Want to find the best MTG dinosaur cards for your next deck? We don’t blame you. It’s hard not to love dinosaurs, those enormous, scaly lizard monsters that stalked the Earth millions of years ago. Incredibly, we had to wait until 2017 to get our first proper dinosaur cards in Magic: The Gathering, but the number of prehistoric beasts in the game is only growing.
Dinosaurs are the perfect MTG creature type for ‘Timmys’, ideal for players who like to summon big creatures and wallop their opponent. With MTG Lost Caverns of Ixalan, a ton of new dinosaur cards have been injected into the game.
So prepare to unleash your inner six-year-old (next up, best trucks in Magic), and check out these awesome MTG dinosaur cards.
Shifting Ceratops
You don’t see this MTG dinosaur card making the rounds much anymore, but Shifting Ceratops is an excellent, efficiently-costed creature with an ability that acts like a utility belt and can handle any situation.
And that’s before we get to the fact that it’s almost impossible for blue decks to deal with the card. It can’t be countered, and once it hits the field it can’t be targeted by blue spells or damaged by blue creatures. We’ve got a soft spot for this card: it’s saved us from Teferi again and again.
Ghalta, Primal Hunger
Dinosaurs are known for being big, stompy, and loud – and Ghalta, Primal Hunger is the stompiest, biggest, and loudest dinosaur of them all. A 12/12 creature with trample wouldn’t be great at 12 mana, but the whole point of Ghalta is that your other creatures reduce her cost.
When you’ve got other monsters on the board, it’s not hard to cast Ghalta for just two mana. And with Ghalta as your MTG commander, you can forget about commander tax, and you only have to land a hit twice before your foe is dead to commander damage.
Etali, Primal Conqueror
Etali, Primal Conqueror is not a card that’s easy to cast, but it certainly gives you a lot of bang for your buck. When it enters the battlefield, you get to cast a spell from the top of each players’ library for free. In Standard that’s pretty great, you get three cards for the price of one. In Commander, it’s absurd: you get four free spells, basically guaranteeing that you’ll hit something good.
That’s not all. Pour a ton of mana into this card and it becomes a Blightsteel Colossus, an indestructible creature that can poison a player to death in one shot.
Curious Altisaur
A new card from Lost Caverns of Ixalan, Curious Altisaur isn’t so impressive on the stats, though it might get to snack on a flying spirit token or two. But it’s superb as a dinosaur-themed card draw engine, drawing you a card every time a dinosaur makes contact with the enemy. In any dedicated dino-deck, it’s gonna be among the best card draw options you can run, and likely an auto-include.
Dinosaurs on a Spaceship
What could be cooler than a spacefaring dinosaur? For six mana, this card gets you plenty of value, providing an anthem effect and vigilance and trample for all your dinosaur friends. However, that’s nothing compared to its suspend ability. If you’re prepared to wait a few turns for Dinosaurs on a Spaceship to come out, it can create a flying dinosaur army for you all by itself.
This MTG Doctor Who card is great for dinosaur decks, but it also performs brilliantly in the Suspend precon it was printed in, and would do just fine in pretty much any tokens deck.
Bronzebeak Foragers
Bronzebeak Foragers is an MTG dinosaur that knows how to take out the trash. It can remove one permanent for each player, allowing you – for four mana – to deal with the biggest threats on board, and pick off a Sol Ring or two while you’re at it. The downside is, old beaky is going to be a prime target for removal, as until you’ve used its ability to convert the exiled cards into life gain, they have a chance to extract them from its stomach.
However, it’s still a highly versatile, effective removal piece, and the flavor is top notch. You might even be able to play politics with the card – as long as you’ve already digested a players’ permanent, it’s in their best interests to protect your dinosaur too.
Cresting Mosasaurus
Hey, it’s that Jurassic World dinosaur that brutally killed the poor babysitter! Cresting Mosasaurus operates more like a sea monster (leviathan, octopus, kraken, or serpent) than a dinosaur, since it’s a big monster that sends creatures back to your opponents’ hand.
Sadly there aren’t many dinosaurs in blue, which may hamper the card’s effectiveness. But it’s a pretty cool one-sided bounce effect nonetheless, and the emerge cost lets you throw it down nice and early.
Gishath, Sun’s Avatar
Gishath, Sun’s Avatar is the ultimate dinosaur MTG commander, and the guy you want to go to first if you’re trying to play dinosaurs in EDH. It’s the perfect leader for enabling your big dinosaurs, since it helps you cheat them out onto the field. Just make sure you have enough MTG mana ramp – an eight mana commander is no joke.
Bonehoard Dracosaur
The latest flashy MTG dinosaur on the scene, Bonehoard Dracosaur provides so much value that we originally thought we’d misread the card. Not only does it provide treasures and creature tokens every turn, it also gives you pseudo-card draw. And all that on a body that can strike in the skies, and even eat a Sheoldred!
Now you’ve seen the best dinosaurs, you’ll probably want to start constructing a deck around them. Whatever your favorite MTG format, we can assist. We can help you build an MTG Commander deck, or tell you about the best MTG Arena decks currently available.