Eh. In aformat where he can get chumped by deathrite who also hurts your ability to get threshold in a single card he seems mediocre since the earliest he can be a 3/3 here seems to be turn 4? Unless you are slinging bolts straight to the dome. Seems like a losing proposition to me,but maybe I'm wrong
Originally Posted by Richard Cheese
Deathrite pretty much cut mongoose out in most of the format but against Miracles, blanking their swords to plowshares is a pretty big deal. At that point they only have terminus to deal with the little goose that could.
"eggs... why'd it have to be eggs"
I would go with Rampager just because it lets you play less of an "all-in" strategy against Miracles, which is the biggest piece of the meta right now and probably the hardest match outside combo. BBE is good for netting you some card advantage, but you really don't want to just dump a bunch of guys into Terminus. You can really just sit on 1-2 guys and pick away at them for a bit and use Ghor-Clan as an uncounterable finisher. He's also a surprisingly relevant body against a lot of decks. Burn and a lot of the Delver decks just shrug at a 4/4 trample. Definitely not as good at picking off Jaces though.
I think the biggest thing is the deep seeded emotional understanding that the right play is the right play regardless of outcomes. The ability to make a decision 5 straight times, lose 5 times because of it, and still make it the 6th time if it's the right play. - Jon Finkel
"Notions of chance and fate are the preoccupation of men engaged in rash undertakings."
"Pas de violence, c'est les vacances".
Here is the list I'll be banging @ my LGS tomorrow morning for at least a pretty nice 6 swiss rounds and guess who's coming for "Breakfeast" ?
ZOoBEeRrrrr by Ralf
1 Badlands
1 Plateau
1 Savannah
1 Scrubland
1 Undiscovered Paradise
2 City of Brass
4 Arid Mesa
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Taiga
3 Eidolon of the Great Revel
3 Gaddock Teeg
3 Scab-Clan Berserker
3 Scavenging Ooze
3 Spirit of the Labyrinth
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Dryad Militant
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Qasali Pridemage
3 Abrupt Decay
3 Sudden Shock
4 Lightning Bolt
SB: 1 Sulfur Elemental
SB: 1 Red Elemental Blast
SB: 1 Price of Progress
SB: 2 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
SB: 2 Pyroblast
SB: 2 Containment Priest
SB: 2 Krosan Grip
SB: 2 Zealous Persecution
SB: 2 Surgical Extraction
The concept of this deck lies in between an aggro deck and a hatebear deck mixed with a BANTY sauce: Choking your opponent to death...
I encourage anyone interested by such concept to try several bears:
- MoR / Sylvan Safekeeper. MoR+ Berserker= profit. MoR + Gaddock/SoL is also very strong in some MU.
- Thalia (could replace Gaddock but without wasteland, I think overall that Gaddock > Thalia. But Sudden shock + Thalia is saucy)
- Stratus Dancer (could also replace Gaddock. 5 color is doable as long as Stratus is the only blue card in your deck)
- Canonist (I think SoL is better at accomplishing what we are intending to do but who knows...)
As we don't have access to any card selection or draw power (I have eschewed SL on purpose), I thought everyone should be on the same step.
Obviously you lose the speed of a classical zoo list, as you'll be operating with 2 creatures by T2 instead of the usual 3-1 drops.
In exchange, you are better prepared against combo and control decks.
I won't go into much details but if you have any questions, feel free to shoot.
@ Sorin: It should be "Domri Rade", but I don't have access to it...
Stay tuned as I'll write a report whatever way it goes !
List looks really fun. Your only 3 drop is double red though so idk about noble hierarch. Wild nacatl looks like it would be better unless you added goyf or kotr.
How did dryad militant work?
Didn't they die before they are useful?
Thanks
Well, I did poorly.
Something like 2/0/4.
Sorry for having not posted back results before but I was quite busy brewing other things.
So, if I remember well, I went:
1) Mono white soldier-equipment. Loss (1/2)
The last game was pretty hot as if I had topdecked a 2nd qasali just a turn sooner, the game would have been mine.
2) Storm. Win 2/0
Oh boyz, that was a rape. Militant made my day G1. G2, Eidolon + SCB asked for a quick concession.
3) Omni. Loss 1/2
Lost G1 to a quick combo T3.
Won G2 thanks to Dryad + SoL + SCB.
Lost G3 to another quick combo T3 (Sol met FOW T2)
4) UR Delver. Won 2/1
Won G1 on the back of Militant preventing my opponent from delving.
Lost G2 when I had lethal on my turn :(
Won G3 by swarming him like zergling on protoss ;)
5) Jund. Loss 1/2
Won G1 by swarming him to death.
Lost G2 because an unanswered bob put me far behind.
Lost G3 because infinite removal on his side and huge tarmogoyfs :(
6) MBC. Loss 1/2
Won G1 by swarming him to death.
Lost G2 to mana death.
Lost G3 to mana flood :(
Conclusions:
Dryad Militant is a very nice card.
It deals with PF and is a nasty b. against decks using a lot the graveyard.
But that was a meta choice regarding the DTT era. I am reworking the whole list to get something much more in line with the new meta.
I truly think a "Zoo-bear" concept is viable. During the tournament, I lacked some "punch" to close out some games (especially against midrange deck) but that is what you get for playing small creatures with so many abilities. I realized that I wanted at least another PoP in the board.
Anybody playing zoo? Beuhler? I get the itch to play zoo every couple of months. Now I want do it again
I just sleeved this up for my last FNM:
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Windswept Heath
2 Taiga
2 Savannah
1 Plateau
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Mountain
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Karakas
2 Wasteland
1 Dryad Arbor
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Gaddock Teeg
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Punishing Fire
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
SB: 3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
SB: 1 Gaddock Teeg
SB: 2 Ethersworn Canonist
SB: 2 Krosan Grip
SB: 1 Thrun, the Last Troll
SB: 2 Containment Priest
SB: 2 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 1 Pithing Needle
SB: 1 Fiery Justice
Beat Esper Deathblade and a Shardless/Bant/Blade deck, lost to Mono-B Reanimator and Omni-Tell.
I had a blast and the deck didn't seem terrible, could use a few improvements though. The Mountain should maybe be another dual land (not even sure which), and while my brain told me the Elspeth should be a Sylvan Library my heart wouldn't allow it.
I've been playing 4-color Thalia/Eidolon zoo on MTGO a fair bit. Black splash for DRS and Dark Confidant, the idea being to have lots of effects that get value under Thalia/Eidolon like 4x Grim Lavamancer and 3x Ghor-Clan Rampager. It's definitely playable, and pretty good against Miracles with 2 Sylvan Library / 4 Dark Confidant, and stuff like Gaddock Teeg and either Leyline of Lifeforce or Vexing Shusher in the board. Also good against Storm with so many maindeck hatebears.
Weak against Delver, though, because the mana base is greedy beyond belief. 3 Path to Exile in the sideboard helps, but not enough to make the matchup good.
Abrupt Decay tends to shred Delver.
Referring to the art on Stasis:
I'm going back to zoo. Need to get the deck together and eventually getting more duals. I'm somewhat enamored with the thought of scab clan berserker though. I might try a list with him and a couple of Simian Spirit Guide to help cast him quickly. Him with an exalted trigger or two can net serious closing power
4 Wild Nacatl
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Qasali Pridemage
3 Ghor-Clan Rampager
2 Gaddock Teeg
4 Kird Ape
2 Grim Lavamancer
2 Hooting Mandrills
3 Bloodbraid Elf
1 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Path to Exile
2 Chain Lightning
2 Price of Progress
2 Domri Rade
1 Savannah
1 Taiga
1 Plateau
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Forest
2 Mountain
2 Plains
3 Arid Mesa
I see the berserker only deals damage to opponents, but you should be able to deal 20 damage faster than opponent with all that burn + early damage, so I'm haveing a hard time seeing why Eidolon of the Great Revel isn't better. You lose some attributes, haste and damage, but choosing Simian Spirit Guide seems like severe card disadvantage, that mostly belongs to decks that cast game winning spells one turn faster, like bloodmoon, chalice, trinisphere.
For funsies, I built a mix of your previous list and ideas I had with SCB.
Actually the deck is stronger than I thought (tweaked it during Christmas break)
Lands
1 Plains
1 Forest
1 Mountain
2 Horizon Canopy
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Karakas
3 Windswept Heath
2 Mesa Arid
3 Plateau
1 Savannah
2 Taiga
Creatures
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Thalia
3 Qasali Pridemage
2 Gaddock Teeg
3 Scab Clan Berserker
3 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Bloodbraid Elf
Walker
2 Domri Rade
Removal
4 Lightning Bolt
4 PTE
1 Chain Lightning
Finisher
2 Price of progress
Sideboard:
2 Containment Priest
1 Qasali Pridemage
2 Sulfur Elemental
3 Surgical Extraction
3 REB
2 Armageddon
2 Vexing Shusher
Few food for thoughts:
MD is where I want to be but :
1) I am wondering whether PTE should finally be STP or not. The only MU where PTE matters is "lands". Otherwise, I think STP > PTE.
2) I am also considering Sylvan Library instead of Domri. Because I barely use its ulti (either the oppo is dead already or domri is dealt with) and I didn't get to use its -2 very often.
3) RR is sometimes hard to reach, even more because NH doesn't provide R, but I refuse to cut 1 or 2 for some Bird because I feel exaltation triggers are overall a better choice. If you have an idea to get SCB castable 90 % of the time by T2/T3, I take it !
SB is still a pile but Armaggedon is a big deal.
Really cool list, I might try something like this. Cascading into Scab-Clan seems sweet. Domri is ok but is bordering on too cute. I would at least play a 1 Library/1 Domri split if not just both Libraries.
I assume Shusher is anti-miracles tech...is it good?
Well to give a breakdown of the tested MU:
Miracle:
G1: (I'd say 40/60)
The game tends to turn around CB.
If it resolves and you don't have a qasali in play / rdy to fire, you are pretty doomed.
Otherwise, you just roll over him.
There are too many annoying creatures that Miracle has to deal with.
SCB is a monster
Postboard (55/45 maybe more)
The game is far better and with a fine tuned sideboard, I would even think we could end up with a positive MU vs Miracle.
Shusher is nice. Armageddon is game.
Shardless
G1: (I'd say 55/45 maybe more)
The game ends with Price of progress.
You have enough gas to keep up with him till he toxics you. But haste creatures are devil monsters. There are too many things to decay and exalted triggers are pretty neet here.
Postboard (50/50)
We should still have the upper hand but the shardless player profits more from his sideboard than us.
You'll lose to heavy discard hands or lucky cascades.
Dredge
Don't ask me why, my friend wanted to play dredge. He got unlucky and lost 10 games straight.
He burnt Dredge afterwards.
Qasali was MVP to get rid of Bridges and Gaddock was MVP to prevent any Dread Return to hit the board.
ANT
We didn't play any G2 or G3 since the game is mostly decided by the T2 kill.
1) Thalia is mostly game
2) Gaddock is game
3) SCB is game
And you have 9 of theses MD...
So far I'm pretty impressed by the deck.
You can play either the fast aggro or the midrange path.
SCB is a monster.
BBE cascading into SCB/KoTR/Domri is really fun.
What target did you use to activate QPM? You need a target to be able to sac it.
This is just nonsense. ANT boards removal, gets rid of your hate bear and then kills you. If you fail to consider this option, you can just as well skip playtesting. Zoo vs. ANT is decided in the postboard games every time. I have played both decks a lot, and game 1 is a coinflip if Zoo plays that many hate bears: will ANT blow up before I get one? Games 2 and 3 we need a LOT of luck to win. ANT must be slow and not find removal for your hate bear(s). If ANT manages to avoid one of these two problems, we just lose.
Agreed. I've definitely beaten an on board Thalia without bouncing it in storm. Teeg is impossible in G1. But especially againsta deck without mana denial, storm can certainly beat a bear or two.
You might be right. But SCB was not played by Zoo by then.
You can pack 3 decay 3 dread of night and 2 Void snare and still die with ANT because you have diluted your deck too much.
I would say the MU to be 50/50 because you could bring 3 Surgical 3 REB from the side (which is far from optimal but I said the sideboard is a pile to be worked on...)
But definitely it deserves more testing.
The main idea was to get a grip and an early feedback about the deck. I don't pretend the deck to be the next DTB. So please, just calm down.
We are not at that point, yet.
MUs have to be properly tested. A proper sideboard tables has to be built. It is a long way home.
I was just saying I had a very nice kitchen table run and that was that.
Some MUs were tested with sideboard, some were not. We started with Miracle and Shardless just to gauge the deck potential (and test SCB).
If anyone is interested to push the deck into something more tuned and less raw, I'll be very glad to provide any help.
Ps: I quoted Qasali as MVP (ironically) since my mate made the error of keeping a LED on board for several turns. Don't ask me why because I really dunno what was his line of play. Turns out that Qasali made my day.
To be honest, dredge has shit on him that night with several mull to 5. Keeping a no dredger hand with some draw spell + a LED is not the end of the world.
Furthermore, god of luck was with me since I saw Gaddock on mostly 7 games out of 10 AFTER being hit by therapy... Definitely not his night.
If your opponent knows you have Thalia/Scab Clan or eidolon they should be paying LED ASAP.
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