Fish Five-0: Jund-O'-Saurs (Standard, Magic Arena)
RWAR!!! Welcome back to the land before time...where Dinosaurs ...and I guess pirates roamed? Either way, we got a lot of dino-mite packed action with dinosaurs. We're going for one last ride before rotation.
Gameplan
We're still playing our stompy beatdown game plan with big threats. At the time of recording, Esper has been missing from the scene, so hard removal has been sidelined outside of some of the hate cards from #MTGM20 like Aether Gust and Fry. Because of this, Dinosaurs have been all over the ladder. We got 3 very powerful new dinos from #MTGM20.
This card has a solid 2/3 body so it doesn't die to shock. It also makes our dinosaurs cost 1 less and that's very cash-money as they say. Getting to turn three Ripjaw Raptor is amazing as it drops a 4/5 body and draws us a card. The reduction is obviously great but the fact that it also grows after it pings a dinosaur isn't a joke, as this and Regisaur Alpha makes it so we can swing for 6 damage. This is the solid two drop that dinos needed for the early game. A thing of note is that the "deal 2" effect is not a may so don't play a Otepec Huntmaster into it!
Rotting "Uncle Reggie" Regisaur is an absolute powerhouse as its a 3 mana 7/6. Not much needs to be said about this card. If you have an Otepec Huntmaster on turn two, this card can punch for 7 damage on turn three which is bonkers. With any of our two mana reducers, we can do play two copies of this on turn 4. This card is one of the reasons we're in black and it should definitely satisfy the "Timmy" in all of us. Because of its massive body, anyone using burn or damage based removal will have a very miserable time answering this without 2 for 1'ing yourself.
As much as I hate writing about this card because it's my arch-nemesis, I must say its quite sweet having the ability to give it whatever ability is relevant at the time. The reach has oddly been used a lot as I've been running into a fair amount of Feather, the Redeemed decks. Its more than just a vanilla control hate card so I'm definitely a fan of this ...whenever I'm not playing control that is.
Conclusion
The meta is still in an early state and maybe there's a more fine-tuned version as I feel like Savage Stomp and maybe another Domri, Anarch of Bolas can make its way into the deck as I think we need some amount of removal. Dinosaurs has always suffered from no way to fix its draws or get crazy card advantage so I like the singleton Vivien Reid, but maybe she can be replaced by the cheaper version in Vivien, Champion of the Wilds because who doesn't love instant speed dinos? The deck has some really powerful draws and I love it and I'm sure you will too!
See you at the next one!
-TheAsianAvenger
