Overview:

Pantlaza Dinosaur tribal focuses on cheating out high-toughness Dinosaurs to fuel Discover value chains, with a secondary Food Chain combo finish. The deck leverages cost reduction and creature-based ramp to deploy threats ahead of curve while maintaining resilience through flicker effects and protection spells.

Primer:

Core Strategy: This deck aims to flood the board with massive Dinosaurs using Pantlaza's Discover engine, transitioning into either overwhelming combat damage or a Food Chain/Squee, the Immortal/Temur Sabertooth infinite mana combo. Key phases:

1. Early Setup: Ramp with land tutors (Farseek, Topiary Stomper) and cost reducers (Rhythm of the Wild, The Great Henge). Prioritize casting Pantlaza by T3-4 using Sol Ring/Arcane Signet.
2. Value Engine: Chain Dinosaurs like Regisaur Alpha and Etali, Primal Storm to trigger Discover, digging for combo pieces or threats. Use Roaming Throne (Dinosaur type) to double Pantlaza triggers.
3. Win Conversion: Either:
   • Combat overkill via Xenagos, God of Revels pumps and Akroma's Will
   • Infinite mana with Food Chain -> cast entire deck via Discover loops
   • Wrathful Raptors + damage doublers/redirectors

Mulligan Priorities:

• Keep hands with 3 lands + 2 ramp pieces (e.g., Farseek + Selvala, Heart of the Wilds)
• Prioritize early Pantlaza enablers over high-CMC Dinosaurs
• Reject hands without green sources or creature deployment

Key Tips:

• Use Ghostway/Lae'zel's Acrobatics to dodge wipes and retrigger ETBs
• Food Chain exiles tokens from The Skullspore Nexus for mana bursts
• Defense of the Heart fetches Gishath, Sun's Avatar + Zacama, Primal Calamity

Weaknesses:

Critical:

• No free counterspells to protect Food Chain combo
• Limited graveyard recursion beyond The Skullspore Nexus

Moderate:

• Vulnerable to Rest in Peace/Leyline of the Void disrupting Discover-fueled graveyard synergies
• High average CMC (3.8) slows recovery from early interaction

Minor:

• Some anti-synergy between Rampaging Ferocidon and token strategies

Most Important Cards:

• Food Chain
• The Great Henge
• Cavern of Souls
• Gishath, Sun's Avatar
• Etali, Primal Conqueror
• Xenagos, God of Revels
• Zacama, Primal Calamity
• Finale of Devastation
• Defense of the Heart
• Temur Sabertooth

Attribute Ratings:

Speed: 6/10

• Goldfish T6 via Food Chain combo or T7 combat overkill
• Slower than cEDH but accelerates via Selvala, Heart of the Wilds/Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant

Resilience: 7/10

• 8 protection spells (Heroic Intervention, Ghostway)
• Flicker effects bypass targeted removal
• Struggles against stacked counterspells

Consistency: 6/10

• 6 tutors (Green Sun's Zenith, Finale of Devastation)
• Discover provides card advantage but lacks combo redundancy
• Relies on Pantlaza staying active for engine

Interaction: 5/10

• 10 targeted answers (Swords to Plowshares, Beast Within)
• Lacks stack interaction beyond Pyroblast
• Farewell as nuclear reset button

Rating Justification:

Outpaces Casual/Precon (4.0-4.5) with combo potential and tutor density but lacks cEDH's free interaction and T3 consistency. Matches Optimized (6.0-6.5) benchmarks with:

• Multiple T6-T7 win vectors
• Moderate protection/resilience package
• 10+ interaction pieces Falls short of 7.0 due to no T5 locks and vulnerability to fast combo disruption.

Power level: 6.0 - 6.5