[edh] naya dinosaurs!

[ahg113]

So this is just a battle cruiser deck, some levity to keep my mind busy while all the regular day stuff isn't regular. I found the General, and decided to make the deck, but I haven't gone a buying spree just yet. Roughed it out on Cockatrice, a lot of net-decking aspects plugged and pulled from whatever the internet could offer. Really inspired by the most recent previews from Ikoria, especially the Kaiju if the singles aren't absurdly expensive (Covid check on MTG cards, yeah, maybe.)

Looking for any general opinions from the crowd. Tribal deck needs to remain tribal. The general isn't legal, obviously. My playgroup would be fine with him, I can keep a 101st card in a sleeve somewhere in order to swap for a real general easy enough.

// Dinosaur EDH

// Work in progress
//
// Maybe, Price of Glory; Marauding Raptor;

// 1 Sideboard
// 1 Creature
SB: 1 Grimlock, Dinobot Leader


// 99 Maindeck
// 8 Artifact
1 Quicksilver Amulet
1 Urza's Incubator
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Sol Ring
1 Granite Shard
1 Vanquisher's Banner

// 32 Creature
1 Magmasaur
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Taurean Mauler
1 Runic Armasaur
1 Deathgorge Scavenger
1 Ghalta, Primal Hunger
1 Temple Altisaur
1 Ranging Raptors
1 Gishath, Sun's Avatar
1 Forerunner of the Empire
1 Bellowing Aegisaur
1 Etali, Primal Storm
1 Kinjalli's Sunwing
1 Kinjalli's Caller
1 Otepec Huntmaster
1 Raptor Hatchling
1 Polyraptor
1 Ripjaw Raptor
1 Trapjaw Tyrant
1 Sky Terror
1 Zacama, Primal Calamity
1 Huatli's Raptor
1 Siegehorn Ceratops
1 Wayward Swordtooth
1 Knight of the Stampede
1 Shifting Ceratops
1 Silverclad Ferocidons
1 Sun-Crowned Hunters
1 Wakening Sun's Avatar
1 Verdant Sun's Avatar
1 Apex Altisaur
1 Zetalpa, Primal Dawn

// 12 Enchantment
1 Chaosphere
1 Elemental Bond
1 Descendants' Path
1 Mirri's Guile
1 Defense of the Heart
1 Aura Shards
1 Growing Rites of Itlimoc
1 Pyrohemia
1 Hunting Grounds
1 Greater Good
1 Rhythm of the Wild
1 Mirari's Wake

// 1 Instant
1 Punishing Fire

// 35 Land
1 Taiga
1 Command Tower
1 Plateau
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Clifftop Retreat
1 Sunpetal Grove
1 Rootbound Crag
1 Unclaimed Territory
1 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Strip Mine
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Grove of the Burnwillows
3 Forest
1 Mistveil Plains
3 Plains
1 Madblind Mountain
3 Mountain
1 Yavimaya Hollow
1 Hall of Heliod's Generosity
1 Arid Mesa
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Exotic Orchard
1 Krosan Verge
1 Gavony Township
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Ash Barrens

// 3 Planeswalker
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Domri, Anarch of Bolas
1 Huatli, Warrior Poet

// 8 Sorcery
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Farseek
1 Rampant Growth
1 Nature's Lore
1 Search for Tomorrow
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Tooth and Nail
1 Cultivate

[Ahab]

Sky Terror seems increadibly weak for EDH. I would cut it for Sylvan Library, as you lack card draw. In general, your ramp and card draw is on the lower side. Descendant's Path only triggers every third turn on average and you have no way of filling your gy quickly, so I would cut Hunting Grounds. Also, by the time it is active, your hand is most likely empty because you don't run enough card draw.
I like to think of EDH as similar to Starcraft. In the end it's a game of resources. Play ramp and card draw and over the course of the game you will spend more mana on relevant spells and cast more spells. The worst feeling is to run out of gas. Otherwise to lose to the first sweeper.
Also, you lack removal.

I would start with these changes:
- Sky Terror
- Descendant's Path
- Hunting Grounds
- Quicksilver Amulet
- Kinjalli's Caller (an additional ramp spell is just better)

Cards I would consider adding:
+ Rishkar's Expertise
+ Lifecrafter's Bestiary
+ Guardian Project
+ Thunderherd Migration
+ Return of the Wildspeaker
+ Swords to Plowshares
+ Thundering Spineback
+ Raging Regisaur
+ Carnage Tyrant
+ Rampaging Ferocidon (if there are token decks in your meta)
+ Rampaging Brontodon
+ Sakura Tribe Elder
+ Savage Stomp

[ahg113]

Thanks. My playgroup came up with some similar suggestions, lack of draw and removal. Some more thinking and surfing to do.

What about Marauding Raptor?

(For my easy reference)
Cards I would consider adding:
+ Rishkar's Expertise
+ Lifecrafter's Bestiary
+ Guardian Project
+ Thunderherd Migration
+ Return of the Wildspeaker
+ Swords to Plowshares
+ Thundering Spineback
+ Raging Regisaur
+ Carnage Tyrant
+ Rampaging Ferocidon
+ Rampaging Brontodon
+ Sakura Tribe Elder
+ Savage Stomp

[Ahab]

Raptor seems to be whatever. I think you are not sure what your deck is supposed to do? It really depends on the powerlevel of your playgroup. Your gameplan is basically casting 5+ drops. You need a lot of lands to do that so that you always hit your land drops, have a lot of ramp in order to start hitting 5 mana T4 and make sure your 5+ drops are actually good. Otherwise you have the problem that you invest all of your cards and mana into an engine that is worse than what other people do for less mana. Then you need card draw, otherwise you cannot assemble lands+ramp+threats.
Example:
Case 1:
In the first 15 cards you draw 5 lands and 1 ramp card. End result is:
T5: 6 lands
T6: 6 lands
T7: 6 lands.

Case 2:
In the first 15 cards you draw 6 lands and 0 ramp card. End result is:
T5: 5 lands
T6: 6 lands
T7: 6 lands
almost the same!

Case 3:
In the first 15 cards you draw 5 lands and 1 ramp card and 1 draw spell. End result is:
T5: 6 lands, cast drawspell, draw 3: 1 land 2 spells
T6: 7 lands
T7: 7 lands
Imagine what you can do with 2 draw spells.

In the long run ramp is only good if you hit your land drops anyway, and you need draw for that.

Coupling ramp+lands+draw ensures a steady stream of cards and a constant expansion of resources. Then, you can invest these resources in cool dinos. I think you will have a lot more fun if you never run out of gas than when your first 3 threats are answered and you are in topdeck mode.

[Aggro_zombies]

For what it's worth I think The Great Henge is significantly better than Lifecrafter's in pretty much every deck. Henge should be easy enough to ramp out too since your creatures will usually have decently high power.

[ronco]

I have nothing really to add here other than I'm doing the same thing in mono black. But I'll second what Ahab said about the following:

+ Rishkar's Expertise
+ Lifecrafter's Bestiary
+ Guardian Project
+ Thunderherd Migration
+ Return of the Wildspeaker
+ Swords to Plowshares

Id also suggest natural order, since that can help you get Gisath out faster than GSZ (provided you have a sacrifice fodder... Dryad arbor?).

A buddy of mine has an Omnath mono green deck and the green draw/virtual draw that he has available seems like a color pie break, but its very clutch in the later games. Especially when you need to rebuild after a wrath. He doesn't need as much ramp for fixing (GSZ/NO into Vorinclex tends to do the trick).

If you have room for it, and you add sylvan library, abundance seems like some janky fun to go with that!