i think the merfolk would stumble down on his seat when he see grim lavamancer resolved in play =)
I played Cat Sligh with 3 Mental Misstep maindecked last night at our local store, so I figured I'd post some thoughts here since the list can play similar to faster Zoo lists.
On MM, I drew it three times in the 14 games I played. I topdecked it against UGr Lavamancer/Trinket Mage tempo when I had the game in the bag pretty much already, so that didn't say much either way. Had one in an opener against Belcher where she just went Grant into SSG into Desperate Ritual, into Belcher things. Had one in an opener against The Gate, and used it on his T1 Duress, only for it to get misstepped back.
I played against Dredge and Aggro Loam on the night as well, so I wouldn't have minded seeing one in 3 1/2(bad against belcher sometimes) out of the 5 matchups. I would say the experiment is inconclusive at this moment, leaning a little towards running 0 over 2-3, but I will try 3 again next time I run this/Fast Zoo out. The only suggestion I would offer right now is not to run 4, because you still have to draw guys and burn and stuff. It's not a card that is magically going to swing unfavorable matchups to our end, or make us immune to Plow/Bolt/Path.
Against the tempo deck with MM, it slowed me down a little but wasn't a back breaker. I just overload them with one drops. They can't counter all of them. I can drop a goyf at any moment, too.
Sulfuric Vortex is still gold. It drew immediate attention from the slower midrange decks I played against, and won the times where it was unanswered.
Bonus random thought:
In a meta like the last SCG where Merfolk/TA/other blue things are rampant at the moment because of Misstep, would it be wise to give Belcher a little more respect in the sideboard in the form of an efficient way to deal with ETW, etc? More Mindbreak Traps? Maybe a Ratchet Bomb/Powder Keg in an Enlightened Tutor package? The thought would be some people would put down TES/ANT until a new list is conceived to fight heavy counter decks, or until the metagame shifts. Belcher, on the other hand, can go from 0-2 mana without too much trouble. But then you would be playing Belcher against loads of blue still. Meh.
This. MM is the new toy on the block right now and people want to use it every chance they can. Although some people will never grow up from countering everything they can counter, the same way some people will always immediately use a wasteland that they draw regardless of game state.Originally Posted by RaNDoMxGeSTuReS
The Zoo listing I'm running is relatively light on 1-drops but it preys on the absence of counterbalance and Krosan Grip (I'm serious, the card went from being ubiquitous in green decks to hardly seeing any play) with a mid-Zoo strategy. Combo isn't particularly prevalent right now, so I'm running a listing with more mid-game card advantage
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Grim Lavamancer
2 Figure of Destiny
3 Tarmogoyf
2 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lightning Helix
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Fire/Ice
3 Isochron Scepter
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Windswept Heath
2 Arid Mesa
2 Wooded Foothills
3 Plateau
3 Taiga
1 Savannah
1 Volcanic Island
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Mountain
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Wasteland
I was just running 20 lands, but that 21st land goes a long way. I miss the 4th goyf though. Goyf is always a good threat.
Sorry, but this isn't zoo.
Battle doesn't need a purpose; the battle is its own purpose. You don't ask why a plague spreads or a field burns. Don't ask why I fight.
Black Knight
Interesting list. I'm new to zoo, so I have a couple questions:
This list has 61 cards. What is likely the weakest card?
Only 3 Tarmogoyf seems sub-optimal but is it really?
How good is Noble Hierarch in zoo?
Thanks guys. I was thinking that maybe one Knight should be cut for the 4th goyf, but I was never really sure.
Noble Hierarch seems like it would be okay for the exalt trigger and for ramp if you're playing big zoo, but overall seems a bit underwhelming since you want your first turn threats to be nacatls, apes, lions that you can start swinging with by turn 2.
3 Goyf really is sub optimal. The lowest zoo should run is 4, there's simply no more efficient two drop to play. Some decks that have more lavamancers might cut a goyf due to synergy, but goyf is a bigger threat against more decks.
when you're playing hierarch and gsz only running 3 goyfs is perfectly fine.
Anyone see David Price's list from the SCG Louisville Open Top 16?
http://sales.starcitygames.com/deckd...p?DeckID=38404
Interesting sideboard...does he just scoop it up to combo, dredge, etc, and hope to play against blue decks all day, or is there something I'm missing?
Also, how do you guys feel about replacing Krosan Grip with Thrun in the sideboard? I feel like Counterbalance is rapidly losing ground in favor of Landstill, and Thrun is effective against both strategies while Grip only hits Countertop.
You sir, are mistaken.
From the opening post:
"R/G/W Zoo is just like it sounds, it is a savagely fast aggro deck that takes advantage of the most efficient and cost effective red/green/white spells in the game."
SpikeyMikey's list screams efficient beaters with reach. The only odd thing about it is running Fire/Ice and single Volcanic Island to cast Ice. Tapping Tarmgoyf seems better than Plowing it.
THINK BEFORE YOU POST!
@ SpikeyMikey - I like your list, but I'm not sold on Basilisk Collar. I think a 2nd Jitte or SoFI might work better - or something that grants trample. Collar is too cute with Grim Lavamancer, but often times Lavamancer is more than sufficient to clear the path for your 1drop beaters.
I do dig the Figures of Destiny tho. It's always fun to bring back old cards.
West side
Find me on MTGO as Koby or rukcus -- @MTGKoby on Twitter
* Maverick is dead. Long live Maverick!
My Legacy stream
My MTG Blog - Work in progress
Who would be playing combo in this environment? Literally every single deck in the top 8 played 4x Force of Will, 4x Mental Misstep, 4x Thoughtseize or 4x Hymn to Tourach. All played at least 2 of those and some played all 4 of those.
Tom? Is that you? I thought you were going to go work on DnD?
So there's a tournament next week and I thought I'd bring the following:
//Lands
3 Plateau
2 Taiga
1 Savannah
1 Plains
1 Mountain
1 Forest
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Arid Mesa
2 Windswept Heath
2 Wasteland
//Creatures
4 Steppe Lynx
4 Wild Nacatl
2 Grim Lavamancer
4 Qasali Pridemage
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Knight of the Reliquary
//Instants
4 Path to Exile
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
3 Price of Progress
//Sorceries
2 Green Sun's Zenith
//Enchantments
1 Sylvan Library
//Sideboard
1 Karakas
2 Ethersworn Cannonist
2 Gaddock Teeg
2 Krosan Grip
3 Choke
2 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Tormod's Crypt
1 Relic of Progenitus
This time round, I want to play a more traditional Zoo build. The metagame is varied. I'd say it's a bit skewed towards combo and control with not so much tribal. Sounds difficult for Zoo, but I reckon it's not a bad choice.
Things that I'd specifically appreciate input on are: The number of KotR, GSZ, Sylvan Library main as well the sideboard. The two Jittes are supposed to help against Goblins and Elves if I happen to run into them. I could replace them with something else, but I don't with what.
Sideboarding plans will follow.
Hi guys,
I'll show you my recent experiment in big zoo.
I'm from Italy so the meta it's a bit different, but also there the most played Tier1 are TA, GW Maverik, Landstill and Merfolk.
So, 'cause I think that the level of the players is grow up in the last 2 years, I think that to overtake a tournament you had to be a pro player or to bring some innovation in a solid deck.
So I started to test this list:
4 wild nacatl
3 noble hierarch
3 grim lavamancer
4 tarmogoyf
3 qasali pridemage
4 knight of the reliquary
1 rafiq of the many
4 swords to plowshares
4 lightning bolt
3 lightning helix
3 green sun's zenith
2 elspeth, knight errant
1 forest
1 plain
1 karakas
3 taiga
2 plateau
1 savannah
1 volcanic island
4 windswepth heath
4 wooded foothills
2 wasteland
1 horizon canopy
SB:
3 choke
3 krosan grip
3 ethersworn canonist
2 gaddock teeg
1 bajuga bog
2 faerie macabre
1 path to exile
So, I feel really well with rafiq, 'cause it give me a second hard closure insted of elspeth. It's not hard to cast due to the mono volcanic island and to noble hierach and it's not so hardly fetching with green sun's zenith.
So what do you think about it?
Tx
The list looks pretty good, but when is Rafiq going to be better than another Elspeth? The mana seems like an issue, so I would rather do a Terravore. He has been a really good finisher for me.
Here is the list I've been working with lately, I just have a few questions for some of the more seasoned players:
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Taiga
3 Savannah
3 Plateau
3 Windswept Heath
4 Arid Mesa
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Mountain
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
4 Qasali Pridemage
4 Path to Exile
4 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Price of Progress
2 Sylvan Library
2 Fireblast
2 Green Sun's Zenith
3 Grim Lavamancer
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Karakas
SB: 2 Krosan Grip
SB: 2 Volcanic Fallout
SB: 1 Thrun, the Last Troll
SB: 4 Enlightened Tutor
SB: 1 Null Rod
SB: 1 Umezawa's Jitte
SB: 1 Dueling Grounds
SB: 1 Ethersworn Canonist
SB: 1 Wheel of Sun and Moon
SB: 1 Pyrostatic Pillar
Obviously the biggest departure is the tutor board, which I could use some advice on. So far in testing it's been pretty good, but I want to make sure I have the right enchantments to cover a large and diverse meta like a SCG open. There are a few cards that I'm a bit unsure about though:
Pyrostatic Pillar: This seems like it could be decent against storm combo/belcher and really bad for Elves, but also affects my entire deck too, not sure if the damage I would take would be enough to make it essentially a break-even card against storm or not.
Wheel of Sun and Moon: I don't know if one slot is really effective against dredge or not, although Teeg can stop Dread Return and Fallout + Dueling Grounds makes short work of Zombies. This seemed like the most effective single spell in our colors.
Volcanic Fallout: I asked about this in regards to Merfolk and was told that it isn't really needed in that matchup, but I feel like it has a lot of utility in other matchups (Elves, Goblins, anything with EtW, Zombie Tokens, etc). If I'm way off base here, let me know.
Thrun: Again I don't know that one of this guy is enough to swing a game against CB or TA, and I don't know if he should be in the SB or the main. My initial thought is that I'd rather have Teeg main to have a better game 1 chance against NO or storm, since the deck doesn't roll over nearly as easily to heavy counters as it does to combo.
Other cards I thought about including in the board inlcude Choke, Serenity, SoFI...any other suggestions are welcome. I'm also thinking of cutting one or both Grips for Vexing Shushers.
As far as the main deck goes, I was considering Terravore, either as a 1-of (-1 KotR) or a 2-of (Teeg/Qasali + KotR). Just not sure how effective he is without Wastes and with Lavamancer chewing through the yard. Elspeth is also something I thought about, but I would want 2 minimum, and I'm not sure what I would cut.
Finally (sorry for this dragging on so long), is there a more current matchup analysis than what's in the first post? Specifically I'm interested in MUC, TA, Junk, Bant and the BUG Team-whatever.
Edit: Completely forgot to mention O-Ring as a possible SB slot, Ensnaring Bridge too, although I think that might be another that hurts as much as it helps.
Last edited by Richard Cheese; 05-25-2011 at 05:27 PM.
@ list above: Since you're running 4 KotR and 2 Green Sun's Zenith, I guess an additional land wouldn't hurt. I count 20 as it is. Also, I wouldn't be comfortable with running only 7 one-drops in Zoo. Your call obviously.
Yep, I was thinking just about that today. It had a lower casting cost and it doesn't need the blue mana...so I could replace the volcanic island with a plateau....maybe I'll use terravore, cause the effect it's the same of rafiq. The only weak point of a list without rafiq is that I had no broken creatures that are not depending from graveyard...and post side this will be a problem if oppont had in SB something like relic of progenits or bajuga bog...terravore will die, kotr will be a simple 2/2 and tarmo is a stupid 0/1...But this is the pleasure of this game!!!
How do you guys feel about the Team America matchup?
I've personally never had a problem with them, but apparently, Zoo on the SCG Open circuit has a <50% matchup against Team America, which I find very surprising. I would imagine that the builds that run only 20 lands and more Steppe Lynxes are more vulnerable to their mana denial package though.
If the Team America knows what they're doing, they're definitely favoured, but not much. Most of the matches in my team's testing sessions went 2-1 for Team America. Most of the cards in that deck are strong against Zoo, and Pernicious Deed can just kill you. The easiest way to win against Team America is to draw multiple Wastelands, they're really strong when coming from Zoo.
Apart from that, the faster your deck is, the better positioned you are against the newer, slow builds.
This is Jesse Hatfield's list from the GP:
3 Arid Mesa
1 Forest
4 Horizon Canopy
1 Mountain
1 Plains
3 Plateau
1 Savannah
2 Taiga
3 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
23 lands
4 Grim Lavamancer
2 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Qasali Pridemage
4 Steppe Lynx
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Wild Nacatl
22 creatures
4 Chain Lightning
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Path to Exile
3 Sylvan Library
15 other spells
Sideboard
2 Krosan Grip
2 Null Rod
4 Price of Progress
2 Red Elemental Blast
1 Swords to Plowshares
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
2 Umezawa's Jitte
15 sideboard cards
Thoughts?
A zoo deck built for a GP. It's consistent and don't afraid of a room full of combo (because it's not 2010 anymore)
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Reply With Quote