Blazing Sun Fury: Pioneer Naya Dinosaurs

Note: This article was translated from Chinese by AI and may contain errors. Read the original Chinese version.

Before We Start

When Ixalan was first visited in 2017, Wizards of the Coast made two design choices for this plane’s Dinosaur tribe: one is the Enrage ability that triggers when damage is dealt to it, and the other is Humans acting as cost-reducing creatures to help mid-to-high-cost Dinosaurs land early. If nothing unexpected happens, these two traits will return in The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, so how should we build around them? Let’s start with the Standard Naya Dinosaurs deck I built back then.

Primal Empathy: 2018 RIX Standard

Decklist link

This deck is a recreation of what I remember of Standard during the Rivals of Ixalan era. Unlike the red-green Dinosaurs that were common at the time, my version risked color screw by adding white for the one-mana accelerator Kinjalli’s Caller, whose 0/3 body can both hold off aggro and serve as a vehicle for Reckless Rage. The game plan is also simple: use Humans and Ranging Raptors to hold off aggro while accelerating, use Reckless Rage, Raging Swordtooth and Samut, the Tested to proactively enrage Ranging Raptors or Ripjaw Raptor for resources, then slam down Carnage Tyrant and pump it with double strike to beat up energy midrange.

Although this deck was shelved after Dominaria as its power fell behind the times, with later sets more and more quality Dinosaurs came into view, and the Pioneer format provides a suitable stage for Dinosaur tribal decks to perform. On the eve of The Lost Caverns of Ixalan’s release, let’s examine the quality Dinosaurs in the Pioneer card pool and try to build a tribal deck based on that experience.

Strength of the Pack: 2023 Pioneer

Before looking at the decklist, let’s first watch the demo video:

…A 10/10 double-strike trampler on turn four makes the opponent just give up.

Decklist link

As the video shows, this version’s core concept continues the Standard deck of those days: use low-cost cost-reducing creatures to accelerate convoking Ancient Imperiosaur, then mutate onto Snapdax, Apex of the Hunt to deal the opponent a head-on blow. First, from the old Ixalan environment we kept quality one-mana pieces such as Kinjalli’s Caller, Commune with Dinosaurs and Reckless Rage, and the five-mana lord creature Regisaur Alpha. Kinjalli’s Caller, cast for one mana, makes Dinosaur spells cost one less; it is cheap with a top-tier body and never stalls your tempo. Commune with Dinosaurs is the Ancient Stirrings of Dinosaur decks: for one mana look at five cards, take a land if you’re missing lands and a Dinosaur if you’re missing Dinosaurs, with excellent smoothing. Reckless Rage deals four for one mana while triggering Enrage, and is a perfect match for Enrage creatures that earn resources such as Ripjaw Raptor. Regisaur Alpha plays the role of a mainstay creature: a 4/4 with a 3/3 not only stabilizes the board but also helps convoke and gives Imperiosaur haste.

In M20 we got a new two-mana accelerator creature, Marauding Raptor. A two-mana 2/3 that reduces creature spell costs and deals two damage to your own creature as it enters interacts excellently with Enrage (it is baffling that Wizards printed this just before Ixalan rotated out), and being the right tribe lets it and Kinjalli’s Caller cast creatures back to back on turn two, laying the foundation for casting a mid-to-large Dinosaur on turn three. Next we come to Ikoria, billed as the plane of giant monsters. This plane doesn’t have many Behemoths, but it gave quite a few Dinosaurs: three of the five Apex creatures have the Dinosaur type, and the one we use is the Savai Triome apex creature mentioned above, Snapdax, Apex of the Hunt. It handles three jobs, life gain, removal and granting double strike, and since a mutate cast still counts as a creature spell, it also benefits from cost reduction, so it can often be cast or mutated normally for three mana, becoming a good attacker and removal spell in one.

Fast-forward to March of the Machine, set during the great New Phyrexian invasion. While the whole multiverse was locked in a brawl with the New Phyrexians, the Dinosaurs turned out quite well. There is Rampaging Raptor, the “red Questing Beast”, a four-mana 4/4 with haste and trample that, when it hits the opponent, also bites a planeswalker or battle; the Behemoth Ancient Imperiosaur, which can land quickly through convoke and comes with trample and ward; and Invasion of Ixalan // Belligerent Regisaur, the upgraded version of Commune with Dinosaurs. After the war, March of the Machine: Aftermath brought us the quality three-mana curve play Tranquil Frillback, which gains life by paying when it enters, can hate graveyards, and can destroy artifacts and enchantments. With cost reduction helping, it can easily do two or more of these, giving us some resistance to special decks like Phoenix and Greasefang even in game one.

Strategic Planning: Sideboard Strategy

This deck is similar to Boros Convoke. If your draws go smoothly, you can knock the opponent out in one wave just like in the demo video, while the creature makeup is close to ordinary midrange, and with six cheap filtering cards to smooth things out, it isn’t completely defenseless even when disrupted to some extent. The goal of game one is to take a win first, so the main deck four-drop is the aggressive Rampaging Raptor, while Ripjaw Raptor, which is strong against burn and in creature combat and can earn resources through Enrage, goes in the sideboard and can be swapped in when the opponent is a creature midrange deck or red burn. Rending Volley can reliably and efficiently remove low-cost white and blue creatures, so swap it in against decks with many fliers such as Spirits, or Heroic decks whose main force is white creatures; it can also be used to keep an eye on Greasefang, Okiba Boss. Against graveyard-based decks like Phoenix and Greasefang, naturally use white’s top graveyard-hate brand Rest in Peace to make them give up completely, and it also has some disruptive effect on the Lotus Field combo; Damping Sphere disrupts mana-cheating decks like Lotus Field and Green Devotion, and can also stop Phoenix players from easily meeting the conditions to bring back Arclight Phoenix. If you face a control deck, Pithing Needle pins down thorny activated abilities on planeswalkers or lands, Boros Charm protects against the opponent’s sweepers, deals with planeswalkers and can finish the game at the right time, and the uncounterable Tyrranax Rex catches the opponent off guard.

Conclusion

Have you noticed by this point, dear reader? Half of this deck’s components are new cards within Standard. Apart from Snapdax, Apex of the Hunt, which won’t appear in The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, the pieces from before M20 all have a good chance of being reprinted in the next set, and with Cavern of Souls about to return, there is a chance to recreate this deck in Standard by then. If you find big dinosaurs romantic and are interested, you can build following this line of thinking. I look forward to The Lost Caverns of Ixalan’s release further refining this deck.