I am not saying that the best thing against Counter-Top is Lavamancer, but in my opinion, and my testing in this has proved the point from my perspective at least, turn one Lavamancer is the way to go if you know you're against the deck. Chances are in most games both pieces won't yet be in play so you have a turn or two extra to work up some better damage, rift bolt gets through most of the time and fireblast gets through. with all of that in mind I'd gladly play the Lavamancer over any other 1cc in a zoo deck.
Typically counterbalance isn't set up in the first 2 turns of a game, and if it is then I'd be in trouble, but there's always fireblast, and rift bolt that get around most of the counterbalance triggers. ALso before the counter balance gets online you use all your 1cc burn/creatures without holding back. Post boart you have answers such as Krosan Grip and Seal of Primordium
I don't really understand why a zoo deck would be running rift bolt, perhaps a sligh deck.
Actually, if you have lavamancer in play, chances are that goyf will only be a 2/3 or 3/4, depending on if the counterbalance deck got a sorcery. Perhaps larger if a counterbalance had already been destroyed, but if that's the case then the zoo player is probably sitting pretty well. For goyf, the smaller size is a significant difference when trying to win the damage race. Additionally, zoo has knight of the reliquary, which is a pseudo out in the sense that it's a lot less likely to get countered from balance (though, with counterbalance lists running more 3cc he's less reliable, but still an option). However, then the CB deck will just play a Jace and your lavamancer will look pretty silly.
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