Welcome back to Daily Arena, and a look at another of the precons given to us on March 22!

Today I’m taking a look at The Sun Empire, the R/G Dinosaur ramp deck. This deck has a very straightforward strategy of ramping up to big Dinos and then stomping your opponent with them, while getting extra value off of synergies and Enrage triggers. I don’t think it’s one of the most competitive of the preconstructed decks, but it is very straightforward and quite fun to pilot.

Here’s a video with me losing badly while playing this deck against the mirror match and U/B control before triumphing over an aggro deck that looks like it stumbled. (No, I don’t live in my car, it’s just the only quiet place I have to stream from a lot of the time.)

Edit: And another couple videos with a few more games:

Here’s the deck:

The Sun Empire

If you’ve seen any of my previous articles, then you know the pattern by now. First, let’s look at what I believe are the best cards in the precon.

Samut, Voice of Dissent is not a Dinosaur, but is a good enough creature that it shines anyway. Giving your creatures haste is very good in this deck, though I wouldn’t worry about changing your land base to support Samut’s white activated ability (unless, perhaps, you can get some Sunpetal Groves)…you might be able to get random value from it via mana dorks.

Burning Sun’s Avatar is a big beater that torches your opponent and one of their creatures when it comes into play (or even hits one of your other Enrage Dinos in a pinch). You can get some real value and even card advantage off this beast.

Channeler Initiate is my mana dork of choice for this deck. Before we got Amonkhet block, I filled up on Drover of the Mighty, which is still great, but I prefer the Channeler, who grows regardless of whether your opponent is able to keep Dinos off your board.

Etali, the Primal Storm is amazing whenever it attacks. If it has haste or you untap with it, it draws you up to two extra cards and lets you play them for free. Oh, it’s also huge.

Savage Stomp is just about the best removal you could ask for in Dinosaur Tribal Ramp. It’s super efficient, permanently grows your Dinos, and gets you Enrage triggers as a nice bonus.

Dinosaurs that aren’t in the precon that should be high priorities to add once you have available Rare/Mythic wildcards are Carnage Tyrant, which will help immensely in the U/B control match-up; and Regisaur Alpha, another creature that will make your other Dinos hasty and brings a friend along for the ride.

Now I’m going to discuss cards I’d remove from the deck. Some of these are clear under-performers, but some of them might be controversial, so please let me know if you disagree!

Frilled Deathspitter is a decent aggro card, but doesn’t really do much in a ramp deck. I want to replace this with a Dino that has a more impressive Enrage ability.

Otepec Huntmaster ramps your Dinos and makes them attack a turn early. I prefer the dorks that actually generate mana, but some people may say I’m crazy for that.

Edit: I was crazy for that…this is definitely way better than the dorks in this deck.

Shake the Foundations is a card I’d play in the sideboard of any Dino deck, but in this environment I’d prefer another Lightning Strike or Abrade.

Thunderherd Migration ramps, but doesn’t do anything else. With all of the choices for creature-based ramp in this card pool, I think I’ll skip this for more removal, or another Mouth // Feed for card draw.

Edit: After playing more games, I now think this is preferable to creature-based ramp in this deck (except for Otepec Huntmaster, which I think I still prefer).

Rile is not horrible in an Enrage-heavy deck, but I’d rather have something that can also hit my opponent’s creatures.

Here’s my suggested upgrade for those of you low on Rare/Mythic wildcards:

The Sun Empire (Budget Upgrade)

And for those with wildcards to spare:

The Sun Empire (Upgrade)

As always, I’m open to input, so fee free to engage me here, on Reddit, on Twitter at @DailyArena, or via the @DailyArenaMTG page on Facebook.

Peace.

Joseph Eddy is a Father, Husband, Son, Brother, Software Developer, and Gamer. Magic is his favorite hobby, and he’s looking forward to seeing you all on Arena. He streams Magic Arena on a weekly basis (or more), but currently is unable to keep to a set schedule.