Key Takeaway
Here’s a quick breakdown of all 26 cards (including lands with new art) in Magic: The Gathering’s Jurassic World Collection:
- Blue, Loyal Raptor (Legendary Creature)
- Command Tower (Land)
- Compy Swarm (Creature)
- Cresting Mosasaurus (Creature)
- Dino DNA (Artifact)
- Don’t Move (Sorcery)
- Ellie and Alan, Paleontologists (Legendary Creature)
- Forest (Basic Land)
- Grim Giganotosaurus (Creature)
- Henry Wu, InGen Geneticist (Legendary Creature)
- Hunting Velociraptor (Creature)
- Ian Malcolm, Chaotician (Legendary Creature)
- Indominus Rex, Alpha (Legendary Creature)
- Indoraptor, the Perfect Hybrid (Legendary Creature)
- Island (Basic Land)
- Jurassic Park (Legendary Land) [transformed from “Welcome to…”]
- Life Finds a Way (Enchantment)
- Mountain (Basic Land)
- Owen Grady, Raptor Trainer (Legendary Creature)
- Permission Denied (Instant)
- Plains (Basic Land)
- Ravenous Tyrannosaurus (Creature)
- Savage Order (Sorcery)
- Spitting Dilophosaurus (Creature)
- Swamp (Basic Land)
- Swooping Pteranodon (Creature)
- Welcome to… (Enchantment—Saga) [transforms into “Jurassic Park”]
Magic: The Gathering is no stranger to crossover content, as its Universes Beyond series consistently puts out new and interesting collectibles for avid fans. If you’re a lover of both MTG and Jurassic Park (as well as Jurassic World), you’ll love these dinosaur-themed cards. There are 26 in this collection.
Table Of Contents
About the Jurassic World Collection in MTG
On November 17, 2023, Magic: The Gathering released the Jurassic World Collection: a booster insert set (a fancy yet small list of cards sold via booster packs) for the Universes Beyond series. It was launched alongside The Lost Caverns of Ixalan expansion (the 98th MTG expansion). Both the booster insert set and the expansion heavily feature dinosaurs, so Wizards of the Coast thought they’d be ideal to unveil at the same time.
Legendary Creatures
There are seven Legendary Creatures in the Jurassic World Collection. These feature some of the most famous Jurassic Park and Jurassic World characters—now in MTG form. In addition to iconic dinosaurs, noteworthy humans also appear.
Blue, Loyal Raptor
Blue, Loyal Raptor is a Legendary Creature—Dinosaur with a mana value of one green, one blue, and two of any color. It has 5 power and 4 toughness while possessing the following effects:
Partnered with Owen Grady, Raptor Trainer
When this creature enters the battlefield, target player may put Owen into their hand from their library, then shuffle.
For each kind of counter on Blue, Loyal Raptor, each other Dinosaur you control enters the battlefield with a counter of that kind on it.
Card Discussion
Clearly, this card is meant to be played alongside Owen Grady, Raptor Trainer to bring out its full power. Together, this duo creates a powerful combo—especially in the Commander format. Since Universes Beyond cards are only legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, and Oathbreaker formats, we can see where Wizards of the Coast were going with this pair.
With innate synergy, you could use Blue, Loyal Raptor as a commander alongside Owen Grady, Raptor Trainer to great effect. Build up some mana and then cast them for a tag team play. After that, start stacking counters on Blue with Owen. Then you want to bring out as many dinosaur creatures as you can to overrun your opponent.
We love this tactic. It’s a bit slow, but once it starts gaining momentum, your foe will have a hard time defending themselves—a highly approved green strategy if there ever was one. In this regard, it’s perfect that both Blue and Owen are partially green. Due to the raptor’s name, Blue simply had to be part blue as well. Awesome flavor and mechanics here.
Ellie and Alan, Paleontologists
Ellie and Alan, Paleontologists is a Legendary Creature—Human Scientist with a mana value of one green, one white, one blue, and two of any color. It has 2 power and 5 toughness while possessing the following effect:
Tap this card and then exile a creature card from your graveyard: Discover X, where X is the mana value of the exiled card. Activate only as a sorcery. (Exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card with that mana value or less. Cast it without paying its mana cost or put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom in a random order.)
Card Discussion
Digging through your card piles to bring out a Jurassic Park creature is the definition of paleontology—well, as close as you can get to it in MTG. It’s very flavorful to begin this effect by exiling something from your graveyard, as uncovering fossils is a core concept in the Jurassic Park franchise.
What’s more, this leading to a Discover effect is a nice way to tie into The Lost Caverns of Ixalan expansion, as this ability originates from there. Although getting Ellie and Alan onto the battlefield takes a fair bit of mana, it’s not a bad endgame tactic.
If you have a high-mana-value creature in the graveyard, simply tapping Ellie and Alan lets you bring one of roughly equal strength. What’s more, you can do so without paying any mana whatsoever! This strategy is best combined with something that lets you play around with exiled cards. Be sure not to mill yourself too much, though, as discovering in this manner too often will exile a lot of cards.
Henry Wu, InGen Geneticist
Henry Wu, InGen Geneticist is a Legendary Creature—Human Scientist with a mana value of one black, one green, and one blue. It has 1 power and 4 toughness while possessing the following effects:
Henry Wu, InGen Geneticist and other Human creatures you control have exploit. (When a creature with exploit enters the battlefield, you may sacrifice a creature.)
Whenever a creature you control exploits a non-Human creature, draw a card. If the exploited creature had power 3 or greater, create a Treasure token.
Card Discussion
Exploiting non-humans is a feat for which Henry Wu is infamous in the Jurassic World series. As such, seeing his card featuring the Exploit ability is satisfyingly flavorful. Furthermore, having Exploit effects leading to drawing and creating Treasure tokens appropriately represents Wu’s ambition in the films.
Usually, Dinosaur creatures have above 3 power, so making the Treasure token creation effect apply based on this makes a lot of sense. Wu exploited dinosaurs as much as possible to further his pursuit of knowledge throughout the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World franchises, so it makes sense that an MTG deck including him should do the same.
Henry is a solid card for increasing your drawing and casting capabilities, so playing it early in a game is recommended. On top of that, it works fairly well in a black deck that features graveyard play, sacrifice effects, drawing tactics, or Treasure token usage—very versatile.
Ian Malcolm, Chaotician
Ian Malcolm, Chaotician is a Legendary Creature—Human Scientist with a mana value of one blue, one red, and one of any color. It has 2 power and 2 toughness while possessing the following effects:
Whenever a player draws their second card each turn, that player exiles the top card of their library.
During each player’s turn, that player may cast a spell from among the cards they don’t own exiled with Ian Malcolm, Chaotician, and mana of any type can be spent to cast it.
Card Discussion
This card—appropriately—is utter chaos. Which is a nice MTG nod to the first Jurassic Park movie. The first effect of exiling top-deck cards on secondary draws in a turn is pretty entropic in and of itself. However, combined with the ability for any player to cast any card they don’t own exiled this way with any color of mana is insane.
To use Ian effectively, you’ll need to have a deck focused on forcing your opponent to draw extra cards every turn so that you can deprive them of as many cards as possible…and then use them for yourself. If you can cause your opponent to do extra draws consistently, they’ll have no way to counter this tactic. You know, unless they destroy Ian.
While potentially powerful, you should insert Ian into your deck as a way to mess with your opponent. Don’t use this card as one of your core tactics, as destroying a 2/2 creature with no innate protection is very easy. To put it another way, use this chaos to throw your foe off their game while you put forth your real strategies. This is a very blue/red-approved notion.
Indominus Rex, Alpha
Indominus Rex, Alpha is a Legendary Creature—Dinosaur Mutant with a mana value of two black/blue, two green, and one of any color. It has 6 power and 6 toughness while possessing the following effects:
As Indominus Rex, Alpha enters the battlefield, discard any number of creature cards. It enters with a flying counter on it if a card discarded this way has flying. The same is true for first strike, double strike, deathtouch, hexproof, haste, indestructible, lifelink, menace, reach, trample, and vigilance.
When Indominus Rex enters the battlefield, draw a card for each counter on it.
Card Discussion
With some high combat potential on its casting effects, Indominus Rex can be a powerhouse creature. Furthermore, you only need five mana to cast it—which is unusual enough for a 6/6 creature. On top of that, you can give it abilities from other creature spells you discard.
If you use its first effect to give Indominus Rex Hexproof or Indestructible, you’ll have a monster that’ll be hard for your opponent to take down. The initial downside of this is that you have to potentially discard a lot of cards from your hand. In turn, this would cause you to lose your card advantage.
However, that’s where Indominus Rex’s second effect comes into play: the more you discard for ability counters, the more cards you can draw. As a result, you negate the downside of discarding by discarding. Efficient and deadly, which feels right for this card’s flavor. Out of all the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World creatures introduced into MTG, this is one of the strongest. Definitely stick this one in your deck if you like burly creatures.
Indoraptor, the Perfect Hybrid
Indoraptor, the Perfect Hybrid is a Legendary Creature—Dinosaur Mutant with a mana value of one black/green, one red, and one of any color. It has 3 power and 1 toughness while possessing the following effects in addition to Menace:
Bloodthirst X (This creature enters the battlefield with X +1/+1 counters on it, where X is the damage dealt to your opponents this turn.)
Enrage—Whenever Indoraptor, the Perfect Hybrid is dealt damage, choose an opponent at random. Indoraptor deals damage equal to its power to that player unless they sacrifice a nontoken creature.
Card Discussion
An offensive force to be reckoned with, Indoraptor is all about damage output. To begin, Menace on a creature with higher power than toughness is handy, as it forces your opponent to choose between taking damage or losing some creatures. If they don’t have any disposable units on the battlefield, you’ll have a solid combat advantage.
Enrage gives Indoraptor an innate way to punish your foe for trying to take it out. As such, your opponent needs to be careful how they try to rid you of this card. With that said, slapping Indoraptor with a single point of damage isn’t too much counter-damage to worry about.
That’s unless you make efficient use of the Bloodthirst X ability. The ideal way to optimize your Indoraptor is to cast it after you deal a ton of damage to your opponent. This can be through combat damage, following a particularly nasty sorcery, or another heavy hit—your choice. Since Indoraptor is at home in red decks, you’ll have a lot of options here, like being cast after you launch a volatile fireball variant. The more you make use of Bloodthirst X, the deadlier Indoraptor becomes.
Owen Grady, Raptor Trainer
Owen Grady, Raptor Trainer is a Legendary Creature—Human Soldier Scientist with a mana value of one red, one green, and one of any color. It has 3 power and 2 toughness while possessing the following effects:
Partnered with Blue, Loyal Raptor
When this creature enters the battlefield, target player may put Blue, Loyal Raptor into their hand from their library, then shuffle.
Tap this creature and put your choice of a menace, trample, reach, or haste counter on target Dinosaur. Activate only as a sorcery.
Card Discussion
As we mentioned when discussing Blue, Loyal Raptor, it and Owen Grady, Raptor Trainer are solid picks for a dual commander. They’ve got great synergy and form a solid combo. During the next few turns after you cast Owen and Blue, you’ll want to start stacking ability counters onto Blue with Owen’s effect.
We recommend stacking ability counters in this order: Haste, then Menace, followed by Trample and ending with Reach. The only exception is if there’s a flying creature that you desperately need to block. In which case, bump Reach up in priority.
By starting with Haste, you can get Blue to give other Dinosaurs you cast this ability to begin rushing down your opponent. Menace and Trample help with this tactic. After you’ve got all four ability counters on Blue, you’re set to win the game with an army of fierce creatures!
Creatures
Excluding the legendary variety, there are seven Creatures in the Jurassic World Collection. Despite not having fancy epithets, these Dinosaurs are not to be underestimated. They pack a prehistoric punch that can knock your opponent back to the Mesozoic era.
Compy Swarm
Compy Swarm is a Creature—Dinosaur with a mana value of one black, one green, and one of any color. It has 2 power and 2 toughness while possessing the following effect:
At the beginning of your end step, if a creature died this turn, create a tapped token that’s a copy of Compy Swarm.
Card Discussion
If any card in this set deserves to run swarm tactics in MTG, is the deadly little dinosaurs from Jurassic Park. By combining killing tactics with this card, you can overrun your opponent with a ton of tokens in only a few turns. It doesn’t have to be your opponent’s creatures that die—you can sacrifice your own as well.
For example, if you use Henry Wu, InGen Geneicist’s Exploit ability, you can repeatedly sacrifice a revivable card (like Reassembling Skeleton) to double your number of Compy Swarms every turn. This strategy is fairly cheap to implement and results in gaining a lot of numbers on the battlefield. Simple and effective.
Cresting Mosasaurus
Cresting Mosasaurus is a Creature—Dinosaur with a mana value of two blue and six of any color. It has 4 power and 8 toughness while possessing the following effect:
Emerge 6+1 Blue Mana
(You may cast this spell by sacrificing a creature and paying the emerge cost reduced by that creature’s mana value.)
When Cresting Mosasaurus enters the battlefield, if you cast it, return each non-Dinosaur creature to its owner’s hand.
Card Discussion
If you run Cresting Mosasaurus in your deck, you always want to cast it via the Emerge ability. Eight mana is a lot to pay—especially when you don’t have to spend it. Emerge lets you bring out this leviathan (we think this card should be a Dinosaur Leviathan, to be honest) for very little mana if you set things up properly.
Let’s say you’ve got a creature with a mana value of five on the battlefield. If you’ve got one blue mana to spare, you can cast this 4/8 unit for one mana total. This is a great way to launch a surprise attack—which is especially flavorful given the Mosasaurus’ appearance in the first Jurassic World movie and the real ancient reptile’s hunting strategy.
Cast Cresting Mosasarus when your opponent least suspects it to force non-Dinosaur creatures back to their owners’ hands. This is great both to deplete your foe’s battlefield defenses as well as for when you want to get your non-Dinosaurs back into your hand to re-cast them. The only downside is if you’re playing against an opponent who is also using a Dinosaur deck.
Grim Giganotosaurus
Grim Giganotosaurus is a Creature—Dinosaur with a mana value of one black, one green, and five of any color. It has 10 power and 10 toughness while possessing the following effects:
Pay 10 Mana of Any Color, 1 Black Mana, and 1 Green Mana: Monstrosity 10
This ability costs 1 mana less to activate for each creature with power 4 or greater your opponents control. (If this creature isn’t monstrous, put ten +1/+1 counters on it and it becomes monstrous.)
When Grim Giganotosaurus becomes monstrous, destroy all artifacts and creatures other than Grim Giganotosaurus.
Card Discussion
Bordering on the same level of brute force as The Tarrasque, Grim Giganotosaurus is a literal monstrosity. Seven total mana for a 10/10 creature is crazy—especially for one that has the Monstrosity ability. If you’re able to make Giga monstrous, you can one-shot your opponent at full life points in a regular one-on-one game.
With that said, you’ll need a lot of mana to pull this off. Even if you use the effect to decrease Monstrosity’s cost, the creatures you need to do so probably require a fair bit of mana investment themselves. You also need to rely on your opponent having said creatures, as you can’t use your own. As such, Grim Giganotosaurus is definitely an endgame creature.
However, when you do make it monstrous, you’ll destroy most other permanents on the battlefield. This, in turn, makes it relatively easy to slam your opponent for a big decrease in life points. If you can’t activate Monstrosity yet, consider getting Trample onto Giga for some significant overflow damage.
Hunting Velociraptor
Hunting Velociraptor is a Creature—Dinosaur with a mana value of one red and two of any color. It has 3 power and 2 toughness while possessing the following effects:
First Strike
Dinosaur spells you cast have prowl (pay 2 mana of any color and one red mana). (You may cast a spell for its prowl cost if you dealt combat damage to a player this turn with a creature with any of its creature types.)
Card Discussion
A First Strike red creature is nothing new. However, one that grants other Dinosaur spells Prowl is novel! As such, you can use Hunting Velociraptor to cast a much larger Dinosaur creature for a fraction of its mana value. There’s also the possibility of casting a creature you normally can’t due to not having enough of the required mana colors available.
For instance, let’s say you have Grim Giganotosaurus in your hand and Hunting Velociraptor on the battlefield. If you deal combat damage to your opponent with the latter, you can cast the former (a 10/10 behemoth) for only three mana total.
In this regard, Hunting Velociraptor is a great card to cast early in a game if you have a lot of high-cost Dinosaurs in your deck. While being moderately powerful when going on the offensive (in the early and mid-game), it’s even better for casting utility. Jurassic Park enthusiasts will undoubtedly dub this MTG card a “clever girl.”
Ravenous Tyrannosaurus
NoteTo clarify: Devour 3 means that for each creature sacrificed through its effect, you get three times that many +1/+1 counters. For example, if you sacrifice one creature, you get three +1/+1 counters. Furthermore, if you sacrifice two creatures, you get six +1/+1 counters. So on and so forth.
Ravenous Tyrannosaurus is a Creature—Dinosaur with a mana value of one red, one green, and four of any color. It has 6 power and 6 toughness while possessing the following effects:
Devour 3
(As this enters the battlefield, you may sacrifice any number of creatures. This creature enters the battlefield with three times that many +1/+1 counters on it.)
Whenever Ravenous Tyrannosaurus attacks, it deals damage equal to its power to up to one other target creature. Excess damage is dealt to that creature’s controller instead.
Card Discussion
Come on, how is the Jurassic Park T-Rex not a Legendary Creature in MTG? It’s the icon for the entire trilogy! At least it gets some cool abilities and effects.
First, Devour 3 is a flavorful (pun intended) choice for Ravenous Tyrannosaurus. This allows the beefy creature to bulk up to very dangerous proportions. If you have a bunch of token creatures on the battlefield before casting T-Rex, you can supersize it beyond the potential of Grim Giganotosaurus for far fewer resources.
With that said, its other effect is much more interesting. Basically, it’s a built-in fight effect (minus taking damage) combined with Trample. You attack with T-Rex and target a creature of your choice, potentially hitting your opponent and taking out a creature in one fell swoop. Absolutely savage.
Spitting Dilophosaurus
Spitting Dilophosaurus is a Creature—Dinosaur with a mana value of one black and two of any color. It has 3 power and 2 toughness while possessing the following effects:
Whenever Spitting Dilophosaurus enters the battlefield or attacks, put a -1/-1 counter on up to one target creature.
Creatures your opponents control with -1/-1 counters on them can’t block.
Card Discussion
As one of the few mono-black creatures in the Jurassic World Collection, Spitting Dilophosaurus represents its color well. Not only is crippling creatures a core strategy for black MTG cards, but it’s also flavorful in regards to the Dilophosaurus’ appearance in the first Jurassic Park movie.
Since it only costs three mana to cast, you can get it onto the battlefield as soon as you need it. Applying -1/-1 counters to early and mid-game creatures is a great tactic for gaining an easy advantage. On top of that, affected creatures can’t block. This allows you to attack with Dilophosaurus while having impunity in some cases.
Swooping Pteranodon
Swooping Pteranodon is a Creature—Dinosaur with a mana value of one red, one white, and three of any color. It has 3 power and 3 toughness while possessing the following effect in addition to Flying and Haste:
Whenever Swooping Pteranodon or another Dinosaur with flying enters the battlefield under your control, gain control of target creature an opponent controls until end of turn. Untap that creature. It gains flying and haste until end of turn. At the beginning of the next end step, target land deals 3 damage to that creature.
Card Discussion
While flavorful, Swooping Pteranodon has some weird effects. Weird but cool—and funny. First off, innately having Flying and Haste on a 3/3 creature justifies the cost of five total mana. Its other effects are almost as versatile as well!
Being able to take control of an opponent’s creature—with no restrictions—upon getting cast or casting a similar creature is very powerful. Potentially, it’s game-winning if played at the right time. On top of that, the creature you target gets untapped and gains Flying and Haste for a turn! Even if your foe has other creatures, they won’t be able to block unless they have Flying or Reach.
Last but not least is the part where the taken creature returns to your opponent…and takes three damage…from a land. Yes, that’s right, a land (of your choice) deals three damage to the previously controlled creature. This is clearly a reference to what happens when a creature is dropped from a great height. You hit the ground very hard and the rocks below damage you—the land damages you! Hilarious.
Artifacts, Enchantments, Sorceries, and Instants
In addition to the classic movie monsters inspired by real prehistoric animals, there are a few more fun film references here. From the precious mosquito trapped in amber that made John Hammond’s dream come true to classic catchphrases, these MTG spells tick satisfying boxes for Jurassic Park fans. There are six such cards in the Jurassic World Collection.
Dino DNA
Dino DNA is an Artifact that costs one mana of any color to cast. It has two abilities that can be triggered:
Imprint
Pay one mana of any color and tap: Exile target creature card from a graveyard. Activate only as a sorcery.
Pay six mana of any color: Create a token that’s a copy of target creature card exiled with Dino DNA, except it’s a 6/6 green Dinosaur creature with trample. Activate only as a sorcery.
Card Discussion
Although this colorless Artifact can be inserted into any deck you want with few issues, it has the best synergy with green decks. Since green decks are the most common ones to run Trample-related tactics, the deck construction choices here are obvious.
With that said, if you have a deck that focuses on exiling creatures from the graveyard, triggering effects based on Artifact usage, or have abilities that get stronger when you cast more sorceries, Dino DNA could be a solid fit for them as well.
Of particular interest might be strategies that involve sending weak creatures to the graveyard as fuel for this Artifact. Once you build up your mana pool, you can upcycle weak creatures in your (or your opponent’s) graveyard into 6/6 titans with Trample. Overrunning foes in this manner is a classic late-game green strategy.
Don’t Move
Don’t Move is a Sorcery that costs two white mana and three mana of any color to cast. It has two effects, both of which involve destroying tapped creatures:
Destroy all tapped creatures.
Until your next turn, whenever a creature becomes tapped, destroy it.
Card Discussion
These days, it’s well understood that the eyes of a T-Rex are not motion-based. Despite this, the whole “don’t move” bit was effective in adding suspense to the Jurassic Park scene depicted on this card. What’s more, destroying tapped creatures (or those that get tapped immediately afterward) is very flavorful.
A creature only gets tapped after performing an action—which often involves physical movement. However, in this case, doing so results in getting devoured by a Tyrannosaurus.
Don’t Move would be a great spell to cast if your opponent just attacked you with a bunch of creatures. For five mana, you can wipeout their entire side of the battlefield under the right circumstances.
Life Finds a Way
Life Finds a Way is an Enchantment that costs one green and two mana of any color to cast. It has the following token-spawning effect:
Whenever a nontoken creature with power 4 or greater enters the battlefield under your control, populate. (Create a token that’s a copy of a creature token you control.)
Card Discussion
This Enchantment is a great way to double your Dinosaur Creature output. Simply cast Life Finds a Way as early as possible and then start bringing out your biggest minions. Although most optimal in a green deck—as you would imagine—this spell can fit into dual-colored ones fairly easily as well.
Permission Denied
Permission Denied is an Instant that costs one white mana and one blue mana to cast. It is a counterspell variant with the following effects:
Counter target noncreature spell. Your opponents can’t cast noncreature spells this turn.
Card Discussion
Not only does this card counter opponent noncreature spells, but it also prevents them from casting noncreature spells for the rest of the turn! This is potentially better than the standard counterspell for no added cost. You need white and blue mana, but in a deck that already features those colors, this isn’t an issue at all.
Permission Denied has appropriately flavorful art, as it shows the scene where Nedry’s virus blocks Arnold out of the computer system in Jurassic Park. Nedry’s virus feels very much like a blue deck-user casting a counterspell. Both are quite aggravating, to say the least.
The only downside is that this Instant can’t counter creature spells. As opposed to other counterspell variants, this means Permission Denied would be better to hang onto during your turn to protect yourself rather than to mess with your opponent on their turn.
Savage Order
Savage Order is a Sorcery that costs two green mana and two mana of any color to cast. It has two effects—one of which is an additional activation cost:
As an additional cost to cast this spell, sacrifice a creature with power 4 or greater.
Search your library for a Dinosaur creature card, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle. It gains indestructible until your next turn.
Card Discussion
First off, Savage Order arguably has the coolest card art in this booster insert set. What’s not to love about two gigantic theropods battling to the death? It’s a very green-approved notion, which makes this card’s mana cost exceedingly suitable.
Given the art choice, the additional activation cost also feels appropriate. The flavor is overflowing here! On top of that, this is a great card for searching out your strongest Dinosaur Creatures. For example, for only four mana total, you can cast a game-ending fiend like Etali, Primal Conqueror straight from your library.
What’s more, when you do so, Savage Order grants your summoned creature the Indestructible ability for one turn. That way—unless your opponent uses a counterspell—your searched Dinosaur Creature will be safe for a short while.
Welcome to…Jurassic Park (Transforming Card)
Welcome to…Jurassic Park is a transforming card in MTG. The front side (Welcome to…) is an Enchantment—Saga that costs two green mana and one mana of any color to cast. The back side (Jurassic Park) is a Legendary Land. Here are the effects of Welcome to…
First Lore Counter
For each opponent, up to one target noncreature artifact they control becomes a 0/4 Wall artifact creature with Defender for as long as you control this Saga.
Second Lore Counter
Create a 3/3 green Dinosaur creature token with Trample. It gains haste until end of turn.
Third Lore Counter
Destroy all Walls. Exile this Saga, then return it to the battlefield transformed under your control.
And here are the effects for the Jurassic Park Legendary Land that Welcome to…transforms into:
Each Dinosaur card in your graveyard has escape. The escape cost is equal to the card’s mana cost plus exile three other cards from your graveyard. (You may cast cards from your graveyard for their escape cost.)
Along with:
Tap this card: Add one green mana for each Dinosaur you control.
Card Discussion
To be blunt, the first two lore counter effects of Welcome to…aren’t very good. Firstly, you give your opponent a 0/4 Wall with which to block. This effect doesn’t even remove the targeted Artifact’s abilities. For instance, if it’s a Treasure Token, your opponent can still sacrifice it for mana.
The second lore counter effect is a bit better—but not by much. Sure, gaining a 3/3 Dinosaur Creature token with Trample can be handy. However, you need other tactics involving such permanents for this effect to be truly useful in greater strategies. Simply getting a 3/3 creature on the battlefield when you’ve just given your opponent a 0/4 Wall isn’t ever going to be viable for damaging your opponent by itself.
Lastly, the third lore counter effect destroys the Wall Creature you created a couple of turns ago, letting you dispatch an Artifact in the process. Although, you likely care far more about putting the Legendary Land Jurassic Park on your side of the MTG battlefield. Giving the Escape ability to all the Dinosaurs in your graveyard is versatile and stacks nicely with the effect that lets you tap Jurassic Park to potentially net a ton of green mana every turn.
Lands
Including the Jurassic Park Legendary Land mentioned above, there are seven Lands overall in the Jurassic World Collection. However, five of those are Basic Lands with new art, and the sixth is a new-art version of Command Tower.
Basic Lands
We love that each of the Basic Lands in this booster insert set features different dinosaurs. The Forest card depicting raptors escaping from their enclosure is a solid fit. The same applies to the monstrous Mosasaurus snacking on its prey in the Island card illustration.
Although we’re not certain, it looks like a herd of Gallimimus is running around on the Mountain card—this has a liberating vibe. Whereas the Mountain card is refreshing, the Plains card is majestic, as it shows graceful yet massive sauropods enjoying a gentle soak. Last but certainly not least is the terrifying scene depicted on the Swamp card reminding us all how deadly the Spinosaurus from Jurassic Park 3 was when hunting humans.
Command Tower
A bit disappointingly, Command Tower isn’t a new card either—merely an old one with new art. As such, it’s in the same boat as the Basic Lands covered with lovely dinosaur illustrations.
Command Tower works as it always has: tap it to add one mana of any color from your commander’s color identity. As you can glean from the text, Command Tower is a Land that’s only useful in the Commander format. Since the Jurassic World Collection was made specifically for the Commander format, it’s nice to have some new art for this Commander staple.
As big fans of Jurassic Park, Jurassic World, and MTG, we were excited for this booster insert set’s release. Though, not as much as we were for The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth Universe Beyond expansion—which featured the legendary One Ring. We can only hope that more cool crossovers happen. Given the product history of Wizards of the Coast, however, we’re sure there’ll be more.
