All 15 Dinosaur Lords in Magic Ranked

Hunting Velociraptor | Illustration by Caio Monteiro

Not every creature type gets their fair share of lords, but I think that it’s important that dinosaurs got some. They’re mainly haste enablers and cost reducers, and that’s key considering how many dinosaurs have high mana values and powerful abilities. You want your dinos to hit the battlefield ahead of schedule, and you want to make sure that your mana doesn’t go to waste.

Here are all of the best dinosaur lords in Magic: The Gathering!

What Are Dinosaur Lords in MTG?

Regisaur Alpha | Illustration by Jonathan Kuo

Dinosaur lords are primarily creature cards that grant power and toughness buffs or keyword abilities to your dinosaurs. Because dinosaurs can be mana intensive, I’ll also include cost reducers, as well as creatures that reanimate, recur, or tutor for dinosaurs.

Honorable Mentions: Noncreature Tutors, Recursion, and Reanimation

I have a hard time calling noncreature cards “lords”, so here’s a few cards that dig through your library, bring dinosaurs back to your hand, or return them to the battlefield.

Savage Order is pod effect that grabs a dinosaur from your library and puts it onto the battlefield. It doesn’t grant the dinosaur haste, but it makes it indestructible until the end of your next turn.

Welcome to . . .

If you can transform Welcome to . . . into Jurassic Park, you get a legendary land that gives you potentially explosive amounts of mana. It also makes it easier to reanimate your dinosaurs thanks to escape, a very fitting ability in terms of flavor.

Honorable Mentions: Other Dinosaur Payoffs

There are other dinosaur payoffs that don’t quite fit the definition of a lord. We can quibble over some of these, but you’ll want at least a few of them in your dinosaur decks.

Wrathful Raptors is fun since its trigger is essentially a mass enrage ability, or a Stuffy Doll enabler. Imagine if you were to pop a Heroic Intervention in response to a Blasphemous Act, whether it’s your own or an opponent’s.

Dino decks love Wakening Sun's Avatar as a one-sided sweeper. Cresting Mosasaurus is similar as a mass bounce effect, though not many dinosaur decks use blue mana.

Cherished Hatchling’s death trigger is a limited flash enabler and fight spell, though you need to have mana open to take advantage of it. Curious Altisaur gives you a saboteur ability that draws cards in the same mold as Toski, Bearer of Secrets, while Earthshaker Dreadmaw gives you mass card draw when it enters.

Huatli, Dinosaur Knight’s abilities all interact with your dinosaurs, including +1/+1 counters, a fight ability, and a mass pump effect. It’s less mana-efficient than the other Huatli planeswalkers, though.

#15. Regal Imperiosaur

A 3-mana 5/4 lord should probably see more play than it currently does, and Regal Imperiosaur is likely better in formats that let you play it in multiples. It sees less play in Commander than it should, but I think that many players (including myself) haven’t updated their dino decks since The Lost Caverns of Ixalan.

#14. Owen Grady, Raptor Trainer + Blue, Loyal Raptor

Owen Grady, Raptor Trainer and Blue, Loyal Raptor act as lords. You’ll usually use Owen Grady to give counters to Blue so that any dino that enters afterwards gains those counters, too. It’s a slow, fragile combination, and Blue’s color identity makes it hard to slot into other dinosaur decks.

#13. Huatli, Poet of Unity / Roar of the Fifth People

I wish that Huatli, Poet of Unity were more like the dual-faced saga creatures like Joshua, Phoenix's Dominant from Final Fantasy (Huatli doesn’t come back once the saga is done). As is, it’s such a telegraphed play pattern. Once you transform it into Roar of the Fifth People, you have to wait until the last chapter for double strike and trample, so your opponents have plenty of time to find an answer, whether that’s enchantment removal or a sweeper.

#12. Kaheera, the Orphanguard

Companion can be a busted ability, but I wouldn’t run Kaheera, the Orphanguard in a dinosaur deck. The dinosaur mana dorks and cost reducers don’t fit its companion restriction. In the 99, I’d rather run another actual dinosaur I can grab it with Gishath or buff with my other lords.

#11. Thundering Spineback

Thundering Spineback is both a lord and a token generator. It’s certainly fine as a budget inclusion, but dinosaur decks have much more impactful cards that they can play for this much, and even less mana.

#10. Forerunner of the Empire

Forerunner of the Empire tutors a dinosaur to the top of your library. I prefer to run as many dinosaurs as possible in my dinosaur decks, but I’d consider it strongly in decks that lean on dinos with enrage abilities.

#9. The Static Cost Reducers

Kinjalli's Caller and Knight of the Stampede are your typal cost reducers, with static abilities that apply to all your dinosaur spells. They just lack the secondary abilities that most of the dino mana dorks have.

#8. The Mana Dorks

The advantage with dino mana dorks is that they’re all color fixers. Ixalli's Lorekeeper only helps with your dinosaurs, and it has negative synergy with something like Forerunner of the Empire.

Intrepid Paleontologist can be a good budget card for your dinosaur decks as a color-fixing mana dork and a card that can be a slow reanimator.

Atzocan Seer’s floor is a 3-mana dork. You can sacrifice it to recur a dinosaur to your hand, so it definitely has value, especially if you need to cheat on commander tax or want to reuse Zacama, Primal Calamity’s cast trigger.

#7. Dinosaurs on a Spaceship

What do you prefer in your dinosaur decks? An immediate lord that grants a buff and two important keywords, or four extra chump blockers thanks to this dinosaur’s suspend ability? The issue with Dinosaurs on a Spaceship is that the trample can be redundant depending on which dinosaurs you run, and suspend is a little slow since you won’t benefit from typal cost reducers. You could still argue that it’s underplayed in dinosaur decks, and I’ll give it a bump because it’s a much more traditional lord.

#6. Palani’s Hatcher

I just love the flavor of how Palani's Hatcher pairs nicely with Atla Palani, Nest Tender. Aside from that Egg token synergy, Palani’s Hatcher is a mass haste enabler, though it doesn’t grant haste to itself.

#5. Hunting Velociraptor

Hunting Velociraptor gives you a ton of cost reduction thanks to prowl. As an alternate casting cost, you can combine it with Knight of the Stampede to make any dinosaur you cast in your second main phase cost just . That’s just stupid value, especially if you sequence things properly so you can untap all your lands with Zacama.

#4. Otepec Huntmaster

Otepec Huntmaster is a mix of a static cost reducer and a haste enabler. It comes down earlier than Knight of the Stampede, and haste is crucial to aggressive dinosaur decks.

#3. Temple Altisaur

Temple Altisaur’s damage prevention is great for dinosaur decks, whether you rely on fight spells, you want to trigger enrage abilities multiple times, or you just want your dinosaurs like Gishath, Sun's Avatar to survive combat.

#2. Regisaur Alpha

Regisaur Alpha offers 7/7 of stats spread over two bodies, but it’s also a haste enabler for all your dinosaurs. That’s especially important when you have dinos like Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant that put a lot of dinosaurs onto the battlefield at once, and others like Gishath that want to get into combat ASAP.

#1. Gishath, Sun’s Avatar

It isn’t hard to see why Gishath, Sun's Avatar is one of the most popular commanders, let alone dinosaur commanders. Its combat damage trigger lets you cheat dinosaurs into play, which is exactly the kind of acceleration you want, so much better than any other form of cost reduction.

Wrap Up

Palani's Hatcher | Illustration by Aaron Miller

We’ve only been to Ixalan twice, but dinosaurs are spoiled for potential lords. They get important keywords, stat buffs, and cost reduction, and some more niche effects that really synergize well with costly, big creatures.

Which dinosaur lords do you run in your decks? Let me know in the comments below or over on the Draftsim Discord.

Until next time, stay safe!