Advantage Zoo

[Reiner]

Hi there.

Twisting zoo a lot I came up with this deck:

Deck Name: Bloodbraid Ranger
// Lands
2 [OD] Mountain (4)
4 [ALA] Forest (2)
3 [R] Taiga
3 [LRW] Plains (1)
3 [R] Savannah
2 [R] Plateau
2 [ON] Windswept Heath
2 [ON] Wooded Foothills

// Creatures
4 [FUT] Tarmogoyf
4 [ROE] Vengevine
4 [ARB] Bloodbraid Elf
4 [ARB] Qasali Pridemage
3 [WWK] Loam Lion
3 [AN] Kird Ape
4 [ALA] Wild Nacatl
4 [ALA] Ranger of Eos
2 [LRW] Gaddock Teeg

// Spells
4 [R] Swords to Plowshares
3 [CFX] Path to Exile

// Sideboard
SB: 2 [LRW] Gaddock Teeg
SB: 4 [SHM] Vexing Shusher
SB: 4 [ALA] Relic of Progenitus
SB: 2 [4E] Red Elemental Blast
SB: 2 [5E] Pyroblast

-------------------------

Typical Zoo deck for the cats, apes, removal nothing new there.

The name advantage comes from:

4 [ROE] Vengevine
4 [ALA] Ranger of Eos
4 [ARB] Bloodbraid Elf

While the deck behaves in early game as a zoo deck, the cards listed above generate card advantage in middle game. Ranger bringing two of the many 1 casting cost creatures, bloodbraid getting you an extra spell and vengevine returns to play from the graveyard when bloodbraid casts a 2nd creature or when you cast the 2 creatures you searched with the ranger.

I just tested against reanimator, Ugr threshold, bw discard sinkoholes, and mono black, and won all 12 games 2-0 against each... me and my opponent where surprised by the results, so I decided to post the deck in case someone wants to play with it in a tornament.

¿Doubts/questions?

[Kangaxx]

How do you plan on throwing vengevine into the GY? Maybe you should consider running SotF. Or better yet that Fauna dude that has a built in Survival from the new M11 set.

[TheMightyQuinn]

I think the curve needs to be smoothed out. You have 12 creatures in the 4cc slot and none at 3cc.

Also, since the curve is so high, I'm skeptical about running only 21 lands. How often do you find yourself missing that critical 4th land drop?

[Jeff Kruchkow]

Mana dorks. This deck wants them. Running llanowar elves or nobles will help you hit your powerful 4 drops early.

[heroicraptor]

Cut all 4 Vengevine, and 2 Ranger of Eos. Add 4 Lightning Bolt and 2 Chain Lightning.

[from Cairo]

I agree, that curve is way too harsh with so many 4 drops, no 3 drops and no mana dorks. I don't see much incentive to running a bunch of 2/3 dorks if you're playing for the midgame, something like Noble Hierarch at least helps power out bombs early and later in the game holds some value buffing your guys with Exhalted. In general I think 12 4cc cards is just too much for an agro deck. Way too much will have happened in the game at that point, and it's going to be rare that a turn 4 Vengevine or turn 4 BBE + dork is advantageous enough to regain board position.

Here's a rough sample of a big zoo list I was playing around with a bit.

4 Noble Hierarch
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Qasali Pridemage
3 Grim Lavamancer
2 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Stoneforge Mystic

4 Lightning Bolt
4 Path to Exile
3 Lightning Helix
2 Elspeth, Knight Errant
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Ajani Vengeant

4 Windswept Heath
3 Wooded Foothills
3 Arid Mesa
3 Savannah
2 Taiga
2 Plateau
2 Forest
2 Plains
1 Mountain

This keeps some of the mid-late game bomb aspects of your list with some Planeswalkers and the Stoneforge Mystic equipment package. The deck tends to have less explosive openings than traditional zoo, but does really well versus more aggressive lists. This list is also less ambitious in it's mana curve, it mostly tops out at 2cc, with just 2 Knight of the Reliquary, 2 Elspeth and 1 Ajani being it's higher cc threats.

[Reiner]

How do you plan on throwing vengevine into the GY? Maybe you should consider running SotF. Or better yet that Fauna dude that has a built in Survival from the new M11 set.

I do not plan to throw the vengevine myself into the graveyard, Ill let the opponent do that by countering, destroying, electrocuting or blocking it.
I tried the SotF and it does not work.

I think the curve needs to be smoothed out. You have 12 creatures in the 4cc slot and none at 3cc.

Also, since the curve is so high, I'm skeptical about running only 21 lands. How often do you find yourself missing that critical 4th land drop?

For the 3cc slot I have 10 1cc creatures and 10 2cc creatures.

I was also skeptical, thats why in earlier tests was not running any fetchlands. But most of the time got flooded, so Im running 4 fetchlands and it has been good, even against pox,wasteland,sinkhole decks.

Mana dorks. This deck wants them. Running llanowar elves or nobles will help you hit your powerful 4 drops early.

I was running "mana dorks" as you call them, and they do help you hit your curve early, but thats it, your deck gets controlled in those turns as most decks do. I also tried to run them along with Survival of the Fittest and did not work well.

I added kird ape and loam lion for better early game, a 2/3 is better for early pressure, and the exalted is not a plus here since most of the time the deck is attacking with more that 1 creature.