[Deck] Zoo

There's also another Cat-Zoo list that actually made Top 8 at the GP by John Kubilis:

Main Deck
60 cards

4 Arid Mesa
1 Forest
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Karakas
1 Mountain
1 Plains
2 Plateau
1 Savannah
3 Taiga
3 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
22 lands

2 Gaddock Teeg
3 Grim Lavamancer
2 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Qasali Pridemage
4 Steppe Lynx
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Wild Nacatl
23 creatures

2 Chain Lightning
1 Fireblast
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Path to Exile
2 Price of Progress
2 Sylvan Library
15 other spells

Sideboard
3 Choke
1 Gaddock Teeg
2 Krosan Grip
2 Price of Progress
1 Relic of Progenitus
2 Swords to Plowshares
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Umezawa's Jitte
15 sideboard cards

I think the 3x Choke in the sideboard is really strong in the current meta. Choke + Teeg + Thrun, he meta-gamed well for blue-based control.

Seems nice and a lot like Alix Hatfields from ages away with some minor changes, most of them in the sideboard. Jesse's list with no sideboard hate at all for Dredge is kinda bold and the other list doesnt have that much gy hate either. Also, no sb hate for combo.

I actually thought that time of Steppe Lynx is over, but looks like cat zoo did better than big zoo.. anyways, I'm happy that these results should show that zoo is far away from being dead even through a lot of people said that due to Mental Misstep Zoo cannot be played anymore.

Has anyone of you tried mental misstep in your zoo decklists? I tried it out a bit with my friend and.. it didn't feel so amazing in zoo. The only times I lost were due to drawing mental missteps instead of.. anything else.

Also, my metagame is FULL of dredge. How do you prepare for a metagame full of dredge, 3x tormod just doesn't cut it. 4 Tormod, 2 Gaddock and faerie macabre? Any suggestions?

Wheel of sun and moon is good againts dredge, reanimator,etc... and moreover can be usefull againts painters, we can enchant ourself :).

And surgical extraction is an option. Paying two life doesn't really matter when they are usually going to alpha strike/clock you with a fatty. It has a surprise effect like Mindbreak Trap did.

Just got back from GP Providence where I played Cat Zoo to 6-3 day 1, dropping 3 rounds in a row to end my day 2 hopes. Finished 171st place overall.

Round 1-3: byes
Round 4: win vs. Next Level Thresh
Round 5: win vs. 4 color Landstill
Round 6: win vs. Zoo mirror
Round 7: loss vs. Martin Juza playing CFB Mystic Batterskull
Round 8: loss vs. Rock
Round 9: loss vs. Nightmare playing CFB Mystic Batterskull

Teeg in main: excellent
Not playing price of progress: probably a mistake.

Highlight: playing Nightmare in Round 9
Lowlight: punting Games 1 and 3 of that match. I played so terrible...

I'll probably write a tournament report later. It was definitely a great weekend.

Here is the list I played at the GP, i'm not going to go into much detail here since I wrote a report over in the tournament report section:

3 Taiga
3 Plateau
1 Savannah
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Mountain
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Windswept Heath
2 Arid Mesa
2 Horizon canopy

4 Goyf
4 Wild Nacatal
4 Pride Mage
4 Knight of the Reliquary
2 stone forge mystic
1 Terrovore
2 Grim Lava Mancer

4 Lightning bolt
4 Path to Exile
2 Price of Progress
2 Lightning Helix
2 Sylvan Library

1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Jitte
1 Basilisk Collar

SB
3 Choke
2 Null Rod
1 Jitte
1 Batterskull
2 Krosin Grip
2 Thrun the Last Troll
1 Mystic Enforcer
1 Bajuka Bog
2 Swords to plow shares


I was impressred with the list and will continue to play a list like this in the upcoming SCG events. Stoneforge is really good right now esspecially against other stoneforge decks because you have more creatures to equip to.

That list is interesting no noble hierarch while looking as Big Zoo

As long as you're smart with your land choices (it's not as hard to play around wasteland when you only play wild nacatal as "land matters" creatures) then you should be fine. I did want to play noble, but I just wanted everyone of my cards to do something at all points in the game, and stoneforge does that better than noble. plus equipment help win the goyf war also. I would like to fit an elspeth in there somewhere, but ultimatly Terravore made the cut instead and I won atleast two games because of his trample ability card.

While i'm on the wasteland topic, I found it better to just play more lands rather than to play around wasteland a better plan. I only play 10 fetches as apposed to 12 and 22 lands total. I'd even bate a wasteland by going turn one forest nacatal into platue. They would wasteland and i'd just play more lands.

With Team America being big in the meta, why are decks running fire and ice over feast and famine? At the least I would think run it in the sideboard. Switch it up depending on your matchup colors. The feast is also great. Spend your first main playing burn and removal to make sure you can swing through, then spend the new mana to drop your creatures.

It's really hard to agrue either way. Fire&Ice lets you draw a card and deal 2 which is huge. F&F blocks all black removal while getting through goyfs and knights. The only issue Ihave with F&F is zoo dunes their hand early. Usually you don't have more than two spells to play in a turn by the time you have a guy in play already, have casted the sword, and equiped it to something. The other sword I did consider, however, is sword of light and shadow. It dodged STP and black removal and gets dudes back from the grave who have been MM or forced. The gaining 2 life is pretty pointless though.

I guess it all comes down to personal intrest. I will be considering all my option when I go to SCG Baltimore.

Well, would it be worth the SB slot to main on and SB the other and switch out? The spot people seem to reserve for jitte #2 is for the aggro matches, which can be overcome with pro green or pro blue/red. Not to dis the jitte, but is a 2 of worth the SB slot over countering the removal? I looked at light and shadow and the one thing about the 2 is thats and extra draw with sylvan, but the same can be said for the counters on jitte, but over all I was unimpressed.

Another card I never see in a zoo list is Avoid Fate, I can see why it's not an instant in but with so much removal in the meta, is it not worth the thought?

The reason that I played a second jitte was so that I could kill other jittes and still have a jitte to use. It comes in against the mirror and fish. You're right about all the swords but it's really a tough call as to whats better. They all have there benifits, so I guess it's what you feel your deck is weak against. My issue was having too many cards to bring in during certain mu's.

As for avoid fate, it falls in the same catagory as mental mistep in zoo. You want to be threatening with presure rather than countering there STP's or GFT.

From what I've seen, a lot of people actually have 2 jittes in the sideboard with no mystics at all in the deck. So there's 2 jitte just so you'll have a better chance at drawing it. With mystic I'd think more about whether to run one or two.

Also regarding the swords, I dont really like feast and famine, but that's my personal taste. I myself like sword of body and mind. Protection from blue is.. "nice", and protection from green is very relevant in a format full of tarmogoyfs. Anyways, getting 2/2 wolves to block/race/equip sword seems really good and milling for 10 is always nice for tarmogoyf/terravore. I myself dont think that you really need batterskull for this deck. It's a bit more of a controllish card.

Anyways, I'd be more than glad to suggest Elspeth, Knight-Errant to you. I believe I've won every game (or at least almost!) I've been able to play her. Price of Progress seems like a metagame dependant card, I dont like it md, but I guess it'll be great if you can pull it off!

So, I've been working on a cat zoo list and been thinking about sideboard for my metagame. Here's what I've done so far:

3 Tormod's Crypt
2 Wheel of Sun and Moon
1 Faerie Macabre
3 Price of Progress
2 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Null Rod
2 Red Elemental Blast

Maindeck is really close to Hatfield's list, -1 Sylvan Library and maybe -1 Grim Lavamancer, with added 1/2 Fireblast and 1 Knight of the Reliquary. Yes, my metagame is full of dredge if you're wondering. Can't wait for the next legacy tournament to see this deck in action.

Batterskull is somewhat of a personal choice and a metagame choice. With Stoneforge its a 4/4 for 2 that comes into play under standstill and can give you the pressure to make someone crack their own standstill. If you opt out of stoneforge and landstill is missing from your metagame, you can skip it, but I love how they interact to much to let it by.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Temanaras

Batterskull is somewhat of a personal choice and a metagame choice. With Stoneforge its a 4/4 for 2 that comes into play under standstill and can give you the pressure to make someone crack their own standstill. If you opt out of stoneforge and landstill is missing from your metagame, you can skip it, but I love how they interact to much to let it by.

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If I was Landstill, I wouldn't let that Stoneforge resolve to begin with: between Spell Snare and STP, I will kill it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Temanaras

Well, would it be worth the SB slot to main on and SB the other and switch out? The spot people seem to reserve for jitte #2 is for the aggro matches, which can be overcome with pro green or pro blue/red. Not to dis the jitte, but is a 2 of worth the SB slot over countering the removal? I looked at light and shadow and the one thing about the 2 is thats and extra draw with sylvan, but the same can be said for the counters on jitte, but over all I was unimpressed.

Another card I never see in a zoo list is Avoid Fate, I can see why it's not an instant in but with so much removal in the meta, is it not worth the thought?

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Seems like Fling would be better than Avoid Fate. At least it works towards the goal of killing the opponent. Still too narrow though, because those slots could just be more threats/burn.

So to continue with my card choice questions, in my version of zoo I have been running 2 Magma Jet and it has worked well. The scry has saved me a time or two on dead drops or running into a 6th land when I need a threat. The 2 for 2 is weak, but I want to get peoples opinion.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Temanaras

So to continue with my card choice questions, in my version of zoo I have been running 2 Magma Jet and it has worked well. The scry has saved me a time or two on dead drops or running into a 6th land when I need a threat. The 2 for 2 is weak, but I want to get peoples opinion.

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Why run this over Sylvan Library?

These Zoo lists look really strong, I'm really excited to see that rumors of the deck's demise were overstated. I'm not sure Null Rod is really needed right now and I do like Surgical Extraction, b/c of its versatility; I think Dredge is going to remain popular for a while. The sideboard PoP is nice, I used to do a 3/1 split and have played 2/2, or run none in the 75. 0/4 is ballsy, if only to devote that much sb space to it, but actually makes sense. Sylvan Library seems great right now although I still hate pushing above 2 copies myself. I'd play 3x Reb/Pyro, and I don't know if you need 23 lands with 2-3 Sylvan Libraries, but I haven't tried out that list to really know.

Also, Thrun! That guy is a boss.

With the format reportedly "slowing down", or at least stateside it's slowing down, why not run Steppe Lynx/Wild Nacatl? Screw mental misstep, Zoo has another dozen one drops on deck. Fast aggro will always be a contender