by Johnny Cycles, July 11th, 2025
Looking for a tribal deck that casts overpowered, undercosted creatures up the mana curve? Want to play creatures that do more than attack and block? Love Dinosaurs as much as my 9-year-old son? Then look no further than this Naya Dinosaur Tribal deck with Huatli, Poet of Unity!
Here’s the deck (deck tech still to come):
Deck List – Naya Dinosaur Tribal with Huatli, Poet of Unity
| Huatli, Poet of Unity |
Creatures (45)
| Agonasaur Rex | |
| Bonehoard Dracosaur | |
| Palani’s Hatcher | |
| Quartzwood Crasher | |
| Ravenous Sailback | |
| Regisaur Alpha | |
| Swooping Pteranodon | |
| Trapjaw Tyrant | |
| Wrathful Raptors | |
| Carnage Tyrant |
| Zacama, Primal Calamity | |
| Ghalta, Primal Hunger |
Artifacts (3)
| Dino DNA | |
| Urza’s Incubator | |
| The Great Henge |
Enchantments (4)
| Garruk’s Uprising | |
| Poetic Ingenuity | |
| Welcome to . . . | |
| Mirari’s Wake |
Instants (1)
| Eladamri’s Call |
Sorceries (7)
| Triumphant Chomp | |
| Contest of Claws | |
| Farseek | |
| Nature’s Lore | |
| Three Visits | |
| Savage Stomp | |
| Savage Order |
Lands (39)
Castle Garenbrig
Cavern of Souls
Clifftop Retreat
Command Tower
Commercial District
Elegant Parlor
Field of Ruin
Jetmir’s Garden
Kessig Wolf Run
Lush Portico
Prismatic Vista
Restless Ridgeline
Rootbound Crag
Sacred Foundry
Scalding Tarn
Stomping Ground
Sunpetal Grove
Temple Garden
Unclaimed Territory
Wooded Foothills
Forest (6)
Mountain (6)
Plains (7)
Primary Game Plan
Dinosaurs are a pretty straight-forward tribe that has gotten a lot of love over recent years. Being that they are gigantic creatures, Wizards has given them stats accordingly, often at a lower rate than the average non-Dinosaur creature. Sure, this lower mana cost frequently comes with some sort of drawback (Pugnacious Hammerskull), but it just as often does not (Regal Imperiosaur).
Thus, are main game plan is to ramp into Dinosaurs and turn them sideways until our opponent is dead. But we aren’t just a vanilla beat-down deck. Thanks to power creep and the fact that the large majority of Dinosaurs were printed in the last 10 years (with at least half that number coming in the last 5), we have a slew of powerful options up the curve that do a whole lot more than just attack.
And while we have mostly eschewed the subtheme of dealing damage to our own creatures for value that is present in Veloci-Ramp-Tor Precon from Rivals of Ixalan, almost all of our Dinosaurs bring something else to the table besides a big body. Whether its card advantage, removal of all types, stealing permanents, gaining life, graveyard hate, or poison counters, our Dinosaurs can do it all.
For this reason, while our strategy of resolving creatures and attacking is pretty straightforward, the games themselves are rarely such, as is evidenced by the video of my match against Arcades, the Strategist (video to be posted soon). There were many decision points throughout that game that could have led us to different outcomes. Had I flipped Huatli as soon as possible instead of playing the big creatures in my hand, how would the game have changed? What about using Zacama’s ability to blow up the Meekstone the first chance I got instead of killing Arcades? Or waiting a turn or two before attacking in the late game?
I want to say a quick word about Huatli and when we should flip her to her saga side. Generally speaking, our most optimal play is to flip her as soon as possible. In the above-mentioned game especially, we weren’t under a ton of pressure and could’ve easily taken a turn to transform her and start getting all that value from her saga side. I was a little starstruck by the many giant Dinosaurs I had in hand and got too focused on closing out the game even when that became impossible.
So, if you want to increase your chances of winning, I’d recommend investing the mana the first chance you get.
That being said, flipping Huatli does lead us down the well-trod path of eventually tutoring up Wakening Sun’s Avatar, wiping our opponent’s board, and swinging in for lethal. And while we don’t have to take this route, it’s hard to not win the game when you can.
A Brief History of Dinosaurs in Magic
The internet tells us that the first creature in Magic to be given the type Dinosaur was Pygmy Allosaurus from Ice Age. For whatever strange reason, before that, Wizards didn’t want to categorize creatures that were obviously dinosaurs as Dinosaurs… Instead, they called them Beasts or Lizards, even if their pictures and names belied the truth.
With the release of the Ixalan block, however, Wizards finally came to their senses and started calling a rose by its name and not by any other. And in honor of this coming to reason, they retroactively changed the various cards like those above to the proper creature type of Dinosaur.
The first Dinosaur ever printed?
Look at that beauty!
And look at what creatures used to look like when the game first came out. 4 mana for a 2/2 with an ability? Now that’s value! Does Wizards even print cards with that mana cost-to-power ratio anymore? Still, it’s cool to see that, decades later, they stayed true to the original design of Dinosaurs with the enrage mechanic.
What Dinosaurs and Werewolves Have in Common
For the longest time, Werewolf Tribal in Commander had only a single option: Ulrich of the Krallenhorde, which was first printed in Eldritch Moon in 2016. It wasn’t until 5 years later that we got another playable Werewolf commander, Tovolar, Dire Overlord. Comparing the two quickly reveals the superior choice to helm a 99-card deck.
Dinosaurs had it even worse…until they didn’t. There wasn’t even a single legendary Dinosaur card printed until the Ixalan block in 2017, but once Rivals of Ixalan came out in early 2018, players had a whopping five (5!!!) to choose from. And yes, that’s sarcasm…unless you’re a Werewolf Tribal player.
The TL;Dr of all this is that if you wanted to play Dinosaur Tribal in Commander in the late 2010s, you had to pick between Gishath, Sun’s Avatar and Zacama, Primal Calamity just to have enough Dinosaurs to pick from for the 99.
Not so any more. Wizards has since gone all in on Commander as their bread and butter and print legendary creatures almost at the same clip as nonlegendary. It’s worth noting that when Ixalan was released, Wizards hadn’t yet begun printing Commander precons with each set.
In 2023 we returned to Ixalan and with our trip back, we got quite a few more options for both our Dinosaur commander and our 99. And, along the way, Wizards gave us some more Dinosaurs in sets ranging from Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths to March of the Machine.
Furthermore, with Wizards’ dedication to pumping out Commander precons with every set and legendary creatures to support the format, we now have many, many options for which Dinosaur gets to helm our Tribal deck (sorry Werewolves, you still only get two…okay, three now that Final Fantasy has released and we have Galian Beast, the flip side of Vincent Valentine. I can’t wait to brew a Mono Black Assassin-Werewolf Tribal Commander deck).
So, which one of these many Dinosaurs did we pick?
Huatli, Poet of Unity is THE Best Dinosaur Tribal Commander
Let me be honest before I get started on Huatli. Like everyone else with a Dinosaur Tribal deck in Commander, I played Zacama, Primal Calamity for a long time. I also tried Gishath, Sun’s Avatar. The result? The deck was fun to play thanks to the 99, not the 1. I rarely, if ever, got to cast my commander and when I did, it almost always died before it could do much. I either won with the Dinosaurs in my deck or I lost without my commander ever seeing any real action.
Huatli, Poet of Unity has changed all of that. While not a Dinosaur, she is basically a Dinosaur lord. We have multiple Planeswalker versions of her and she’s always pictured with Dinosaurs and frequently has Dinosaur-related abilities.
Further cementing her as a viable Dinosaur Tribal commander is the saga side that she flips in to. Three of the four chapters involve Dinosaurs.
Okay, so now that I’ve addressed the elephant in the room and shown how Huatli, Poet of Unity fits the theme of Dinosaur Tribal despite not being a Dinosaur herself, let’s get to the practical reasons she’s the best option to helm the deck.
First, her enters ability does exactly what we want exactly when we want it: ensuring we make our fourth land drop on time. Despite the love Dinosaurs have gotten over recent years, many of the most fun and most powerful of our options cost more than 5 mana. We need to make land drops every turn until the game is over, that’s how mana hungry we are. With Huatli, we can keep a 3-land hand with minimal risk of not drawing a land by turn 5.
Then, assuming we have nothing else to do or if we’re truly unlucky and can’t find a sixth land, we can flip her on turn 5 and start taking advantage of all those sweet, sweet saga abilities. And if our opponent kills her in response, then we can cast her on the following turn and get another land from our deck to guarantee we make our sixth land drop.
Now, let’s talk about her saga side, because while making our land drops ensures we get to play Magic, it’s her saga side that will often lead us to victory.
First, we get two 3/3 Dinosaur tokens. Yes, this is the least impactful of the chapters, but that doesn’t mean it’s not good. Bodies on the battlefield never truly go amiss, while on our following turn they become Naya’s version of Noble Hierarchs, along with all of our other creatures.
The second chapter of Huatli’s saga side ramps us into at least one big finisher, if not multiple midrange threats, assuming we have them in hand. This works perfectly with the third chapter and sets us up to win the game on our next turn. You understood that correctly. The fourth chapter frequently goes unused because it’s unneeded. Why?
When we reach the third chapter, we get to tutor up this game-ending Dinosaur. That’s right, we have a conditional Demonic Tutor attached to our commander. That alone puts Huatli on the short list of best Dinosaur Tribal commanders. And unless our opponent happens to be playing Dinosaur Tribal as well, this one-sided boardwipe that leaves our side of the battlefield full of big fatties will be game over. This chapter gives our deck a surprising amount of consistency, should we want to win that way.
And if that’s not enough (or if we’re playing with three opponents), then the fourth chapter ensures we have enough damage to kill whoever is left.
Of course, all of this will be contingent on our opponent not having a Counterspell, a boardwipe of their own, or some other means of interaction. But since this saga is the flip side of our commander, we don’t have to take this most optimal route to victory if we’re playing around one of those scenarios. Instead, we can tutor up any number of silver bullet creatures, not overextend, then recast Huatli from the Command zone after the last chapter goes off.
And one of the best things about Huatli, Poet of Unity is that we don’t really care if our opponent kills her or destroys her saga side, as her enters ability gets a land out of our deck, which both makes our draw steps more interesting and allows us to cast all of the big bombs that make up our deck.
The Talent
With the majority of the less than 200 Dinosaurs we have to choose from being released in the last 5 years, our options have largely been the beneficiary of power creep.
In other words, these dinos be busted!
Nearly all of our Dinosaurs can be constituted as big beaters, but many do more than just attack down our opponent’s life total. I’ve divided them into groups according to these additional abilities. Thus, we have Dinosaur ramp, Dinosaur card advantage, and Dinosaur kill spells, to name a few. But to start, we’re going to highlight the ones that do combat best.
The Beaters
The temptation with Dinosaur Tribal is to jam all those sweet, sweet bombs that have been printed over the years into our deck with dreams of crushing our opponents with giant 12/12s or running away with the game thanks to the “untap all lands you control” clause that comes with Zacama, Primal Calamity. And, to be fair, this deck is more top heavy than most creature decks I play. But we get away with it thanks to our commander.
Still, we want to have some kind of curve that involves more than just mana ramp and kill spells. Thankfully, we have some very powerful and very playable Dinosaurs beginning at the 2-drop slot.
I’ve included in this section those Dinosaurs who are really good at attacking, but they aren’t just big fatties with trample, as you can see in the picture above. Some excel at beating face because they bring a friend with them to the beat-down party. Others grant haste. Still others are difficult to interact with. I originally labeled this section Vanilla Beaters, but these dinos are anything but.
Ancient Imperiosaur – another Dinosaur with trample, we’re hoping not to pay full value for it, since it has convoke and gets bigger with each creature we use to help pay for its mana cost. I will say that there will be games when we’d much rather be attacking with our Dinosaurs them using them to power out a giant Ancient Imperiosaur. When that’s the case, we’re getting a 6/6 trampler with ward for . Eh, not the worst.
Belligerent Yearling – this uncommon from Lost Caverns of Ixalan is an unassuming example of the power creep Wizards has given to Dinosaurs. A 3/2 body with trample for 2 mana is already ahead of the curve, but its other ability is what allows this Dinosaur to scale up with nearly every subsequent Dinosaur we play. I feel like 5 years ago, this creature wouldn’t have had trample and would’ve had 1 toughness.
Carnage Tyrant – our first Dinosaur that saw consistent Standard play. It’s good against Control and any deck leaning hard on spot removal.
Ghalta and Mavren – a 7-mana 12/12 with trample AND triggered abilities? Wow! Please also note that the attack trigger isn’t when we attack with Ghalta and Mavren, but when we attack. Thus, the turn we resolve this pair, we trigger it when we attack with our other creatures. We will almost always pick the first option here, but there will be times when making Vampires with lifelink is the right choice.
Ghalta, Primal Hunger – if we’re casting this for more than then we’re doing it wrong.
Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant – you may think we’ll be unlikely to get much value out of Ghalta’s enters ability, but think again! Given how much ramp we play, there will be games when we resolve this on turn 5 and empty our hand. Similarly, given how top heavy our deck is, we will often be unable to cast more than one giant Dinosaur in a turn, meaning when we cast this one, we’ll get a ton of value out of it. And hey, if all we get is a 12/12 with trample for 8 mana, that’s not such a bad rate either. It’ll force an answer from our opponent or kill them dead all by its lonesome just fine.
Palani’s Hatcher – what’s better than casting all of our Ghaltas? Casting them haste! This is one of two ways we have of giving all of our other Dinosaurs haste and it’s possible we should consider dipping into some other creature types to increase our chances of attacking with our giant Dinosaurs the turn they resolve. But for now, I’m staying true to the Dinosaur Tribe. It’s worth noting, by the way, that we do play Atla Palani, Nest Tender, which synergizes unsurprisingly well with Palani’s Hatcher.
Pugnacious Hammerskull – speaking of power creep! Yes, there is a serious drawback to this 3-mana 6/6, but we can still block with it if we don’t have any other Dinosaurs on the battlefield. And did I mention that we’re playing 37 Dinosaurs along with multiple ways to make Dinosaur tokens, including our commander? Yeah, if this guy ever gets a stun counter on it, we’re probably already losing.
Quartzwood Crasher – I had this card in the deck for the longest time before I ever got to see it in action. In fact, it took so long for me to draw and resolve it that I considered cutting it more than once for the newest hotness. Let me tell you now: DO NOT CUT THIS CARD! We have so many creatures with trample that we should be able to trigger it the turn we cast it. Furthermore, since the tokens it creates also have trample, we’re very likely to trigger this Dinosaur Beast again and again until our opponent is dead.
Regal Imperiosaur – our first and only Dinosaur lord. Not only do we buff our team, but this is on a 5/4…for 3 mana! In case you haven’t noticed the trend here, Dinosaurs are overpowered and undercosted and I’m still amazed every time I’m faced with the evidence of this fact.
Regisaur Alpha – the other Dinosaur that grants haste to its fellow tribe members. It brings with it a 3/3. Not too bad for 5 mana!
Shifting Ceratops – this Dinosaur saw a little bit of play in Standard as hate against Control. Otherwise, even with all that text, it’s one of our more vanilla Dinosaurs. Its activated ability can be used any time we want and we can spend 3 to give it reach, trample, and haste in a single turn, should we want to do something like that.
Sunfrill Imitator – our first Dinosaur from the Lost Caverns of Ixalan Commander precon deck (I’m not counting reprints). That precon looks like a lot of fun and has some sweet Dinosaurs to add to our 99, but I have not wholesale taken each one that was printed new to that deck. I like that the precon has a subtheme of dealing damage to your own creatures for value, but that’s not the angle of attack we’re taking. Anyway, this guy is an improved version of Belligerent Yearling.
Swooping Pteranodon – not our most powerful beater by itself, but since we get to take our opponent’s biggest attacker, it is one of our swingiest cards. Note, as well, that this triggers any time it or another Dinosaur with flying enters the battlefield.
Tyrranax Rex – triple keywords means I’m playing this in my Mono Green Triple Keywords deck with Questing Beast at the helm, but if you’re playing Dinosaur Tribal, you have to have a very good reason not to include this Phyrexian Dinosaur. Technically it gives us an alternate win condition, too.
Dinosaur Ramp
For the sake of simplicity, I’ve included our non-Dinosaur creatures that specifically ramp for Dinosaurs or synergize with them in other ways.
Drover of the Mighty – we can use mana from this 2-drop to cast anything (as opposed to only Dinosaur spells), which is relevant. The +2/+2 he gets when we control a Dinosaur is a nice bonus. A 1-mana mana dork like Birds of Paradise could be considered strictly better than this, but what’s the point of play a tribal deck if you don’t play tribal support cards like this one?
Hulking Raptor – the turn we untap with this Dinosaur out, we’ll have at least 6 mana to work with. Ward is a nice touch and makes this 5/3 very aggressively priced.
Hunting Velociraptor – not a traditional ramp creature, but we won’t complain when we get to cast Zacama, Primal Calamity on turn 4 for . Yeah, that hasn’t happened yet, but we can dream!
Intrepid Paleontologist – that’s a lot of text for a mana dork! This card is great for us. In the early game, it ramps us into our threats. In the mid- to late-game it functions as card advantage, allowing us to recast any Dinosaur our opponent has killed. Finally, it also gives us some much-needed graveyard hate since we can target any card in any graveyard with its activated ability.
Ixalli’s Lorekeeper – a 1-mana mana dork that can only be used on Dinosaur spells and abilities.
Otepec Huntmaster – an auto-include for any Dinosaur Tribal deck. It’s a Ruby Medallion for Dinosaurs, while giving one of our threats haste means our opponent must answer this or risk dying out of nowhere. Not bad for a 2 drop.
Topiary Stomper – a 3-mana ramp spell that scales up as the game goes long. If all we get out of this is an extra land on the battlefield, we’ll take it.
Wayward Swordtooth – making extra land drops gets us to our finishers that much faster. Of course, we’ll need lands in hand to abuse this Dinosaur, which is one reason we’re playing…
Soaring Sandwing – you may be tempted to cut this 6-mana common for something splashier, but let me dissuade you from considering this. First, we really want to make our land drops. For we get to color fix by getting a Jetmir’s Garden or set up our next draw with a surveil land. Second, we are sorely lacking in fliers. With 5 toughness, Soaring Sandwing can survive combat with many common flying threats, whether they be Dragons, Demons, or Angels. Finally, the lifegain will sometimes be relevant. The reality, though, is that I’m keeping this 6 drop in the 99 for its plainscycling.
Dinosaur Removal
Dinosaurs are really good at killing other creatures…and artifacts and enchantments, as it turns out. And sometimes they do both!
Agonasaur Rex – a casual 8/8 with trample for 5 mana…yes, we’ve seen one other card with stats like this before (Verdurous Gearhulk), but it still is worth taking a moment to marvel at the power creep here. Beyond the body we get for the mana investment, we can cycle it as a combat trick to kill an opponent’s blocker, while keeping ours alive.
Kogla and Yidaro – that’s a lot of text! For 6 mana we can either give this Ape Dinosaur Turtle haste and trample until end of turn, or we can have it fight another creature. That’s some nice flexibility. But wait, that’s not all! For , we can shuffle it back into our library and destroy an artifact or enchantment, then draw a card. That’s more than just nice flexibility, it’s insane flexibility.
Ravenous Sailback – for one less mana, this uncommon does a lot less, but still more than most creature printed before 2010: our choice of haste or artifact/enchantment destruction. I’m only disappointed that for 5 mana we’re getting a lowly 3/4…
Ravenous Tyrannosaurus – this rare from Jurassic World Collection can take over a game all by itself. With devour 3, we can cast this the turn after we’ve flipped Huatli and sacrifice the two Dinosaur tokens to make this creature a 12/12. Mana dorks are also good for devouring, it should be noted. Then, once we start attacking with it, we can either snipe our opponent’s biggest threat, or kill their smallest so that the majority of damage from the attack trigger goes to our opponent’s face. All of this makes Ravenous Tyrannosaurus one of our best threats.
Thrashing Brontodon – as the OG of Dinosaurs that can blow up artifacts or enchantments, this 3/4 from Rivals of Ixalan deserves its own time in the spotlight!
Tranquil Frillback – another Dinosaur that scales up as the game goes long, for an additional we get to destroy an artifact or enchantment. Notice, too, that this card gives us some more graveyard hate.
Trapjaw Tyrant – enrage is an interesting mechanic that can be difficult to trigger…unless your deck is full of ways to deal damage to your own creatures. We aren’t as all-in on this angle as the Commander precon, but we have some ways to get value out of this outside of lowering our opponent’s life total.
Trumpeting Carnosaur – I’m including this card here since we can pay and discard it in order to deal 3 damage to any creature or Planeswalker. Outside of wanting to trigger Trapjaw Tyrant, for example, I can see using this ability to answer a must-kill commander like Krenko, Mob Boss. Otherwise, we almost always want to cast it for full value.
Wakening Sun’s Avatar – our Dinosaur boardwipe. Sure, winning this way can get old, but no one says we have to tutor this card up with our commander every time we get the chance…
Wayta, Trainer Prodigy – one of our non-Dinosaur removal spells, I originally had Territorial Allosaurus in this spot. For one less mana we get a repeatable fight ability to pick off our opponent’s best threat every turn. Then, of course, there is all the synergies with cards like Trapjaw Tyrant. Not only do we get to trigger Trapjaw Tyrant‘s enrage ourselves, but we get to double up the trigger!
Wrathful Raptors – or we can use Wayta in conjunction with this card to kill…let me do some math, here…the fight trigger from Wayta kills one creature, while the damage trigger from Wrathful Raptors can kill a second creature, and the second damage trigger we get from Wayta’s static ability means we can kill a third creature…three creatures. Now that’s some value!
Zacama, Primal Calamity – we’re paying full value for all these abilities, but since we get to untap all of our lands the turn we cast this Elder Dinosaur, we’re almost certainly getting a 3-for-1 out of it. And that’s not even considering the triple keywords that make this one of our best attackers and blockers. I opened a foil Russian copy of this from Rivals of Ixalan and for the longest time it was worth more than $80. With all the reprints and downgrading it to rare, I doubt it’s worth that much now, but it looks cool!
Dinosaur Card Draw
These are the Dinosaurs (and Dinosaur-adjacent creatures) that provide us card advantage.
Agonasaur Rex – yes, I love this card. An 8/8 trampler for 5 mana still blows my mind. For we get some card draw in case we’re missing land drops.
Atla Palani, Nest Tender – there are a lot of hoops to jump through in order to gain some card advantage from this Human Shaman, but hopefully our opponent will have been too busy killing all of our big threats to still have an answer for this lowly 2/3. Don’t forget that we play Palani’s Hatcher, which gives us at least one other card that cares about Dinosaur Egg tokens. By the way, I have two Commander decks with Atla Palani at the helm, so stay tuned for an article about those!
Curious Altisaur – it seems like every tribe that has a Commander precon has gotten a card like this. With all of our tramplers, we should be able to draw a ton of cards with this Dinosaur out. Reach is a nice bonus!
Ripjaw Raptor – I remember thinking that this card was so busted when it was first printed. Green card draw attached to an above-curve body? Yes, please! Then I played with it and realized that if we leave it up to our opponent to deal damage to it, we’re unlikely to draw many cards, particularly in a format like Commander where taking 4 damage is almost always preferable to giving your opponent a card. However, we have a variety of fight spells that we can use to trigger this on our own terms.
Bonehoard Dracosaur – what’s better than a Dinosaur? A Dinosaur Dragon of course! One of our few fliers, if we make it to our upkeep with this on the battlefield, we’re looking at a 4-for-1. Two cards we can play, plus either a 3/1 Dinosaur or Treasure token, or both. Oh, and for some reason, this thing has first strike.
Earthshaker Dreadmaw – while there are enough Dinosaurs available to allow for a variety of Dinosaur Tribal decks, I imagine this 6-mana 6/6 trampler is in every single one. To be more specific to our deck, there will be plenty of times when we’ve ramped into a single 4- or 5-drop Dinosaur only to have this be our last card in hand. Resolving it ensures we find more action.
Etali, Primal Conqueror – this is not card draw, but we get to cast a noncreature card from the top of EACH library, including our own. In the game I recorded for this article, I hit Zacama, Primal Calamity. Not too shabby.
Gishath, Sun’s Avatar – more card advantage that doesn’t draw us cards, we shouldn’t have a problem finding at least two more dinosaurs if we get to dig seven cards deep.
Dinosaur Graveyard Hate
I’ve mentioned both of these cards before, so I’ll just list them for you below.
Intrepid Paleontologist
Tranquil Frillback
Dinosaur Stax Pieces
This isn’t really our game plan in any way, shape, or form, but each of these two Dinosaurs are legitimately playable without the added bonus of punishing our opponent.
Scytheclaw Raptor – this one is probably among the first out, to be honest, but what’s kept it in so long is twofold. First, a 4/3 for isn’t a bad rate and we want to have some kind of curve among our creatures. Right now, 16 or our 45 creatures are 3 mana or less. I like that. The second reason we’re playing it is to punish all those decks looking to counter or kill our things on our turn. Let’s make them pay…
Kinjalli’s Sunwing – a flier that can trigger Swooping Pteranodon, it’s a powerful tempo play for our aggressive starts when our opponent can’t reliably block the turn they cast their creatures.
Dinosaur Support Cards
One of my favorite things about playing tribal decks is finding all those sweet support cards that are on theme. And while it’s true some of our choices aren’t Dinosaur related, most are.
Removal
Contest of Claws – a kill spell that doubles as card advantage. What more could we ask for?
Savage Stomp – there may be more efficient or flexible fight spells, but this one is on theme in every way and thus an auto-include.
Triumphant Chomp – ditto the above.
Welcome to . . . – a bit of artifact hate tacked on to a bunch of other stuff.
Ramp
Farseek – this should probably be Thunderherd Migration, but I’ve chosen to go the optimal route for our 2-mana ramp spells. Snagging a surveil land or triome is too important in a 3-color deck like ours. Furthermore, we’re fetching up basics with our commander, and we only play so many.
Mirari’s Wake – I don’t remember how I acquired my copy of this card, but I have the version pictured above. This seems like the perfect deck to make use of both the mana doubling and the anthem effect.
Nature’s Lore – ditto what I said about Farseek…
Poetic Ingenuity – there’s too much value in just the first half of this card to pass it up. That’s good because with a total of three artifacts in our deck, I doubt we’ll be getting many 3/1 Dinosaurs out of it.
The Great Henge – a card that needs no explanation, I’ll just say that it shares a connection with Ghalta, Primal Hunger in how its cost is reduced. That makes this totally a Dinosaur-themed card, right?
Three Visits – another optimal 2-mana ramp spell. Don’t judge me too harshly…
Urza’s Incubator – thanks to the recent reprinting, I was able to get a couple of copies for not too much. Our deck is perfect for abusing this artifact’s cost reduction.
Welcome to . . . – a Gaea’s Cradle for Dinosaurs. Seems pretty good.
Card Advantage
Contest of Claws – sure, we won’t always get a card out of this spell, but given the size of our creatures, we’ll want to hold on to this card until we can unless we absolutely must kill something.
Eladamri’s Call – I’m not playing the mono Green tutors, mostly because my copies are in other decks, but this one is sufficient for us.
Savage Order – be careful which Dinosaurs you choose. Some of the creatures we’d really like to get are best only when cast from our hand (Wakening Sun’s Avatar, for example).
The Great Henge – yup, this legendary artifact also draws us cards…
Dino DNA – functions as slow card advantage, but it also gives us some graveyard hate since we can target any creature from any graveyard. And yes, that means we can make token copies of our opponent’s creatures, as well.
Garruk’s Uprising – dinos in the art qualifies this for Dinosaur Tribal. The card advantage is great, while the trample will often be redundant. Still, when it’s not, we’ll be glad to have this enchantment out.
Welcome to . . . – once we flip this saga, we get to cast Dinosaurs from our graveyard.
Flex Spots
There are a number of cards that I could see cutting in favor of more powerful (and less Dinosaur-themed) answers. A card like Ravenous Sailback could easily be replaced with Farewell, for instance.. Similarly, Dino DNA, while very flavorful, could be swapped out for any number of other ways to interact with the graveyard. Of course, where else are you going to play a card like Dino DNA if not in this deck?
Ditto that for Welcome to . . . Is this card better than, say, Swords to Plowshares? Or Wrath of God?
As to creatures, well, there are plenty of good Dinosaurs we aren’t playing. First on the chopping block for me would be Scytheclaw Raptor and Shifting Ceratops. I like what they do in relation to their place on the curve, but as new Dinosaurs get printed, I’m sure they’ll get powercrept out of the deck.
Heck, we already have Bronzebeak Foragers that is better in our deck than Shifting Ceratops. I don’t currently have a copy of this card, but I would consider finding room for it if I did.
Then there’s Pantlaza, Sun-Favored, the commander for the Lost Caverns of Ixalan precon. There is no question this card is super powerful and would be a great addition to our deck. Once I get a copy, I’ll make room for it, probably cutting Shifting Ceratops for it.
Belligerent Yearling is also a card I could see losing its spot in the 99. Yes, I have many fond memories of playing it in Modern, but Commander is a different beast. Even a 2-drop on turn 2 that scales up the remainder of the game isn’t likely to go the distance or finish anyone off. Making room for more removal or another powerful Dinosaur makes sense.
Ideal Hand and Game Play
We want at least three lands in our opening hand, alongside one form of ramp. As to the remaining three cards, we’re happy to see a support piece in the form of removal or card draw, a Dinosaur we can cast before turn 5, and a big fatty for us to work towards. Of course, two Dinosaurs that cost 4 or 5 mana is also great, but since our commander does such a good job ramping us, we’re happy to see those 6 and 7 drops in our opening hand, as well.
As detailed above, our most optimal line is to cast Huatli, Poet of Unity and flip her as soon as possible. We can’t get all that value out of her if we don’t invest the mana to transform her, after all. Each chapter of the saga side furthers our game plan, culminating with two game-ending chapters if our opponent can’t find an answer in time.
Otherwise, we want to play Dinosaurs up the curve and attack!
Weaknesses
Being that we are a fairly top heavy deck (24 of our creatures cost 5 or more mana), we can easily draw the wrong half of our deck. Similarly, even with our commander’s enters ability, with the wrong draw, we could still find ourselves mana screwed. We’re playing 17 forms of ramp to help with this problem.
But that can lead to situations where we can’t find action. Thankfully, Roar of the Fifth People guarantees that we’ll get some bodies on the battlefield. However, if our opponent is able to answer the sage before chapter 3, or simply has a bunch of boardwipes, we could be left living off the top of our deck or having our recast commander be too slow to impact the game.
Finally, given that I’m almost all-in on the Dinosaur theme, we aren’t playing much targeted removal and only one sweeper. Against must-answer commanders, we might just lose before we ever get going because of this.
Conclusion
Huatli, Poet of Unity is the best commander to helm a Dinosaur Tribal deck thanks to her enters ability alongside a well-designed series of chapters on her saga side. What makes her so powerful and effective is that she is an excellent facilitator of her tribe. Dinosaurs are so individually powerful already that they really just need ways to make it to the battlefield. Whether its her ramp or her tutoring or her double-strike granting, Huatli ensures our best Dinosaurs live their best lives.
Thanks for reading! Do you have a Dinosaur Tribal deck? Who’s your commander? Have I forgotten any obvious inclusions?
