[Kurtis Droge's Zoo] Undefeated Day 1 at GP: Chicago! [Archive]

Mirrislegend

03-09-2009, 01:04 PM

I discovered this decklist while skimming through the GP: Chicago coverage, and it thoroughly rattled my brains. I simply cannot figure out how it succeeded. Here's the list, played by Kurtis Droge:

4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
2 Windswept Heath
1 Plateau
1 Savannah
2 Tropical Island
2 Tundra
2 Volcanic Island
1 Island

4 Kird Ape
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Ranger of Eos

4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Daze
4 Spell Snare
4 Force of Will
4 Fire//Ice
2 Path to Exile
1 Rushing River

It seems extremely very vulnerable to mana-base disruption, even moreso than Nassif's deck (which looked like it should have rolled over and died to Wasteland). Was there just not a lot of disruption based decks present at the GP? Or is that strategy weaker than previously thought? Or is there something else I'm missing?

Anyone who has any info on this deck and/or it's success, please sound off.

Atwa

03-09-2009, 01:29 PM

I don't get it either, but I put it in MWS last night while waiting for some more coverage and the deck plays pretty well.

You just don't want t play against Sui, Pox or Staxs.

revenge_inc

03-09-2009, 02:29 PM

I don't get it either, but I put it in MWS last night while waiting for some more coverage and the deck plays pretty well.

You just don't want t play against Sui, Pox or Staxs.
Without having tested it at all, it seems good vs Thresh and combo for a zoo deck. Much more unlikely things have happened, think Madness winning legacy champs.

electrolyze

03-09-2009, 02:49 PM

Isnt nimble mongoose not just better than ape in here? You get very quick thresh, it stables the manabase(cause then you can play less red lands and more tropical islands) and search it out of an ranger of eos is pretty badass i think.

Shawn

03-09-2009, 04:09 PM

SpikeyMikey

03-09-2009, 08:13 PM

I dunno, it's funny. You read these boards and realize that people go two ways. They're immediately dismissive of decks they don't understand and at the same time look at standings as the be all and end all. They dismiss decks with strong finishes that they don't like as lucky in their pairings but assume that any deck they like with a strong finish must've gotten there through pure goodness and not through favorable matchups or lucky peels.

Generally speaking, neither is the case, it's usually somewhere between, but you'll hear people talk about the deck that won x tournament as if it's God's gift to the format.

I remember back to when the banned list split off from Vintage's B/R list. Everyone on this site was absolutely convinced that combo was simply going to dominate. Null Rod was considered a 4-of must have for board.

I also remember when I first posted my 4c Landstill. It wasn't like I was just posting some theoretical decklist, I was posting a deck that had finished T4 in 50+ man tournaments 3 weeks running. People told me that it looked like shit. Deed sucks, they said, play Wrath. Edict is terrible, they said, Plow is all you need. Nantuko Monastery? It doesn't even block Conclave... But here we are, 3 years later, and UGBW Landstill is still in the DTB forum. Nobody respected the archtype until Nick made T8 with it. Of course, he was running a fairly different list at that point, a year after I first started playing the deck in SD, but it was still the same concept. Everyone thought it sucked, until it T8'd. I guess the forums are just like that.

Slag

03-09-2009, 09:26 PM

Dat website done treated me wrong bwah bwaneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen ba bwan na na wahw

All blues riffs aside, the high number of one drop creatures in the deck allow for better abuse of daze and spell snare. Dropping a dude on turn one and then dazing your opponent's turn one play lets you play a pump land and spell snare the upcoming two drop. I wonder if the added resistance to graveyard hate at the expense of manabase stability was a deliberate choice by the designer.

georgjorge

03-10-2009, 10:29 AM

In his Feature Match, he was severely slowed by Wasteland in two games (making Apes and Nacatl small), but I think he still won the match (in one of them, he completely stalled the board with Goyf and a Ranger of Eos into double Nacatl while his opponent had three Goyfs out). He plays 19 lands, but I just don't understand why, if you played a 4-drop in an aggressive deck, you wouldn't make it Mystic Enforcer, or go for Sea Drake for one less mana.

JeroenC

03-10-2009, 10:36 AM

Card advantage? Honestly, I love this deck. I might start running it. The option to diversify your threats and have your big cards present multiple threats.
It's like a choice between one 6/6 creature or three 2/2 creatures. Depending on the situation, different ones might be better.

Skeggi

03-10-2009, 10:37 AM

Ranger of Eos? He? I needed Gatherer for this card...

I knew it because it's an invitational. But that's it. Good to see it finally may have a use...

Mayk0l

03-10-2009, 11:24 AM

Pretty cool, Ranger into Nacatls was my favourite play in Limited Shards.
Who would have thought it would be a viable play in Legacy?
Awesome.

Soldar

03-10-2009, 01:05 PM

I don't have a ton of information on the deck, but Kurtis is a local player who has been playing this deck for quite a while now, it happened to be my Savannah he was using.

From what I heard, he didn't run into too many matchups where his manabase was being disrupted too much. The fact that people wouldn't have too much of an idea of how to play against it, and that it is running an okay amount of cheap disruption with small fast creatures allowed it to succeed. Locally, people know how the deck works.

I personally think that yes, Nimble Mongoose should probably be in here.

sauce

03-10-2009, 01:08 PM

it runs path to exile instead of swords to plowshares which is definitely odd...
i like the ranger of eos, but i would almost want to have nimble mongoose in here just as another person mentioned.

obv wild nacatl/kird ape are dumb hot too.

Knuckles29

03-10-2009, 02:12 PM

This is opinion mind you; but Path vs Swords in a deck with less reach might be either the reasoning, or the fact that the Path will get them a main color land as most decks did not run their splash color in basics

I'd also argue that on the "optimum" play out, a turn 1 2/3 Ape and a turn 2 3/3 Cat are always going to be better than a "possible" 3/3 Goose. The only argument I have in favor of that is either cards availability/preference or strictly trying to out race ppl w/o depending on the graveyard at all.

e1567

03-11-2009, 03:59 AM

Dude it is really cool that we are talking about Kurtis's deck I played him in round 15 and thought his deck was badass. I personally think that his deck was very strong, like it has already been said he had mad tempo, playing a one drop turn one and playing daze then another one drop turn two while swinging for 2 and turn three swinging for 5-6 more is pretty hot. He had some bad matuchups day two and lost 3 in a row(not so sure what they were though) I hope he still placed well he was a really nice guy.

Personally I think this deck is better than goyf sligh and might see some play I mean come on day one he was x-0.

Skeggi

03-11-2009, 05:14 AM

Oh so... Who is that?

Antoine Ruel. Clicky (http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/mr344).

Mirrislegend

03-11-2009, 10:58 AM

All blues riffs aside, the high number of one drop creatures in the deck allow for better abuse of daze and spell snare. Dropping a dude on turn one and then dazing your opponent's turn one play lets you play a pump land and spell snare the upcoming two drop. I wonder if the added resistance to graveyard hate at the expense of manabase stability was a deliberate choice by the designer.

I think this is the best explanation of this deck so far. It certainly rings true to me.

The concept of picking resilience vs gy hate over mana base stability was obviously a sharp choice: Thresh was expected to be the biggest deck present, and hate followed accordingly. But is there any way to have a more stable mana base in this deck?

Also, to fit in all the counterspelling goodness, it's pretty clear that a lot of board control elements were cut. Does anyone know if his play suffered from lack of critter-kill effects? Were more needed?

nodahero

03-11-2009, 06:39 PM

From the matches I watched (which were actually a large amount due to his seating being one table behind Kowlowith (the guy who gave me my list for the GP) almost the whole tourney) he did really well becasue he faced alot of aggro esq matches and his critters were simply more resilient in combat... I.E. Nactl vs Lacky... who wins? LOL I am preety sure one of his round loses came at the hands of a combo deck. Although I am not sure because one min I see him playing agaisnt a guy at the start of the round and by the end of one of Kowlowith's games he was reporting to a judge he lost.

dahcmai

03-11-2009, 11:53 PM

It seems like a psychic intuition this guy had when deciding on that. It seriously does not want to play against White Stax and of all decks at Chicago it seemed those were doing quite badly. I had a friend who played White Stax and he hit mirrors over and over in the lower end.

Chalice, 3Sphere, and Ghostly prison effects are all things it doesn't want to see and that's probably exactly what it never saw.

I can see it doing well against a lot of decks just due to speed and counting on the fact people don't exactly put a lot of lifegain in Legacy decks. If anything, Confidant, Fetches, FoW, and similar cards only help out to lower that life by 5 or so.

Probably explains the choice of PTE instead of Swords. He might have not wanted to hand over 4 or so life back in the case of a Goyf. A land would make a better trade in that case.

Not a bad pick.

kirdape3

03-12-2009, 12:21 AM

I would much rather have Ranger than any other four-drop with the exception of Sower of Temptation; Sower steals the Tombstalkers and Dreadnoughts and Tarmogoyfs that invalidate the Ancestral Recall you just got out of your Ranger of Eos.

rockout

03-12-2009, 12:39 AM

Ranger of Ros into double figure of destiny seems like a better play if the deck ran some more red/white sources. I guess Nacytl does the job well enough to get thhere. I'll have to test this and see how I feel. My teammate and I decided that we can't tell if we like it or not but zoo with force backup instead of burn is an interesting twist.

Soulles

03-19-2009, 04:08 AM

it runs path to exile instead of swords to plowshares which is definitely odd...

Seems an obvious choice i think. The lack of burn spells, will make it difficuilt to win if you keep giving your opponents life.

Burk3n

03-19-2009, 05:20 PM

i played it in local, i met ant, faeries, solidarity, team america and counter/top aluren (the good one with recruiters) and i won vs all exept for faeries (spellstutter sprite LOL!!) i didnt have problem against team america with my mana exept in the 2match, where i got 2 kird apes and he got 2 tombstalker on table, he was at 1, i was at 20 minus fetch and one goyf attack, he had 1 card in hand i got 2, and draw polluted delta so i could path for win. so i didnt feel like it was terrible to meet a deck who uses alot of wasteland/stifles.
other decks who played wasteland didnt do a thing, i only need 1 mana to play ponder or brainstorm into another land.

but i also tested @ mws and i met a landstill and that was a really bad matchup

beastman

03-19-2009, 09:18 PM

I saw it play against a 4c landstill list day two. Someone next to me commented after the landstill guy flipped great cards off of two Fact or Fictions and the game was practically over, "I don't know, with this guy's type two deck he may have a random Banefire."

LOL! Holy shit that was totally me. Small world.
But for serious, that deck works stupid good. The only thing I don't like about it is the apes.

thefreakaccident

03-20-2009, 01:07 AM

Deck looks odd...

How is this any good in the meta?

CB looks like it owns this badly... as well as anything that deals w/ summons.

Mister Agent

03-20-2009, 03:06 AM

This deck looks pretty well suited for a diverse meta which means it probably has the tools to handle a ton of randomness. This deck definitely has the results to back up it's viability as well which is all cool and dandy. Also, sure it probably gets dismantled by CB but that definitely isn't the sole purpose of this deck. Seems like a fun deck that reminds me of Jason Sims Dark 3 Deuce except with blue and no black. That said, looks like my kind of deck.

Burk3n

03-20-2009, 04:59 AM

Its good against other aggro, pretty good agains aggrocontroll and combo.
but it sux vs controll like landstill.

CB doesnt own this badly, cb dont do a shit, u play 4 snares and 4 daze to ensure that the cb doesnt resolve.

Only problem for the deck is sweepers and land-destructions

Deck looks odd...

How is this any good in the meta?

CB looks like it owns this badly... as well as anything that deals w/ summons.

jeanbathez

07-06-2009, 09:38 AM

No action here, has anyone played this deck , or played against it ?
I liked the idea, and wanted to test it.
I think the manabase is very fragil to wastelands ? Does anybody have some results ?

claudio.r

07-06-2009, 07:09 PM

THis is one of those decks i would really like to try, but i still can't afford the manabase anda i'm ot a huge fan of MWS, but never the less, i will give it a try.
Does anybody tried it ? Made any changes ???

Amon Amarth

07-07-2009, 05:10 AM

I like his take on Zoo. It reminds me of the Zoo decks of old Vintage. This seems like a port of that deck minus all the Power.

One of the few things that stand out is the lack of a Basic Forest. Seems very important if you want to have you Kird Apes big all the time and almost all of his threats are Green creatues too. He would most likely have to change the Fetches to more Heath's or Foothills to maximize his chances of seeing it early enough.

I'm not too sure about Ponder. I haven't tested anything like this but my knee jerk reaction is to replace them with Lightning Bolts. I like the extra reach. If he was expecting a lot of Combo it's easy enough to justify running Ponder though.

JeroenC

07-07-2009, 05:22 AM

He also needs the right amount of blue to fuel FoW. I don't really think he wants to run cards like Fire/Ice or Ponder, but they seem quite necessary.

Amon Amarth

07-07-2009, 05:57 AM

He still has 21 blue cards to fuel Force of Will. I don't mind Fire/Ice so much because it's versatile.

BreathWeapon

07-09-2009, 11:22 AM

I've been running Kurtis Zoo off and on; in principle it's awesome, FoW, Daze and Snare let the deck slip 1 for 2/3 or 3/3 beats vs control and aggro and the damage just accumulates. I found Ranger of Eyos and Fire/Ice sub-par, I replaced them with Vendillion Cliques and Spellstutter Sprites, which give you more disruption, tempo and reach. I also run 4x Swords to Plowshares, because the Pseudo Swords has disynergy with Daze and the life gain from Swords to Plowshares matters less when you're not burning out your opponent.

Essentially, I think the original strategy, backed by Faeries, is really fucking strong. The SB is also fairly amazing, boarding out Faeries for Pyroclasm vs Goblins just leaves you all warm and fuzzy.

I've also found Wakethrasher to be really good, you've got a ton of permanents on the board most of the time between the 1cc guys and the Faeries - I swap them out for the Cliques a lot.

claudio.r

07-09-2009, 05:11 PM

BreathWeapon

07-09-2009, 06:21 PM

Really ? I thought thar ranger was one of the key cards in the deck, as it generates card advantage and creature advantage, it also allows for some tricks, as featching 2 nacatls and leave them in the hand so the opponent doesn't play mass removal.

In a void, ranger for 2 nacatls, or apes, or even forge tender looks pretty good. I wouldn't count him off yet...

Still i need some more testing with it...

It's not, granted Ranger into 2xNacatl is "good," but more often than not I win thru' Tempo + Under costed creatures. IMO, 4cc is out of our curve, Vendillion Clique for disruption + reach or Wake Thrasher for beats post M10 should be solid options tho'.

I really, really think the Faeries are awesome, the number of games 3/1 or 1/1 fliers bring home is ridiculous.

magicmoron

07-11-2009, 04:30 PM

I play at the shop Kurtis plays legacy at and have played against the deck alot with traditional zoo, sligh, and death and taxes. The deck absolutely wrecks those three archetypes. I have played zoo/sligh for a long time and have approached the matchup several ways and cannot seem to win. As several posters have noted the deck owns the early game and can set up the mid-game for the win with card draw/fire/ice. I have tried to disrupt the manabase with death and taxes and it is very difficult. He can cantrip into another land to outspeed port or reduce the effect of wasteland. Hope this helps the deck analysis out there. If you have any questions I have not addressed let me know.

keys

07-13-2009, 01:21 PM

I want to post a version I've been toying with.

4 Wild Nacatl
4 Nimble Mongoose
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Spellstutter Sprite
2 Vendilion Clique
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
4 Fire // Ice
3 Path to Exile
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
2 Windswept Heath
3 Tropical Island
2 Tundra
2 Volcanic Island
1 Plateau
1 Savannah

I replaced Kird Ape with Mongoose since it's (a) bigger most of the time, (b) Ape forces you to lead turn 1 with a mountain, which can sometimes be a poor play when you need green the next turn.

The Spellstutter Sprites are amazing at countering randoms and flying over for the last few pts of damage. Indeed better than Stifle/Spell Snare in here.

BreathWeapon

07-13-2009, 02:04 PM

No, no, no don't cut Spellsnare, it's a crucial tempo counter for 4c Zoo and Nimble Mongoose is just so crap.

keys

07-13-2009, 02:15 PM

No, no, no don't cut Spellsnare, it's a crucial tempo counter for 4c Zoo and Nimble Mongoose is just so crap.

Snare might be better than Fire // Ice.

You think Goose is worse than Kird Ape? You can read my reasons for playing the Goose in my last post.

magicmoron

07-13-2009, 04:07 PM

I think breathweapon is correct about the nimble mongoose/kird ape debate. While mongoose is better mid/late game kird ape is better early game. This is an early game deck it does not run like thressssh or any variant of that archetype. This is a zoo deck and thusly wants to put down big threats immediately. In regards to your comment of having to lead with a mountain, your are correct, but what is the problem with that. You will most likely have some sort of red mana and a fetch in opening hand. You lead with red mana playing kird ape keeping fetch in hand, if they waste your land, you simply fetch the trop and your fine. The only time I see a mongoose being better than a kird ape is in the case of a double wasteland. And in that case I think the deck has better outs than nimble mongoose.

jedi_gof

07-14-2009, 04:52 PM

whats the sideboard to this deck.. what are people playing?

i played this deck today at our regular tuesday legacy tourney to a 3-2 record after going 2-0... Think it is great but have some thougts, but fist my list for tonite:

2 Ranger of Eos
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Kird Ape
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Spell Snare
4 Brainstorm
3 Ponder
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
4 Fire // Ice
4 Path to Exile
4 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
2 Windswept Heath
2 Wooded Foothils
3 Tropical Island
2 Tundra
2 Volcanic Island
1 Plateau
1 Savannah

1: I found myself wanting a taiga more often than plateau or savannah - anyone else experienced this? I mean, i knmow trop n 99% time the best land as it is you to main colours, but also the land you least want wasted and taiga alows more flexability and more t1 boosted critters(boosts both kirk douglas and wild cat)??
2:Never been a fan of ponder, and boarded it out for most g2s - do we have an beater we can consider as an alternative to ponder for cc1 perhaps 2? i know we talked about mongoose, but i agree, its too late game. Donnot wanna go down the faerie trail, any other ideas?
3 and finally: i found the ranger awesome, really. but often it seems like a win more card - wouldnt you rather have an undercosted beater rather than this? i mean when you go aggro, its awesome, but found my self too often lacking attacking weapons...

Let me know what you think:)

Cire

07-14-2009, 04:56 PM

hoy bout running a one of

Protean Hydra XG
Creature - Hydra
Protean Hydra enters the battlefield with X +1/+1 counters on it.
If damage would be dealt to Protean Hydra, prevent that damage and remove that many +1/+1 counters from it.
Whenever a +1/+1 counter is removed from Protean Hydra, put two +1/+1 counters on it at the beginning of the end step.
0/0

If the game ever drags onto late game you can use it as an effecient finisher...

LostButSeeking

07-14-2009, 04:59 PM

2:Never been a fan of ponder, and boarded it out for most g2s - do we have an beater we can consider as an alternative to ponder for cc1 perhaps 2? i know we talked about mongoose, but i agree, its too late game. Donnot wanna go down the faerie trail, any other ideas?

Well, your options for a 1cc beater are Isamaru, llanower elite, Savannah Lions (or another 2/1 for 1, jungle lion or that new soldier . . .) or figure of destiny. Honestly, I might run singletons. You can tutor them up. Mongoose might be late game, but it completely wrecks a couple of deck. Similarly, Figure of Destiny is horribly dissynergistic with itself--you never want to see more than one. You might also consider grim lavamancer or gorilla shaman as techy silver bullets.

BreathWeapon

07-14-2009, 07:34 PM

Next creature I'd run is either Pridemage or Thrasher.

coraz86

07-15-2009, 03:23 AM

whats the sideboard to this deck.. what are people playing?

I don't have the Zoo stuff to rock this, and I'm not wont to play Zoo most of the time anyway, but here's the GP-Chicago coverage (http://wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/eventcoverage/gpchi09/blog2#1) pertinent to this discussion. Mr. Droge was in a Feature Match (http://wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/eventcoverage/gpchi09/blog2#4) crapping in someone's cornflakes too. Looks like a CounterTop deck he's whomping, though I can't find a list for it.

At any rate, the first link contains a sideboard. The one confusing thing for me is why he's only boarding one Submerge, unless he just couldn't find room for more. I think I'd have kicked the Tin-Streets out--they're not ever going to get past an active Counterbalance, they get Spell Snared, they seem awkward to cast in this deck with any alignment of lands you'd normally want out, etc., etc.--but I've also never made money at a Grand Prix in any format ever, so I feel a little awkward blindly suggesting that he toss things.

BreathWeapon

07-16-2009, 04:11 PM

Does any one else think Umezawa's Jitte absolutely fucks up people's worlds in this deck? We badly need a man sink past turn 3 or so, and Jitte speeds up the clock, wins Goyf wars and pings Confidant.

magicmoron

07-17-2009, 12:11 AM

BreathWeapon

07-17-2009, 01:44 AM

I think with only 14 critters a piece of equipment is a bad idea. I know Kurtis tried vedillion clique for a while and a trinket mage search engine. I don't know why he abandoned these ideas, however, I think adding more critters is better than adding something that is reliant on them. Perhaps, Loarscale coatyl is worth taking a look at.

If you cut Fire/Ice for Spellstutter Sprite, that's 16 creatures + 8 cantrips, trim back the lands to 17 and you've got 3 Jittes good to go.

As an aside, Sky Shroud Elite is a fairly solid 1 drop.

magicmoron

07-17-2009, 08:29 AM

BreathWeapon

07-17-2009, 11:47 AM

Bad idea to cut land in a deck that curves out at 4 mana. As discussed before 19 land is bare bones already and that only works because of the cantrip. Too many of your critter rely on ur lands for their power.

Curve out at 4? Ranger of Eyos isn't really good, I don't think it's a serious inclusion here, and the deck runs too many lands. If you're not facing Wasteland based decks, then you're saturated, and if you are, then you've got the stick to fall back on.

coraz86

07-17-2009, 03:04 PM

I think the two Rangers are in the deck in case the deck gets to the midgame somehow, either because your opponent nerfed your early rush or you drew like crap or the game just kind of stalled for whatever reason. It definitely does not warrant more than two, since you don't want to see it before like turn six, but I also have to say that cutting them is probably a bad idea.

magicmoron

07-17-2009, 03:32 PM

I agree coraz86. Ranger of Eos also provides card advantage and tutoring. Unfortunately, it does not utilize the the searching tool as of yet, however, I have been experimenting with grim lavamancer in the rushing river slot with some good results. I have also been considering goblin grappler, gorilla shaman, and frenzied goblin. The mox monkey seems strongest since it can eat the moxen in stax and aggro loam, along with the lands of affinity. CHOMP, CHIMP, CHOMP!

jedi_gof

07-19-2009, 04:31 PM

After some testings and afterthought i have come up with this decklist:

// Lands
4 [ON] Flooded Strand
4 [U] Volcanic Island
2 [ON] Windswept Heath
2 [R] Tundra
2 [A] Tropical Island
2 [ON] Wooded Foothills
2 [ON] Polluted Delta
1 [APL] Island (3)
1 [R] Taiga

// Creatures
4 [FUT] Tarmogoyf
4 [FNM] Kird Ape
4 [ALA] Wild Nacatl
3 [TO] Grim Lavamancer

// Spells
4 [NE] Daze
4 [AL] Force of Will
4 [5E] Brainstorm
4 [DIS] Spell Snare
4 [4E] Swords to Plowshares
3 [AP] Fire/Ice
2 [CFX] Path to Exile

The ranger is a no go. I mean, its cute and everything, but turn 4 at best? Play a daze, and we are talking a turn 5 tap-out play, that only is a 3/2?

Nah, ill go with some more aggro beats:) I am only lackin the power of rushing river, which i am trying to squeese in somehow, prob for 1-2 ptes and 1 lavamancer. 2-3 must be the correct number of those...

What do you guys think, gonna play this list on tuesday so any comments is welcome.:)

miss_bun

07-19-2009, 04:47 PM

This list is so good, and really clever.

Ranger is amazing. Ranger is crazy beats. Cut tarmogoyf before you cut it. And don't cut tarmogoyf, obv.

jeanbathez

12-15-2009, 08:14 AM

Just an idea : what do you think as Steppe Lynx as 1 drop f.e. for kird ape ?
This deck plays a lot of fetchlands so he can be 4/5 ?
F.e. play ranger search for 2 Lynx and then fetch, and 2 4/5 can attack....

Pastorofmuppets

12-15-2009, 04:01 PM

@ people testing this deck:
how often do you hit 5 lands?

hungryLIKEALION

12-16-2009, 01:50 AM

I tested this deck a few months ago, and when I did, I chose to replace kird ape with Nimble Mongoose and Ranger of Eos with Vendilion Clique. I really liked that creature base. The deck hits threshold almost as fast as Canadian Thresh does, and Mongoose is just such a great threat. I also was having trouble getting ranger out so I tried clique instead and liked it.

Just some food for thought. I haven't tested the deck in a few months, but if I ever land some trops I'll definitely be giving it a shot again cuz I really liked the style.