It wasn't so long ago that there were only a handful of Dinosaur cards despite Magic: The Gathering's deep card pool. Thankfully, things have changed quite a bit since the release of Ixalan added a plethora of everyone's favorite prehistoric reptiles.
Unfortunately, Ixalan rotated out of Standard quite some time ago, making it once again difficult to get your Dino-fix from Magic. However, the rising popularity of Pioneer has given these tyrant lizards a new breeding ground for play. That being said, let's take a look at some of the best Dinosaurs you can stomp onto the battlefield in constructed.
7 Thrashing Brontodon
Thanks to its high toughness, relatively cheap cost, and useful ability, Thrashing Brontodon saw play throughout its time in Standard. Consequently, it stands to reason that Brontodon would perform well in the slightly higher-powered Pioneer format. This is a Dinosaur that slots in well to aggressive and midrange green decks, as well as decks playing Collected Company.
Brontodon's high toughness makes it a pain to go to combat against for most aggressive decks, and its activated ability allows for artifact and enchantment removal that's normally relegated to the sideboard. Unfortunately, there aren't many artifacts and enchantments being played in the Pioneer metagame at the moment, but if that changes there's no doubt that Brontodon might be making a much more common appearance.
6 Shifting Ceratops
Shifting Ceratops is more of a sideboard card than anything, but it's a good one in the right matchup. Both Spirits and Azorius (blue/white) Control rely heavily on counter spells to keep their opponent's creatures under control, and Ceratops neatly blanks these cards.
Furthermore, Ceratops is great even if you don't play it on curve thanks to its ability to pay green and gain your choice of trample, haste, or reach. Considering the fact that it can also gain reach, Ceratops really does look like an especially good sideboard option for Green decks against Spirits. Lastly, protection from blue means any creature-based blue deck won't stand a chance against this beastie.
5 Regisaur Alpha
As we move away from Dinosaurs better considered for the sideboard, Regisaur Alpha provides us a first glimpse at what kind of power we can expect from this creature type. Admittedly, Regisaur Alpha never saw play during its time in Standard, but its effect of providing other Dinosaurs with haste is not to be underestimated.
Additionally, this card does provide 7/7 worth of stats over two bodies and the token it creates gains haste while Alpha is on the battlefield. Ultimately, Alpha makes the most sense to play in combination with a Dinosaur tribal deck, but Dino tribal is missing a few key pieces at the moment that prevent it from being a real threat.
4 Ripjaw Raptor
Ripjaw Raptor is a fairly sized threat for its mana cost, but the kicker for this card comes in the form of its enrage ability. Each time Ripjaw takes damage, its controller draws a card. This makes going to combat against Ripjaw incredibly harrowing as blocking it provides your opponent with card advantage and its high toughness makes it difficult to kill.
However, there are a lot of popular removal spells that don't rely on damage to kill creatures. Herein lies the downfall of Ripjaw, as if it doesn't draw you a single card there are much better things you can be doing for four mana. Thankfully, there's at least one easy way to get a reliable trigger out of Ripjaw...
3 Marauding Raptor
And right now you're looking at it. Marauding Raptor is the primary reason you might consider putting together a Dinosaur tribal deck as it's an incredible threat when you can reliably boost its attack every turn. After all, you don't see very many two mana 4/3 creatures running around.
Furthermore, its cost reduction of creature cards by one generic is an incredible boon. For example, you could curve out a Ripjaw Raptor on turn three, draw a card from Ripjaw's enrage trigger, and then attack with your now 4/3 Marauding Raptor. That's a pretty good curve for any deck, but the fact that you're playing Dinosaurs just makes it all the better. If Dinosaurs see another powerful two drop like Marauding Raptor printed, Dinosaur tribal might just evolve into an apex predator.
2 Carnage Tyrant
Speaking of apex predators, it's hard to do better than Carnage Tyrant. This implacable death lizard was often used as a sideboard hoser against control decks during its time in Standard. Its inability to be countered coupled with hexproof and trample make it a terrifying threat for most control decks to answer as it blanks all counterspells, all removal aside from sacrifice effects, and cannot be chump blocked thanks to trample.
In other words, the only way to reliably deal with it is to get six power on the board and block. That's not something your average control deck is keen on accomplishing. Sideboard uses aside, Carnage Tyrant is simply a great finisher on its own. Notably, it does have a weakness to sweeper effects, but in a properly aggressive deck your opponent should be forced to play those a turn or two before you resolve your Carnage Tyrant.
1 Rampaging Ferocidon
Last and most notable of all, Rampaging Ferocidon is well-remembered by most Standard players thanks to being so good that it was actually banned. One of the best ways for decks to counter aggressive strategies like Mono-Red is through life gain, but Rampaging Ferocidon completely shuts the door on any such nonsense.
As if that weren't enough, it has also got menace and deals 1 damage to a player whenever they resolve a creature card. Altogether, this means that Ferocidon could reliably deal four or five damage while also paralyzing opponent's from using one of the best methods of defeating aggressive strategies. All things considered, the flavor text here is especially poignant, and you can be sure that Ferocidon's constructed career is far from over thanks to Pioneer.