5C Zoo

[nolink]

Good Day to All,

As of the very first introduction to legacy and seeing Zoo as the fastest and most aggro deck, we have seen it evolved from small zoo, featuring kird apes, to big zoo playing with powerful 3-drops like knight of reliquary. lots of other combinations are out there and i've always have the thought that, 1-drop zoo will be perfect with 3 sets of 1-mana 3/3s. the below is my bash-up version of 1-drop zoo.

Lands(19)
2 Windswept Heath
2 Wooded Foothills
1 Flooded Strands
1 Arid Mesa
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Marsh Flats
2 Taiga
2 Savannah
1 Tropical Island
1 Volcanic Island
1 Scrubland
1 Tundra
1 Plateau

Creatures (21)
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Vexing Devil
3 Grim Lavamancer
4 Dark Confidant
2 Snapcaster Mage

Spells (20)
4 Path to Exile
4 Brainstorm
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Fire//Ice
1 Lightning Helix

How it works is just a bash-up of all possible 1-drops with 3 power and play 3 of them by turn 3 reliably, sometimes dropping 3 1-drops by turn 2 could be insane tempo.

Creatures
Delver of Secrets - No secret that it is good to have a 1-drop 3/2 that flies.
Wild Nacatl - Banned in Modern? means it is broken enough. 1-mana 3/3 outclasses kird apes and the likes easily.
Vexing Devil - The most controversial one. it may not look as good, but at mid-game with enough tempo, Vexing devil and a burn spell could steal a game easily.
Grim Lavamancer - With the best blue 1-drop around (and it being a 3/2 after transform), grim lavamancer turns out to be the removal-magnet against delver decks.
Dark Confidant - Zoo-type deck's biggest problem, losing tempo after a stream of removals, burns and creatures are answered smoothly. adds another must-kill target to the deck, and we only take 2 the most from it. why not?
Snapcaster Mage - Extra body to block and attack out of nowhere, acts as another burn/removal. just that reaching 3-4mana isn't that good for us. keeping it at 2 copies for now.

Spells
Path to Exile - Swiss-knife for any creature targetable in the format.
Brainstorm - Fixing delver triggers, like-a-boss. filtering away unwanted extra lands via fetchlands, etc.
Inquisition of Kozilek - Mainly here for 2 card combo decks like show and tell, at least i'm doing something right?
Lightning Bolt - Self-explanatory
Fire//Ice - When i casually played with my friends, Ice come out extra handy providing cantrip plus tempo advantage.
Lightning Helix - Just a filler burn spell. any other burn spell could fit in.

Suggestions my fellow forum mates? no sideboard as i only played this deck casually and recently find its effectiveness against lots of legacy decks.

[mmmetaphor]

The only real advantage i could potentially see a 5 color zoo having over RGW zoo is that it has access to black to fight combo style decks and possibly blue for FoW (although there aren't nearly enough blue cards to warrant its inclusion). Having said that, why limit yourself with IoK? If you're screwing up your manabase to play 5 color zoo then why not play the best disruption possible, which I believe is thoughtseize. You can afford the 2 life and being able to snag a FoW or whatever else that is out of IoK's reach can be very relevent. I'd run Thoughtseize main and IoK or Duress in the side. Even with those at your disposal I don't know that the combo matchup can be anywhere near favorable.

How has Vexing Devil been? I'm not sold on it yet but it is intriguing.

[trivial_matters]

I suggest Hymn to Tourach for even more potent discard.

[nolink]

The only real advantage i could potentially see a 5 color zoo having over RGW zoo is that it has access to black to fight combo style decks and possibly blue for FoW (although there aren't nearly enough blue cards to warrant its inclusion). Having said that, why limit yourself with IoK? If you're screwing up your manabase to play 5 color zoo then why not play the best disruption possible, which I believe is thoughtseize. You can afford the 2 life and being able to snag a FoW or whatever else that is out of IoK's reach can be very relevent. I'd run Thoughtseize main and IoK or Duress in the side. Even with those at your disposal I don't know that the combo matchup can be anywhere near favorable.

How has Vexing Devil been? I'm not sold on it yet but it is intriguing.

Inquisition could be replaced. Its just a budget call for me to test a casual deck. Didn't expect it to be as efficient as it seemed to be, considering the horrendous mana base.

Vexing devil wise, it is fine as long as you have at least another 1 drop in hand. If nt u'll basically been playing a BR burn deck with terrible mana, starting with removals and only vexing devils

Hymh to tourach? C'mon, look at the mana base!!!

[zulander]

So if you're gonna play 5c zoo remove the Wild Ncatl's and use a 5c mana base with city of brass etc... Replace him with Goyf which is clearly superior. Remove Snapcaster as he's not good in this deck, and Fire/Ice which is sub-par removal.

[from Cairo]

This concept just doesn't seem like it will play out too well. Delver with only 20 flip spells is light. Vexing Devil feels like a fairly all-in card, but your list is durdling around with Fire//Ice and Snapcaster. Lack of Tribal Flames is also a head scratcher, seems like the best reason to be running Black and Blue.

I guess my question would be why is this a better choice than UR Delver? That deck seems like it does the 'Sligh' game far better. Ie the whole deal 10ish with dudes and when they get outclassed go over the top by doming them out. UR Dwlver does this w/o opening itself up to mana screw in a format infested with Wasteland.

[nolink]

So if you're gonna play 5c zoo remove the Wild Ncatl's and use a 5c mana base with city of brass etc... Replace him with Goyf which is clearly superior. Remove Snapcaster as he's not good in this deck, and Fire/Ice which is sub-par removal.

removing wild nacatl means im 1 turn slower with goyf, only beating on turn 3 onwards. in this case, i would rather play a 1-of scavenging ooze, in the 2-drop instead of playing goyf, at all chances, as an additional utility.

city of brass doesnt work well with the other contender of the deck, which is tribal flames, as suggested and recommended by cairo.

snapcaster, being sub-par in the deck, only happens when you have excessive copies of those, in my cases. i tried playing 4 of them, cutting to 2 eventually. additional path on top of those you casted earlier helps to break stalemates and flashing a 2/1 sometimes helps in pushing in some final points of damage, by adding additional pressure to the combat phase.

Fire//Ice wise, as i stated, mostly for tempo purposes, like tapping down lands on turn 2 or 3 upkeeps to stop those knight of reliquary for a while. on top of that, cantripping into more threats or removals. i dont plan to play a long game at all.

Tribal Flames, did considered about it, and it works better in builds with goyf, for the sorcery type and punching through 5 with vexing devil is huge. my friend who playtests with me also recommend chain lightning, due to the deck being more and more towards sligh and efficient removal as of my fragile mana base.

Thanks for all the response! Tribal flames would be highly considered in my revised version of the deck. would play with it in replacement with fire//ice and snapcaster, to see whether it fits or not. And sorry, i think im still biased about the performance of goyfs. give me some time to test it and see how it goes.

[zulander]

How the hell can someone be biased against goyfs in an aggro deck? Do people realize he's the best beater in the game for his mana cost? Zoo made a comeback solely based on his printing.

Here's advice, you don't need to test goyf, he's proven to be good enough.

Also Scavenging ooze? Utility is great, stop taking out threats for utility creatures. This isn't maverick, it's ZOO. Balls to the wall, all out, Zoo. Otherwise you're just playing 5c aggro control.

[sco0ter]

This deck looks more like a Wizard tribal deck to me.
Besides Nacatl there are no Zoo creatures (I mean with animal creature types).
So why call it Zoo and not Wizards?

I am not sure if it is worth to splash green just for Nacatl.

I'd put this more into a 4C Wizard direction, with more disruptive Wizards (Meddling Mage, Patron Wizard) and Vial instead of distruptive spells (IoK) and Vexing Devil.

It depends on, what you want. Fast beats with Vanilla creatures or Aggro Control with disruptive elements?

Cavern of Souls seems also good with that many Wizards.
Even good against Chalice of the Void.

[Asthereal]

I'm a big Zoo-fan. Played it in lots of tournaments, and loved it.
The choice between Naya and 5C Zoo is an easy one. It all depends on your meta screwing with your mana base. Naya has the stronger mana base, but Domain (as we used to call it) packs more punch and utility.

Everybody knows what Naya Zoo is and does, so no comments on that one.

What Domain has over Naya are:
- Tribal Flames (awesome burn spell)
- Dark Confidant (nice carddraw, usually sticks a while because it's the last dude you drop after all other have been killed)
- Snuff Out (free removal can be nice)
- Vindicate/Maelstrom Pulse (slow in current meta, but removes Elspeth, Jace, large dudes)
- Additional sideboard options I won't all list

What Domain does never play:
- Snapcaster Mage (much too situational, Confi is just better)
- Delver of Secrets (doesn't flip consistently, there are better 1/1s to play, like the Lavaman)
- Discard (doesn't kill the opponent, slows your plan down)
- Force of Will and Daze (that's a different deck entirely, which plays NO black)

My last Domain Zoo lists looked like this:

1 - 'Doran Zoo'

Creatures:
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Loam Lion
4 Kird Ape
3 Steppe Lynx
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Qasali Pridemage
3 Doran, the Siege Tower /26

Spells:
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
3 Tribal Flames
3 Snuff Out /14

Lands:
20 of them - 11 fetch, 8 duals and one Undiscovered Paradise.

2 - 'Traditional Domain Zoo'

Creatures:
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Kird Ape
4 Loam Lion
2 Grim Lavamancer
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Qasali Pridemage
4 Dark Confidant /26

Spells:
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
3 Tribal Flames
3 Path to Exile /14

Lands:
20 of them - 10 duals, 10 fetch.

Both lists work fine for different reasons. Doran is more explosive, traditional has more breath for the longer runs. Both are rather terrible in the current meta. Too much unfair stuff out there.

[trivial_matters]

After a bit of tweaking, here's what I've come up with:

4 City of Brass
4 Gemstone Mine
1 Taiga
1 Plateau
1 Volcanic Island
1 Underground Sea
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Arid Mesa
1 Windswept Heath
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Polluted Delta
1 Karakas
1 Island

4 Delver of Secrets
4 Wild Nacatl
2 Qasali Pridemage
2 Snapcaster Mage
4 Dark Confidant
1 Tarmogoyf
2 Knight of the Reliquary

2 Umezawa's Jitte

4 Brainstorm
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Tribal Flames
2 Price of Progress
2 Path to Exile
4 Thoughtseize
2 Hymn to Tourach

That's 61 cards of some the best and strongest spells ever printed in the history of the game.

Some explanations:

Mana base: As good as it gets when running five colours. City of Brass and Gemstone Mine are the real stars here, enabling the deck to function smoothly. Gemstone Mine has some great synergy with Knight of the Reliquary.

Karakas is there to combat Sneak Show and Reanimator. It also lets you protect your Jitte from getting blown up.

Creatures: A collection of the strongest creatures in Legacy. I don't think anything else needs to be said. Goyf has been a bit disappointing, usually only a 4/5 for 2, so there's only a singleton.

Instants and Sorceries: Again, quite obvious. Price of Progress is a bomb, just don't kill yourself with it. Brainstorm is the best blue card in Legacy -- play the full 4 (at least until it's banned, probably later this year). Tribal Flames is broken in a five colour deck. Thoughtseize and Hymn to Tourach coupled with a fast clock means Zoo can finally beat combo reliably.

Other cards I've been considering that haven't made the cut: Grim Lavamancer, Scavenging Ooze, Tombstalker, Stoneforge Mystic, Jace, Elspeth, Liliana, the Punishing Fire engine, Life from the Loam, Coalition Victory, Magus of the Moon, Fireblast, Temporal Mastery (tough one) and a few others.

That's it; I hope you'll give this beast a spin and wreck fair and unfair decks alike with ease.

[Serbitar]

Gemstone Mine doesn't really have synergy with Knight (being neither Forest nor Plains). Also Wild Nacatl looks questionable with 3 Mountains and 1 Plains in the deck. The mana looks terrible as well – e.g. t1 nacatl, t2 hymn only works if your cat stays 1/1 – and what's up with basic Island?
:rolleyes:

[nolink]

How the hell can someone be biased against goyfs in an aggro deck? Do people realize he's the best beater in the game for his mana cost? Zoo made a comeback solely based on his printing.

Here's advice, you don't need to test goyf, he's proven to be good enough.

Also Scavenging ooze? Utility is great, stop taking out threats for utility creatures. This isn't maverick, it's ZOO. Balls to the wall, all out, Zoo. Otherwise you're just playing 5c aggro control.

ok, agreed with the arguement of tarmogoyf over scavenging ooze.

will test at least 2 copies in replacement of snapcaster, to see the results.

along with it, the changes will be:

-2 snapcaster mage
+2 tarmogoyf
-3 fire//ice
+3 tribal flames

thank you. :smile:

[ajfennewald]

FWIW my blue zoo deck is sort of 5 color ( I play a bad lands for tribal flames). Below is a copy of my post from the blue zoo thread

So I have gone back to a more traditional blue zoo deck (delver) after playing a slighish version alot. After playing sligh I think there is little reason to retain green in that build. However in this version I like goyf. Here is my current list

4 scalding tarn
4 wooded foothills
2 misty rain forest
2 volcanic island
2 tropical island
1 taiga
1 savannah
1 tundra
1 plateau
1 badlands

3 force of will
3 daze
2 spell snare

4 brainstorm
3 ponder

4 lighting bolt
3 forked bolt
1 fire//ice (for blue count reasons)
4 tribal flames

4 wild nacalt
4 delver
4 tarmogoyf
2 grim lavamancer

sb
1 force of will
2 spell peirce
4 tormods crypt
2 sulfuric vortex
2 submerge
2 ancient grudge
2 path to exile

I play in a combo infested meta so maindeck force of wills are kinda a necessary evil. They are a fine game 1 card vs everything though they get sided out vs fair decks alot. I have forked bolt over chain lighting due to maverick being somewhat popular in my meta. Tribal flames is solid as reach at big creature removal. The grim lavamancer slot can also be filled by kird ape depending on preference.

Having played this deck and RUG delver I think this version of blue zoo is mostly a slightly worse version of RUG delver. I continue to play it becasue I like it better and it fits my playstyle better. Blue zoo packs more punch in the early game and has significantly more reach. However you lose the Land destruction aspect and the mana is somewhat worse. On paper blue zoo mana is similar to RUGs but it is subtly worse. This is because you often have to fetch lands in a way that makes wasteland hurt alot. This can be somewhat mitigated by fetching lands in anticipation of being wasted (like if you hand is heavily dependent on nacatl fetch a land combo that does not allow a single wasteland to shrink nacatl to a 1/1).

[nolink]

Good day to all,

After a much gruesome addition of RTR cards,

Lands
10 fetches
10 duals

Creatures
4 wild nacatl
4 grim lavamancer
4 death rite shaman
4 delver of secrets
4 snapcaster mage

Spells
4 brainstorm
4 path to exile
4 lightning bolt
3 fire//ice
1 umezawa's jitte
4 abrupt decay

Sideboard
3 Thalia
3 arc trail
3 krosan grip
3 spell pierce
3 spellstutter sprite

What do you think?

[Admiral_Arzar]

Good day to all,

*Decklist*

Nowhere near aggro enough. If you're adding colors to Zoo, you're doing so for Delver and Tribal Flames - other stuff is superfluous. You might as well play BUG tempo if you want to play Snapcaster, Abrupt Decay, etc. I haven't played any kind of Zoo in a year, but off the top of my head, if you wanted to actually play 5cc Zoo, you should start with something like this:

4 Delver of Secrets
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Grim Lavamancer
4 Goblin Guide/Vexing Devil
4 Tarmogoyf

4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
4 Brainstorm
4 Tribal Flames
2 Price of Progress
2 Sylvan Library

1 Badlands
1 Plateau
1 Bayou/Underground Sea
2 Tropical Island
2 Volcanic Island
2 Taiga
1 Savannah
10 Fetches