Yeah I’ve gone a similar route recently myself, dropping the unsealing strat to just curve out big fatty Dino’s. Runic armasaur seems interesting. Other than adanto vanguard I can’t think of any creature that uses an activated ability in standard at the moment. It’s all triggered abilities.
For 700 dollars paper, I would hope the deck does well lol. That’s silly for standard.
I like it though and have the cards to build it. Gonna try it out, but I’m not sure about the vanguards. I feel like main deck tocatli honor guards would be better.
I feel like this deck would be well positioned in the current meta. A good mixture of hard to kill flying threats backed with good removal and the options for discard and countermagic.
Arena is in a weird state right now. A lot of people still don’t have the best cards. The shuffler has a habit of spitting out 10 lands in a row. It’s just a strange place to try to playtest. Not to discount any successes you’ve had but take arena results less seriously than paper magic for the time being.
play good creatures that can win the game without unsealing because many games you will never find one. You don’t need to wrath the board everytime you play a creature. The flexibility of unsealing Is the reason you are playing it. Shooting things for 4 and then playing a good creature is more than enough value.
My creature list for RG Dino’s with unsealing is
4 drover of the mighty
4 thrashing brontodon
4 Ripjaw raptor
4 Regisaur alpha
4 carnage tyrant
I am only running 12 creature to set unsealing off and that has been more than I have ever needed. Of those 12 only 4 wrath the board. So you don’t need to go all out on the big creature plan. Play a good deck that does good things on its own and then add unsealing in to make it even better.
Are you guys finding that later on in the game you just kinda stall out? It’s been happening to me enough that I’m considering adding some more draw to the deck.
Probably a good call on the binding. It’s hard for a lot of decks to deal with turn 4 Gishath but you may be right about lowering the numbers. Need to get more games in.
I am currently playing Naya Ramp with Dino’s. While it’s not the uninteractive Ramp style you prefer I have been having success with it. The Dinosaurs were strong but overshadowed by the crazy power level kaladesh had. At the moment they are positioned well and the ability to lean on their unique tribal rampant growth allows them to pack less ramp and more interaction. I have built this one as more middle of the road as far as ramp goes. Not all in on little creature but not all in on a few big threats either.
With migration you don’t need mana dorks to hit t3 route, so you can run main deck clarion without penalizing yourself. You also aren’t going all in on getting to 7-8 mana so you can afford to drop the gifts for main deck novas which can actually be used to sweep enchantments. The deck is smoothed out by the power of Commune. Being able to fill your hand with big Dino or land depending on what you lack.
I dunno about Phoenix in this meta. it’s still really good but lava coil and vraska’s contempt are going to be everywhere. Maybe it’s not a 4 of anymore.
If you're gonna run Demon of Catastrophes, you probably need more expendable creatures to drop early so he isn't a dead draw.
That is a concern and the opposite is also a concern. Drawing a bunch of weak useless fodder when I want to draw relevant spells is almost as annoying. Not sure what the right balance is. Doomed Dessenter and Dusk Legion Zealot were two other fodder creatures I was considering.
Early hand disruption into giant demons backed by good removal and a consistent manabase. Late game is often finished by using Cabal Strongholds to pump up a giant dread shade, or just getting there with demons. Between blood fast and paying whisperer life to surveil, the deck can kill the user pretty easily. Sacrificing a demon to strands or a flipped blood fast is a great way to gain life back. Sideboard needs work so suggestions are very appreciated.
I like it though and have the cards to build it. Gonna try it out, but I’m not sure about the vanguards. I feel like main deck tocatli honor guards would be better.
4x Demanding Dragon
3x Niv-Mizzet, Parun
1x Lathliss, Dragon Queen
3x Sarkhan, Fireblood
3x Dragon's Hoard
4x Shock
4x Lava Coil
2x Spit Flame
2x Ritual of Soot
3x Vraska's Contempt
2x The Eldest Reborn
4x Steam Vents
4x Dragonskull Summit
4x Sulfur Falls
3x Mountain
3x Island
2x Swamp
1x Arch of Orazca
4x Duress
2x Ritual of Soot
2x Banefire
3x Unmoored Ego
I feel like this deck would be well positioned in the current meta. A good mixture of hard to kill flying threats backed with good removal and the options for discard and countermagic.
My creature list for RG Dino’s with unsealing is
4 drover of the mighty
4 thrashing brontodon
4 Ripjaw raptor
4 Regisaur alpha
4 carnage tyrant
I am only running 12 creature to set unsealing off and that has been more than I have ever needed. Of those 12 only 4 wrath the board. So you don’t need to go all out on the big creature plan. Play a good deck that does good things on its own and then add unsealing in to make it even better.
4x Burning Sun’s Avatar
3x Gishath, Sun’s Avatar
2x Wakening Sun’s Avatar
1x Zacama, Primal Calamity
4x Commune with Dinosaurs
4x Thunderherd Migration
4x Deafening Clarion
4x Circuitous Route
3x Cleansing Nova
2x Banefire
4x Temple Garden
4x Sacred Foundry
4x Rootbound Crag
4x Sunpetal Grove
2x Forest
2x Mountain
2x Plains
2x Island
1x Arch of Orazca
3x Viridian Sun’s Avatar
3x Ixalan’s Binding
3x Carnage Tyrant
2x Nezahal, Primal Tide
With migration you don’t need mana dorks to hit t3 route, so you can run main deck clarion without penalizing yourself. You also aren’t going all in on getting to 7-8 mana so you can afford to drop the gifts for main deck novas which can actually be used to sweep enchantments. The deck is smoothed out by the power of Commune. Being able to fill your hand with big Dino or land depending on what you lack.
4x Legion Warboss
4x Knight of Autumn
4x Leonin Warleader
3x Shalai, Voice of Plenty
3x Aurelia, Exemplar of justice
2x Lyra Dawnbringer
4x Seal Away
4x Lava Coil
2x Camaraderie
4x Temple Garden
4x Sacred Foundry
4x Clifftop Retreat
4x Sunpetal Grove
2x Mountain
2x Plains
4x Forest
1x Dawn of Hope
2x Lyra Dawnbringer
2x Banefire
2x Ixalan's Binding
4x Vine Mare
4x Deathgorge Scavenger
I feel like Warboss into Warleader could be a pretty brutal curve, and the tokens generated for free would feed big comaraderies to reload the hand.
That is a concern and the opposite is also a concern. Drawing a bunch of weak useless fodder when I want to draw relevant spells is almost as annoying. Not sure what the right balance is. Doomed Dessenter and Dusk Legion Zealot were two other fodder creatures I was considering.
4x Kitesail Freebooter
4x Dread Shade
4x Demon of Catastrophes
4x Doom Whisperer
4x Duress
2x Arguel's blood fast
4x Walk the plank
4x Vraska's Contempt
2x Severed Strands
17x Swamp
2x Field of Ruin
1x Arch of Orazca
4x Ritual of Soot
4x Knight of Malice
3x The Eldest Reborn
1x Tetzimoc, Primal Death
3x Plaguecrafter