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One of the most exciting tribes heading into Ixalan block was Dinosaurs, but we haven't really seen it paid off in Standard. There are a lot of individually powerful Dinosaurs, but between cards like Essence Scatter and Ravenous Chupacabra, the answers in Standard are just so efficient and generic that it's hard to just overpower them with expensive monsters. That said, Thundermo_Hellkite may have figured out a way to build Dinosaurs to beat up on control decks.
Green-Blue Dinosaurs - Rivals of Ixalan Standard | Thundermo_Hellkite, 5-0 Standard League
- Creatures (18)
- 3 Thrashing Brontodon
- 3 Vizier of Many Faces
- 4 Carnage Tyrant
- 4 Deathgorge Scavenger
- 4 Walking Ballista
- Instants (5)
- 2 Negate
- 3 Essence Scatter
- Sorceries (13)
- 1 Baral's Expertise
- 2 River's Rebuke
- 3 Entrancing Melody
- 3 Spring // Mind
- 4 Hour of Promise
- Lands (24)
- 2 Island
- 4 Forest
- 1 Arch of Orazca
- 1 Cascading Cataracts
- 1 Desert of the Indomitable
- 1 Desert of the Mindful
- 1 Ifnir Deadlands
- 2 Field of Ruin
- 2 Ipnu Rivulet
- 2 Scavenger Grounds
- 3 Hashep Oasis
- 4 Botanical Sanctum
- Sideboard (15)
- 2 Disallow
- 1 Kumena's Awakening
- 2 Lay Claim
- 2 Naturalize
- 2 Negate
- 2 Nezahal, Primal Tide
- 1 Silent Gravestone
- 2 Sorcerous Spyglass
- 1 Thrashing Brontodon
based decks are good, then Carnage Tyrant is what you want to use to smash them. This is especially true when you can back it up with Vizier of Many Faces, which lets you copy your Tyrants and keep the pressure up. The interesting thing about Vizier is that, on its own, it doesn't just beat Counterspells and removal, but the fact that you can Embalm it to end up ahead on cards while threatening to make powerful creatures is absolutely huge.
The supporting cast in this deck is also quite good. Blue interaction is very good in this format, since cards like The Scarab God and Hazoret the Fervent really want to be answered on the stack. Additionally, Spring // Mind is a great spell to help both ramp into Carnage Tyrant as well as ensure that you have staying power in the late game. Similarly, Hour of Promise is a great card for hedging between control and aggro matchups. In aggressive matchups, you can favor getting deserts to try to set up blockers. In more controlling matchups, you can fetch up an Arch of Orazca to start grinding out value.
The last really exciting piece of technology here is the inclusion of both Entrancing Melody and Vizier of Many Faces as trumps to The Scarab God. When everyone else is looking to fight The Scarab God mirrors with cards like Vraska's Contempt and Essence Scatter, the ability to steal or copy opposing The Scarab Gods is enormously powerful, particularly when you're able to rebuy powerful creatures like Carnage Tyrant to run your opponent over.
