FIGHT ME! Top 4 at Mirkwood Cup with Zoo

[lordofthepit]

Background

The Pacific Northwest boasts a vibrant Legacy scene, and the centerpiece of it all is the Mirkwood Cup, held in Arlington, WA. This year a record 95 players stretching from Portland to Vancouver, BC dueled for the right to a Black Lotus and the championship.

I am a big proponent of the Legacy format for its interactivity and its diversity, and I've played dozens of the decks in this format, but my heart has always been with Zoo. My first significant successes in competitive Magic came with that deck in 2010 and 2011, although this was back when Zoo was the most feared archetype in the format. I have since explored many different decks, and though I've had some successful endeavors with these, I have always identified myself as a Zoo pilot. Even when the metagame was unfavorable the last few years, I would occasionally bring the deck to a small event and start beating with cats. I took it briefly to several local tournaments in the last month, going 10-2 in matches through three events, but shelved the deck for a while after a disappointing 2-2 finish in the fourth event, attributing my early success to the rogue factor. I changed instead to Miracles and had decided that I would pilot Miracles for the Mirkwood Cup.

That was not to be. I have a great group of friends that spend a lot of time discussing Magic, but we spend even more time trolling each other. For instance, after one successful Friday night playing poker with a different circle of friends, I pointed out how one of the players was so drunk he called me with a five-high (no, not a typo). But the reply that came back:

Calling with five-high is like bringing Wild Nacatl to a Legacy event.

In a separate instance, I adamantly insisted that a Standard deck would not be favored against a Legacy deck. Unfortunately, I then proceeded to drop two of four games against a Gruul Aggro deck, and for weeks, I would constantly be reminded that I could not beat a Thundermaw Hellkite. My friends had a lot of fun at my expense, and my only retort was "FIGHT ME!"

I have to give a shoutout to Batman, a friend who had recently joined the Legacy scene in Seattle. After I shelved the Zoo deck, Batman not only asked to borrow it, but became committed enough to also build the deck, playtest with me, and discuss tech. After a long while, he convinced me to run Zoo again, if for no other reason than to have a reply other than "FIGHT ME!"

I have never previously written a tournament report, partly because the sweetness of victory usually diminishes by the time I decide to commit it to paper. I make an exception for this event, not only because I did reasonably well, but because I went old school with my favorite deck. Consider this report partly as a response to my friends in the same defiant spirit as "FIGHT ME!", but one that is more coherent and substantive than my previous.

The Deck

// Lands (22)
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Grove of the Burnwillows
2 Taiga
2 Plateau
2 Savannah
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Karakas
1 Dryad Arbor
// Creatures (20)
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Noble Hierarch
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
1 Tarmogoyf
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Gaddock Teeg
3 Qasali Pridemage
4 Knight of the Reliquary
// Other (18)
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Punishing Fire
4 Green Sun's Zenith
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
SB: 3 Engineered Explosives
SB: 3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
SB: 3 Ethersworn Canonist
SB: 1 Red Elemental Blast
SB: 2 Pyroblast
SB: 2 Ancient Grudge
SB: 1 Bojuka Bog

One of the first things you'll note is that this deck resembles a Zoo/Maverick hybrid. I have always preferred and had more success with the Big Zoo style of deck rather than the balls-out pure aggro versions. When the Punishing Fire tech arrived in Legacy Zoo in late 2010, I instantly picked it up and have sworn by it ever since then. This was long before Punishing Fire became a staple of midrange decks like Maverick and Jund in 2012.

I wanted to combine the fast clock and aggressiveness of Zoo, the flexibility and card quality of Maverick, and the resilience of Jund. I was more than happy to ditch black, because I feel discard spells are terrible topdecks and are minimally effective against combo decks where you could easily lose to a topdeck; moreover, so many of the top combo decks either rely on the graveyard or run Leyline of Sanctity.

The sideboard options were tailored to the expected metagame. I felt I had a reasonable shot against Reanimator and Dredge even without dedicated sideboard graveyard hate, so I skimped on the graveyard hate and hoped to dodge those matchups. Instead, I wanted to focus on Show and Tell (particularly the currently popular Omniscience variants) and Elves. I decided to opt for versatile hate cards that could potentially be powerful in many matchups.

The Tournament

Note: The only notes I took during the games were information on which player was playing first and the number of cards they kept in their opening hand. Everything else is from memory, so there may be some inaccuracies.

R1 - U/B Tezzerator (2-0)

This match was with a friend and teammate with whom I talk a lot of trash. I expected him to be on Sneak Attack, Hive Mind, or Tezzerator, so I was feeling a bit nervous before the match.

G1: I keep a fairly reasonable hand on the play against Tezzerator with Qasali Pridemage, Zenith, Sylvan Safekeeper, and some other playables. I figured I had little chance preboard against the combo decks anyway, so it was a pretty easy decision. I beat him early with a Pridemage, which I deliberately ran into a Ratchet Bomb so I could play some other threats. He plays a Tezzeret and ticks it up, and I kill it with a swing from Safekeeper followed by a Bolt. I eventually stick Qasali Pridemage and Scavenging Ooze. He plays a Chalice at 0 and then plays Transmute Artifact in what I assume is a desperation play. I consider blowing up the Chalice to prevent him from Tinkering, but I don't think he has any outs and I allowed it to resolve to gain some information. He grabs a Thopter Foundry, which he ends up sacrificing to itself in order to get a token to chump block. I use the life gain trigger from Thopter Foundry to bring back a Punishing Fire (which had previously dealt with a Baleful Strix) to end the game.

SB: +3 REBs, +2 Ancient Grudge, -3 Swords to Plowshares, -2 Lightning Bolt (one-drops are bad and these cards are low impact). I may have ditched the Elspeth and the Safekeeper for some Thalias as well, but I am not sure.

G2: I keep a fairly strong hand which included Hierarch, Zenith, REB, Punishing Fire, and Swords to Plowshares (the one copy I kept in). I rip Pridemage off the top and lead with Hierarch. He plays Ratchet Bomb. I run the Pridemage into the Ratchet Bomb so I could continue to play other two-drops later, tapping the Hierarch and a Savannah, leaving up Taiga. He blows up my Pridemage with the Bomb and follows with Jace, which I blast. I untap and play a Zenith for two, and after tanking for about 30 seconds (I usually play very fast), grab a Gaddock Teeg. My logic was that I needed to shut off the planeswalkers, Damnation, and Engineered Explosives, and that deck didn't run much removal, especially having already played Ratchet Bomb (I wasn't sure whether it ran Perish, but I likely could not beat that card anyway). I'm able to beat him repeatedly with an exalted Teeg while he is unable to do much, as I Swords and Grudge the few cards he plays out. After the match, he shows me a Jace, Tezz, and two Damnations.

R2 - U/R Omniscience (2-0)

This was another player from our local game store who typically played Omniscience or Stiflenought, although leaning more towards the former recently. I knew he preferred the Burning Wish builds that ran Petals of Insight.

G1: My opponent wins the die roll and mulls to 6. I keep a slow 7 that included my one-of Gaddock Teeg, which I figure is a reasonable play off Show and Tell. He leads with Island and Petal with a cantrip. I play a land and pass (I don't recall having a turn 1 play). He plays a turn 2 Show and Tell, dropping in Omniscience. I drop in a Teeg. He cantrips what felt like a million times that turn, but somehow he ships the turn back to me. I draw a Green Sun's Zenith and a Karakas at some point, and I beat slowly with Teeg and a naturally drawn Dryad Arbor. He plays a bunch of cantrips again on his turn, followed by Burning Wish, and I'm worried that he'll just wreck my board; instead he grabs an Overmaster, plays it, and passes. I realize that this situation is very precarious, since the Burning Wish builds run 4 legendary creatures, the Gaddock Teeg alone is still weak. I decide to bounce Teeg end of turn with Karakas to turn on my Zenith for Pridemage, which I use to blow up his Omniscience before replaying Teeg the next turn. I eventually get there.

He remarks after the game that he considered Grapeshotting my board, but that he would have been left with no gas, so he used an Overmaster to dig deeper.

SB: +3 Thalia, +3 Ethersworn Canonist, +3 REBs, -4 Punishing Fire, -4 Swords, -2 Elspeth, -1 Lightning Bolt, +2 Ancient Grudge (he led with Petal in Game 1 and I felt he might expose it in Game 2 if I could land a Thalia; I also feared Pithing Needle on Pridemage).

G2: My opponent mulls to 6. I join him but am pleased with Nacatl, Thalia, Canonist, REB, and two lands. My first two plays of Nacatl and Thalia are Dazed, but I eventually stick another creature (Ooze?) in order to put on a clock. I sandbag the Canonist, because my intention is to allow his first Show and Tell to resolve, dropping in a Canonist, then destroying his Omniscience while he's locked out by Canonist. Eventually, I manage to get a Pridemage on the board. He plays an EOT Cunning Wish, grabbing Intuition. He then mainphases his Intuition. I assume he's looking for half of his combo, and I'm tempted to proceed with my original line of play, but I realize my board is weak to an Emrakul or a Griselbrand, and the presence of Pridemage probably takes him off the Omniscience plan, so I play my REB. I am pleasantly surprised when he has no counterspell, but instead remarks, "Well, that was rude."

I eventually draw a second Canonist the turn before lethal, so I play out one of them in order to slow him down from cantripping. It gets there.

R3 - Death and Taxes (2-1)

I'm facing another friend this round. I know he's on Death and Taxes because he's borrowing some of my cards, and I regret informing him that I was on Zoo about 20 minutes before this match started. Nonetheless, I felt at the time that given my plethora of creature and artifact removal as well as my aggressive clock, that this would be an easy matchup as long as I don't do something stupid. That being said, I had not played the matchup very much.

G1: I win the roll, and we both keep our sevens. Mine consists of two Nacatls, a Hierarch, a Qasali Pridemage, a few lands, and one removal spell. I lead with Nacatl, followed by Nacatl and Hierarch (allowing me to swing for 4 on turn 2). He eventually trades a Swords and a Flickerwisp for my two Nacatls to stabilize at 8 life, but my Knight crashes in to take him to three. Meanwhile, I had been sandbagging a Grove of the Burnwillows in my hand since early in the game in order to protect from Wasteland. I swing with Knight again, and he Vials in a Flickerwisp, but on my second main, I show him the Punishing Fire I had just drawn, play the Grove, and end the game.

SB: -1 Gaddock Teeg, -1 Sylvan Safekeeper, -2 Elspeth, -1 Tarmogoyf, +3 Engineered Explosives, +2 Ancient Grudge

G2: We both keep our sevens, with mine being a removal-heavy hand with no pressure (double Punishing Fire, double Swords, Ancient Grudge, and two fetchlands). Nonetheless, this is an easy keep. I am relieved when he passes turn 1 with no play, and I reciprocate in kind. He plays a Turn 2 Stoneforge fetching a Jitte. I kill it with Punishing Fire at the end of turn, which he promptly nails with Surgical Extraction. He eventually follows up with another Stoneforge, but hesitates to run out the equipment knowing the Grudge is in my hand. I am hesitant to use the first Swords on such a weak target, fearing a second Swords, but he eventually plays a creature that I have to deal with. I indeed cast Swords on that, and he has the second Extraction, so I hit the Stoneforge as well. I put some pressure with Qasali Pridemage, but it's no match for his Flickerwisps and Mirran Crusaders.

G3: We both keep our sevens for a third straight game, with mine consisting of Nacatl, Ancient Grudge, a few creatures, but only a Bolt as removal. I lead with the cat and Bolt his T1 Mother, then Grudge his T2 Vial. I aggressively bring the beats, but I eventually stall out when he sends my Nacatl farming. My Knight of the Reliquary is met by a Mirran Crusader. I draw lands, Nacatls, and Hierarchs instead of the removal I desparately needed while he draws Flickerwisp to bring more beats and to give his Crusader pseudo-vilgilance. I am unable to do anything but activate Knight for fetchlands end of turn to attempt to thin out my library.

Eventually, at the end of his turn, the life total stands him at 10, me at 4, with a Knight, Nacatl, and Hierarch with a ton of land on my side of the board, including one Grove. He has a tapped Flickerwisp, an untapped Crusader, and an untapped Flickerwisp, plus 4 lands. I consider my outs and fetch for a Plateau (which I immediately realized was a mistake--I should have gotten a fetchland then a Plateau as I normally do in order to thin out the deck as much as possible). My outs were 4 Punishing Fire, which would instantly kill him by taking out his two untapped creatures, or one of three Engineered Explosives to sweep his board at the cost of my Knight. I drew the latter and was back on the offensive with my Nacatl, taking the match a few turns later.

I'm very fortunate to have escaped this match with a win. My friend is a strong player and a really level headed guy who never tilts, so I have to give him props for being a good sport here.

R4 - Omniclash (2-1)

I recognized my round 4 opponent from previous events several years ago, where he was on decks like U/R Painter (with Show and Tell) and NO Show. However, since I had not played him recently (and because he had unfortunately lost a lot of cards to a thief), I made no assumptions about the deck he was playing.

G1: I kept a weak seven card hand on the play, with Qasali Pridemage, Lightning Bolt, and five lands, resigning myself to not being able to beat a combo deck game 1 anyway. I rip the awkward turn 2 Nacatl, which I play and pass. He plays a Dream Halls around turn 4 and casts Enter the Infinite; I respond by blowing up the Dream Halls with the Pridemage to buy myself a turn, but I knew that I was pretty much dead to an opponent with a full grip anyway.

SB: +3 Thalia, +3 Ethersworn Canonist, +3 REBs, -3 Punishing Fire, -4 Swords, -2 Elspeth

G2: I know Lejay recommends that Omniclash players choose the draw against most decks in order to get a card deeper, but I can't imagine that would apply against my deck which runs neither counters nor discard, so I take the play.

I keep a strong seven with Ethersworn Canonist, Thalia, and reasonable pressure. My Thalia eats a Force of Will, but I am able to stick a Qasali Pridemage to allow me to put pressure while sandbagging Ethersworn Canonist to ensure protection from Omniscience. Midway through the game, he plays a Cunning Wish, grabbing Slaughter Pact (although I don't remember when). He plays Show and Tell into Dream Halls or Omniscience and I drop in Canonist. I don't pop my Pridemage yet because the clock is relevant.

I swing with a 4/4 Knight, Canonist, Pridemage, and Dryad Arbor with him at 7. He plays Slaughter Pact on Canonist. This would still represent lethal, but I fear a second bounce spell to prevent lethal, followed by multiple Trickbinds to take care of my Pridemage and the delayed Pact trigger, so I pop my Pridemage in response while the Canonist can still lock him out. He dies on upkeep, but the line I took didn't matter.

G3: We both keep our sevens, with my opponent opting to play. I have a strong hand with Zenith, Thalia, and Canonist. My Thalia resolves on Turn 2, and while my Zenith gets Forced, his subsequent Dream Halls doesn't leave him with enough to go off. I then cast Canonist to ensure the win.

R5 - Punishing Jund (2-0)

I had never played this opponent before, but I recognized him as having played a non-Punishing Fire version of Jund at the previous Mirkwood event that I had attended, winning first place. He is a strong player who also made the top 8 of this event.

G1: My opponent wins the die roll and mulls to six. I keep a shaky seven with two Groves as my lands, but several Zeniths, an Elspeth, Bolt and Punishing Fire. I am rewarded when my opponent leads with Grove into Deathrite Shaman. Since there is nothing relevant he could play with no cards in the yard, I opt to save my Bolt for a more worthwhile target. He misses his second land drop, so I Bolt the Shaman EOT anyway. I then Zenith into a Hierarch, and on the next turn, slam Elspeth on the table. The match does not last much longer from that point, even though he quickly draws out of his mana screw.

SB: -1 Gaddock Teeg, +1 Engineered Explosives

G2: My opponent keeps his seven. I do as well, with Forest, Savannah, and Grove as my lands, Nacatl, Hierarch, and some removal as my gas. My Nacatl bites the dust to a Lightning Bolt. I get Hymned twice, leaving me tight on mana, but I rip an early Green Sun's Zenith, which fetches a Tarmogoyf, as I only have three mana accessible and need something that survives a Bolt. He appears to pull ahead with a Scavenging Ooze, but I was holding a Swords as answer. He eventually draws lands and a Life from the Loam, leaving my manabase decimated, but he's unable to answer exalted beats from the Goyf on board.

Note that Tarmogoyf is the creature I fetch less than any other in the deck, but in this case, its presence as a singleton was absolutely crucial.

R6 - Miracle/Helm (ID)
R7 - Deathblade (ID)

I end seven rounds of Swiss as the highest 5-0-2 player, with the #2 seed.

T8 - Jund (2-0)

I had never seen my opponent before this tournament, but after a quick win in round 5, I was able to scout the other top table and identify him as being on Jund. I think he had some idea of what I was on, but he wasn't entirely sure.

G1: I choose to play, and we both keep our sevens. I don't remember much about this game, but I had several creatures eating chunks of his life, while my removal took care of any guys he tried to deploy. I eventually stuck a Scavenging Ooze, although it was entirely unnecessary.

SB: -1 Thalia, +1 Engineered Explosives

G2: I'm on the draw, and we both keep our sevens, with mine looking something like Nacatl, Zenith, Pridemage, some removal, and a few lands. He opened with a Dread of Night. My first three turns begin with Nacatl, Zenith for Hierarch, and Pridemage (and possibly a removal spell for one of his creatures). He plays a Liliana and forces me to sacrifice; I bin the Pridemage. Since I was holding Bolt, Explosives, and Scavenging Ooze, while he held four cards, I decided to attack him and deal with the Liliana at one counter later. He deployed Tarmogoyf and Dark Confidant before ticking up Liliana, and that information allowed me to discard the Bolt instead of the Explosives. I apologized for the blowout that ensued on my next turn.

The match was essentially over, but I played a bit carelessly. First, I played an Ooze with two green sources available. Rather than waiting to untap with more green mana sources available, I activated the Ooze at the end of his turn, allowing him to trade with a Lightning Bolt (an aggressive line of play that I would normally never commit). Second, I committed a Knight and a Wild Nacatl to the board the next turn, deciding I'd rather risk a Pernicious Deed than discard effects, since Jund plays more of the latter than the former, if it even runs any Deeds at all. That was a poor decision though, since my opponent had to answer not only the threats in my hand, but also my superior board, which would require several cards; instead by overextending, I exposed myself to the possibility of getting blown out by a single card.

T4 - Deathblade (0-2)

The top 4 consisted of guys who all knew each other, and we were more than happy to split. I was facing a friend and teammate who was new to the format but had already proven to be a very strong player. Nonetheless, we were told to still play the matches out so that we could determine the champion, and I certainly wanted to win to take home the trophy.

I feel that with my abundance of removal, including a Punishing Fire engine that answers every single one of their threats besides Geist of Saint Traft, that this matchup would be solidly in my favor. My job was to avoid losing to an early, unchecked Batterskull or Geist long enough to set up that combination.

G1: I opted to play and mulled my seven which consisted of Wild Nacatl, double Punishing Fire, and Grove, but unfortunately, no other lands. I kept a six that included three lands, two Pridemages, and an Elspeth. The game quickly turns south though when my Pridemage and Elspeth are Thoughtseized and the Pridemage I did deploy is Decayed. I draw several lands and have no removal for a Stoneforge Mystic. I eventually draw Nacatl and Goyf, but my Goyf is repeatedly bounced by Jace as my opponent opts to play the tempo game (a correct decision, given my inevitability). A Scavenging Ooze is answered by Detention Sphere and a Knight that I drew is sent farming, while Jace continues to bounce my Goyf.

I am fortunate enough to rip a Green Sun's Zenith off the top, fetching up a third Pridemage to the incredulity of my opponent who didn't think I ran so many. He had by this point fetched up a Jitte with a Stoneforge. He had a Batterskull equipping a Germ token, two Stoneforge Mystics, and one mana open. I had a ton of lands and a Wild Nacatl. I considered passing the turn, blocking the Germ to buy a turn, and popping the Pridemage to answer either the Jitte or the Detention Sphere on Ooze. However, still having not seen a removal spell, I decided that I could not answer a Batterskull on any creature and needed to destroy it before he untapped with mana available to bounce (this was the last Pridemage in my deck). This meant that I would need to trade the Wild Nacatl for an equipped Stoneforge and two Jitte counters, and draw removal (preferably Punishing Fire) for the rest of his creatures. I was unable to do so, and when he followed up with a Deathrite Shaman the next turn, the game was over.

SB: As I previously mentioned, I believe I have the inevitability if I survive Batterskull or Geist of Saint Traft. I considered Swords to Plowshares a weak answer to all of his creatures (aside from being able to trigger Punishing Fire without a Grove). I brought in REBs to potentially counter Geist as well as Jace if I couldn't draw Punishing Fire, Thalias as additional blockers for a resolved Geist, and Ancient Grudges to ensure that Batterskull wouldn't get out of hand (or equipped to Geist).

+3 REBs, +2 Ancient Grudge, -1 Noble Hierarch, -1 Gaddock Teeg, -3 Swords to Plowshares

I probably should have taken out more Noble Hierarchs. Deathblade does not aggressively attack your manabase. It's weak to Jitte and to the sweepers that certainly come in for Game 2. It is a terrible blocker and the exalted triggers are not significant since Zoo is unlikely to goldfish Deathblade and our creatures would typically outclass theirs anyway.

G2: Having been punished by two Thoughtseizes for my previous mull to 6, I opt to keep a seven card hand of double Nacatl, Punishing Fire, Bolt, Ancient Grudge, Savannah, and Dryad Arbor. I lead with Nacatl off Savannah. I rip a blank on my second turn and attack before playing Dryad Arbor in order to bait a Swords (which works), then followed up with my second Nacatl. I eventually Zenith for Hierarch to get a third mana source, but still no red. My opponent plays a Jace on his fourth turn, followed by a Supreme Verdict, fatesealing me off red every turn. I never draw a red source before Jace hits 12, with a hand consisting of double Bolt, double Punishing Fire, Ancient Grudge, and Swords to Plowshares.

Conclusion

I had an absolute blast. Most of the comments throughout the day were usually something like "wait, are you really playing Wild Nacatl?", which persisted even until the last Swiss match I played in Round 5. By the time the 3/3 cat was out of the bag, these remarks ranged from "it would be awesome if you took this down with Wild Nacatl" to "I hope he gets you, because you would be insufferable if you won with Zoo". It was all in good fun though.

Props are in order:
- To most of my opponents for being good sports, as I will readily admit I was running very well for most of the day.
- To my teammates for playtesting with me
- To my friends who supported my decision to play Zoo
- To my friends who talked smack and goaded me into playing Zoo to prove a point
- To the organizers and the judge at Mirkwood & Shire Cafe for running a great event

And of course, I have to get the last word in...

[danyul]

Lol nice report. I want to see more. Also you should have changed the flavor text on your card. Suffering in silence isn't your style at all.

We riiiiich biatch!

[lordofthepit]

Also you should have changed the flavor text on your card. Suffering in silence isn't your style at all.

Fixed that for you.

[feline]

Nice, I had Zoo for a while myself, so I always like seeing it perform whenever it does. Grats on the top 4!

[Nickm]

Nice work dude, good report.

[GoblinSettler]

Congrats.

I was crushed by Batman in round 2. Not prepared for Zoo at all.

[CML]

lucksack

[Lemnear]

Tbh aside from Nacatl and Lightning Bolt, the deck is a pure Maverick (StoP, GSZ, KotR, etc.) sans Thalia and Mother of Runes :/

[lordofthepit]

Nice, I had Zoo for a while myself, so I always like seeing it perform whenever it does. Grats on the top 4!

I recognized your name not only for your mastery of High Tide, but also for having written the current Zoo primer. How appropriate that a mage named Feline would be a fan of Wild Nacatls?

Thanks for your thorough job on the primer and for distinguishing between the different variants!

Nice work dude, good report.

Thanks. You too on your recent tournaments.

Congrats.

I was crushed by Batman in round 2. Not prepared for Zoo at all.

We were hoping the rogue factor might help out somewhat. Zoo is a deck that can be tailored to beat your expected metagame, but it's definitely not the most intrinsically powerful thing you could be doing. I certainly won't be jamming this at every event since the benefits are diminished when people are prepared for you.

Also, the matchup is pretty rough for Goblins to begin with, so it was pretty unfortunate you got paired against Batman!

lucksack

I'm eagerly awaiting your tournament report.

Tbh aside from Nacatl and Lightning Bolt, the deck is a pure Maverick (StoP, GSZ, KotR, etc.) sans Thalia and Mother of Runes :/

I would not disagree that this is more similar to current Maverick decks than to conventional Zoo, but Big Zoo is an established archetype (although one with far fewer pilots than small Zoo).

To be fair, the original Maverick decks (pre-GSZ) were very different from the original Zoo lists, but Big Zoo put up results in Legacy well before GSZ was printed. Since GSZ is pretty much the best non-blue, non-land card in the format, it made sense for both of these midrange-aggro strategies to adopt them. Their respective 75s do share considerable similarity.

But make no mistake about it, the lists play out very differently, much like ANT and TES do. A turn 1 Mother of Runes followed by a turn 2 Hierarch means you sit back defensively. A turn 1 Nacatl followed by a turn 2 Hierarch beats for four. Note the absence of Wasteland and Maze of Ith in my current list (although those cards have been in and out of my Zoo deck). Maverick wants to clog up the ground and win a grindfest with cards like Mother of Runes, Umezawa's Jitte, and various fliers getting exalted boosts. Punishing Zoo is capable of playing a grindfest, but it would prefer to just remove blockers with its multiple removal spells and yell "MOVE BITCH, GET OUT THE WAY!" as it crushes an opponent's face.

[ESG]

And this is why we Force the Wild Nacatl ...

But this Mirkwood Cup the cats were on your side! Congrats, Shawn. You've done a lot of work on Zoo through the years, and it's always paid dividends in your finishes.

[blindspotxxx]

Great report! Go go Aggro!

[Purgatory]

I like it when fair decks go the distance.

Nice report, thanks for writing it up for us! And congrats on the result!

[Plague Sliver]

Nice report, anybody that reps Zoo is a winner in my book.

Also cool that you recognized some of your play mistakes, and commented on them. Good self-awareness.

Nice job

[lordofthepit]

Nice report, anybody that reps Zoo is a winner in my book.

Also cool that you recognized some of your play mistakes, and commented on them. Good self-awareness.

Nice job

Thank you for the compliments.

I noticed that a lot of strong players at my local store, as well as players whose opinions I respect, will provide detailed information about interesting lines of play and will try to re-analyze their decisions for errors. I'm trying to do the same thing to help myself to improve as a player. Hopefully, it's also interesting for someone reading this report, and I would appreciate it if you guys could point out if I made any mistakes (based on the scenarios I've described).

[nudon]

Thank you for the compliments.

I noticed that a lot of strong players at my local store, as well as players whose opinions I respect, will provide detailed information about interesting lines of play and will try to re-analyze their decisions for errors. I'm trying to do the same thing to help myself to improve as a player. Hopefully, it's also interesting for someone reading this report, and I would appreciate it if you guys could point out if I made any mistakes (based on the scenarios I've described).

Congrats on the finish! It's refreshing to see someone pilot a rogue deck to a nice finish. In general, I also try to re-evaluate some of my line of plays to avoid making similar mistakes in the future or to next-level the opponent. Finding mistakes from the opposing player is also very useful as well.