Despite being a legitimate historical classification of creature, Magic takes the pop-culture approach of Dinosaur depiction and simply makes them Lizard Beasts. Literally!

While first appearing in the set Ice Age, Dinosaurs as a creature type were actually removed in the Grand Creature Type Update back in 2007. Because the Dinosaur creature type was rendered obsolete, further creatures that were named after actual dinosaurs ended up being other creature types such as Lizard or Beast.

In 2017, the creature type was officially re-instated with the Ixalan block with some previously-printed creatures being re-assigned the Dinosaur creature type. This, then, made FungusaurFungusaur the earliest-printed creature to be a Dinosaur, even though it only became a Dinosaur decades after its printing.

Left: Dragons of Tarkir (2015) | Right: Duskmourn: House of Horror Commander (2024)

Dinosaurs as a creature type show up in any color, though are most strongly associated with , , and to a slightly lesser extent .

Useful at All Costs

Dinosaurs run the gambit of stat-lines, with a healthy spread across multiple tiers of value. But primarily, they're mid-range or heavy-hitting creatures that usually have at least one keyword, such as trample or haste.

The Dinosaurs with lower stats tend to provide utility, such as Kinjalli's SunwingKinjalli's Sunwing forcing your opponents' creatures to enter tapped. Some provide value to your other Dinosaurs, such as Hunting VelociraptorHunting Velociraptor allowing you to cast your larger creatures for after dealing combat damage.

But primarily, a Dinosaurs is a gigantic creature. A GigantosaurusGigantosaurus, if you will. High power, high toughness, and often for a pretty good mana value!

And on top of that, many Dinosaurs of varying power levels allow you to discover N, exiling cards from the top of your deck until you exile a non-land card under N mana. You get the choice to either cast it without paying its mana cost or putting it in your hand, which is a way to cheat out another Dinosaur while still giving the flexibility to save that spell for later.

Out-Of-Type Support

Many non-Dinosaurs support Dinosaurs, primarily from their focus in the Ixalan plane. Usually these are Humans such as Atzocan SeerAtzocan Seer, which work towards reducing the cost or aiding in the recovery of your Dinosaurs. Others such as Drover of the MightyDrover of the Mighty "selfishly" benefit from the presence of Dinosaurs.

And of course, anything that provides extra mana ramp has the ability to support the aggressive playstyle of Dinosaurs. Dinosaurs also synergize quite well with anything that multiples their natural stats, given their high bases. Particularly something that can cheaply or repeatedly increase the power of your creatures, such as Zopandrel, Hunger DominusZopandrel, Hunger Dominus.

Awesome Effects

And I do mean awesome, as in awe-inspiring.

Etali, Primal StormEtali, Primal Storm is a decently large bruiser that allows you to exile the top card of each player's library and then cast any number of spells from those exiled cards without paying their mana cost. Not only does this allow you to mess with the plans of your opponents, it also ensures you retain value in maintaining constant pressure.

Particularly if Etali is your commander, you won't have access to consistent mana growth that offers even though so many Dinosaur strategies flourish in it.

Ghalta, Stampede TyrantGhalta, Stampede Tyrant, similarly, is a big show-stopping creature to play. Not only due to that 12/12 stat-line, but because it can flood your board with high-costed creatures for only .

Certainly that's a lot, but with how plentiful and expensive Dinosaurs tend to be, even only three played for free may well be worth it.

Extinct for a Reason

Dinosaurs are quite impactful, with effects that go past simply their power and toughness. But they really struggle with sustainability and flexibility.

Not many Dinosaurs have in-built protections, which when coupled with their high average cost means they're fantastic targets to MurderMurder. And while many Dinosaurs do have trample or flying, they struggle with overcoming chump blockers (creatures the opponent doesn't care about losing and is willing to throw in the way of your Dinos).

This means they can get stalled out if left on their own.

So Dinosaurs need some external support, either in enchantment-hate from or direct damage from . Exiling and protective instants from are also fantastic supplements.

Need Extra Support

Dinosaurs are strong on their own, but don't scale off of themselves in the same way that other creature types do. Dinosaurs such as Curious AltisaurCurious Altisaur triggers off of your Dinosaurs dealing combat damage to a player, and many others synergize with you playing or attacking with other Dinosaurs. But there aren't many in-type effects that directly increase your Dinosaurs' power, not in the same way Humans or Elves have.

Most Dinosaurs function quasi-independently, increasing in value with the more Dinosaurs you control but not compounding in the same way as other creature types. Though that's not a problem per se, given how powerful and aggressive Dinosaurs tend to be. Their value arises from fast, consistent pressure applied to your opponents ballooned with supporting spells.

The ideal Dinosaur game plan doesn't even hurt from its lack of self-strengthening effects because it's already won by the time they'd be noticeable.

Pantlaza, Sun-FavoredPantlaza, Sun-Favored

Pantlaza, Sun-FavoredPantlaza, Sun-Favored is the seventh most-played commander at the time of this guide's writing. For good reason!

Its effect is a great value-add that allows you to discover X when your Dinos enter the battlefield (ETB), where X is the Dinosaur's toughness.

This is only once per turn, but as mentioned earlier, discovering lets you exile cards from the top of your deck until you reach a nonland card of value X or less. Then, you can play that card without spending mana or add it to your hand.

With how many Dinosaurs you'll be playing, you'll be able to trigger this once per turn just about every turn. Ideally, this doubles your creature production, with many Dinosaurs hitting that sweet spot of 4-5 toughness that allows the playing of mid-range Dinosaurs.

But it also has significant value in getting utility creatures onto the board and ensuring you have instants in-hand for when you'll need them.

Gishath, Sun's AvatarGishath, Sun's Avatar

Gishath, Sun's AvatarGishath, Sun's Avatar believes in leading from the front and charging into danger. A 7/6 with vigilance, trample, and haste, Gishath is a great piece of pressure before even getting into its ability. Which, due to haste, it can trigger the turn it enters!

Whenever Gishath deals combat damage to a player, you reveal that many cards for the top of your library and put any Dinosaurs revealed onto the battlefield. Which, with Gishath, you'll be dealing combat damage regularly. Even if the opponent blocks you, you'll likely still get some damage through thanks to trample.

That means opponents you attack will be pressured to devote more resources to blocking your attacks, making them more effective.

Atla Palani, Nest TenderAtla Palani, Nest Tender

Atla Palani, Nest TenderAtla Palani, Nest Tender is a Human that you can tap and spend to create a 0/1 Egg token creature with defender. And whenever an Egg you control dies, reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a creature card, which you then put on the battlefield.

This is not only a great way to gain some chump blockers that then can cheat out your more powerful Dinosaurs, but it also benefits from other creatures with the Egg type, like Dinosaur EggDinosaur Egg.

Atla Palani is at its most powerful when it has the opportunity to create an Egg every turn and then you're either being attacked or dealing damage to your own creatures. But there are other creatures out there that will provide even more value, given Eggs by and large are intended to have some evolution or adaptation effect on their own. This just adds extra value on top!

Owen Grady, Raptor TrainerOwen Grady, Raptor Trainer // Blue, Loyal RaptorBlue, Loyal Raptor

Owen Grady, Raptor TrainerOwen Grady, Raptor Trainer is partnered with Blue, Loyal RaptorBlue, Loyal Raptor, making this effectively a two-in-one commander in terms of board presence.

Owen's value comes from the fact that he puts menace, trample, reach, and haste counters on Dinosaurs. Blue then allows all other Dinosaurs that enter your battlefield to have the same counters kind of counters put on them. So if Owen puts a menace counter on Blue and then you play Cresting MosasaurusCresting Mosasaurus, your Mosasaurus gets a menace counter.

This is at its strongest when you can get multiple counters on Blue and then your high-power Dinosaurs have extra keywords. But ultimately, they all support the same playstyle Dinosaurs are already inclined towards, so it just amplifies your pre-existing strategies.

Wayta, Trainer ProdigyWayta, Trainer Prodigy

Wayta, Trainer ProdigyWayta, Trainer Prodigy allows you to pay and tap it in order to make a creature you control fight another creature. Simple enough, and quite useful for your monstrous horde of scales and fangs. This ability only costs if you target two creatures you control.

Also, Wayta doubles any triggered effects caused by your creatures taking damage. This is tied into the enrage mechanic, which triggers whenever a creature with enrage takes damage.

It's a signature mechanic of Dinosaurs in Ixalan and does everything from drawing cards to increasing the creature's power and toughness. But other non-Dinosaurs also can gain benefits from Wayta, such as Stuffy DollStuffy Doll.

Ghalta, Primal HungerGhalta, Primal Hunger

Ghalta, Primal HungerGhalta, Primal Hunger gets cheaper the more creatures you have out and can easily be reduced to just .

There are enough Dinosaurs out there that a mono-colored Dinosaur deck is entirely viable, particularly if it leans into the natural strength of and ramps. At minimum, easy access to a 12/12 with trample is nothing to ignore.

So long as you can maintain a board presence, you will not be without your commander for long.

Ghalta and MavrenGhalta and Mavren

Ghalta and MavrenGhalta and Mavren is yet another massive Dinosaur, but with the added mix of vampirism. Not only does this incarnation of Ghalta remain a 12/12 with trample, but every time you attack you can create either X 1/1 Vampires with lifelink, where X is the number of other creatures attacking, or one X/X Dinosaur with trample, where X is the greatest power among other attacking creatures.

Despite being rather simple in its execution, as you swing big and get more tools to swing with, you're actually afforded a reasonable amount of flexibility in how you operate. So long as you keep up the pressure, of course.

Wayward SwordtoothWayward Swordtooth

Wayward SwordtoothWayward Swordtooth hits multiple high points in a single card. It passively allows you to play an additional land each turn, which is great for ramping up into other Dinosaurs. And it's a 5/5 for !

While it can't attack or block until you have the city's blessing, once you have ten or more permanents on the board you get the city's blessing for the rest of the game.

In practice, that means you'll just need Wayward SwordtoothWayward Swordtooth, three lands to provide the mana for it, and six more permanents for it to be able to attack and block. That's not counting a Sol RingSol Ring, Elvish MysticElvish Mystic, or the additional lands you'll get from the extra lands.

Curious AltisaurCurious Altisaur

Curious AltisaurCurious Altisaur is a 2/5 with vigilance and reach, meaning it's a great mid-game defender. But its value comes from the fact that whenever a Dinosaur you control deals combat damage to a player, you draw a card.

Not only do many of your Dinosaurs have trample, meaning it's quite easy to get at least a single point of damage past a blocker, but it has no limit per turn or per opponent.

So long as you're attacking and keeping pressure on your opponents, you'll be drawing more cards which will fuel your ability to keep up the pressure on future turns. It's a positive feedback loop, so long as you have the mana to capitalize on it.

Otepec HuntmasterOtepec Huntmaster

Otepec HuntmasterOtepec Huntmaster is a non-Dinosaur support piece for Dinosaur decks. It makes them cheaper, which for Dinosaurs is a very welcome piece of utility. But also, it can tap to grant a Dinosaur haste.

Given Dinosaurs' general lack of sustainability, this all but ensures the Dinosaurs you play will be able to generate immediate value on the turn they enter the battlefield. This might be swinging for twelve damage or dealing some chip damage and getting to draw a card.

Either way, very useful to speed along a creature type that loves active aggression.

The Skullspore NexusThe Skullspore Nexus

The Skullspore NexusThe Skullspore Nexus gets cheaper the greater the power of your creatures, which is fantastic for high-power Dinosaurs. Further, it can double the power of a creature for only , meaning your already-powerful Dinosaurs will be able to be propelled to catastrophic levels until the end of turn. Particularly if that Dinosaur has trample and is able to scale an ability trigger of of how much damage it deals.

But the most notable aspect of The Skullspore Nexus is that whenever one or more nontoken creatures you control dies, you create a Fungus Dinosaur that has the combined power and toughness of the creatures that died. So if you have two creatures that die, each of which are a 3/3, you would gain a single 6/6 Fungus Dinosaur.

Not only does this give a second wind to any of your Dinosaurs that die, but it also turns a board wipe into a conjuring of a truly horrifying creature, given every creatures' power and toughness would be added together into one Fungus Dinosaur.

Agent's ToolkitAgent's Toolkit

Agent's ToolkitAgent's Toolkit has a +1/+1 counter, a flying counter, a deathtouch counter, and a shield counter. Any time a creature enters the battlefield under your control, you may move a counter from the toolkit to that creature, granting them the associated bonus. So it might increase their power and toughness, grant them a keyword, or give them a one-time protection from damage.

Also, since it's a Clue, you can spend and sacrifice it to draw a card.

While most effective when paired with Blue, Loyal RaptorBlue, Loyal Raptor, this is generic enough that it can find success in application to any number of Dinosaurs. Your smaller fodder can gain deathtouch while flying or a shield counter can give some protection to your larger Dinosaurs.

It's versatile, just as an agent's toolkit ought to be.

Dino DNADino DNA

Dino DNADino DNA can exile a creature card from a graveyard for . Then for , you can create a copy of a creature card exiled with this artifact as a 6/6 Dinosaur with trample. Which, depending on the creature exiled, can be quite impactful!

6/6 isn't a showstopper in a Dinosaur deck, but it's also nothing to ignore. At minimum, it's survivable enough to avoid a Cut DownCut Down or a ShockShock, meaning you can actually get value from whatever abilities you copied from that exiled creature. And if it's good enough, you can continue to make more copies of it on subsequent turns.

Also, if you're able to make infinite mana, you can sink it into Dino DNA for infinite tokens.

Welcome to . . .Welcome to . . .

Welcome to . . .Welcome to . . . is a Saga with three chapters. To start, each opponent transforms a noncreature artifact they control into a 0/4 Wall with defender. In the second chapter you create a 3/3 Dinosaur with trample and haste.

In the final chapter, you destroy all Walls - including those transformed artifacts from the first chapter - and transform the Saga into the legendary land Jurassic Park.

Jurassic Park doesn't just give for every Dinosaur you have, it also grants all Dinosaurs in your graveyard escape. Escape allows them to be cast from the graveyard, though Jurassic Park specifies that you must also exile three other cards from your graveyard to do so.

Still, being able to recall your Dinosaurs quite easily and having a pump of tied into a land is a great deal. Once the park opens, it stays open!

Poetic IngenuityPoetic Ingenuity

Poetic IngenuityPoetic Ingenuity creates a Treasure token every time one or more Dinosaurs you control attack. These allow you to cast more Dinosaurs, which in turn will attack more to create more Treasures, feeding into itself quite nicely.

But also, once per turn when you cast an artifact spell, you create a 3/1 Dinosaur token. While Dinosaurs aren't known for their technological prowess, there are certainly artifacts that synergize with them. Not to mention the many type-generic artifacts that allow you to choose any creature type upon playing them.

So long as you include more than a handful of artifacts in your deck, you'll be able to trigger this around every turn, which would grant you more Treasure tokens to boot.

Descendants' PathDescendants' Path

Because of how many Dinosaurs you'll have in your library, Descendants' PathDescendants' Path vastly improves your tempo. It reveals the top card of your library on your upkeep, and if it's a creature that shares a type with a creature you control, you can cast it without paying its mana cost. Even if you only have a single Dinosaur token remaining, you can still play any Dinosaur you reveal. And if you have any supporting Humans, those work as well!

Descendants' Path requires you to have a board state in order to build off of it. Dinosaurs have the numbers to simply play around threats thrown their way, so you shouldn't run into an issue keeping at least one Dinosaur on the board.

Return of the WildspeakerReturn of the Wildspeaker

Return of the WildspeakerReturn of the Wildspeaker scales off your non-Humans in a big way. It can help you go on the offensive by granting +3/+3 to all your non-Human creatures for the turn, which gets even more impactful if used before doubling your creatures' power through any of the other methods available.

The really crazy maneuver is to draw cards equal to the greatest power among non-Human creatures you control, which might be twelve without any enhancements. Now this does come with the complication that you need mana to capitalize on all the cards drawn, or else they'll go to waste. But if you combine it with a creature like Ghalta, Stampede TyrantGhalta, Stampede Tyrant that can be downright oppressive.

Savage OrderSavage Order

Savage OrderSavage Order requires sacrificing a creature with power four or greater, which you should have no shortage of. Ideally you'll have a mid-range Dinosaur you can sacrifice whose power is around 4-5, though you may have enough high-power Dinosaurs that sacrificing something a bit more powerful isn't too bad.

In exchange, you can search your library for a Dinosaur and put it onto the battlefield, making it indestructible until your next turn. This is great protection to keep a big Dinosaur safe until you can swing with it and you can respond to the board state exactly how is best for the situation.

This would be stronger if it were an instant, but it doesn't lose its potency by being a sorcery. It's just more of a preparing spell than a reactionary one.

Thunderherd MigrationThunderherd Migration

Thunderherd MigrationThunderherd Migration requires revealing a Dinosaur in your hand or paying additional mana to play. The single additional mana isn't a dealbreaker, but revealing a Dinosaur, particularly if you're going to play it in the next turn, isn't a very high cost.

The card then searches for a basic land and places it on the battlefield tapped. That's additional land ramp to fuel your Dinosaurs where you can save a mana by showing off a creature. Simple, but useful nonetheless.

Kiora, Behemoth BeckonerKiora, Behemoth Beckoner

Kiora, Behemoth BeckonerKiora, Behemoth Beckoner has nothing directly to do with Dinosaurs, but synergizes with them fantastically. Not only do most Dinosaurs have power four or greater, meaning you're going to be drawing a card each time you play one, but you can also spend Kiora's loyalty counters to untap them.

This may grant your largest Dinosaurs pseudo-vigilance, swinging them and then untapping them to block. Alternatively, you might untap a land so you can ramp ahead on mana. Or untap a utility creature to gain more value.

Kiora is useful enough to gain value from those seven loyalty counters and particularly that passive ability, but not so much a threat it's likely to get targeted.

Huatli, Warrior PoetHuatli, Warrior Poet

Huatli, Warrior PoetHuatli, Warrior Poet gains you life equal to the greatest power among creatures you control. In a Dinosaur deck, that's a lot. You can also create a 3/3 Dinosaur with trample, which, while not the strongest, still allows you to protect yourself or Huatli in a pinch.

Huatli's final ability is the big one. You're able to spend X loyalty counters to deal X damage divided among any number of creatures. Those that survive can't block this turn.

This means Huatli's strength comes from getting just enough loyalty counters to deal a damage to X creatures, preventing all of an opponent's creatures from blocking, then rushing them with a stampede of Dinosaurs to knock them out of the game.

Huatli, Dinosaur KnightHuatli, Dinosaur Knight

Huatli, Dinosaur KnightHuatli, Dinosaur Knight focuses instead on supporting your Dinosaurs. You can put two +1/+1 counters on a Dinosaur, you can have a Dinosaur deal damage equal to its power to another creature, or just grant your Dinosaurs +4/+4 for the turn.

This iteration of Huatli is much more support-oriented, sitting on the side of your board and just steadily increasing your Dinosaurs' strength. Which is quite useful, given how little of the in-type synergies for Dinosaurs are oriented around +1/+1 counters or static stat bonuses.

The ability for targeted removal will really help expedite your ability to crack through defenses.

Rogue's PassageRogue's Passage

Rogue's PassageRogue's Passage allows one of your creatures to become unblockable for the turn.

There really aren't any frills here, as a 12/12 sneaking through a secret passage to swing directly is the threat. It certainly helps deal with annoying blockers or maximize the potential of abilities scaling off damage dealt, but the primary functionality here is to hit an opponent for a huge chunk of their life.

Mosswort BridgeMosswort Bridge

Mosswort BridgeMosswort Bridge allows you to look at the top four cards of your library when it's played, exile one of them, and then cast it without paying its normal mana cost for if creatures you control have total power 10 or greater.

This allows you to cheat out a large creature fairly easily and quickly due to how often you'll have a combined power of 10 or greater on your board. And as a land, it's very hard to remove!

With Dinosaurs you won't struggle to hit that power threshold.

Dinosaurs are somewhat uniquely a high-power aggro archetype. They're more aggressive than Dragons and cheaper than Eldrazi, while still having power and toughness to contend with either of them. Their main weaknesses tend to be they're fairly straight-laced, in that their most common keywords of trample and haste really just assist them in dealing damage the exact same way they were going to already.

The Dinosaur game plan is often one of two methods: aggro or late-game.

An aggro Dinosaur deck is trying to win as early in the game as possible, which in Commander generally requires some more turns of preparation and a cooler head than two-player formats. Aggro Dinosaurs are focused on consistent pressure where they can win after multiple turns of repeated assaults. They thrive leaning into and ramping with , but will burn out if not able to secure a victory after a few turns.

Other players will often see them as the largest threat in the early game since they're putting the largest target on their back.

Late-game Dinosaurs are quite similar to aggro Dinosaurs, though with more of a growth-mindset in their and a strong tie to . They're interested in setting up enchantments that allow them to draw cards when playing large creatures, increasing their mana production, and setting up a board state that has mid-range Dinosaurs to apply pressure.

But instead of fully committing to attacking, these decks tend to "play ball" and capitalize on weakness until they can explosively reveal multiple high-power Dinosaurs and rush down an opponent in a turn or two.

Their goal is to reach the point where they can take over the battlefield and win before anyone can react.

Etali allows you to "steal" cards from your opponents, exiling cards from the top of their libraries and playing them without paying their mana costs. As such, it's reasonable you could leverage the strategies your opponents are using against them with their own spells.

Supplement this with damage spells and you could make a Dinosaur Spellslinger deck, depending on what your opponents give you.

Or just compleat the Primal Conqueror into the Primal Sickness and poison your opponents with an unblockable 11/11.

Of course, you could always just run Pantlaza, Sun-FavoredPantlaza, Sun-Favored and use its ability to discover to ensure you can snag Approach of the Second SunApproach of the Second Sun into your hand. It doesn't win you the game if you cast it for free and it requires the playing of a Dinosaur with toughness seven or greater, but plenty of Dinosaurs have that.