by Johnny Cycles, March 14th, 2024
Welcome to another edition of Keeping Modern Janky! This week I’m playing Dragons without wings…I mean, Dinosaurs, in Modern. Dinosaurs recently got a whole bunch of new toys from March of the Machine and The Lost Caverns of Ixalan. Will these cards be enough to make the tribe competitive in Modern? Let’s find out!
We aren’t exactly reinventing the wheel here. We’re taking an Amulet Titan approach and changing our support pieces and finishers to some overpowered, undercosted Dinosaurs. Along the way, we’re hoping to chip in enough damage with Belligerent Yearling and Pugnacious Hammerskull so that a resolved Ghalta and Mavren or Ghalta, Primal Hunger will be enough to close out the game. Is it as powerful as Amulet Titan? Nope. But we get to play Dinosaurs, which is already a win!
Before I get to the decklist, I just want to say a few things about the way this article will go. Rather than present a final version of what I consider the best Amulet Dino deck I can come up with, I’ll provide you with the various different builds as I test them out, along with video of game play for you to see how each version performs. I’ve done this before with my Dragons in Modern, and I think it’s helpful to show the deck-tweaking process as it occurs. As always, though, I’ll have the sections clearly marked in the side bar, so feel free to skip to whichever decklist or set of games you prefer. Between each change, I’ll either provide a new decklist if it’s a massive overhaul, or list what I’m putting in and taking out.
Here’s my very first pass at Amulet Dinos!
Decklist – Amulet Dinos
by Johnny Cycles
Format: Modern
Creatures (25)
| 4 Arboreal Grazer | |
| 4 Belligerent Yearling | |
| 4 Pugnacious Hammerskull | |
| 4 Topiary Stomper | |
| 4 Wayward Swordtooth | |
| 1 Etali, Primal Conqueror | |
| 1 Ghalta and Mavren | |
| 2 Ghalta, Primal Hunger | |
| 1 Gishath, Sun’s Avatar |
Spells (4)
| 4 Lightning Bolt |
Artifacts (4)
| 4 Amulet of Vigor |
Lands (27)
Sideboard (15)
| 4 Tormod’s Crypt | |
| 4 Veil of Summer | |
| 3 Pulse of Murasa | |
| 4 Force of Vigor |
Deck Tech – Amulet Dinos 1
Primary Game Plan
Much like Amulet Titan, we’re looking to abuse the combination of Amulet of Vigor, bounce lands, and ways to make multiple land drops in a turn to cast big fatties ahead of curve. With this in mind, we play some of the same support pieces as Amulet Titan, specifically Arboreal Grazer and Amulet of Vigor, but instead of Dryad of the Ilysian Grove to let us make multiple land drops a turn, we play Wayward Swordtooth.
Furthermore, we are not as all in on sticking a finisher to close out the game. Instead, we are looking to get more value out of our 3-drops than just extra lands. We play Belligerent Yearling to take full advantage of the overpowered stats of our undercosted dinosaurs in both the mid game and the late game. Pugnacious Hammerskull is our biggest 3-mana dinosaur and the one with the least restrictions. Meanwhile, Topiary Stomper grows our Belligerent Yearling while also ramping us.
These early dinosaurs do more than just chip in early damage or put extra lands on the battlefield. They also ramp us into Ghalta, Primal Hunger. If all goes to plan, our early turns will see us pressure our opponent’s life total, while setting us up for an early giant dinosaur to come down and close out the game.
Weaknesses
As mentioned above, this is a first draft. If you want to see the finished deck and final game play, use the sidebar to go to the bottom. That being said, as I test out this build, I’ll surely find some cards underperform, while others overperform. I have a feeling Lightning Bolt may get cut for something that streamlines our game plan even further. I can also see the number and kind of finishers fluctuating. Should we be all in on Ghalta, Primal Hunger? Or should we play cheaper finishers, like Carnage Tyrant?
Finally, we don’t have the game-ending power and reach that Amulet Titan has through its ability to search up whatever lands it needs to win, whether it is Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle or Hanweir Battlements. Of course, if we wanted to play that kind of deck, we would just play the industry standard. We want to play some dinosaurs! With that in mind, we may find that the pieces just don’t come together the way we want them to. But that’s why we play test!
TL;DR
If you don’t have the time or desire to see the deck before I settle on the final version, skip to Practice Match 5. If you only have time to see the deck perform the way it’s designed to, watch Practice Matches 4, 8, 9, and 10. If you want to learn from my mistakes, watch the rest…
Practice Match 1 vs. Merfolk
Practice Match 2 vs. Tron
Record: 0-2
First Cuts
I’ve played a couple of matches with the deck and am getting a sense of what works and what doesn’t. I’m also learning how to stack my Amulet of Vigor and bounce land triggers. Hurray!
Out:
| 4 Lightning Bolt | |
| 4 Topiary Stomper | |
| 1 Etali, Primal Conqueror | |
| 1 Gishath, Sun’s Avatar | |
| 1 Forest | |
| 1 Radiant Fountain | |
| 1 Sacred Foundry | |
| 1 Vesuva |
In:
| 4 Explore | |
| 2 Carnage Tyrant | |
| 1 Ghalta and Mavren | |
| 1 Ghalta, Primal Hunger | |
| 2 The Mycosynth Gardens | |
| 4 Urza’s Saga |
We’re cutting Lightning Bolt in favor of Explore in order to maximize our ability to make extra land drops, while also helping dig us through our deck. I hate not having any interaction, but I want to see if us going bigger, faster will catch us back up against the kinds of things we’d want to kill with a Bolt. Second, Topiary Stomper is a bit of a nonbo in our deck. Yes, it ramps us. Yes, it makes our Belligerent Yearling a 4/2 once, but neither of those things are particularly powerful. We can’t get any land with its trigger, and a 4/2 on turn 3 is pretty meh. The double in its casting cost was also surprisingly clunky. And finally, since we’re trying to abuse bounce lands, it’s rare we’ll hit seven actual lands on the battlefield before winning or losing.
We’re refining our finishers by cutting some of the costlier, lest impactful ones. Etali, Primal Conqueror is great and all, but in a format like Modern, there’s a good chance the free spell we steal will be a 1- or 2-drop. Whomp, whomp. Gishath, Sun’s Avatar was in the deck to satisfy my inner jank. It felt like a great card to rebuild with after a sweeper, but 8 mana is too much, even in a deck like ours. Actually, especially in a deck like ours, where we don’t have the ramp ability that comes with playing the best 6-drop in Modern. I’ve increased our finisher count to 7 by adding 2 copies of Carnage Tyrant and one more each of the Ghaltas. Carnage Tyrant lowers the mana cost of our finishers a bit, while also being a hard-to-deal with threat. I really want to see how quickly we can cast Ghalta, Primal Hunger for , or even . I also am still in love with Ghalta and Mavren and the possibilities there. Against Tron, if we had drawn the pair, we would’ve been able to attack with three 12/2 Belligerent Yearlings, plus the 12/12 token from Ghalta and Mavren. Until I see this combo in action, I don’t want to cut it.
Next, we invested in the play set of Urza’s Saga. As of writing this, the latest ban just dropped, in which Violent Outburst got the hammer. Urza’s Saga was about $20 a copy this morning, which is the cheapest I’ve seen it since I opened one in a random pack when it was $50. I’m worried the price will go back up if something like Hammer Time makes a resurgence. That being said, the Enchantment Land gives us four more ways to get Amulet of Vigor on the battlefield, while also giving us an additional creature threat.
Finally, I’ve made room for two copies of The Mycosynth Gardens. I based this decision on Amulet Titan builds and on seeing just how much better the deck is with Amulet of Vigor on the battlefield (duh). We’ll see how it performs for us. I’ve definitely lost to the land making a copy of Amulet of Vigor for my opponents. Let’s hope we can be on the winning side of The Mycosynth Gardens for a change.
We’ll see if our new plan comes together the way we hope!
Practice Match 3 vs. Temur Surveil
Practice Match 4 vs. Jund Souls of the Lost
Record: 1-3
Second Cuts
Out:
| 1 Veil of Summer | |
| 2 Explore | |
| 1 Pulse of Murasa | |
| 1 Force of Vigor | |
| 1 Boros Garrison | |
| 1 Jetmir’s Garden | |
| 1 Mountain |
In:
| 2 The One Ring | |
| 3 Storm’s Wrath | |
| 2 Selesnya Sanctuary | |
| 1 The Mycosynth Gardens |
I really hate not having any interaction (read, kill spells) anywhere in my 60, much less 75. For this reason, I’ve made room for three copies of Storm’s Wrath in the sideboard. It’s a small change, but it will give us some outs against go-wide creature strategies while also not killing any of our relevant permanents. I’ve cut back to two copies of Explore in order to test out The One Ring. Most Amulet Titan decks play the full playset. I only own two and don’t want to shell out the $100+ for two more. I’ve tried the card out in various decks of mine and have yet to find the right home for it. If and when I do, maybe then I’ll save up the money to get two more. For now, I’ll just test out what I have and hope the price drops (hahaha). I’m also still toying with the mana base to find the right balance of colors, bounce lands, and utility lands.
Practice Match 5 vs. Izzet Murktide
Practice Match 6 vs. Hammer Time
Practice Match 7 vs. Indomitable Creativity
Practice Match 8 vs. Tron
Practice Match 9 vs. Cabal Coffers
Practice Match 10 vs. Domain Zoo
Record: 2-8
Practice Games Wrap-Up
We went 2-8 in our practice matches, which is pretty awful. To be fair, this is a brand new build and a brand new strategy, so some of our losses can be attributed to user error, either in deck building, mulligans, and mistakes/punts. It’s been fun learning a new archetype, but it has been challenging.
Testing this deck feels like I’m trying to put together a puzzle and can’t quite make the pieces fit. Some of that is in my decision making. When to mulligan is one issue. Another is the math and how much mana I can have and when. Still another is needing multiple pieces to function. We need Amulet of Vigor, a bounce land, Wayward Swordtooth, and a finisher to really go off and win. Amulet Titan needs a similar (if not the same) number of cards to have their best turns. I’m amazed at how consistent that deck plays compared to ours.
This deck has some tantalizing synergies that will keep me playtesting and tweaking the build. On several occasions we came soooo close to living the dream. In a couple of games, we were set up and needed to draw either of our Ghaltas. In other games, we had all the pieces but our mana base betrayed us. So many people either didn’t or couldn’t answer Belligerent Yearling, particularly decks like ours that play minimal interaction. This gave us the opportunity to get some game-ending hits in had our deck cooperated.
There’s something here, though, and we were finally able to see it all come together in our final matches. We played Tron, Cabal Coffers, and Domain Zoo, and in each match, our deck executed our gameplan. Against both Tron and Cabal Coffers, game 1 saw us get down a turn 2 Pugnacious Hammerskull into a turn 3 Ghalta, Primal Hunger. This is our deck at its fastest. In both of those matches, we also got to see our deck go super big, putting tons of Dinosaur power onto the battlefield repeatedly. Against Domain Zoo, we saw another angle of attack with Kessig Wolf Run pumping Pugnacious Hammerskull to steal us a win from nowhere.
Unfortunately, we went 1-2 over that stretch, but the power and the synergy were there in a way that each of our losses could’ve gone the other way with a little more luck. That’s a big step forward compared to how the first half a dozen matches felt. Through testing, I’ve learned the deck well enough to pilot it decently, though even in our last match, a decision to mulligan a 1-lander cost us the game when we then kept a 5-lander. It takes more than 10 matches to get good at a deck like this, but I feel confident going forward that this build can compete in Modern. Will it 5-0? Who knows? And if it does, it will not be as often as Amulet Titan. Will it be better than my Gruul Dragons deck? There’s only one way to find out! Stay tuned for the follow-up to this first article where I take the deck through a league!
But before I go, here’s another Amulet Dino list I’m excited to test out.
A New Direction
Some of our best turns and games came on the back of Pugnacious Hammerskull into an early Ghalta, Primal Hunger (with the help of Amulet of Vigor, of course). However, I never got to live my dream of beating down with a 12/2 Belligerent Yearling and a 12/12 Dinosaur Token with trample after resolving a Ghalta and Mavren. That’s still a siren song I can’t ignore. Still, it would be foolish of me not to explore some other builds. Also, Dinosaurs are unsurprisingly a blast to play!
So, what would happen if we let our Ghalta and Mavren–Belligerent Yearling dream die…or, at least, rest for a bit? Given our difficulty hitting seven mana consistently (or getting double and ), what if we pick some powerful dinosaurs along the curve to ramp into Ghalta, Primal Hunger? Can some overpowered dinos played ahead of curve win more games? It’ll be hard to lose more…ha.
Here’s the decklist I’m going to test next.
Decklist – Amulet Dinos Midrange
by Johnny Cycles
Format: Modern
Creatures (26)
| 4 Arboreal Grazer | |
| 4 Belligerent Yearling | |
| 2 Itzquinth, Firstborn of Gishath | |
| 4 Pugnacious Hammerskull | |
| 4 Wayward Swordtooth | |
| 4 Regisaur Alpha | |
| 4 Ghalta, Primal Hunger |
Spells (4)
| 4 Explore |
Artifacts (4)
| 4 Amulet of Vigor |
Lands (26)
| 1 Boseiju, Who Endures | |
| 2 Cavern of Souls | |
| 3 Forest | |
| 4 Gruul Turf | |
| 1 Kessig Wolf Run | |
| 2 Mountain | |
| 4 Selesnya Sanctuary | |
| 1 Slayers’ Stronghold | |
| 1 Stomping Ground | |
| 2 The Mycosynth Gardens | |
| 4 Urza’s Saga |
Sideboard (15)
| 4 Tormod’s Crypt | |
| 1 Pithing Needle | |
| 1 Shadowspear | |
| 3 Veil of Summer | |
| 3 Heroic Intervention | |
| 3 Force of Vigor |
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading and watching! Let me know in the comments what direction you would take a deck like this. Which Dinosaurs are you most excited to play?
