First of all, Zoo was dead before Terminus was printed imho, and was dead far before TNN was printed. Zoo died the second after solid GSZ.midrange decks were possible. Why would you ever play an aggro deck, when you can play an aggrocontrol deck that actually has a possibility G1 vs Graveyard strategies and combo decks?
Zoo died because of the natural evolution of legacy.Because the tools of combo and graveyard combo strategies were becoming stronger and faster and easier to set up, and creature strategies needed something to answer them instead of racing them (because racing combo and graveyard based decks was becoming harder and harder), so they adopted GSZ into Gaddock and Scavenging.
After that, Terminus and TNN have been the last nails in the coffin.
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Delver, Batterskull, Terminus
I see some local guys do well with one-drop Zoo time to time, many deck are simply not prepared - see Burn, but generally, yeah the deck is half dead for years
Dark Ritual has hit the nail on the head here. Zoo has trouble with the creature-heavy combo decks common in Modern (hard to just race them when they have removal and/or lots of blockers - most Legacy combo decks have neither of these). It doesn't help that Pod has access to a lot of lifegain and value which is difficult to fight through. Paradoxically, because stack-based combo is much worse in Modern, everyone plays a ton of removal (you can stop splinter twin by just killing the Exarch). This makes the environment worse for Zoo, as in old Legacy Zoo preyed upon anti-combo blue decks that skimped on creature interaction. It's rare to see a card like Anger of the Gods in maindecks in Legacy, for example.
TNN was the last straw for me, I played one-drop Zoo as recently as last year but with very limited success. You are absolutely right about combo matchups - I have an undefeated record against Storm combo with one-drop Zoo, but generally had issues with Show and Tell and graveyard-based strategies. When you have to sideboard for three different combo pillars (Storm, Graveyard, A+B) that's already too much stress on your sideboard. Add in multiple "answer me or lose" cards out of fair decks - Batterskull, TNN, Terminus, etc. and you would need a 30-card sideboard.
To be fair, I think Spirit of the Labyrinth is a pretty solid card for Zoo in the board due to it's ability to fight combo in general (because Storm/Show and Tell are both on the 12-16 cantrip plan). I mean that doesn't make Zoo good, but I think vs combo you could actually have pretty decent game. Honestly it's like has been said. The former good MUs from fair decks have become bad since Batterskull is a beating as is Terminus. And TNN
Batterskull is a powerful card, but doesn't Zoo run 4 Pridemages to combat it somewhat?
And it's not just Zoo that suffered from Terminus. Maverick was basically wiped out in an instant and is now a T1,5-T2 deck, while it was one of the top decks of the format before.
I wonder if Zoo became any better if it could run Aether Vial. It's a key card in the D&T vs Miracles match to keep up the pressure (and assassinate Jace).
My friend, the topic of SotL has been discussed to death in 6 threads on TheSource (ANT, D&T, TES, SneakShow, Single Card Discussion, Spoiler thread) and the "OMG - Cantrips!" topic is still hot despite proven nonsense?
Zoo was outdated with the printing of GSZ which gave GWx decks a toolbox and combo hate in Gaddock Teeg and with Zenith the deck wanted to run Noble Hierarch first and KotR later as a supreme lategame option. Batterskull, which was printed in a later expansion of the same block GSZ was in, sealed the deal.
Delver had no influence at all and S&T was always a problem
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I'm not sure what you mean. Yes I understand they were discussed, but what? I think it is a fine card. Nothing amazing, but it's a cog in the plan that can help to keep your opponent from going off before you kill them.
And sure Zoo gets Pridemage, who is a good man in fighting BSkull, but they can still counter it/kill it before they put in BSkull or something. It certainly helps though. It's really just an overload of things that you have to be prepared to beat. I'm always surprised by how much people post about Zoo dying. I guess it was a very popular deck.
It does nothing against the usual T1/2 "fix all my bad keeps" cantrips, nothing against fast combo, nothing against a 7/7 flying lifelinker, nothing against Ad Nauseam/PIF, nothing against EoT SDT into Terminus, can be responded to with brainstorm to minimize the impact, etc.
All in all one of the worst hatebears possible
If you want to revive Zoo, it has to be on the back of GSZ, Noble hierarch, Pridemage, Nacatl, Guide, bolts and Sylvan Library
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1) fix your grammar. I had to read it 3 times until I had an idea of what you trying to say
2) do you count one-/two-off random appearances as well? It looks like that way. Shall we count some 1-off Eiganjo Castles as well to prove how broken the land is? ;)
3) 22 SotL in total or deck what played at least one? See 1)
4) worldwide, european or US metagame?
5) in which timeframe? Since Release?
6) are you talking about D&T as the core while we are talking about Zoo aka no other lock-components?
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1.) I iz asooming you no haz heard of lolcat?
2.) Broken? I thought we were talking about a card being serviceable, and a viable choice. Eiganjo Castle has had 10 appearances, for the record, and is a viable piece.
3.) 22 decks with at least 1 SotL. Most play 2. For reference, in the same timeframe, Canonist has been made 2 main deck apperances, Thalia has made 64, Noble Hierarch has made 40, Rest in Peace has made 6. Plenty of possible discussion regarding number of slots, card's role, and appearances in sideboards, to be sure.
4.) Worldwide.
5.) Since release. A little over 5 months.
6.) 19 are D&T, 3 are Maverick. You seemed to be talking about the card in general. I don't know if Zoo is a good place for it, but those results seem good for "one of the worst hatebears possible". Couldn't be totally useless in Zoo either. If you look at the search results, quite a few feature in lists from Top 8s in huge tournaments, like BoM and SCG. I remember you saying that it wouldn't be good in D&T.
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I can't even remember the last time I saw somebody playing a Zoo deck. There came a point where it was pretty potent during the Merfolk era but those days have long since passed. I think stoneforge put a pretty serious hurting on this deck. Everybody also started playing Threshold after Delver got printed which smashes Zoo.
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