by Johnny Cycles, March 14th, 2025

Hello! Welcome to another edition of Pioneer Curious! This month, I’m trying out some new Aetherdrift cards in a deck I’ve been wanting to play in Pioneer for some time now, Gruul Dinos. If you’ve been following this site for awhile, then you know I’ve played Dinosaurs in an Amulet Titan shell in Modern. It was a blast, which made me want to try it out in Pioneer.

Of course, we don’t have access to Amulet of Vigor and the extremely broken starts this 1-mana artifact enables, but Pioneer is a slower format, and Dinosaurs have gotten a lot of love (read, power creep) over the past few years. Will it be enough to make them competitive? There’s only one way to find out!

The new cards I’m building around are Regal Imperiosaur and Agonasaur Rex. The first is a 3-mana Lord that takes the place of Wayward Swordtooth in my Modern version. Making multiple land drops in a turn is far less impactful without Amulet of Vigor and bounce lands. The second card is Agonasaur Rex, a 5-mana 8/8 with all upside! This card still blows my mind every time I read it. Of course, it’s competing against some pretty powerful options in the 5-drop slot, but more on that later.

Let’s take a look at the decklist before I get any further into our gameplan and card choices.

Decklist – Gruul Dinos

by Johnny Cycles
Format: Pioneer

Creatures (34)

4 Elvish Mystic
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Belligerent Yearling
4 Pugnacious Hammerskull
4 Regal Imperiosaur
3 Agonasaur Rex
4 Regisaur Alpha
3 Trumpeting Carnosaur
4 Ghalta, Primal Hunger

Spells (3)

3 Fling

Lands (23)

2 Cavern of Souls
2 Commercial District
5 Forest
5 Mountain
1 Restless Ridgeline
4 Stomping Ground
4 Thornspire Verge

Sideboard (15)

2 Pick Your Poison
4 Torch the Tower
2 Pawpatch Formation
3 Anger of the Gods
4 Bonehoard Dracosaur

Deck Tech

Primary Game Plan

We are primarily a Midrange deck looking to curve into overpowered, undercosted Dinosaurs beginning on turn 2 and attack until our opponent is dead. I say primarily because our deck has a lot of synergy (both good and bad) that skews it towards Combo, as well. But our first plan of action is to have a fast start that allows us to hit hard from as early as turn 3. It’s pretty straightforward. Curving into big beaters usually is.

Now let’s get to the Combo aspect of our deck!

Dinosaurs are some of the most overpowered creatures in Magic, but they tend to come with unique restrictions. Belligerent Yearling has respectable stats, but is largely underwhelming if it stays a 3/2. A 3-mana 6/6 is amazing, but its power is largely hamstrung if we can only attack with it every other turn. Meanwhile, Ghalta, Primal Hunger can come down for as little as , or it can rot in our hand as we stare at an empty board. These are the kinds of bad synergies I referenced above.

However, when we play Belligerent Yearling on turn 2, followed by Pugnacious Hammerskull on turn 3, into Ghalta, Primal Hunger for , those synergistic restrictions are all upside. And in case you don’t want to do the math on that line, we’re attacking for 18 on turn 4.

Want more combo action?

What’s better than attacking with a 12/2 trampler? Flinging it at our opponent’s face, obviously! Fling gives our deck some much needed reach when the board is clogged. And yes, even with our giant, trampling beaters, there will be games when we can’t attack for lethal and will die on the swingback. There will also be games when our opponent thinks they can take a hit and win on their next turn, not knowing we have other plans for our second main phase.

Rounding out our Midrange top end are three powerful, must-answer threats in their own right. Regisaur Alpha puts two bodies on the battlefield, while also granting other Dinosaurs haste. There will be times we cast this and Ghalta, Primal Hunger in the same turn. Yeah, those are the best of times for us.

Agonasaur Rex is a HUGE body with trample, that also comes with some flexibility. In the early game, we can cycle it to dig for what we need while also protecting one of our 2- or 3-drops. In the late game, we can use it to punch through some damage or protect a threat from destruction. We can even use it to grow a Dinosaur to even bigger proportions before flinging it at our opponent’s face.

Trumpeting Carnosaur is a 2-for-1 with the added flexibility of expensive removal. We almost always want to cast this Dinosaur for full value, because it’s pretty hard not to win once we’ve resolved a 7/6 trampler and whatever amazing 3- or 5-drop we get from its discover 5. The dream, of course, is that we spin in to a Regisaur Alpha, allowing us to attack with Trumpeting Carnosaur the same turn.

Sideboard

We’re playing a ton of removal that we didn’t make room for in the 60 here. We’re leaning hard on our exile-based removal to deal with graveyard strategies. This may be a mistake.

Bonehoard Dracosaur rounds out our sideboard and gives us a much needed flier to help protect us against the various flying threats running around Pioneer. I’ll be honest, [mtg_card]Bonehoard Dracosaur is a busted Magic card and probably deserves a spot in the main deck over Agonasaur Rex. However, I want to give the new card a chance to show its worth. If we get to untap with Bonehoard Dracosaur, it is almost always game over. The same thing can’t be said for untapping with Agonasaur Rex.

And that’s the deck. It’s a straightforward strategy with lots of sweet synergies that don’t necessarily jump out at you from the decklist. Belligerent Yearling, for instance, is one of those cards that’s easy to overlook until you see it in action.

Speaking of action, let’s get to the games!

Match 1 vs. Riverchurn Monument Combo

Match 2 vs. Azorius Soldiers

Match 3 vs. G/W Death and Taxes

Match 4 vs. Jund Sacrifice

Match 5 vs. Orzhov Clerics

Overall Record: 3-2

Impressions from Game Play

There were games in which our deck felt as powerful as a 12/12 trampling Dinosaur should. Then there were games in which we flooded out, or couldn’t draw lands on time, or had our early game answered and looked at our 12/12 (usually more than one) with dread and frustration.

Which is one of the chief drawbacks of this kind of Midrange strategy: we’re inconsistent. Without more card draw or ways to manipulate our library, we’re at the mercy of the Magic gods. When we ramp into Regal Imperiosaur, then draw a second copy, followed by a Ghalta, Primal Hunger, we can revel in the power, synergy, and beauty of the deck.

But when our mana dork gets killed, and we cast a turn 3 Pugnacious Hammerskull, followed by missing our 4th and/or 5th land drops while we stare at multiple copies of Regisaur Alpha, then we live the painfully clunky reality of this deck.

Still, the games that go well are so much fun, it’s hard to put the deck down, honestly. And I haven’t even talked about the games in which Fling plays a critical role…

Lowering Our Curve

One way we could ameliorate this issue is to lower our curve. We play a total of zero 4 drops, which adds to the clunky draws our deck suffers through sometimes. We could easily cut one of our 5 drops or Trumpeting Carnosaur to make room for some powerful 4 drops. I played 5 matches at this point and Agonasaur Rex didn’t show up in enough games to give me a legitimate impression to make a judgment. It needs more testing.

Meanwhile, Trumpeting Carnosaur is one of our best finishers, but maybe it’s too greedy to play it AND Ghalta, Primal Hunger. And if we want to add Rampaging Raptor, Regisaur Alpha‘s haste becomes a little less relevant. Furthermore, without being able to spin in to it with Trumpeting Carnosaur, granting the 7/6 haste the turn we resolve it, we’re looking at it largely as a 2-for-1. It’s possible a lower curve will make up for this, particularly when one has haste and the other can draw us cards.

Below is my first test match with a tweaked version of the deck. These videos aren’t meant to give a complete picture of the build, just a small sample for other possible directions we could take Dinos in Pioneer.

Gruul Dinos 2.0 vs. Orzhov Discard

More Card Draw

We can also accept the reality that Agonasaur Rex just doesn’t do enough in our current build and switch Bonehoard Dracosaur in for it to help with our lack of card draw. Of course, a 5-mana creature we have to untap with to gain any card advantage from is not really going to solve our early-game issues when we flood or can’t find lands.

Shapers’ Sanctuary comes down early and forces our opponent to give us a card for each answered threat/mana dork, or die. That feels like a good place to be. Granted, conditional card draw comes with its own set of issues, but we can hope that our big threats will force our opponent’s hand.

Ripjaw Raptor functions similarly, while also lowering our curve.

Are any of these better than something like Bitter Reunion or Fable of the Mirror-Breaker? Eh, probably not, to be honest, but we’re here to play Dinosaur Tribal! If you want to streamline a Gruul Midrange deck that uses Dinosaurs as finishers, I fully support your decision and would love to see your final decklist!

My first match with this version of the deck is below. Spoiler alert: my Dimir opponent wanted nothing to do with Shapers’ Sanctuary… The second match got cut short due to an update, but the second match in particular shows off some of the changes.

Gruul Dinos 3.0 vs. Dimir Control

Gruul Dinos 3.0 vs. Ensoul Artifact

Conclusion

Gruul Dinos in Pioneer is a super fun and powerful deck that is a bit too inconsistent to compete at a high level. However, with a few changes, I think the deck can maintain its Dinosaur base, while becoming more streamlined and effective. What we could really use is a 2-mana Lord, the way some of the Magic’s more supported tribes have gotten over the years. Until then, though, there are enough powerful options up the curve to make Dinosaurs fun and flexible!

Thanks for reading and watching! What do you think of the deck? What would you change? Should I look into splashing to give us more options against the field?