Tramplesaurus Upgrade Guide: 19 Easy Changes You Can Make

Ghalta, Primal Hunger | Illustration by Chase Stone

Commander precons are often aimed at newer players, but they can be fairly expensive and complex for truly fresh, green players, so Wizards has introduced the Foundations Commander decks: a full cycle of simple mono-colored decks aimed squarely at the uninitiated players wandering by the card aisle.

Tramplesaurus Rex is the green entry of the cycle, and it’s honestly my favorite. It has a concise gameplan and plenty of strong staples. But if you want to take it further than the box, there are ample upgrades to be made.

Tramplesaurus Rex Deck Overview

Tramplesaurus Rex is a classic green stompy deck led by Ghalta, Primal Hunger. Stompy is a fairly aggressive archetype that leverages green’s above-average creature sizes to pummel your opponents. Ghalta is an extension of this; its cost reduction rewards you for playing big creatures, and it’s large enough to win with commander damage in just two swings. If your opponents even have 24 life to spare, that is.

Magic: The Gathering Foundations Commander Deck - Tramplesaurus Rex | 100-Card Deck + Accessories

• WELCOME TO THE MULTIVERSE—The perfect way to start playing Commander with your friends. Bring this 100-card deck to the table and square off against up to three other combatants!
• THRILLING MULTIPLAYER BATTLES—Battle your friends with powerful creatures and spectacular spells in Commander, Magic’s most popular multiplayer format
• ONE GOOD STOMP IS ALL IT TAKES—Tower over the rest of the food chain with Ghalta and let high-power creatures run wild on the battlefield. Higher attack power reduces Ghalta’s casting cost, so unleash her as soon as possible and trample the competition!
• FOIL LEGENDARY CARD—Every Foundations Commander Deck includes 1 Mythic Rare Legendary Creature card with a shiny Traditional Foil treatment to command your deck in style
• CONTENTS—1 ready-to-play Tramplesaurus Rex Foundations MTG Commander Deck (100 cards), 1 deck box, 10 double-sided token cards, 1 strategy guide, 1 reference card

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Upgrade Plan

The deck’s game plan is fine, but its card quality is lacking. There’s random chaff I wouldn’t want in my Draft deck, let alone Commander, plus a dinosaur subtheme that doesn’t go anywhere. Also, while it printed many good green staples, a few of them don’t quite mesh with this style of green deck.

I’m replacing all those with higher-quality threats and ramp cards. These aren’t meant to change the deck’s gameplan, but supplement it with consistency. I’m also adding a few cards to support Ghalta specifically, with respect to its high power.

Ghalta the Unstoppable

Suggested Cut:

It turns out that Ghalta-lite still works. You'd never put Ghalta the Unstoppable in the command zone when the OG exists, but it fuels and benefits from the same synergies; I'm not as happy to feed this to Greater Good, but it's still functional.

Carnage Tyrant hits hard, but not as hard as Ghalta and not as cheaply. But if you find yourself struggling against countermagic, you could cut Whiptongue Hydra instead.

Greater Good

Suggested Cut:

I can't in good conscience leave Greater Good out of a Ghalta deck. Not only does it have 12 power, so you end the exchange up nine cards, and cost reduction makes it easy to play Ghalta again.

While Beast Whisperer is one of the stronger green draw spells, it performs better in decks that spam lots of little creatures. When we’re just playing one big creature each turn, there are more efficient draw options.

Majestic Genesis

Suggested Cut:

You can't convince me Majestic Genesis wasn't printed with Ghalta in mind. It's a great reward for playing an expensive commander, and it does great in a permanent-heavy deck like this.

Curious Altisaur does fine work with Ghalta, but the deck lacks the support for a real dinosaur strategy.

Selvala, Heart of the Wilds

Suggested Cut:

Selvala, Heart of the Wilds is one of the few great green staples that wasn’t reprinted in the deck. Cards that represent card draw and mana are always good. Like Majestic Genesis, I’d consider this a must-play with Ghalta. Regal Imperiosaur is another dino card that just doesn’t matter.

Kogla, the Titan Ape

Suggested Cut:

Challenger Troll has big Draft chaff energy that I don’t want near my deck. I’d rather have the immediate impact of Kogla, the Titan Ape, with the potential for more card advantage if it sticks around.

Slumbering Trudge

Suggested Cut:

This just isn’t a Rishkar, Peema Renegade deck. The deck has no +1/+1 counter synergies, the cheap creatures already tap for mana, and the big ones can do much better than tapping for .

Slumbering Trudge has one of, if not the best power-to-cost ratios in the game. It knocks 6 mana off your commander, is a great fight target, cantrips with Elemental Bond variants, has enough power to comfortably sacrifice to Greater Good… don't worry about the stun counters. It does enough without ever getting to combat.

Outcaster Trailblazer

Suggested Cut:

Shamanic Revelation doesn’t go in this deck for a similar reason to Beast Whisperer: It’s better in go-wide decks than go-tall.

The Elemental Bond variants are really strong, so I wanted another one. Outcaster Trailblazer is a favorite because its mana generation and plot make it easy to sequence with other spells, plus it has enough power to trigger other versions of the effect.

Berserk

Suggested Cut:

This is a pretty cheesy entry, but Berserk one-shots a player via commander damage with Ghalta. It also doubles as a situational removal spell since you can target an opponent's creature.

Ripjaw Raptor has a cool textbox, but it needs you to build around it. This deck doesn’t have pingers or fight effects to enable enrage, so I’m passing.

Rampaging Baloths

Suggested Cut:

Thrashing Brontodon is so slow that I’m not interested. I'm trimming lots of top-end with these changes and don't want to risk the deck running low on power. Rampaging Baloths isn't the premium Commander card that it used to be, but it lets us go wide instead of tall and goes well with our power-matters synergies; 4 power is the sweet spot for this deck.

Nessian Boar

Suggested Cut:

Nessian Boar is more of a fun-of than anything. It has enough power to mesh well with cards like Greater Good, plus the lure effect goes well with Ghalta: If you attack a player with both, Ghalta gets by unblocked and has a good chance of winning.

Arasta of the Endless Web is a sweet card but super out of place in a deck without token synergies.

Boon of Boseiju + Tifa's Limit Break

Suggested Cuts:

While I wouldn't consider this a Voltron deck, I want to acknowledge Ghalta's high power and ability to win via commander damage, so Boon of Boseiju and Tifa's Limit Break made it in. It's worth noting these don't have to target Ghalta—hitting a Rampaging Baloths or Kogla, the Titan Ape is just as effective of a finisher.

As for cutting Terrian, World Tyrant and Gigantosaurus, Magic’s well beyond vanilla beatsticks.

Smuggler's Surprise

Suggested Cut:

Flexibility is king in Commander. You only have so many card slots and can't double up on cards, so looking for ways to get the most bang for every singleton slot is important. Smuggler's Surprise is primarily here as a protection spell, but it can also be Divination or a cheat effect depending on the circumstances.

I don’t hate Harmonize. Just drawing cards is good. But the deck has enough repeatable draw engines and zero sorcery synergies, so it can go.

Tyvar’s Stand

Suggested Cut:

With three combat tricks added to pump Ghalta, an additional protection spell to keep the combo safe is a good call. Tamiyo's Safekeeping was already in the deck, and Tyvar's Stand is the easy runner-up. I’m much more interested in it than Rhonas's Monument, a rather slow ramp card.

Bridgeworks Battle / Tanglespan Bridgeworks

Suggested Cut:

Thirty-nine lands feels low for a ramp deck but just adding Forests contributes to mana flood. The solution? MDFCs, of course. Think of Bridgeworks Battle as a vegetable: It's not terribly exciting, but adding it means you're more likely to hit your land drops and have an answer.

I don’t know why Wizards insists on jamming Commander's Sphere into decks these days. Players deserve better.

Turntimber Symbiosis / Turntimber, Serpentine Wood

Suggested Cut:

Expensive spells are always a little risky because they don't do anything in the early game. Turntimber Symbiosis handles that nicely by being a land drop on turn 1 that's wonderful on turn 7.

Verdant Sun's Avatar is just kind of big. The deck doesn’t exploit it very well, so I’m more interested in the flexibility of Symbiosis.

Wild Growth + Utopia Sprawl

Suggested Cuts:

Additional 1-mana accelerants just make the deck more consistent. Utopia Sprawl and Wild Growth are simple upgrades to weaker mana dorks that focus on powering out the deck's many impactful 3-mana plays, several of which are included in these upgrades.

Whisperer of the Wilds and Paradise Druid are hardly worth running because they disrupt that curve for little benefit.

Arbor Elf

Suggested Cut:

Arbor Elf comes in under similar circumstances to the auras, though it's worth noting that all three enjoy a symbiotic relationship. They're great 1-mana plays that go well together since the elf can untap that land that taps for extra mana.

Unnatural Growth does a lot for Ghalta and the other big creatures, it really does, but I’m not comfortable with a 5-mana enchantment that’s entirely reliant on other cards to be effective. Thickest in the Thicket is extremely similar, but at least it draws cards.

The Final Deck and New Cards

Here’s the final decklist, and the new cards in a separate decklist below. If you want to pick up these upgrades, use the shopping cart button in the corner!

Commanding Conclusion

Ghalta, Primal Hunger | Illustration by Justin Gerard

I’m really pleased with Tramplesaurus Rex and the other Foundations Commander decks. They’re filled with staples and easy to upgrade. All this upgrade took was to up the card quality. There were no muddled themes to cut or egregious mana curves to tame. Hopefully we see more starter decks like this in the future. Heck, even the regular precons could take a tip or two from these!

How would you upgrade Tramplesaurus Rex? Are you planning to pick up any of these decks? Let me know in the comments below or on the Draftsim Discord! And for more from us, subscribe to our newsletter, The Daily Upkeep.

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