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Temple Altisaur

Creature — Dinosaur

If a source would deal damage to another Dinosaur you control, prevent all but 1 of that damage.

CMC
5
Mana cost
{4}{W}
Color identity
W
Rarity
rare
Set
Rivals of Ixalan
Price
$0.88
EDHREC rank
#2970
Buy on TCGplayer
Temple Altisaur card art
Temple Altisaur turns every piece of removal aimed at your other dinosaurs into a footnote — anything that would deal damage to them instead hits Altisaur, which shrugs it off with indestructible. The seven-mana price tag is steep, but in Gishath, Sun's Avatar and Wayta, Trainer Prodigy shells that already want a critical mass of dinosaurs, it pulls double duty as both protection layer and a beefy body that simply doesn't die.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Gishath, Sun's Avatar

Gishath, Sun's Avatar

73.5% of decks · synergy 0.61

Gishath, Sun's Avatar floods the board with dinosaurs fast, and Temple Altisaur turns that whole squad into a damage-redirect engine — opponents can't pick off key attackers with pinpoint burn while Altisaur is standing.

02
Pantlaza, Sun-Favored

Pantlaza, Sun-Favored

65.9% of decks · synergy 0.53

Pantlaza, Sun-Favored cares about discovering into more dinosaurs, and Temple Altisaur protects the pieces Pantlaza puts into play so the discover chain doesn't get dismantled one removal spell at a time.

03
Wayta, Trainer Prodigy

Wayta, Trainer Prodigy

55.6% of decks · synergy 0.43

Wayta, Trainer Prodigy fights with her creatures to trigger abilities, and Temple Altisaur absorbs the damage those fights would otherwise deal back to your team — keeping every fighter alive to go again.

04
Zacama, Primal Calamity

Zacama, Primal Calamity

29.9% of decks · synergy 0.17

Zacama, Primal Calamity is a single high-value target that demands answers, and Temple Altisaur gives the rest of the dinosaur suite staying power while opponents focus their removal on Zacama.

05
Atla Palani, Nest Tender

Atla Palani, Nest Tender

26.6% of decks · synergy 0.14

Atla Palani, Nest Tender hatches dinosaurs out of eggs, and Temple Altisaur ensures the parade of creatures she produces doesn't get swept off the board by damage-based wraths before they can attack.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Temple Altisaur is a Commander card through and through — the effect only matters when you have enough dinosaurs on board to make the redirect meaningful, which is a condition 60-card formats rarely set up cleanly enough to justify seven mana. In Modern and Pioneer it's technically legal but functionally unplayable; no competitive shell wants a seven-mana do-nothing-the-turn-it-enters that requires tribal context. Legacy and Vintage have the same problem compounded by the fact that those formats kill you before you untap with it. Commander is where Temple Altisaur earns its keep, specifically in Naya or Gruul dinosaur builds that go wide and need a blanket protection piece that opponents can't easily remove.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$0.88 bulk tier

At $0.88, Temple Altisaur is firmly bulk — a low-risk pickup for any dinosaur deck that wants the protection effect. It's a niche card with a narrow home, so don't expect the price to move much in either direction.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.