I ran Zoo at a local event yesterday (Die Hard Games in Lincoln, RI). The prize support was awesome as always, 1st: 4 foil Mental Misstep, 2nd: Foil DCI Dark Conifdant, and store credit to the rest of top 8. Only $10 entry fee. 5 rounds of Swiss, cut to top 8, 28 players.
I have been playing a big Zoo variant off and on for the last couple months, but was never in love with it. I would have fast starts that stopped putting unrelenting pressure due to awesome, but slow, cards like Knight and GSZ. I felt like I was playing Bant that traded Blue for Red. Then recently I saw Dan Marsh's list that ran roughly a million one drops and decided this more closely resembles both my play style (I love Red Sligh) and what Zoo needs to do to be competitive in the current environment.
Here is my list:
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Kird Ape
4 Goblin Guide
3 Grim Lavamancer
1 Loam Lion
4 Tarmogoyf
1 Qasali Pridemage
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
2 Lightning Helix
3 Path to Exile
1 Sylvan Library
3 Manamorphose
11 Fetches
3 Taiga
2 Plateau
1 Savannah
1 Forest
1 Mountain
3 Wasteland
Sideboard: May seem random, but worked surprisingly well.
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Tin Street Hooligan
1 Path to Exile
1 Null Rod
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Shattering Spree
1 Artifact Mutation
4 Red Elemental Blast
2 Tormod's Crypt
A few notes before I begin. The first question is going to be "Wtf Manamorphose in Zoo?". This card is underrated. It fixes mana off of Wasteland or if your lands aren't quite what you need (this was relevant like 3-4 times already), it feeds Grim and pumps Goyf. All while working to add a tad of density to the deck for "free".
Most of the cards in my sideboard were brought in multiple times. Shattering Spree, Null Rod and Crypt never came in, but they were still good to have in there. There is a decent amount of Affinity, MUD and Stax on top of all the other staple artifacts running around in Legacy to justify a shit load of artifact hate.
Round 1: BUG Landstill
I keep a 1 lander on the draw against an unknown deck. I turn one Taiga, Nacatl. I get hit with Wasteland and then my second land gets Wasted as well. Game two I draw like 8 lands pretty quickly and lose. 0-1 start isn't a great way to begin, but I'm here to play Magic and continue on.
Round 2: Sneak and Show
Game one went very quickly. Goblin Guide worked as a spy (as well as a beatdown machine) to reveal enough information about his deck so that I could surmise he was playing Sneak and Show. Game two involves me Wasting one of his Volcanics and it stops him from hitting his third land before he is run over by a small group of 1 drops. After he dies he reveals 2 Firespouts from his hand. Wasteland ftw! I'm on the road to recovery, 1-1.
Round 3: UW Stoneblade
I don't remember the exact details of this match in chronological order. Highlights include: Pathing his Spellstutter Sprite with its counter ability on the stack, killing Stoneforge every time it tutored up Batterskull (I think), Casting Artifact Mutation on a Batterskull (I think he scooped in response)and not casting Lightning Helix on my turn and proceeding to watch him drop Mutavault on his turn to which meant it could now and would be countered by a Sprite (doh!). I won this match making me 2-1.
Round 4: Vial Goblins
I know what he's playing and I like my chances. Thankfully he also doesn't have Vial on turn one in either game. He makes both games very interesting, but I finish him off just before he can stabilize. I am now 3-1 and after looking at standings it looks like I can draw into top 8... except I get paired down so we have to play it out.
Round 5: Deadguy
On his turn two he casts Dark Ritual and I get a look of terror on my face knowing I may see a Phyrexian Obliterator hit the table. Heasks "How mad would you be if drop an Obliterator right now?", I tell him it would be pretty devastating (no path in my hand). Instead he GFTT my Kird Ape and drops a Stoneforge tutoring up Batterskull. While that is a great turn, I'm completely fine with it. On my turn I chain his SFM and drop another guy. The game goes back and forth a bit and we hit a stage where we both have no cards in hand, about 4 lands in play each and no cards in hand. I have a Lone Kird Ape, he has a lone Top on the battlefield. Back to back turns I topdeck Goyfs and it is too much for him to overcome.
Game two. He turn one casts Ritual, Ritual Batterskull. My opening hand is 2 Fetches/Duals, Wasteland, Metamorph, Qasali, Tin Street and PATH! I obvs path the germ. On turn two I cast Qasali over Tin Street because I wanna Metamorph Batterskull. He swords my Qasali (while I am tapped out) and then hymms me the turn after. He hits Tin Street and not Metamorph :P I copy Batterskull. He kills my Germ and drops a Bob soon after. I end step Bolt his Bob and Return Metamorph to my hand. I then replay it as Batterskull. I drop Sylvan Library at 30 lfie, he goes "Oh great, this gonna be like EDH, lose 8, lose 8" hahaha. He returns his Batterskull and casts it the following turn. My top 3 is Helix, Bolt, Nacatl. I lose 8, nuke his Germ and swing for lethal. This was a another fun match.
Top 8:
Round 1: Same guy playing BUG Landstill.
He offers to prize split with me. I like this for two reasons. One, this is a bad match-up and two I assume this is going to lead to him scooping to me so he can leave. I make a joke about King Solomon if I end up winning the Bob. I agree and he gives me the win and leaves with his girlfriend. He is a cool guy, but I'm glad I don't have to lose to him again. I am starving and drive to Burger King and eat. This round really couldn't have worked out better.
Round 2: Andrew Maag playing... BUG Landstill FFFFUUUUUU!
Andrew is a player I respect, he is a good player and a nice guy. I win the dice roll and my opening hand is nuts: Nacatl, Guide x2, Grim, Bolt and 2 Fetches, I keep. I turn one Nacatl (hoping to give him an explosive 8 damage turn 2 if he doesn't have any answers, should I have cast Guide anyway?). Anyway, he answers with Innocent Blood. My next turn I cast Guide and it gets Forced or Misstepped. Second Guide resolves and comes in for 2. He eventually stabilizes and I chip his life down with burn, but he has drawn too many cards and has Counterspells/answers for many of them. He wins the game at 3 life.
Game 2. I don't remember this game very well. I dropped Teeg after a bunch of removal spells ate my earlier threats and then he starts to race me with 2 Factories. I Helix one factory and am winning this war of attrition (we both are close to topdeck mode). I end up getting him to 3 with Kird Ape and Nacatl. He casts Consuming Vapors, bringing him to six. I draw a burn spell and kill him evenly. I don't lose that game without a topdecked burn spell, but it would have made it close.
Game 3. I have a very good opener and keep. He leads with Factory. I lead with Nacatl. He casts a turn 2 Standstill. I Waste his Factory (and another one in my hand). He breaks his own Standstill with Deed. On my turn I drop Qasali and don't destroy deed. I spend my final mana to Chain him in the face and avoid having to discard. On his turn he is forced to pop Deed. I go all in. I cast Nacatl, Kird and then Grim. He missteps Grim (this lets me know he doesn't have another Deed) so I cast another Grim and pass the turn. He cannot recover and dies the next turn.
It is now after 1 a.m. and people want to leave. The other player who made the finals (also playing Zoo, but a different build) offers me the Missteps if he gets the Bob and then we can all go home. That works for me. I end up 5-1 in matches I actually played, 2 Foil Missteps and was very happy with the way the tournament turned out.
Props:
-DHG and Dave for running another great event.
-All of my opponents for being cool guys. I have played my fair share of Magic players that seem more concerned with being douche bags and winning than having fun or even enjoying any sort of friendly conversation. This was not the case with any of my opponents tonight. Many of which were guys I had never met.
-Kird Ape and friends for winning me a bunch of matches.
-Burger King for giving me the "sustenance" to beat Landstill :P
-Myself for losing round one and still splitting in the finals
Slops:
-Burger King for failing to put both Bacon and Cheddar cheese on my Bacon Cheddar Ranch chicken sandwich. They also forgot to give me ketchup #firstworldpains
-I really got nothing else.
In case you care, the decks in the Top 8 were.
One Drop Zoo (Me)
Zoo (midrange I think)
Mono-green Infect
BUG Landstill
BUG Landstill (both creatureless)
Junk
Burn
Bant with red for Nacatl?
Questions or comments, feel free.
I don't quite follow this. The CIP ability still goes on the stack.Originally Posted by Angelfire
Cool report. Nice to see Nacatls eating face.
But if he has 0 faeries when the trigger resolves it counters spells with manacost 0 or less.
Ha. Brainfart. Thanks.
Nice dude glad to see you're still playing legacy. See you at scg "Boston"?
"Dredge isn't a deck, it's public masturbation with graveyard triggers."
I'm probably going and if I do I'm packing at least 4 pieces of Graveyard hate. Dredge has cock blocked me out of a top 8 and a top 4 in the last round of swiss in the last two Legacy tournaments I went to (besides this one).
Is there any options better than just Tormod's Crypt x4? Like 2 Crypt, 2 Surgical Extraction?
4x Leyline of the Void, but that obviously has it's downsides.
never use 4 of the same card unless you play leyline. Mix up your hate so their anti-hate is less effective. If you are going the artifact route I'd split some number of relic of progenitus and tormod's crypt. I personally like using Scavenging ooze, relic, and crypt. Using surgical extraction and crypt or relic would work as well. Artifact gy hate is the easiest for them to answer so having extraction or some other permanent (wheel of sun and moon) helps a bit.
"Dredge isn't a deck, it's public masturbation with graveyard triggers."
I use 1x Crypt, 1x Wheel of Sun and Moon, 1x Enlightened Tutor in my Zoo board so I can get the right piece of hate for the situation. If you run a 4th I would run a Faerie Macabre/Relic of Progenitus.
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