Past Glories: Standard Gruul Dinos SP2

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

Introduction

At the end of 2023, The Lost Caverns of Ixalan brought the Dinosaur tribe back to Standard, complete with dedicated one-mana accelerants and outsized bodies. A 6/6 on turn two and a 5/3 with ward 2 on turn three would have been an unignorable threat in any Standard of the past. Even with such a strong foundation, the deck has vanished from the tournament scene. In an era where deck power creeps up by the day, can a two-year-old archetype still keep up?

Deck Evolution

When The Lost Caverns of Ixalan was released, I published a Dinosaur deck on this site; see Wild Awakening: Standard Gruul Dinosaurs. As Standard rotated, the Dinosaurs from March of the Machine and March of the Machine: The Aftermath left us, but later sets still gave the tribe some reinforcements. The new list is below:

Decklist

Core cast: Ixalli’s Lorekeeper, Belligerent Yearling, Pugnacious Hammerskull, Hulking Raptor, Triumphant Chomp, Restless Ridgeline

The Lost Caverns of Ixalan gave us a solid set of cheap Dinosaurs: the one-mana accelerant Ixalli’s Lorekeeper, the one-mana removal spell Triumphant Chomp, the explosive two-drop Belligerent Yearling, the outsized three-drop Pugnacious Hammerskull, and the four-drop Hulking Raptor with built-in ward and ramp. Together they form a brutal early curve. The red-green manland Restless Ridgeline also gains the Dinosaur type once animated, so it benefits from the tribal bonuses.

Bloomburrow: Hunter’s Talent

The critter set Bloomburrow has no buzzkill Dinosaurs, but we still got an excellent Hunter’s Talent. It bites an opposing creature when it enters, at level 2 gives target attacking creature +1/+0 and trample whenever you attack, and at level 3 draws you a card at end step if you control a creature with power 4 or greater. It covers every need of the green-based creature aggro plan.

Foundations: Llanowar Elves, Ghalta, Primal Hunger

The core set Foundations reprinted the tried-and-true Llanowar Elves, giving the Standard Dinosaur tribe a very fortunate eight one-mana accelerants. Also reprinted was the elder Dinosaur Ghalta, Primal Hunger. Its cost reduction based on total power wasn’t great in the old Ixalan environment, where bodies were comparatively puny. Now that Dinosaur bodies have grown by leaps and bounds, a couple of creatures on the battlefield is enough to slam it down with ease.

Aetherdrift: Regal Imperiosaur, Agonasaur Rex

The racing set Aetherdrift unexpectedly patched in two powerful Dinosaurs with little connection to the set’s theme: the three-mana Dinosaur lord Regal Imperiosaur and the five-mana 8/8 trampler Agonasaur Rex. Regal Imperiosaur fills out the three-drop slot, letting you apply pressure more reliably starting on turn two. Agonasaur Rex looks a bit slow on its own, but it has a nice cycling trigger: put two +1/+1 counters on up to one target creature or Vehicle, and that permanent gains trample and indestructible until end of turn. That covers trample, growth, and protection from removal all at once.

Avatar: The Last Airbender: Ba Sing Se, Bitter Work, Secret Tunnel, Origin of Metalbending

Red-green creature aggro has always suffered from running out of gas, and Dinosaurs are no exception. Especially against black or white control decks packed with spot removal and sweepers, a few removal spells or a sweeper often leave you with nothing but lands and mana creatures. Even with the red-green manlands, that is usually a drop in the bucket, since one removal spell takes them out. However, the earthbending of Avatar: The Last Airbender looks like it can plug this hole. The land Ba Sing Se is a hard-to-answer earthbending engine, endlessly producing land creatures to pressure control opponents. Besides carrying a built-in earthbend 4, Bitter Work fits the theme well, since attacking with power 4 or greater creatures draws cards. Next is the unblockable-granting Secret Tunnel: besides earthbending for steady damage, it makes two Dinosaurs unblockable, which adds up to a lot of damage. Finally, Origin of Metalbending not only handles the artifacts and enchantments that are all the rage right now, but can also put counters on a creature to grant indestructible, a big boon for a Dinosaur deck full of behemoths.

Match Reports

The usual MTGA playtest video is above. What’s different this time is that a Kastolo MITQ happened to come up, and I had all the cards for this deck on hand, so I built it and tested it in a real tournament.

26-01-10 Kastolo MITQ (21 players) Quick Report

Round 1 vs Simic Ouroboroid 2-0

Simic Ouroboroid, which excels at snowballing, is a tough matchup for ordinary creature decks, but the Dinosaurs still land faster. With Triumphant Chomp killing something for one mana to disrupt the opponent’s setup, and Hunter’s Talent forcing damage through with its level-2 trample, it played out with surprisingly little pressure. Remember to choose your opening hand carefully, since having no removal is dangerous, so mulligan aggressively.

Sideout: 2 Origin of Metalbending, 1 Bitter Work, 1 Ghalta
Sidein: 2 Iroh’s Demonstration, 2 Nibelheim Aflame

Round 2 vs Sultai Control 1-2

Black-based control is a bad matchup for Dinosaurs. The opponent ran an exile-heavy build that strips cards by name, running The Rise of Sozin // Fire Lord Sozin and The End. Its answers have long reach, Nowhere to Run cuts through ward and hexproof, and in the late game there is Morlun, Devourer of Spiders, which gains a big chunk of life on entering. It was awful to play against. In game 1, I got controlled by removal and sweepers and conceded early. In the sideboarded games, I switched plans and made lands the main attackers, using manlands plus indestructible tricks to grind with them. I stole one game, but ultimately lost 1-2.

Sideout: 4 Chomp, 2 Talent, 2 Lorekeeper, 1 Ghalta
Sidein: 4 Snakeskin Veil, 2 Intrepid Paleontologist, 2 Origin of Metalbending, 1 Vivien Reid

Round 3 vs Sultai Midrange 2-1

A creature-based Sultai midrange deck, built from the Sultai colors’ long-reach removal plus solid resource and disruption creatures. In game 1, I forced a win by running the opponent over with the Agonasaur Rex + Ghalta combo. In the first sideboarded game, the opponent ramped with Kellan, Inquisitive Prodigy // Tail the Suspect, got flying and trample, and sacrificed its own artifact token to draw cards. On my side, I drew a few extra mana sources, my Dinosaurs all got removed, and I never found a manland. By the time I drew Dinosaurs, my life total was already within flyer lethal range, and the decline was irreversible. In the last game, Secret Tunnel gave Agonasaur Rex unblockable, passing straight through the creature defenses to deal a crushing blow and win.

Sideout: 1 Lorekeeper
Sidein: 1 Nibelheim Aflame

Round 4 vs Simic Ouroboroid 2-0

The match went much like the first one. The difference was that in the sideboarded game, Iroh’s Demonstration caught the opponent off guard, sweeping away two Mockingbirds that were copying Llanowar Elves in a one-sided fashion. Then, with Hunter’s Talent backing it up, the Imperiosaur Triple Star unleashed the Jet Yearling Attack, illustrated below:

Two big ones and a small one swung in for a total of 25 damage, 18 of it trample damage. After doing the math, the opponent conceded.

Sideout: 2 Origin of Metalbending, 1 Bitter Work, 1 Ghalta
Sidein: 2 Iroh’s Demonstration, 2 Nibelheim Aflame

Round 5 0-0 Intentional Draw

After four rounds my record was 3-1-0. The opponent also had three wins, so we took the intentional draw and boarded the Despicable Train toward Top 8.

Top 8 vs Sultai Control 0-2

The opponent was the Sultai Control player from the Swiss rounds. Since my countermeasures had already been figured out, I had no chance at all in the rematch. In the end I was finished off by Koma, World-Eater and was swept 0-2 without any suspense.

Conclusion

With new sets coming out at an accelerated pace in recent years, many decks get buried under the flood of new cards after just a few plays, and vanish completely from tournament and online metagame lists. It feels like they’ve fallen behind the times… but that’s not actually true. With a little thought and some adjustments, they can still have the potential to beat up the latest tech.