Is Mirri's Guile and Sensei's Divining Top really that good in this deck? They can only reorganize the top of the library, to fix the draw, they can't shuffle non Dinos away, and can't put them on the bottom. Scroll Rack can cheat dinos from ones hand into play when responding to gishaths trigger, so that one is definetly worth considering. But i don't see the big fuss over the other 2 :)

I wonder why you didn't put Alta Palani, Nest Tender as the commander. She allows , the only drawback is that you have to use her tap ability and then chump block with the egg and have her stay alive, but then you could hit say, Gishath, Sun's Avatar and then have Aggravated Assault out and win!

Jacksonp I actually HIGHLY considered it, but I just couldn't switch out Gishath. I even bought the precon just for her, but I just couldn't do it.

Aesatr I use to run Elemental Bond, and for the life of me, I don't remember why I took it out. Rishkar's Expertise looks fun, but it could end up being a dead card if I don't have any creatures on the field. Apex Altisaur is on the watch list, and I have a copy, but have yet the energy to put it in. Time of Need would be a nice card, but Gishath is really good at digging into my deck for her comrades. Ask for Mosswort Bridge it could be useful, but I am very against lands that enter tapped, also it is a bit risky. Only looking at the top 4. Gishath could easily do that for me.

I've been thinking of cutting Zendikar Resurgent from my list as well for the same reason. I've also been looking for ways to lean into enrage more.

bushido_man96 - I am starting to lean to taking out enrage enablers and support for I don't foresee Wizards adding more dinosaurs with enrage. Maybe later down the line they will add more enrage cards, but I don't know if they'll be dinosaurs or a mix of creatures. It might be another throwaway mechanic.

I hope that's not the case. I'm going to keep it in for now, testing and seeing how it plays. If it keeps being a non-factor, I'll make some changes.

Why no Quartzwood Crasher? Yidaro, Wandering Monster might work too.

jonno.scott I actually have a Quartzwood Crasher from the collectors pack, I just have yet to add it. Trying to think of what to cut for if. On my next day off (next Monday) I am going to taking a good hard look at the deck.

You should add The Great Henge. Ramp, card draw, pump, heal, and discounted cmc. I regret not buying a bunch when it was $5. Also congrats on your 300 upvotes.

Hey Negan, in your primer you ask: "If she is not your commander for you dinosaur army, then please explain to me why she isn't?" My answer to that question is because the ultimate Dinosaur - Zacama, Primal Calamity outclasses her in every way. First off...just look at her. A towering and imposing figure - bigger than a city - bigger than freaking Godzilla . Additionally she has higher power/toughness coupled with abilities that outright change the boardstate when she enters the battlefield. She can outright kill the previously mentioned Godzilla and your commander and doesn't even have to attack to do so.

While being in Naya as well, Zacama doesn't force you to play only Dino tribal. She gives you viable options for a combo or volton deck. Zacama embodies what is best about Dinosaurs - turned up to 11. In my eyes Gishath is best used in the 99, but never as a Commander. Zacama Gang Out!!! Mic Drop

Great deck though! +1 (if I haven't already) from me!

I think that BOTH dinos are the best dino commanders, because, well, they're fricking DINOSAURS! Dino Gang Out!!! Mic Drop Anyway, Negan_Davidson is it possible to make this deck more budget friendly? Other than that one small thing, definitely +1 from me.

Great deck! I have a special place in my heart for the Ixalan dinos, especially the big 2 Gishath and Zacama.

Mortlocke: Thank you for reading my lengthy primer. Zacama is great, I will not argue against that. a 9/9 with viglance, trample, and reach is great. Zacama also has the nifty effect to untap all your lands, so she is pretty much free. My argument why she isn't a DINO commander is that she has no synergy with other dinos. Zacama is great for Naya Combo, Tron, or Aggro; just not tribal. Gishath finds more dinos in the deck and pulls them out. Best part about that is the dinos she calls on can't be countered.

KITTYMANHunkGTI: This is actually my personal paper deck. I use TappedOut to track my changes and to get others advice on how to improve the deck. It started off budget but as you can see, the prices of some cards have risen greatly.

ObserverWill: Thanks. I do too. I have a really special place for Gishath as you have most likely noticed. My Gishath card is actually my favorite card I own (followed up by Negan). My Gishath is a German Foil Promo, that I was able to get from the creator of Commander Adventures on Twitter.

any thoughts on Cream of the Crop to filter the top deck ?

AJ@THE@MAN It looks like a good card at glance, but you only get one card on to. If there are several good cards, I only get one. I will keep it in mind, but so far I don't know about it.

Negan_Davidson my main call for Cream of the Crop is to quickly get to a card that one may want or need plus it because it looks at the power of the creature (most dinos mostly have pretty high power) and it whenever it comes in to play so you a good swing of Gishath you can get multiple triggers and possibly bypass a group of useless cards

Negan_Davidson, when you frame Gishath as a great option for Dino tribal commander - i'll agree with you on that. But she isn't exactly the "be all, end all". She offers no variety or variation in strategy, it's entirely "turn right, win fight". Nothing wrong with that, it just Pidgeon holes your deck something fierce. If your commander is up against a bigger creature and you have no evasion then she's reduced to just a lizard shaped speedbump. Also, when you said "Best part about that is the dinos she calls on can't be countered." All I can say to that is Baral, Chief of Compliance and his Disallow would love to have a word with you on that. That 2nd ability is a triggered ability that uses the stack - just sayin'.

Urban Daggertooth's Enraged ability will help populate +1 counters from Bellowing Aegisaur and Rites of Passage. Also he would help Domri and Vivien get to their ultimates quicker. Just a thought.

So I have gone in and playtested this deck a couple of times. Overall, it is an alright deck! My only complain is that, because of the ridiculous cost of some of these dinosaurs, this is a very mid range deck. Personally, I would recommend dropping some of the lands and creatures in order to fill you up with some extra ramp. Additionally, you have a bunch of cards in here that are great fillers if you are missing some key pieces, but in terms of usefulness in play, there are far better options.

First, I would drop the ofllowing creatures: Titanoth Rex, Taurean Mauler, Siegehorn Ceratops, and Raging Regisaur. In my honest opinion, I would drop your creature count down to say 30-32 creatures, in favor of more utility spells. Again, this is a mid-range deck, and yet you have very little in the way of removal or protection. In any mid-range deck like this, surviving those multiple turns needed to ramp/build is super important. And because of how big and dangerous dinosaurs are, you can bet there will be a target on your back as soon as you start building.

For lands, I'm a firm believer of no more than 34 lands in a three color deck. It's your deck, and your choice, but too many lands can be just as bad as not enough. My problem is that you have some lands in here that aren't really all that helpful in terms of getting your stuff out faster. I would personally drop Ancient Tomb, Bonder's Enclave, Cavern of Souls, Forbidden Orchard, and War Room. AT is great in a deck with lots of life gain, which this deck doesnt have a lot of. And since you need mana to get your fatties out, this will get used a lot. Why ping yourself for extra damage when there are better means to getting these guys out fast? Bonder's Enclave is an alright card, but there are cheaper and better draw effects that can repeated multiple times for roughly the same amount of mana. Cavern of Souls is alright, but the fact that it needs to be used for creature spells only makes it a little bit useless in a deck that needs as much colored mana as this one does. And Forbidden Orchard? I know they have trample, but why give your opponents creatures each time you use it?

With all of these cards removed, sub in the following: Skyshroud Claim (because you can use it to grab your dual lands), Cultivate or Kodama's reach for a two land spell, Growing Rites of Itlimoc, for big mana and creature search, Elemental Bond for additional card draw, but also being able to draw cards from your token generation. Drop in a Birds of paradise and a bloom tender for early mana rmap, and a Fauna Shaman to be able to pull specific creatures you need to get a strategy going. Lastly, I would throw in an Elvish Piper. Cheating out a dino for only one green mana is a no-brainer.

If you do those few suggestions, you might find that you have an easier time in the early game to balance out your mid-game madness, and the cards I chose to remove have very little overall impact on the deck's intentions.

I've got a dinosaur tribal deck led by Gishath, Sun's Avatar, and I've tweaked it quite a bit recently.

I used to run ramp pieces like Urza's Incubator and the creatures that help cut dinosaur casting costs, like Kinjalli's Caller, and I ran things like Forerunner of the Empire, too. The issue with ramp like this are: 1) they don't mesh with Gishath's ability to get dinosaurs out of the library and into play, and 2), these pieces only ramp for the dinosaurs in the deck; looks like 30 in your case. They don't ramp for your instant, sorcery, artifact spells, etc. I like my ramp to work for the whole deck; having access to green, I stuck with land ramp and some dinos that have some ramping abilities.

The problem I ran into was having a critical mass of dinosaurs so that I'm getting at least a few out every time I hit with Gishath. Those human helpers don't help with that. I cut all creatures from the deck that weren't dinosaurs, and I don't run any planewalkers, either. I've got 37 dinosaurs in my deck now, and I feel it has much more consistency. Another bonus to this approach was being able to add Kaheera, the Orphanguard as a companion. Giving the whole team vigilance is great.

When evaluating my deck's purpose, I went back to the commander. Gishath wants to get onto the field, swing, and pull dinosaurs out of the library. Although the commander doesn't provide card draw, his ability is very much one of card advantage, and I found that I actually hinder the usefulness of Gishath's ability by getting too many dinosaurs in hand. I still run some card draw, but my goal is to get Gishath out soon, and then let him handle getting the herd onto the battlefield. With that in mind, I was able to focus things much more clearly. From there, after getting the herd out, protecting the herd was the next important step, and you've got good support for that.

Anyways, hope this helps. I can share my list if you'd like to see it.

Thanks for all the suggestions. Sorry I haven't been very active on replying, been dealing with personal stuff so all I've been doing is Deckcycling my deck. So here we go, time to reply.

Mortlocke: Gishath is so far the only commander that cares about Dinosaurs. Zacama, Primal Calamity is great, but has not one line of text saying dinosaur, Atla Palani, Nest Tender has a similar effect to Gishath, but she only gets one creature and again, doesn't care if it's a dinosaur or not. Morophon, the Boundless is a good commander for tribal, but I feel like Morophon should aid tribes that have zero support or commander options. Kaheera, the Orphanguard is a good lord, but she loses red. So yes, as of right now Gishath should be the end all be all dinosaur commander in my mind.

The comment about the counter triggered ability, so far there are only 9 spells that counter a triggered ability and most of them only do that or activated abilities, so I don't see them being used against me or more then once. I also have a burning hatred for blue players and tend to target them until a bigger threat arrives. But yes, every effect can be countered. I will go and change that in my description.

BmoreBeast: I would run Urban Daggertooth, but I feel that the next time dinosaurs get a real boost, they won't be using enrage (hopefully I am wrong). That's why I am slowly moving away from enrage triggers and more so towards trample effects. If the next time dinosaurs get support and it is with enrage triggers, I will think about adding Urban Daggertooth to the deck. I've also been wanting to move away from Planeswalkers and focus more so on dinosaurs.

iwulf411: THANK YOU! Thank you for playtesting the deck. I love hearing people testing out my deck and giving me feedback. Warms my cold heart. :D

Titanoth Rex is in the deck because he is a large trampler and I have been slowly morphing the deck towards dinosaurs with trample. Siegehorn Ceratops is in the deck because she's a 2/2 for 2 with enrage that makes her bigger. So early game I can drop her in and cump block if need be and make her stronger. Raging Regisaur is on the coping block if we never see anymore dinosaurs with enrage. Taurean Mauler can come out without any argument from me. I will find a ramp spell to replace it.

I tried to cut lands in my commander decks, but everytime I do, I always get mana screwed in the get go. 38 just seems to be my sweet spot. I will consider going down to 36, but 34 just seems way to low for me. Ancient Tomb is a great ramp spell, yes it hurts me, but 40 life means I can use it 10 times before it gets too scary for me. If I ever get an original dual land, this will hands down come out for one of them. Bonders' Enclave & War Room, you are right but I lacked room in the deck for card draw, so I threw them in. These two would be switched out for original dual lands. Cavern of Souls is simply in the deck because I HATE blue. Forbidden Orchard has been on the cutting board several times, however, its always survived because I normally use it as a political tool or if I'm in a game with my wife, to keep her alive. Yes I know, nepotism, but I am a Mardu player at heart.

Skyshroud Claim will defiantly go back in. I cut it early on but you have a point, especially if I ever get my hands on an original dual land. Cultivate or Kodama's Reach were both in the deck at the start, but the more I played the harder it was for me to justify them because I kept cutting basic lands to the point where there were times where I could only find one land. Growing Rites of Itlimoc  ^Flip is a pet card of mine, but I cut it from the deck long ago because a lot of times I never could get it to flip due to never having enough creatures. I will consider adding it again. Elemental Bond I will consider re-adding as well. Birds of Paradise will be a maybe, if I don't go pure dinosaurs but Bloom Tender will be a no because she requires perms to be out. Fauna Shaman and Elvish Piper will be a maybe again because I have been considering going pure dinosaurs.

Thank you again for playtesting the deck.

bushido_man96: I'd love to see your list! I always like seeing what others come up with.

I run the reduce cost creatures to get Gishath out earlier or if a high costing dinosaur gets stuck in my hand for I have no ways of cheating them out anymore or returning them to the deck. However, your comments have won me over and the next time dinosaurs get support (I've heard rumors that Ixalan may be getting a new set next year), I will turn it into a pure dinosaur build.

Thank you all again for the comments. Once things calm down in my personal life and I return to work and pay off these medical bills, I will defiantly take a look at revamping Ixalan Park with your suggests and some of my own. Till then, keep the comments rolling and the upvotes a coming. :D

Here's a few more thoughts:

I'd consider cutting Unclaimed Territory, Rogue's Passage, and both Terramorphic Expanse and Evolving Wilds. Here are my reasons:

Unclaimed Territory only gives colored mana when casting your dinosaurs. So, that's only about 30ish cards in your deck it gives you colored mana to cast. A tapped land that adds two or three of your colors would be more consistent, or just add a basic. I really don't like to run very many sources of colorless mana in my three-color decks; I find issues with consistency. And if I do run a land that produces colorless mana, it's something like Tectonic Edge or Ghost Quarter to get rid crap like Maze of Ith that will totally screw Gishath's ability over.

Which brings me to Rogue's Passage. It's really tempting to leave this one in here, I know. But if you think about the sheer size of the creatures you are running, and the fact that you've got some great tramplers, making one of them unblockable for 4 mana isn't great use of your resources. Better to get another source of colored mana in here. I know that ideally you would make Gishath unblockable to unleash his potential, but even then, I don't think it's really worth the mana investment. Something like Duelist's Heritage would do much more for Gishath, with no mana investment.

Terramorphic Expanse and Evolving Wilds - you aren't running many basics anyway, so better to run a couple of tapped lands that can tap for two colors in their place, or dual lands with basic land types you can fetch. The snow-covered duals from Kaldheim are cheap alternatives here, and running Terramorphic and Evolving was going to put whatever you looking for into play tapped anyway.

I also agree with the above sentiment that Bonders' Enclave and War Room aren't good either. You have access to great draw spells in green; just need to trim the fat to get them worked in. And remember, Gisthath's ability is kind of like card draw.

Which brings me to Rhythm of the Wild. Giving your dinos haste is a good thing, but if most of them are coming into play off the top of your library from Gishath, then it's moot. The +1 counter is ok, but most of your creatures are big, anyway. Unless you end up hard casting a lot of your dinos (which you shouldn't if you set the deck up right), this card is pretty meh. A card like Warstorm Surge would serve you much better, especially with a big hit off of Gishath.

I think Worldly Tutor could easily be replaced for a draw spell. I kind of feel the same way about Congregation at Dawn. They are nice for setting up a Gishath trigger, yes. But I think more straight draw effects will serve you better. But if you keep these in, I wouldn't fault you for it. One card in the same vein that I do like for this deck is Scroll Rack. It's great if you're staring at a fistful of dinos and you're getting ready to swing with Gishath.

Here's my list; hope you find it helpful:

Dinosaur Tribal

Commander / EDH bushido_man96

SCORE: 44 | 23 COMMENTS | 4972 VIEWS | IN 17 FOLDERS

I 100% agree with everything bushido said. I just went and tried out his deck as well, and I was able to get Gishath out by turn 5/6 about 75% of the time.

I understand your thoughts about wanting to go 100% dino, and if that is the case, I recommend following bushido's suggestions about looking for either straight mana reduction, or by focusing on less colorless mana and more tapped lands. In a deck like this, Canopy Vista, Arctic Treeline, Cinder Glade, and Highland Forest would be great alternatives.

As bushido mentioned, wanting to get the commander out and make the most of his ability is great, but what happens if I exile your commander each time you cast him? You need that ramp/mana reduction in order to allow you to play the remainder of your dinos, which are all really expensive, without limiting yourself each turn. The best way to do this is to build a solid land base early, so that even if your commander gets taken out, you aren't stopped from continuing to play the dinos. Personally, I would trade his suggestion of Warstorm Surge for Sylvan Library, if you can afford it. In those moments where you don't have your commander out, it can help you prepare your upcoming card draw to be the most impactful. And with him out, you know if a great dino is on the top 3 or not, and if the swing with him is worth it if your opponent has good blockers. If not, Warstorm is a good alternative.

If you would rather go dino only, might I suggest picking up a Pattern of Rebirth? If you throw it on a smaller green dino, and it dies, you get to pick any one dino in your deck to replace it, no mana cost required. I believe there is another green card that does the same, but can get you two creatures. The idea here is that if you do not want to build into early ramp, then you want some effects that can cheat these guys out. One of the biggest problems I see with commander decks is strategies that rely entirely on the commander. There are simply too many ways to remove a commander quickly and easily, and if your deck revolves around that one strategy, you'll get shut out quickly and easily.

I believe your thinking of Defense of the Heart. Love that card.