[Deck] Blue Zoo

[troopatroop]

I'm also not afraid of Wasteland. We're as good as any deck can be against Standstill with 11 1drops. Wasteland build will have a better Landstill matchup, just for the ability to hit Mishra's Factory or duals when they draw basics. I've done more tweaking with the Steppe Lynx build, and I've since cut Force of Will. Controversial? Absolutely, but I won't be 2for1ing myself anymore. The card was always in question, and the deck might not need it in the current environment. This is my first attempt, a green-less build with Plated Geopede. Hate all you want, but the ONLY 2cc cards are Geopede and Fire/Ice. The curve is Saucey, and I'm suprised more people didn't look at Daze + Steppe Lynx/Geo.

4 Steppe Lynx
4 Goblin Guide
3 Grim Lavamancer
4 Plated Geopede

4 Mental Misstep
4 Daze
4 Brainstorm
1 Ponder

3 Fire/Ice
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Chain Lightning

4 Wasteland
2 Tundra
2 Volcanic Island
3 Plateau

4 Flooded Strand
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Arid Mesa

This is like, the new Team America :D 22 Lands like a baller. I would like to fit Fireblast in there, possibly over Fire/Ice? Someone help me

Edit: On second look +1 Plateau -1 Arid Mesa. 6 Targets is probably fine, but 7 is much safer.

[Hanni]

The Steppe Lynx build should definitely be cutting Force of Will... but it shouldn't be running Plated Geopede either. You want to be as aggressive as possible during the beginning, and you want to switch to a burn role as soon as that plan fails.

R/U/w/g Blue Sligh

Lands (18)
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Arid Mesa
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Volcanic Island
1 Plateau
1 Taiga
1 Tropical Island
1 Tundra
1 Savannah

Creatures (15)
4 Goblin Guide
3 Kird Ape
4 Steppe Lynx
4 Wild Nacatl

Spells (27)
4 Brainstorm
4 Mental Misstep
4 Daze
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
4 Rift Bolt
3 Fireblast

I haven't done any fine-tuning to the manabase, as this is just a rough list. Also, Phantasmal Bear could possibly replace the Kird Ape's.

The idea here is simply to protect your creature threats early (turns 1 and 2) to maximize early damage output, and then go for the throat once the aggro plan fails. If the opponent does land a fat Tarmogoyf, you just proceed to burn him out.

[troopatroop]

I really like it for the most part, as it's really focused. The manabase seems... perfect almost. What really turns me on to it is Goblin Guide. It's the only card that's onpar with Lynx and Nacatl as far as speed is concerned. Daze is still a very potent counterspell in this strategy, and I like the 15 burn spells.

I was going to say, I want to see Grim Lavamancer. Then I thought on it, realized you have crazy amounts of burn, and saw Kird Ape to round out the crew. He's better than Lavamancer in a build like that. Rift Bolt and Fireblast is Ballsy, I bet Storm wouldn't like that shit. It's almost impossible to not curve out with that build. Or, it is impossible, with everything at 1cc.

Note that you have 18 lands with Steppe Lynx. Brainstorm helps I suppose. Thumbs up!

[ajfennewald]

Caleb Durwood just became co champion of the SCG open with this very different take on blue zoo.

Maindeck:

Creatures
3 Grim Lavamancer
3 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Noble Hierarch
2 Qasali Pridemage
2 Tarmogoyf
4 Wild Nacatl

Instants
4 Brainstorm
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Mental Misstep
4 Swords to Plowshares

Planeswalkers
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Sorceries
3 Green Sun's Zenith

Basic Lands
1 Forest

Lands
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Plateau
1 Savannah
1 Taiga
2 Tropical Island
1 Tundra
1 Volcanic Island
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills

Land Creatures
1 Dryad Arbor

Legendary Lands
1 Karakas

Sideboard:
2 Phyrexian Metamorph
2 Aven Mindcensor
2 Ancient Grudge
3 Red Elemental Blast
3 Submerge
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Tower of the Magistrate

[troopatroop]

Wow, this is just the beginning. Noble Hierarch makes it Big Blue Zoo, imo :D I personally love it. I never thought of using Noble Hierarch for turn 3 Jace! How spicey, I absolutely love that build of it. Not as fast, but FoWless with Zenith! No Dazes! Stp/Bolt/Grim like Big Zoo + Jace.

I'd love to interview him on the deck, or hear someone else do it. He's a major name at SCG, and his input here would be greatly appreciated!

Basically, the only cards he's taking in Blue are Brainstorm and Jace. Mental Misstep really doesn't count. Here I was playing Daze and FoW! :P

[kiblast]

Caleb Durwood

Durward.

And btw, Tower of the Magistrate starts showing out in sideboards.

[Catitas]

caleb payed a list similar to mine although my list was before mental misstep

http://www.thecouncil.es/tcdecks/dec...8&iddeck=42456

jace + brainstorm > sylvan library

jace works out has card advantage and removal i recall only using it for that purpose, i think theres a possibly, a little space in main to pack 2 vendilion cliques specially if your running karakas, the hierarchs fix your blue mana needs

has for his side options i really dont like the tower i'd rather have a 3rd grudge...

[catmint]

I was also stunned to see caleb's take on blue zoo.
With KotR and Jace his plan is clearly to have a stronger mid game and he did not expect a lot of combo.

Concerning Steppe lynx. I think the synergy is better with Sea Drake than with Daze.

[whiley85]

I mentioned the synergy with sea drake and lynx a few pages before. It didn't work...
On turn 3 you don't want such a drawback, on turn 4 he's too slow and I didn't feel that drake was needed once for lynx. Daze was already enough.
I can imagine to cut lynx down to 3 like mancer, cause you want it in your starthand otherwise you want to shuffle it away...

[troopatroop]

I really like his build of the deck. I feel like this is an archetype that can be further explored, but he showed that Nacatl works great in a controllish build with Jace. In the games during top 8, Wild Nacatl alone was enough pressure to win games. Rather than making burn his backup plan, and aiming for a fast goldfish, he opted for the (brilliant) package of 4 Hierarch, 3 GSZ, 3 KoTr, and 3 Jace.

Zenith and Hierarch both serve to accellerate Jace, much like No-RuG accelerates Natural Order. It just seemed like Jace with any amount of creature pressure was so much to handle, and an even safer/faster plan than 2 turns of Progenitus. It's a really terrific list, and I'm happy that Tropical -> Nacatl is getting exposure. Now that people know/expect this deck, I'm going to keep testing Daze over Jace/Hierarch.

Caleb! I somewhat remember you chiming in on the U/G Survival-Vine thread. Care to share some insight?

[Jak]

Caleb! I somewhat remember you chiming in on the U/G Survival-Vine thread. Care to share some insight?

FYI, he was actually the one to make that deck and Vengevine popular in Legacy.

Anyway, I love his list and thought it was brilliant. One of the most interesting decks I have seen. I'd love to hear his insight.

[ajfennewald]

he wrote about the deck in an article like two weeks ago. Changed a bit since then but mostly what he played.

[ScatmanX]

I definitively think that he considered, but I'm wondering if Elspeth could be better than Jace in this agroo build. 7/7 flying Nacatls on turn 3 seems better than landing Jace.
Just want to see if this can generate some discussion.

Oh, and congratz to Caleb for the result!

[catmint]

I think the list is a genius metagame decision. Aggro/Midrange with Jace is just very good versus Stoneforge, Merfolk and other popular decks with a huge surprise factor. The opponents did just not know what to do....

Since the list totally folds to combo it is not like something that can be a Tier1 deck in a changing metagame.

The list this thread discussed so far was a threshhold like tempo deck and as many people posted they had a lot of problems with stoneforge and KotR.

[ajfennewald]

Since the list totally folds to combo it is not like something that can be a Tier1 deck in a changing metagame.

Regular zoo totally fold s to most combo too ( excepting creature based combo) and it is still often a tier 1 deck

[troopatroop]

Regular zoo totally fold s to most combo too ( excepting creature based combo) and it is still often a tier 1 deck

Truth. This deck doesn't NEED to fold to combo, however. If I expected to go into a more combocentric environment, I would play a faster build with Force and Daze. Spell Pierce is a great SB card for combo, and Blue can greatly improve these matchups, but only if you desire to do so. Seems fine.

I am really sold on his build. It's ridiculously consistant, and draws alot of cards. Turn 3 Jace is very devastating, because if the opponent can't attack through your creatures at that point (Nacatl/Goyf), they're in really deep shit. Brainstorming each turn is awesome, and it makes it really hard to lose. Whether or not Jace has been better than Elspeth on every occasion is uncertain, as Elspeth can win a game faster than Jace, but Jace is consistantly awesome for me.

Casting a Planeswalker a turn early is really valuable, because you get another activation out of it (derpderp). Jace even circumvents the card disadvantage you're taking for playing Noble Hierarch in the first place by Brainstorming for free, so you lose nothing for playing the acceleration. This is beautiful, because it actually pays to get ahead early, putting you in a great position to win the game with more cards even if they answer your stuff. To top it all off, many decks just lose to the Jace right there! So it's a really powerful line, often started with a Wild Nacatl or Tarmogoyf to defend it, coupled with A+ removal spells and Brainstorm. There's really no reason this build of the deck shouldn't be Tier 1-1.5 status, imo.

You could also play Daze if you expected combo, but he didn't feel he needed it. GSZ for Teeg and Spell Pierce SB is what I'm thinking.

[deviant]

You can also just play cards like meddling mage and vendilion clique.

[kiblast]

GSZ for Teeg and Spell Pierce SB is what I'm thinking.

Exactly what I'm testing in my sb. 1 Teeg and 3 Spell Pierce. Also note that the couple of Mindcensor Caleb used in SB are effective not only against fetchlands, but also against Infernal Tutor. And since this deck can easily develop 3 mana on turn 2, they are pretty good.

[kiblast]

GSZ for Teeg and Spell Pierce SB is what I'm thinking.

Exactly what I'm testing in my sb. 1 Teeg and 3 Spell Pierce. Also note that the couple of Mindcensor Caleb used in SB are effective not only against fetchlands, but also against Infernal Tutor. And since this deck can easily develop 3 mana on turn 2, they are pretty good and not slow like in any other deck you could play them.

[luudes]

Burning tree shaman.
I have been testing it out in the sideboard as a GSZ target and it has been AWESOME so far. If it sticks against landstill/ factory decks then you can burn them out. It also laughs at top, port, stoneforge, equipment. In a deck that can shift into aggro mode quickly this guy can provide some real reach if the board is somewhat stalled (and a 3/4 for 3...)