Peerless Physique: Standard Mono-Green Gigantosaurus

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

Before We Start

Five green pips, a 10/10 body: Gigantosaurus, carrying the dreams and hopes of green fans, returns to Standard in Foundations. At the same time, M19’s Vivien Reid and Ghalta, Primal Hunger are back too. How exactly should we play it? Let’s dream back to 2018 and build a new-era Gigantosaurus deck!

Card Analysis

No keywords, no obscure abilities, only five points of green devotion, huge muscles, and the Dinosaur type. If you want to play Gigantosaurus, these are the only points to brainstorm from. The devotion part has no mechanic in Standard to pair with, so we have to develop the latter two.

Decklist

The deck concept is similar to the earlier Draconic Roar: Standard Mono-Red Dragon Burn deck: ramp to five mana and slam our protagonist Gigantosaurus. Ramp is green’s specialty, and with the return of one-mana ramp Llanowar Elves, Gigantosaurus can show up as early as turn three. For other low-cost ramp, we use Intrepid Paleontologist and Glimpse the Core. The former both recovers Dinosaur cards and hates on graveyards, while the latter is ramp that is hard to disrupt, so you do not need to worry about the opponent’s removal slowing your tempo, and it also thins the deck to reduce the chance of drawing lands later.

Considering creature quality and Intrepid Paleontologist’s tribal support, the creature cards are naturally mostly Dinosaurs. I use Pugnacious Hammerskull, Thrashing Brontodon, Hulking Raptor, and Gigantosaurus’s good friend Ghalta, Primal Hunger. Pugnacious Hammerskull is a three-mana monster body that not only hits hard but also forces the opponent to spend more spells to trade when facing aggro. Hulking Raptor is ramp that is hard to remove, letting you fire off big plays smoothly next turn, and Gigantosaurus into Ghalta becomes not hard at all. In functionality Thrashing Brontodon is not as good as Tranquil Frillback, but it wins on body size, cannot be easily picked off by a single burn spell, and can raise the player’s survival rate against aggro.

As for other spells, having Gigantosaurus as the only ramp target is clearly not enough, so I add Vivien Reid and Season of Gathering. The former is a stable source of staying power and can also remove the currently rampant enchantments, artifacts, and all kinds of big fliers, and the paper price is still pocket change, so there is no reason not to play her. Season of Gathering can provide trample, sweep artifacts and enchantments, and draw based on greatest power in a big-creature deck. Paired with Gigantosaurus, you can draw ten cards or trample for 10 or more damage.

Finally, for creature removal, I mix the land-fetching Bushwhack with the versatile Hunter’s Talent. Bushwhack’s main use is fetching a land for one mana early, and in the mid-to-late game with enough lands it is a one-mana fight. Hunter’s Talent at level one is one-sided direct damage, level two gives your creatures trample, and level three draws cards in the end step. As long as you have enough mana and control a creature with power 4 or more, basically every effect you need is provided. For lands, besides basic Forests, I also include two Cave Hidden Nursery for Glimpse the Core to recycle, and you can choose to add Cavern of Souls to defend against the opponent’s counterspells.

Gameplay Demo

Although this video has three games, there is actually nothing in the play that especially needs explaining: ramp into Gigantosaurus or Ghalta to beat the opponent to death, or Vivien earning full value. The only two things to note are probably to prioritize Glimpse the Core for two-mana ramp (Intrepid Paleontologist getting removed would slow your tempo), and not to overextend the board when the opponent might have a sweeper. By the way, the opponent in the last game played an interesting and powerful graveyard deck. Although it was forcefully run over by my Gigantosaurus, it is still worth watching.

Conclusion

Like the earlier Draconic Roar: Standard Mono-Red Dragon Burn deck, this Gigantosaurus deck has a simple color structure and a clear strategy, and correspondingly big blind spots too. In some unfavorable matchups, you may not find an effective way to fight back. Fortunately, two-color and multicolor lands are plentiful now, so players can easily adjust the colors themselves. Interested readers, please do try it out, and let’s work together on a more perfect version.