Been playing this one for a while. Since
Ila & Mizo was printed, I think we finally have a critical mass of powerful dinosaur synergies to make this deck work. Ila, combined with
Kimi, Expedition Guide, give you 8 creatures that count towards both sides of
Evelina, Valley Searcher's ability, and really make the deck work.
This deck looks a little slow and clunky, but it's actually incredibly explosive. Your first few turns are usually kinda slow, but all of a sudden once you start a turn with a couple cost reduction units out, you just dump your hand on the board and the AI is dead in 1 or 2 turns with all their units stunned or eaten in a Rampage of lethal lizards.
There is also a bit of a combo/lock in the deck with
Ila & Mizo combined with killer effects from
Twilight Hunt and
Savagery. This lets you chain big endurance killers that make more copies of themselves to often get you 2 killer attacks in 1 turn. It also happens pretty often that you're able to get an Ila to 12/12 in stats, and then you just Killer their entire board.
This deck has gone through a large amount of tweaking and is a pretty finished product. The only thing I'm not 100% sure about is the market, but I think this is the best combination of cards.
Elysian banner is necessary for consistency,
Savagery is really insane in this deck,
Blurred Stygimoloch may look like the least necessary slot here, but it and Savagery are probably the 2 cards you get the most. It allows you to have these insane turns where you grab it from the market, play it for 1-cost, and then you're immediately able to Bond your
Bellowing Thunderfoots onto it, giving you a huge board out of no where
Infinite Hourglass combos with your merchants, and there are some matchups where it's just the best card you could have. If you want to beat Sudden Death and Mindless Aggression, marketing for Hourglass should probably be your plan.
Equivocate is the probably the least "important" card, but it's a really great catchall answer to troublesome creatures, so that's why it's here
Update: after the suggestion from Carl in the comments, I tried out trumpeting warhowler, and holy shit is it good. I never really considered it because of the reckless, but good lord does he energize well, and is also fantastic with
Emblem of Grodov.
Also I cut
Trail Maker, he was kind of a filler card that seemed like he fit the roll the explorers play here, but the more I played him, the less I liked him. We're not really a ramp deck, the fixing isn't necessary, and the 1 health is a serious liability in gauntlet (
Vara's Favor,
Snowball,
Firemane Cub,
Temper)
Journey Guide
x4
1
Permafrost
x4
1
Twilight Hunt
x4
2
Evelina, Valley Searcher
x4
2
Sauropod Wrangler
x4
3
Avisaur Patriarch
x4
3
Great Valley Smuggler
x4
3
Kimi, Expedition Guide
x4
3
Pteriax Hatchling
x3
3
Sodi's Spellshaper
x3
3
Trumpeting Warhowler
x4
5
Ila & Mizo
x4
7
Bellowing Thunderfoot
x4
Primal Sigil
x4
Time Sigil
x3
Common Cause
x4
Crest of Wisdom
x3
Elysian Insignia
x4
Emblem of Grodov
x4
Seat of Wisdom
x3
View Deck on Shiftstoned
Have you tried any market setups that could work with the white or blue merchants? The elysian smuggler ability is probably almost never active, right? Unless I'm missing a relic somewhere in the list. Also, have you tried SST or the anti-flyer Gnash in the market? This deck feels like it might have trouble vs flyers.
Did you try Trumpeting Warhowler or was reckless too much of a downside? I imagine Dusk Raider wouldn't be terrible either.
At first glance Bellowing Thunderfoot seems bad - is it actually good?
Borderlands lookout is unplayable in gauntlet. There's at least 6 different mono-colored decks (if not more). Journey Guide is very important, this deck is all about cost reduction, get out a couple cost reduction units, and you get some hugely explosive turns
I chose the Great Valley Smuggler and this market very specifically to synergize with the deck. I really like having Hourglass in my market, and in the matchups where hourglass is good, Smuggler is just insane. I don't like Jennev Merchant, I don't really find a 3 power 2/2 aegis to be very good against any of the gauntlet decks. I'd only play him in some kind of hooru deck where you have lots of weapons and buffs and the aegis does a lot more. Here he's just a vanilla 2/2. I don't really like Auralian Merchant in Gauntlet unless I'm playing a serious ramp deck (big praxis, combrei chains, etc). Especially after the nerf, he's pretty bad now as he's not even a good blocker anymore.
I have literally never played Trumpeting Warhowler, I've kinda always wanted to try it, might be good.
Bellowing Thunderfoot is amazing, really one of the cards you're hoping to draw most of the time. I'd probably play 8 thunderfoot if I could.
As for SST and Gnash, I think if you really want something against the flying decks (which I haven't found to be a big problem), maybe a sst or an scarf in the market. I wouldn't play Gnash because we have a fair amount of fliers ourselves. I wouldn't play duskraider or SST main in this deck, the Unit types dinosaur and explorer are extremely important, if you wanted to play duskraider, I'd just play a different Elysain list all together
I tried Trumpeting Warhowler and he’s definitely better imo than Omnivorous Vorlunk. He can often come out as bigger than 3/3 in this deck, and giving killer to I&M is really good.
Overall I feel like this deck needs one more high-end bomb, like pre-nerf carnosaur. It has a lot of cost reduction but then the high end of the curve is basically a single 5-drop.