Landfall Zoo

Just your dumb beatdown deck with 3/4s, 4/5s, 6/6s and 20/20s


//Creatures: 25
4 Steppe Lynx
4 Elvish Reclaimer
4 Narnam Renegade
1 Quirion Ranger
1 Scryb Ranger
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
3 Tarmogoyf
4 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Renegade Rallier

//Spells: 11
4 Crop Rotation
4 Path to Exile
3 Green Sun's Zenith

//Lands: 24
1 Dark Depths
1 Thespian's Stage
1 Karakas
1 Sejiri Steppe
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath
4 Prismatic Vista
2 Wooded Foothills
2 Savannah
3 Forest
3 Plains

//Sideboard: 15
1 Blast Zone
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Ramunap Excavator
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Knight of Autumn
1 Pithing Needle
1 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Containment Priest
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Veil of Summer



I've been thinking about a deck like this for a while now.

Reclaimer + Knight together gives GW an unprecedented land toolbox (4 Crop Rotation may be overkill). That can be used to find utility lands or just enable Landfall/Revolt shenanigans, which plays well with Steppe Lynx, Narnam Renegade, and Renegade Rallier. Or you can make Marit Lage.

Steppe Lynx can get stupidly explosive.
e.g. Turn 3 fetchland -> Plains. Cast Renegade Rallier returning fetchland. Attack with 6/7 Lynx. If no blockers, crack fetchland -> Forest -> Crop Rotation Forest -> fetchland -> Savannah. 12/13 Lynx connects.

I've thought about playing it in straight GW or playing GWr, splashing red for Wild Nacatl, Wrenn and Six and maybe Punishing Fire combo.

pretty sure zoo should run w6 :(

Flagstones of Trokair used to be better with Crop rotation and Steppe Lynx with old legend rule, but may still be worthwhile.

A copy of Undiscovered Paradise might help get inevitable landfall each turn.

Also, I'm against Zoo decks without Wild Nacatl.
On principle.
It might be bad in this list, I don't know, but I can't get over the fact that I feel it belongs in anything called Zoo.


Other random thoughts when I see your list:
- All your guys that beat have equal or more toughness than power. A one-off Doran, the Siege Tower could be fun. Does screw with your colours a bit, but it's Zenithable, you could play a fetchable Treefolk land that I forgot the name of or just good fetch and a Bayou or so. It's just an idea. I played Doran Zoo in Modern and it's so much fun to see your opponent do combat math when all Loam Lions and Kird Apes effectively become 3/3s.
- The creature-untap (Ranger) guys don't look very useful unless you have a KotR active, but if you have a KotR active, you're doing well anyway, so you might want to drop those. You probably don't really need them.
- Sejiri Steppe is crap unless you are in control anyway. Might want to drop it.
- You're right about the full set of Crop Rotation probably being too much. I'd trim a few of those as well.

If I do add red, what about these changes?

-4 Narnam
+4 Nacatl

-1 Quirion Ranger
-1 Scryb Ranger
-2 Crop Rotation
+3 W6
+1 Tarmogoyf

-1 Steppe
+1 Wasteland

-4 Path to Exile
+4 Lightning Bolt
Torn on this one. Path to Exile has some advantages like killing Marit Lage and Griselbrand (without giving them dangerous amounts of life) and answering midrange blockers like Angler and TKS and Goyf. It can also be used on your own guy in response to death as a 1cc Rampant Growth/landfall source. But Bolt hits PWs and players and doesn't give them a card.

I thought about Flagstones but I think it's too slow/awkward in a 3-color build with reduced copies of Crop Rotation. I'd rather make room for Marit Lage and other utility.

Just to be on the same page: W6 means Wrenn and Six, right?
That dude looks VERY good with the full set of Wastelands.

Also, I would vote for more than 12 one-drops. I tend to miss out on one-drops when I play less than 13, and for Zoo, 15+ feels necessary.

I've been tinkering with something like this in Modern (Lynx + Reclaimer) but I never thought to go Legacy with it, let alone Depths combo. The idea intrigues me, and I even have the mana-base to support it.

Unrelated, zoo spotting.

https://www.hareruyamtg.com/en/deck/252279/show/

I’ve tried this like a zillion times. Possible it’s better with Deafening Silence now but all the midrange goodstuff is frustrating. Lynx eating it to W6 is the worst. If you’re gonna do landfall play berserk, p sick with crop/lynx or big knights


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Yeah Wrenn and Six. More Wastelands seems good. I need to tweak the manabase to make room for red and Wastes.

Does GSZ into Dryad Arbor count as a 1-drop? If not, then I'll try to make room for both Nacatl and Narnam Renegade.

Depths combo slid into a top 8 Maverick deck recently, and they weren't even running Reclaimers (because the creature base was more Maverick than Zoo). A Naya deck in the top 16 also had Depths. Proof Marit Lage is worth the slots in this meta if you're already running land tutors. Tutor into Karakas also makes this well-positioned to fight Depths.

That "Zoo" deck is interesting. It looks more like a Naya Maverick variant (Mom, mana dork, Stoneblade, Voice, StP) playing 1/1s to enable Lovestruck Beast and Smuggler's Copter. I don't think Beast is good enough to justify warping the deck around when there are other cheap beaters.

I do like the use of Adventures for card advantage. The best Adventure for Zoo is probably Bonecrusher Giant (Stomp @ opponent even lets you kill a blocking TNN). I'd consider it in a non-Landfall build, but Knight and Rallier have more synergy.

I saw a Berserk build years ago when aggro and midrange still had room in Legacy. It's explosive. The problem is it's too linear on the landfall plan and folds to disruption. My goal is a deck that attacks on multiple angles: pure beatdown, control via toolbox lands, or Depths combo. Reclaimer + Knight makes it possible to switch between roles. If Lynx dies no big deal, there's other stuff to do.

What's different for Landfall Zoo now if it didn't work before? New tools that didn't exist a few months ago: Elvish Reclaimer, Wrenn and Six, Veil of Summer, Deafening Silence, Once Upon a Time, adventure creatures... Wizards is pushing Forest finally. Is it enough to be viable?

this is the last build i played i think:

https://twitter.com/n_r_g/status/115...861579272?s=20

it was pretty experimental but fun. as the W6 delver/control decks started rising lynx and geopede got increasingly terrible. the card dreadhorde arcanist constantly bolting and re-bolting my threats also hurt.

i guess the question is whether or not lynx is a better additional 1-drop than nacatl or renegade. suppose geopede is out for the time being, but it is possible that lynx's explosiveness will balance out its softness to W6. elvish reclaimer is insane though on all sides.

i don't like the depths idea conceptually. i feel like you'll just end up doing that a bunch of times and you might as well go more in on it. meanwhile it will goof with your opening hands. i like berserk as a win-out-of-nowhere a little more.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FTW

Does GSZ into Dryad Arbor count as a 1-drop? If not, then I'll try to make room for both Nacatl and Narnam Renegade.

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Yes it does. I overlooked Arbor, probably because I always write it up with the creatures. It sucks as a land. :smile:

The #2 and #13 decks from SCG Philly were "Maverick Depths", basically decks using Reclaimer + Knight + Crop Rotation to assemble Depths combo or other utility lands (Blast Zone, Bojuka Bog, Karakas, Sejiri Steppe). They went much heavier on the Depths plan though, playing as a midrange deck.

https://www.tcdecks.net/deck.php?id=31934&iddeck=275946

https://www.tcdecks.net/deck.php?id=31934&iddeck=275957

Depths is strong enough that it seems hard not to include with all the land tutors anyway. If the land count is high enough (24-25?), it shouldn't lead to awkward openers. If you draw Depths in the opener, you just tutor for Thespian's Stage. But I like that Reclaimer + Knight + Crop Rotation also work really well with Steppe Lynx and revolt.