Survival Zoo wins Moat at TOGIT 8/14/10

[hungryLIKEALION]

Survival Zoo as of 8/14/10, by Harry Matten Gillen(hungryLIKEALION) and Ryan O'Donnel(OldOD).

4 Wild Nacatl
3 Steppe Lynx
3 Grim Lavamancer
1 Figure of Destiny
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Qasali Pridemage
3 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Chain Lightning
4 Path to Exile
4 Survival of the Fittest
1 Anger
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
1 Mangara of Corondor
3 Taiga
2 Plateau
2 Savannah
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Windswept Heath
2 Arid Mesa
2 Horizon Canopy
1 Forest
1 Karakas

SB:
1 Magus of the Moon
1 Duergar Hedgemage
1 Gaddock Teeg
2 Faerie Macabre
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Tormod's Crypt
2 Pyroblast
3 Choke
3 Krosan Grip

So there's the list. I first decided I wanted to try out Survival of the Fittest in Zoo when I saw Der_imaginäre_Freund's list here on the Source. I was, at the time, playing with Bant survival, but after spending 4 months with Excalibur I was getting really sick of playing a blue deck. In all honesty, I'm just not a blue player. I know how to play it, and can(and do) win with blue decks, but I don't enjoy playing them. At least, not nearly as much as I enjoy playing red. So my friend Ryan and I began brainstorming on the list. He added the Mangara/Karakas package pretty late in the development, and then top 8d at Vestal with the deck. It was magnificent. I, of course, went 4-3 that day with Excalibur.

So moving on, prepping for this tournament, I knew I was going to play Zoo a week before hand. The only decision was whether or not to play Survival. The way I saw it was that Survival is more game-breaking than Library, but takes more slots in the deck. So the decision became whether or not Survival's power level justified the 4-5 extra slots compared to Libraries. I didn't get to do that much testing in the week leading up to the event due to working almost every day, so I decided to go and play what I thought I would enjoy the most; and that meant Survival.

Ryan helped me develop my board the night before. We cut the Iona/Emrakul/Retainers package from the board because he felt it was always too "cute" when he had it at Vestal. It was good, but most of the time KoTRs do the same thing and they're in the maindeck. I figured that made sense. I also let him talk me out of playing Jitte, since it didn't seem necessary with Survival in the deck.

While Ryan and Joe Stempo tested in the next room over, Michael Caffrey told me I had to do something about my white bordered Pyroblasts, so I took a blue sharpie and made the borders blue. Except they ended up kinda purple. But they looked sweet either way! Then I started doing sharpie alterations on my non-foil Steppe Lynxes. I started by blacking out the background on one, which led to blacking out the entire border. Then I blacked out the cat on the other. It was fun, and added some style points to my deck. B)

So we slept like 3 hours and departed for TOGIT. I decided I wanted to look as out of place as possible at the tournament, so I wore my best Hipster outfit I had, including my awesome Jerry Garcia tie. It was great.

So we bum around the store for a bit, fill out decklists, I enjoy my bagel from WaWa, and the tournament begins!

Round 1:James Wolmacher(sp?) playing Mono Red Sligh
As we sit down, he puts his decklist down face up on the table. I try not to look at it, but I do notice a few cards on it regardless. Chief among them is 19 Mountain. Yikes. And I cut 2 of my basics. Great.
Game 1 he's on the play and I keep a 4 land, 2 goyf, Survival hand. Unfortunately he opens on Goblin Guide. I have no turn 1 play, and on turn two am forced to play a goyf out into his suspended rift bolt. I draw the third goyf and play one out, but by this point Goblin Guide's already gotten in for massive damage and he has enough burn to put me down to 3. He then slowrolls a PoP for no reason and I'm pissed off because I'm losing to burn.
I have no board for this matchup. I take all 15 cards on my board, mash them into my deck, then pull them out again.
Game 2 I open on Steppe Lynx, he opens on Guide. I bash and Chain the GG. I land Goyf and apply some beats. He has Powder Kegs which blow up some of my guys, but I'm able to land a Survival and suddenly I have hasted 5/6 Tarmogoyfs eating his face. It's a good life.
Game 3 he opens on Mountain, go. I play Lynx and pass. EOT he bolts my Lynx. Now, immediately, from that single play, I know I am winning this game. Burn decks do not play enough burn to both kill you and control your creatures, and my hand is pretty stacked. I draw a nacatl to play on turn two and it gets Kegged. I land Goyf, then land Pridemage and swing with the goyf to put him on 14. He plays Hellspark and swings. I consider blocking with Pridemage, but I'm on 17 life so I just let it go and go down to 14. On my turn Goyf and Pridemage swing in to put him on 7 and I play Survival. He passes the turn back. I swing with Goyf, getting the exalted trigger to make him a 6/7, then Pridemage Survival to put Enchantment in the yard for lethal. The purpose of this play was to play around removal, since even if he had double bolt, my Goyf will not die no matter what order he plays them in.

1-0, 2-1

Good start. It would have been really frustrating to lose to a burn deck in round one, but it's actually a bad matchup for me, especially since I didn't play any life gain in the board or main.

Round 2:Brian Mooney playing Mono U Folk
I was sitting next to him round 1 so I know he's on Folk.
Game 1 he's on the mana denial plan and has a daze for my t2 goyf, but my t1 lynx is getting in there... Until I stop drawing land. He's got some lords and beating down but I recover when I draw some land and get some larger critters down, as well as removal on the lords. He has two Kira, Great Glass Spinner (Not at the same time obviously) but I have Grim Lavamancer who makes removing them easy. I stabilize the board at 5 life and my beats eventually kill him.
-3 Steppe Lynx, +2 Pyroblast +1 Choke
I don't want to bring in all my chokes because I don't actually want to side out too much gas against him. Lynx is not too great here though.
Game 2 he has a one land vial hand and I make a play mistake. I resolve Nacatl on turn one and on turn two I decide to go for Pridemage, but he has the daze. I should have played Goyf turn two and Pridemage turn 3 to blow up the vial, in which case he wouldn't have been doing ANYTHING for a while. He does draw some land, and is putting up somewhat of a fight with Vial. He submerges a goyf in response to my fetchland after wasting my plateau, which is annoying, but I still have Nacatl to his creatureless position. A few turns later he tries submerge on my KoTR in response to its ability, but I have the pyroblast. I land Choke and draw into Mangara, and KoTR up Karakas. I do silly things and he is slain by my Lavamancer.

2-0, 4-1

It's always great to start a tournament 2-0, and it's been way too long since I've last done so. I also am having far more fun than I've had in a while at this point, because I'm playing Zoo, and not losing to merfolk.

Round 3:Jim Higgenbottom playing TES (lebron_jim)
Fuuuuuuu- I was sitting next to him round 1 so I knew he was on TES, and knew I was probably boned here. I needed a miracle. I needed...

A repair! Few, dodged that bullet.

Round 3 take two:Ryan O'Donnel playing Zoo
Well, not EXACTLY what I wanted, since Ryan is my team mate, but at least I don't have to play against combo. Good for me, bad for the team. It's too early to draw, so we play it out.
Game 1 I mull to 6 and we burn eachother's one drops and then he lands Library. I land Survival but he has the pridemage for it, so I cycle a lynx for a KoTR. We exchange beats for a while and I remove his library before I find a second survival. He concedes after one turn of active Survivaling.
I have no board for this matchup and Ryan knows it. We know eachother's 75, in fact. He brings in extra KoTRs since he was only playing one maindeck, but I still have the advantage here. Of course, when he's on the play, it can be bad for me.
Game 2 he mulls to 6. He has a super fast start and kills me on turn 4. I had a Lynx for my one drop, survival, and KoTR for my curve but his curve of dude, two dudes, more dudes, kill you is a lot better.
Game 3 neither of us mulligan. The game starts slower as we exchange removal, and I mean a lot of it. Eventually we land KoTRs and disenchant each other's 1G enchantments, but I have Anger now. I hasty-lavamance his lavamancer (Though mine gets lavamanced in response) and the board starts to clear out. Eventually, though, I begin to pull ahead. I get there eventually, though I don't remember precisely with what.

3-0, 6-2

Always bittersweet to defeat a teammate.

Round 4:Mark Fortin playing Dead Guy Ale
I recognize my opponent as we sit down, but can't figure out from where. I ask what tournaments he's been to recently and try to figure it out, but can't. I figure I probably sat next to him at the Philly 5k or something and we move on.
I win the roll. Game 1 I mulligan to 6 but open a super aggressive hand of Nacatl, 2 land, 2 lavamancer, bolt and path. t1 I play Nacatl and he plays Swamp Thoughtseize taking my path. The moment he casts the Seize I realize who he is. We played back in November at the Portal's Mox Pearl tournament where I won my Underground Seas, and we're playing (More or less) the same decks! I inform him and we continue. Anyway, I play out my lavamancers and he plays a bunch of wastes and stuff but I manage to remove his blockers and topdeck the second Path for his Tombstalker, letting my 2/2 nacatl and dualing Lavamancers to get there in the red zone.
I have no board for this matchup and I know it. I shuffle in 15 and pull them back out.
Game 2 I'm on the draw. I look at my opening 7 and... It is stacked. Nacatl, Lavamancer, Survival, Goyf, Path, and Bolt... but only one land. I weigh my options and decide I have yet to make a risky keep today, so I'm gonna go for it.
I land Nacatl and Lavamancer but he of course has the mana denial thing going for him. I topdeck a land every time he kills one, which is working out okay until it's a savannah and I really wanna activate my lavamancer and cast the chain lightning I have in hand. The crucial turn is when I have him at 5 and have lavamancer on the table, a taiga in play, and chain lightning in hand. He just played Bob on his turn, and so I pass the turn with Mancer up, intending to mance EOT and then chain him for great victory. On his turn he flips over a land. I frown. He wastes my Taiga. In response I lavamance him, thinking I win if I topdeck the land, right?
... Except that I totally overlooked the Jitte he has in play. I feel like a complete scrub as he gets Jitte active with Confidant and I concede after failing to draw two land in a row.
Game 3 I refocus myself. I open on Nacatl and beat face. He never sticks a creature for more than an end step and cats take it home.

4-0, 8-3

Drawing in! :D

Round 5:ID with Evan Gottshalk (UB Folk)

Round 6:ID with Chris Hernandez (Zoo)

Top 8 is announced, and 3 of my team mates are in! Even better, none of us are playing eachother in the Quarters! It's me vs. Zoo, Ryan vs. Merfolk, Matt (Thopters) vs. Merfolk, and Nick (Excalibur) vs. NO Elves. I smile at the possibility of an all Lehigh Valley top 4, but standing in my way is Chris Hernandez!

Quarterfinals:Chris Hernandez with Zoo.
Game one is not close. We exchange early removal in a fashion completely typical for Zoo mirrors. I'm stuck on two land so I consider the t3 Survival since he didn't make Pridemage turn 2, and decide to go for it. Of course he has the Pridemage. He gets KoTR first, I get my own and he is at a lower life. I eventually get Survival going and do silly things, hastily lavamancing his last point of life. Anger is ridiculous. The only damage I took in this game was from my own fetch lands and a Lightning Bolt he sent at me early in the game.
Once again, I have no board for the matchup.
Game two is a lot closer as he gets a tempo advantage. He gets me down to 7 kind of quickly as I try to stabilize, but he has a multi-path draw so it's kind of difficult. Luckily for me, I get Survival going and establish Mangara+Karakas to take out a dude every turn. In the meantime I have a KoTR going up in size to the point where it's a 10/10, while at the same time getting my non-basics off the battlefield (And into Horizon Canopies to draw cards) in case he didn't side out PoP. I swing in and he chumps with his last remaining creature, a lynx, and draws his card. I swing again for 10 putting him on 8, but I'm only at 5 life so I don't play the Windswept Heath I drew for the turn.. He draws his last card and concedes, revealing the PoP in hand he just topdecked, just short of lethal with my two non-basics on the board. Close one.

5-0-2, 10-3

Ryan smashed his merfolk opponent in less than 10 minutes, but Nick lost to Elves (Apparently he made some horrendous misplays, but I wasn't watching) and Matt loses to Merfolk with Moat on the table to a Coralhelm Commander with Islandwalk and Flying. This is unfortunate. Now it's up to me and Ryan to avenge our team mates!

Semifinals:Evan Gottschalk with UB Merfolk.
Game 1 I win the roll and mull to 6. My hand is decent, and I have a t1 nacatl and t2 goyf, t3 goyf, t4 goyf. Unfortunate it was a three land draw and he has a wasteland to turn it into a 2 land draw, and then has 3 dazes. Them's the breaks. I make a mistake where he has 4 folk (LoA, Adept, Reejerey, and Coralhelm) and I have nacatl and he has lethal. I have Bolt and Path in hand, so I can live the turn if I use both of my removal spells. I pass the turn and he topdecks the merfolk to tap my Nacatl with reejerey ensuring lethal. What I should have done was bolt the Reejerey on my turn, then pass the turn, because then I would've had another turn to draw an out. Still, would have had to have been a pretty spectacular out to get me out of that. Oh well.
-3 Lynx +2 Pyroblast +1 Choke
Same logic as before.
Game 2 was barely memorable as I just smashed his face in with cats and fire.
Game 3 was epic. He establishes early board position with LoA and Reejerey. I get stuck on two lands again and have two survivals in hand. I run out a goyf which gets Threads'd. I run out another, still missing my land drop. I play Pridemage with no mana up, now thoroughly annoyed at my deck. He attacks the threads'd goyf into mine, bluffing E Plague on Lhurgoyfs but I block and he doesn't have it. On my turn I draw the third survival and pass the turn after attacking for 4 with my goyf. I'm on 4 life already, so things are precarious. He says "Move to attack?" And I say "Okay. Beginning of combat step." and tap my mana and point my pridemage at his Threads. He gives me my Goyf back and then says "Deathmark and swing." I point out that Deathmark is a sorcery. He says he knows and that he's casting it in his first mainphase. I say he ended his first mainphase, it's now the combat phase, the beginning of combat step. We call the judge over and sort it out. He rules that it is now the combat phase and that he cannot cast Deathmark. Evan does not attack and casts Deathmark post-combat. I have nothing else to use my mana on so I cast Survival and pass the turn. He plays an aether vial and passes back. I draw for my turn, praying for that land so I can start doing ANYTHING USEFUL. It's a Squee. I'm annoyed. I Survival for Lavamancer and play it, then pass the turn. He ticks up Vial and passes. I tap the top of my deck, knowing that I need to draw a relevant card here, or seriously be at risk as he draws closer to anything that will let him blow past my goyf. After returning Squee, I topdeck...

The fourth survival.

FUCK.

I am at this point extremely pissed, because it looks like I'm seriously going to lose this game, to Merfolk of all things, because I drew all four of my Survivals and not a third fucking land. I survival for Nacatl, attack with goyf, and pass the turn. He ticks up vial and passes back. I FINALLY topdeck the third land, get a second lavamancer down, and begin to actually play the game we call magic. Nacatls come crashing in, Goyfs get chump-blocked (Remember how I mentioned earlier that the moment the burn player bolted my lynx, I knew I'd won the game? Well, same thing applies here. The moment Merfolk chump blocks you with a lord, you know you've won.), and Lavamancers rain fire on his puny little fish. The catharsis here is huge. I was on 4 life for infinite turns, not drawing any removal or land, getting 4 dead cards in hand, and yet I still pulled it out, against my least-favorite deck to lose against. SUCK IT FISH. >:D

6-0-2, 12-4

Unfortunately, I learn that Ryan lost to the Elves, meaning it's all up to me to take it home for the valley!

Finals:Eugene Chen playing Natural Order Elves
Game 1 I win the roll. I open on fetch, go, bolt his turn 1 elf and then drop goyf. I then drop Pridemage and as he is only making one critter a turn, the three paths in my hand let my 3/4 and 2/2 get in for 15 before I chain his last blocker out of the way and deal lethal.
-1 Qasali Pridemage, +1 Gaddock Teeg
Really wishing I had Jitte now. I rarely leave home without it, or without Engineered Explosives, but I never imagined I'd run into Elves in the finals no less! Also, EE is worse in the survival version. I bring in the Teeg for Natural Order, but that's about all I got.
Game 2 I have the one drop and some removal but he has spilled his whole hand by turn 3. It looks like I'm going to win as I handle the lords he plays leaving him with just mana dorks, but he topdecks Natural Order. Normally I could race this, except he's playing elves, which means he has 5 chump blockers. Goyf, FoD, and Pridemage are not going to get there, as he's still on 15 life.
Game 3... it all comes down to this. I open a good hand with Nacatl, Lavamancer, Teeg, and some removal. Couldn't get better, right? Except the only land are Horizon Canopy and a fetch. I keep and go t1 Nacatl. He plays t1 Elf. I have the option to go t2 Teeg if I think he plays Elvish Spirit Guide to prevent the total blowout of Natural Order, or t2 Lavamancer if I don't. I get scared of the potential t2 NO and go for Teeg, which probably costs me the game. He plays 3 elves and I miss my third land drop, meaning my entire turn is spent playing Lavamancer. He just makes a bunch more elves, and I keep missing my third land drop making it impossible for me to recover from my mistake with Teeg. If I draw the third land anywhere in this game, I win the Recall, but I never hit it until it's waaaaaay too late. I draw into a Taiga but it's hardly good enough as playing it will turn on his forestwalk lords. I play it anyway as not playing land definitely loses the game, but he has double Elvish Champion and I can't remove them both. I remove one and block the other and go to one, but he still has 4 elves and Imperious Perfect. I draw my card, look at the board, and pass the turn. He attacks with all his elves and I die to lethal damage.

I shake his hand and exchange congratulations with Eugene, we talk about the meta a little and my friends all congratulate me. I collect my stuff, get the Moat for second place, and we go to Wendy's where I drown my sorrow in a Baconator and endless refills on Tea.

At Wendy's we examine the Moat. On the sleeve inside the protector it says "F", presumably for Fair. Let me tell you, this card is not Fair. This Moat is HP. Multiple nicks, a white spot on the back border, and on the front it is INKED. I feel like I just got ripped off, since I took the Moat sight unseen since they wanted to give prizes to the rest of top 8 while Eugene and I were still playing, and no where was it ever mentioned the Moat had fucking Ink on it! Sorry Togit, but that's bullshit. I wish I had examined it closer while still at the store, but it was the end of a very long day and everyone else had already left when I collected my prize, so we just beat a hasty retreat. I end up selling the Moat to Caff for $70, a playset of foil Spellstutters for Excalibur, and a foil Spell Pierce. He intends to get it altered and give it as a prize at a tournament later this year.

Enough of me bitching though. THIS DECK WAS AWESOME. And yet, I'm still not sure I'd play Survival in Zoo again. The main problem, even greater than drawing redundant Survivals or Anger or Squee without Survival, is that the deck does not have enough mana to consistently use it. I was stuck with only one Green source multiple times when facing down Wastelands, which is just unacceptable. Game 3 in the Semis would not have been even close had my survivals been Libraries, for example. While I love Survival, and love what it does for the deck, I just don't think its drawbacks, when combined with the mana issues, amount to a better card for the deck than Library. I would add more lands to make up for this, probably more canopies or maybe a few Treetop Villages to get with Knight, but I can't afford to cut any more spells and cutting creatures in a survival deck sounds like the most retarded thing I've ever heard. So now I'm not sure where I'm going to go with the deck next. One thing is certain though...

The Zoo player in me has re-awoken. Fuck Brainstorm and Force of Will. For the foreseeable future, I'm casting some Wild Nacatls.

[Tammit67]

What would a decent board look like? I recall like 4 things you said you'd change about it. Would Jittes be enough or would you go for a retainers package?

[jrsthethird]

I have a headache so I didn't read the whole thing, but I didn't realize the Moat was that bad; did you message anyone from TOGIT on here? Maybe they can make it up to you somehow. Also, pics of Steppe Lynx would be nice.

[jandax]

In a room of some 120+ other people, I (Zoo) had an Elves! player facepalm so loud almost everyone stopped their game to look thanks to Mindbreak Trap. Combo is still relevant, that card is the Orim's Chant of ANT for Zoo.

Otherwise, so glad to see kittehs getting in there. Turning duders sideways is way more elegant than letting a deck play itself out

Nice report and grats on the power to all of you

[hungryLIKEALION]

It wasn't ELVES!, it was Aggro Elves with Natural Order. But still, thanks for the sentiments.

[hungryLIKEALION]

Forgot to reply to Matt.

Upon giving it further thought, I would board the retainers package over Jitte, because it does basically the same thing in the matchups where I want it, while being harder to answer.

Then again, it is also harder to get into play since it's more mana+Survival in play... So I guess it's really a tough call. My board 1 jitte, 1 collar, and 1 SFM? Seems like it could be cute.

Other than that, Magus of the moon and Duergar Hedgemage were unnecessary all day and I probably would have cut them + either the second macabre or the crypt for that little package.

[Rico Suave]

Good job.

I, too, have not been overly thrilled with Sylvan Library. I had looked at Survival as an "engine" of sorts in Zoo but I had 3 major problems with it:

1) It demands a significant number of cards that are sub-par to support the Survival engine, like Squee and Anger. Every card counts in Zoo because its strengths are consistency and redundancy.
2) It requires a heavy green component, and lately I have found myself really wanting to fetch basics when possible. In a similar vein I'm not the biggest fan of Fireblast either.
3) It is not the fastest card in the world. The "nut" play with Survival is to invest our entire 2nd and 3rd turns, then we finally play a creature on turn 4 with Squee/Anger support. And that is assuming it all goes according to plan.

I'm actually quite surprised you would play 3 Qasali Pridemage though.

Furthermore, I have grown more fond of cutting Choke as of late. Sure it's a huge bomb, but REB is pretty strong against the same decks Choke would be good against, and I find that 4-6 copies of REB/Pyro improve matters against various Show and Tell combo decks. This might just be a metagame call though.

[hungryLIKEALION]

The trick with Survival Zoo is that you never just run out Survival on turn two unless you have NOTHING else to do... And if that is the case, against most decks, you probably should have mulliganed the hand. It's usually a turn ~4 play, typically leading to turn ~7 victory. The biggest draw is that it gives you inevitability against a lot of decks.

Still, I went back to Library today at the Portal, and it worked very well as I top 4d a ~30 person tournament. I'll still toy around with Survival Zoo here and there, but for the moment I do believe I'm back on Library.

Also, you're right about Choke/REB. I do like Choke, but REB can be a huge Blow Out sometimes. Still, I've never really wanted more than two very often. Like, if I can have 2 hate cards, I'd rather a Choke and an REB before two REBs. Choke's better against Thopters and landstill, while REB is better against Thresh-style decks. Or at least that's how it seems to me.

[Rico Suave]

Yes, I agree that Survival is not the kind of card that this deck wants to rush into at an early stage of the game. I was just pointing out that I feel this is a significant drawback in a deck like Zoo. If the card isn't going to really be effective until turn 4 at the earliest, then it's not really a 2 drop is it? It would make more sense to consider it a 4 drop for all intents and purposes. So in this light, does Survival perform better than, say, Elspeth?

[jrsthethird]

The thing is, Elspeth costs you 4 mana, always. You get a 4 mana Lightning Bolt to the face, and you can't do anything else on that turn. Survival only requires a 2 mana investment, so you can go Survival, Nacatl, and activate, or Survival, Pridemage, or just leave up the other 2 mana for Bolt or Lavamancer, and if you don't want to burn, you can activate twice at the end of their turn for Squee and Anger.

Survival is an enchantment, so it's harder to deal with than Elspeth, and it has a more lasting effect on the board since you get infinite dudes. They can handle Survival, but they still need to handle the guys you were able to grab. Also, it gives you access to tutorable grave hate post-board, and the sweet Mangara/Karakas/Anger package and the Iona/Emrakul/Retainers package.

[troopatroop]

Survival is an enchantment, so it's harder to deal with than Elspeth, and it has a more lasting effect on the board since you get infinite dudes. They can handle Survival, but they still need to handle the guys you were able to grab. Also, it gives you access to tutorable grave hate post-board, and the sweet Mangara/Karakas/Anger package and the Iona/Emrakul/Retainers package.

Uhhh where does it say that Planeswalkers are easier to deal with than Enchantments? I think that's debatable. No Walker protects herself better than Elspeth, and especially in a deck with as much Removal and Ground stall as this one. Survival requires more slots, usually 6 after Squee and Anger. To get the infinite dudes you're talking about, You will need to spend some good mana. Elspeth also makes dudes, and provides Evasion. If you're using the second +1 Ability, it is NOT just a Lightning Bolt to the face. You also add the power of the creature getting through as value, and tack on the Flying as value if they have a Goyf or something. Add Exalted onto that Wild Nacatl swinging and it's 7 in the air. That ends games pretty quickly, without worrying about Grip/Pridemage/etc. I'm not saying Survival isn't great, because it is, but it does almost always require "Elspeth" mana to get going.

[jrsthethird]

I guess I have a personal bias seeing how my primary deck is New Horizons. A 4-mana spell might not every have a chance to resolve against me, while a 2 mana spell that I can't answer pre-board except for EE can wreck my game. This is relevant for Harry since our meta is heavy with NH (3 decks top-8'ed the most recent event, with another one finishing 9th). Elspeth can be good, but I think the 4 mana at once investment is worse than 6-7 mana spread out over 3 turns.

Also, Elspeth's dudes are tiny and do not have haste, and additionally, if you make one, you can't pump and attack. Survival also works as removal, since you can grab Anger and Lavamancer, or the Mangara package.

[Rico Suave]

Even if Survival is better than Elspeth, and I honestly can't say for sure it is, the point I was trying to make is that I don't think either card is optimal in Zoo because they are both too mana intensive.