[DECK] Midrange Zoo

[Oiolosse]

I started thinking about a midrange zoo deck about the time I realized that my wife doesn't care about any other archetype. Control was boring, combo was hard and the appeal of 'bigger' creatures is apparently irresistible.

There are two versions of this deck. One is control oriented and the other is straight in your face aggro. I will post both.

Control version: EDITED about 1AM on the Ninth of May 2010


NON CREATURE SPELLS:

4 Chrome Mox
4 Aether Vial

TWO MANA CREATURES:

4 Tidewater Sculler
3 Gaddock Teeg
4 Qasali Pridemage

THREE MANA CREATURES:

4 Rhox War Monk
4 Sedraxis Specter
3 Kitchen Finks
2 Trygon Predator

FOUR MANA CREATURES:

3 Rafiq of the Many
4 Knight of New Alara


21 LAND

4 Ziggarat
4 City of Brass
6 Fetches
6 Duels
1 Reflecting Pool


Kitchen Finks may be weak, but the gain life is nice and he is a bit easier to cast. The two drop blades make for a sick smack when KoNewAlara hits play...but I want to test that independently in my aggro version.


AGGRO version:
NON CREATURE SPELLS:

3 Psychotic Fury
3 Might of Nephilim
4 Chrome Mox

ONE MANA CREATURES:

4 Birds of Paradise

TWO MANA CREATURES:

4 Bant Sureblade
3 Grixis Grimblade
4 Esper Stormblade
2 Qasali Pridemage

THREE MANA CREATURES:

4 Rhox War Monk
4 Cold Eyed Selkie

FOUR MANA CREATURES:

3 Rafiq of the Many
3 Knight of New Alara


19 LAND

4 Ziggarat
4 City of Brass
6 Fetches
5 Duels



The Control version uses 2cc creatures to control and 3cc for beats. Aggro version does a bit of a switch. The cold-eyed keep the aggro going..I probably need to consider adding one of these in the control build. Please keep in mind that these lists are NOT!!! optimized. I just wanted to put them out there for you guys to see and give some reasonable feedback.

I will say this about the aggro build. The 2cc guys are whacky fucking ueber if left untouched. Esper stormblade can smack for 18 with a fury and a might of the nephilim. Yes, this scenario is rare but that is just one of many huge smacks this deck can do.

Feedback please, thanks! ;0

EDIT: Control version sucks donkey balls as is. Trying to activate a Pridemage with Ziggarat is..not allowed, neither is casting Thorn and unearthing Specter..

Mana curve is waaay too high. Poorly thought out. The aggro stance looks way more promising. The nephilim and all multi color creatures is stronger than you would think.

[SpeedOfDark]

Card tags to the rescue!:



***********DECK 1 (Control)***********

NON CREATURE SPELLS:

4 Thorn of Amethyst
4 Aether Vial

TWO MANA CREATURES:

4 Tidehollow Sculler
2 Mesmeric Fiend
3 Gaddock Teeg
3 Qasali Pridemage

THREE MANA CREATURES:

3 Rhox War Monk
4 Sedraxis Specter
3 Woolly Thoctar
3 Kitchen Finks

FOUR MANA CREATURES:

3 Rafiq of the Many
3 Knight of New Alara

21 LAND

4 Ziggurat
4 City of Brass
6 Fetches
6 Duels
1 Reflecting Pool



***********DECK 2 (Aggro)***********

NON CREATURE SPELLS:

3 Psychotic Fury
3 Might of the Nephilim
4 Chrome Mox

ONE MANA CREATURES:

4 Birds of Paradise

TWO MANA CREATURES:

4 Bant Sureblade
3 Grixis Grimblade
4 Esper Stormblade
2 Qasali Pridemage

THREE MANA CREATURES:

4 Rhox War Monk
4 Cold-Eyed Selkie

FOUR MANA CREATURES:

3 Rafiq of the Many
3 Knight of New Alara

19 LAND

4 Ziggurat
4 City of Brass
6 Fetches
5 Duals



---

Comments:

Well, the idea is certainly interesting. One of my friends has played a similar multicolored build for some time with acceptable success. One obvious problem with the deck, which I regret being the one to point it out, is the lack of goyf. Ofc he doesn't synergize with the main strategy, but as we all know goyf transcends synergy ;p ... although I'm guessing you omitted him on purpose. My favorite of the two versions is the control approach, because I've never seen it built this way. I'm tempted in tweaking some numbers, but I really couldn't do much more than speculate without testing it first. In the aggro version, I probably wouldn't play 4 copies of selkie, unless its a meta call, and replace it with more aggro goodness. I'm also tempted to pump knight of new alara to 4 because he is just nuts.

[Oiolosse]

I will say that in the control build Mesmeric Fiend is OUT. I want to stick to Multicolor creatures only. When I test with Chrome Mox imprinting a Mesmeric fiend is horrible. Knight of New Alara is bonkers for sure. 4 mana is def. the top of the curve for most decks but he makes a huge difference for sure. I think that what I posted was def. suboptimal but there seems to be some potential in 5color zoo control. I will keep testing.

For the record I am testing against three different decks. U/b reanimator, a bitterblossom'd version of deadguy ale (if deadguy ale runs Mystic), and a U/g homebrew lockdown (tangle wire, winter orb, garruk, propaganda, etc goodness). So, combo, control, lock. I really need to test against another aggro build.

Thanks for your interest.

[KaraZorEl]

City of Brass is not a good choice in your deck here. Reflecting Pool would be better, since it doesn't deal damage to you. If you're just running straight creatures, Ancient Ziggurat is good, but if you wanna do other stuff, then it kind of fails. You can't use your Ziggurat for Aether Vial, for instance.

[Jon Stewart]

Please keep us updated as to your latest deck and list. You could simply make your opening post in this thread, your up to date post where you always edit in your latest list.

Your deck looks awesome, especially the control version. I agree with you that Mesmeric Fiend sucks. It's the one card in the control deck that simply doesn't belong and looks out of place.

I would cut the 2 Mesmeric Fiend and up the Qasali Pridemage and the Knight of New Alara count to four. Pridemage is so flexible as a creature.

I actually really love the manabase. Is there one other rainbow land (akin to Glimmervoid or something) that the deck could use? Then the deck could up it's Reflecting Pool count and avoid dual lands and fetchlands altogether, knocking another couple of hundred dollars off the deck's price tag.

Tidehollow Sculler is already an artifact, so the control deck already plays 12 Artifacts. If the number of artifacts could somehow be doubled, (4 Chrome Mox + 4 Esper Stormblade + 4 Chalice of the Void/Something Else (Jitte)/Something Disruptive) for example, the deck could play Glimmervoid easily. You would then also get to play more acceleratation, Chalice at 1 to shut your opponents off from Path/StP/Brainstorm/Thoughtseize/Lackey/Lightning Bolt/Wild Nacatl/Kird Ape/Dark Ritual and other combo cards etc. and would get to play a 3/2 flyer that becomes a 6/5 flyer under Knight of New Alara. May not be worth doing but just throwing that idea out there.

[jrsthethird]

a bitterblossom'd version of deadguy ale (if deadguy ale runs Mystic),

This sounds similar to the deck I've been playing. What's his list like?

Also,

Pillar of the Paruns is your friend.

[SpeedOfDark]

Pillar of the Paruns is your friend.

Holy shit! I felt like there was a strong multicolor land missing, and here it is. Good find ;)

To put more ephasis:

Pillar of the Paruns

[wolfmanisu]

I think that Knight of New Alara looks a bit weak. It doesn't do much alone and a lot of your creatures are already sizeable. What about something like Loxodon Hierarch. This would offset some of the life loss from City of Brass and would still be usable with Pillar of the Paruns. I think that too many decks undervalue life gain, but it could easily be a sub-theme in your deck.

[Jon Stewart]

Pillar of Paruns looks fantastic.

What about a manabase like this...

4 Reflecting Pool
4 Ziggarat
4 Pillar of Paruns
4 Gemstone Mine
4 City of Brass


Knight of Alara looks powerful. It's basically a cheaper to cast permanent Overrun in this deck. You should be able to win on the very same turn you play it. But if I was to cut it, I certainly wouldn't play Hierarch in it's place. There's tons of solid multicolored 2cc or 3cc creatures that I would rather play instead. The deck might perform well consisting entirely of 2cc and 3cc creatures ala...

4 Tidewater Sculler
4 Qasali Pridemage
3 Gaddock Teeg
3 Rhox War Monk
4 Sedraxis Specter
4 Whooly Thoctar
4 Bant Sureblade
3 Grixis Grimblade
4 Esper Stormblade

Although I'm honestly not only on the blade creatures being any good at all, they're low cc so you can play 2 of them on turn 4 and go to town, which is nice. And the lower curve serves to make Aether Vial a lot better.

[Vacrix]

I tested a list with 4 Sculler, 4 Fiend. JEDIKNIGHT tried it a while back, attempting to abuse those dudes with Vial in the draw step. It was great.... except that often your opponent Brainstorms in response and hides his removal. If you want to play it you have to have some way to protect it, and even then I don't know that its worth it. Sure they can carry a Jitte, but you really don't want to lose them because then your opponent gets his cards back.

I do like the idea of maindeck Thorn of Amythest. How is this list working out in playtesting?

[Oiolosse]

thank you for your interest and good feedback. This deck can take so many angles that it makes it difficult to test. I find myself constantly changing the list. Well the elements of Pillar of the Paruns and Ancient Ziggarat are pretty much in the same set. I don't run non creature, multicolor spells. Thran Quarry is a personal favorite, but it is a two for one too often. I will give Paruns a try though and up the Reflecting Pool count. Reflecting pool can be a trap though. T1 zig, T2 reflecting pool then boom, inevitably your shit gets popped.

I have replaced the Thocto..ahh shit, mid word I had the bright idea to just edit my list ;)

[Oiolosse]

This sounds similar to the deck I've been playing. What's his list like?

Also,

Pillar of the Paruns is your friend.

It's my deck and I will PM you a list if you want.

[AlterEgo]

Looks like there finally is a place for Bloodbraid Elf in Legacy?
What's in there, that you don't want to cascade into? Moxen, Birds and that's about it. 8 cards out of 36 mean a chance of 77.7% to hit something threatening (well, apart from Teeg if you already have one).
Only downside I can think of, it's FOUR mana for a mere 3/2.

Also: Kitchen Finks are underrated imho.

[Oiolosse]

Yes Kitchen Finks is super nice. He really excels in an aggro heavy meta. Him with Rhox War Monk make for a nice shot at stretching the game to our favor.

I have been keen to just focus on the aggro build. The control build is lacking in too many ways, namely, consistency.

I have decided to nix Rafiq entirely. He is win more. The card I really want to see is Knight of New Alara. He effectively double strikes all of my funky costed two drops. Even better in fact cause it gives them a fatter ass. Also, Rafiq is a bit harder to cast. Already having green and white mana in play and not needing to find blue for Rafiq is beneficial when I'm holding onto a psychotic fury so need to find red. Lastly, he only double strikes one attacker while KoNA applies to all other creatures which means more attackers.

The hardest decision is whether or not birds is necessary. 4 BoP and 4 Moxes are ideal. This propels me into early game BOOMS-TO-THE-FACE. The spot vying for BoP is Mother of Runes. They play so differently, but I can't decide. My dudes need more evasion especially when I am investing those pumpers. Any reasoning would be helpful.

Also, somebody reason against Cold-Eyed Selkie. I need some sort of draw. Augery Adept came to mind to complement my Finks and War Monk gain-life sub-theme...but I am leaning toward the Selkie. 3/3 island with KoNA in play and if she lands and I Psychotic Fury then +6 cards is pretty nice. If not that scenario then Might of the Nephilim or Exalted or possible Rancor or Jitte.

BTW I am choosing the suite of 'blades as such:

Bant- most common colors of the deck and 3/2 first striker is actually most useful most the blades.

Esper - Evasion.

Jund - i had grixis here but that black mana was desperately annoying to pay for. Jund needs green which is common and red I need for psychotic fury's so it's easy to pay for as well. The haste is super nice; so works great as the second dood dropped.

[Vacrix]

Also, somebody reason against Cold-Eyed Selkie. I need some sort of draw. Augery Adept came to mind to complement my Finks and War Monk gain-life sub-theme...but I am leaning toward the Selkie. 3/3 island with KoNA in play and if she lands and I Psychotic Fury then +6 cards is pretty nice. If not that scenario then Might of the Nephilim or Exalted or possible Rancor or Jitte.
You could always try Ohran Viper. Sure he only beats for one, but he's a nice surprise with Vial, and draws you cards. I played him a while back in a different deck and he was actually really good. At worst he trades with a Goyf. At best he can keep an opponents whole team at bay. He's really good with untapper's too like Quirion Rangers and/or Scryb Rangers (good against Merfolk), which are also good with other guys that tap like Mother of Runes. The rangers also untap your lifelink dudes like War Monk, and vigilance Goyfs are hardly a bad thing.

[hyperchord24]

I'm curious why you gravitate towards the gimmicky lands. Since this is a version domain zoo (only in the fact that this is 5c), why not just play all duals and then run things like tribal flames? I'm so clueless though, that I'm not even sure if domain zoo is even competitive in legacy.

[Jon Stewart]

As far as card drawing goes, I quite like Dimir Cutpurse.

Vial it in at the end of your opponents turn when their creatures are tapped out, and it's a card advantage machine.

[Oiolosse]

As far as card drawing goes, I quite like Dimir Cutpurse.

Vial it in at the end of your opponents turn when their creatures are tapped out, and it's a card advantage machine.

Well, I'd rather the draw creature have some sort of evasion, be multicolor, and CMC<=3. Orhan Viper, albeit deathtouch is not evasion, is still nice, but the mononess about him sucks. I want to abuse might of the nephelim and psychotic fury.

@Hyperchord24 -- well, I think that there is something to be said with midrange aggro. I think it outclasses zoo style aggro. The gimmicky lands are a bit a budget decision and because I believe that I run enough creatures to validate the inclusion of Ancient Zig, but we'll see.

Thanks