages of War to the deck? What about Samut, Voice of Dissent

rkjunior I am planning on adding Ravages of War as soon as I buy one, so good call. I really like Samut, Voice of Dissent, but I just don't think she has a place in this deck. I am pretty happy with the way its been playtesting so far, so I would say that I am at a +/- of about two cards that could be exchanged: Ravages of War and Cream of the Crop. Thanks for the input and thank everyone for the votes!

Right on.. I have a lot of the pieces for this one so this may be my next deck to build. I just happen to have a JP Ravages in my binder that needs a good home :)

rkjunior, nice! If you get it together and make some tweaks that seem to optimize the deck, let me know! I am getting to the point where I'm second-guessing my second-guesses on this one, lol. I've tried to stop mentally optimizing the deck and am now just moving on to extensive playtesting.

Please check out and rate Ixalan Dino Dance

Lurking Predators seems like it would be a good fit here.

Starsky2814 I like Lurking Predators, generally, but by the time I could pay its CMC, I want to have my game plan in gear. This doesnt run quite as many creatures as some Dino decks, either, and I dont want to run the risk of cycling an important draw to the bottom of my library. If this deck was aggro-creature beatdown, though, I would have definitely put it in there. Thanks for looking, and dont forget to upvote!

Thoughts on any of the MLD hedges like Courser of Kruphix and Oracle of Mul Daya. What about Crucible of Worlds with Strip Mine and Wasteland

rkjunior, a Crucible of Worlds combo is going in here as soon as I get the card, for sure.

Condenserhead Right on. I've started building my list here: Gishath

I'm waiting to see the final spoilers for Rivals before I pair down the creature list to about 26-28 but you get the general idea.

rkjunior, your deck is looking solid. I have been seeing if I can fit Cryptolith Rite in mine as well for additional ramp.

And man, I cant wait to see what else Rivals has in store. The new Huatli walker looks awesome, as do some of the spoiled Dinos. Etali, Primal Storm looks great for a Dino/MLD deck, and cheating out Ghalta, Primal Hunter with Gishath, Sun's Avatar would be epic. I have been waiting with anticipation to see how I can improve my current deck after the expansion.

Just ran a game on xmage with a modified list of this and the deck is absolutely absurd. Gisalth Xmage

I'll modify it again once the new spoilers are complete. Some highlights -- Cryptolith Rite is good. Regal Behemoth is a worthy inclusion as well. With Crucible, you can dump the land search and run mana dorks IMO. More Artifact land, too -- signets, Thran, and Crypt are a must.

what about the new elder dinos?

GBCShun, YES! The new elder dinos are pretty sweet! I anticipate some changes coming to this deck in the next few weeks. Some could be substantial. This is an owned deck, so I don't want to change anything until I have the cards in hand, but there are already some brewing!

When do you plan on including the new Dinos from Rivals?

Chiberia, hopefully I will have some changes up in the next few days. I have had to make some difficult decisions, lol.

yea rivals added so many solid dinos and with your commander i feel 40 dinos is the magical number. Problem is now how to cut some of the dinos because there are soo many to choice from.

Atroxreaper since I am not running a pure dino ramp/aggro deck, I will have less than 40. I aim to keep it around 30 tops. There are plenty of great dino decks on Tappeout already, so I am tinkering around with this wonky LD/MLD/Dino hybrid. Since land destruction is typically reviled in EDH for having no other real game mechanic tied to it, my goal is to justify LD/MLD through the dino abilities and specifically Gishath, Sun's Avatar.

You are right about the new dinos, though. Sooooo many choices on the board now. What to cut? Some of them have been pretty tough add/drops thus far, simply out of concern for mana curve adjustment.

yea I've been considering the enrage pyrohemia eldrazi monument combination with that new 4 drop dino that's enrage ability untap a permament.

Atroxreaper, yeah Cacophodon has real potential to be an abuse crapshow, lol. It will definitely be appearing in my update, hahaha.