I decided to add a ranger toolbox to my deck and was wondering what I could fetch with them besides the obvious (apes, lions, and nacatls). Here's my list right now. I was thinking of taking out the 2 V cliqs in the board for goblin guides, swapping a forest for another stomping ground, and swapping 1 loam lion and 1 kird ape for other 1 drops to fetch with the ranger. My first choice right now is running 1 goblin bushwhacker and 1 grim lavamancer.
My only thought with the ranger package why scute mob? By the time we have enough land to get him bigger then a 1/1 we should have won or be with in 2 life of winning. He was great in boss naya but this format is to fast for him in my mind. If you are running ranger I would say goblin guide and grim are your best creatures to fetch (nactal of course but this is about other creatures).
I was trying out Scute Mob but after playtesting more with it last night I'm not a big fan. I might take him out for lavamancer and try that with the bushwhacker. I like bushwhacker because you can play a nacatl and bushwhacker kicked to finish somebody off. Often times that +1 is the difference between finishing somebody off that turn or drawing the game out, especially in the mirror and against affinity.
Figure of destiny? If you're willing to reconfigure your manabase a little (I'd cut the breeding pool (probably for another sacred foundry) if you add figures, although you should probably be doing that anyway if you're going to play bushwhacker). Elvish hexhunter is a sideboard option (although I don't think it's a very good one) and burrenton forge-tender is actually a pretty good board choice if you're expecting a lot of mono-red or firespout control in the meta.
Nothing beyond the typical lions, apes, and cats are really needed. Now if they made a pimp-ass 1 drop rhino that could be in there.
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Lavamancer is really good, but only if you have trouble breaking through board stalls, or need an answer to opposing aggro and tribal strategies. Double Goblin Guide can be game winning, and I would focus on that if you really want to max out on Ranger options. I'd also recommend cutting down your curve a bit. Dropping the Trygon predator and an Elspeth for a few goblin guides or lavamancers will strengthen you early game significantly. 22 lands is not enough to reliably hit four lands or all five colors, so being able to function on three lands is pretty important.
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MODERN RGB Jund BGR WGB Junk/Abzan Company WGB
LEGACY RUGB Delver GURB
EDH UW Geist of Saint Traft Aggro-Control WU RUG Riku of Two Reflections Combo GUR BBB Skithiryx Control BB
Also, You really need to be running all 8 burn spells. Counterspells don't belong in the main deck at all, and I would personally cut blue altogether unless you run snapcaster Mage.
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MODERN RGB Jund BGR WGB Junk/Abzan Company WGB
LEGACY RUGB Delver GURB
EDH UW Geist of Saint Traft Aggro-Control WU RUG Riku of Two Reflections Combo GUR BBB Skithiryx Control BB
The only counterspell you should be maindecking is Bant Charm. That card just does it all. It's so flexible--it kills artifacts, tucks creatures, and snuffs removal. 22 lands should be enough to support it.
I was maybe mistaken in saying counterspells don't belong at all. If the meta calls for it, cards like Bant Charm, Spell Pierce, Negate and Mana Leak all seem like reasonable options to keep up tempo while still applying pressure. Unified Will seems like an option as well, but it's too situational in many cases to be good, especially as a main deck card.
Bant Charm is nice because it's so versatile, but each of those effects can be had for much cheaper. Running it almost demands that you also play 4x Noble Hierarch, which has it's upsides and downsides. In Boom//Bust Zoo the Druid is obviously necessary, but I don't particularly like the Bantish "CounterCat" lists, as they are a hybrid of Bant and Zoo. Personally, I'd rather run Snapcasters if I were to focus more on Blue, as that card is very strong and can provide much more tempo and card advantage than Bant Charm. If I were to run Snapcasters, I'd probably have some number of Spell Pierces and Mana Leaks or Negates in the deck as well, but no more than 2-3 main (most likely 2 Spell Pierce). Also, in a deck trying to run 1-drops and Ranger of Eos, Snapcaster seems like a better fit than Bant Charm.
Back to the original point though, I'd consider 1-2 Lavamancers in a list with Ranger of Eos, but most of the time you are just going to fetch 2x Wild Nacatl or 2x Goblin Guide, or some combination of the two, as they are the most aggressive creatures you can search for. If you run out of those in your deck, then Kird Apes would obviously be your third, less exciting option.
I would also still be interested in trying out Proclamation of Rebirth alongside a true 1-drop Zoo list.
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MODERN RGB Jund BGR WGB Junk/Abzan Company WGB
LEGACY RUGB Delver GURB
EDH UW Geist of Saint Traft Aggro-Control WU RUG Riku of Two Reflections Combo GUR BBB Skithiryx Control BB
4x Misty Rainforest
4x Arid Mesa
2x Marsh Flats
1x Scalding Tarn
1x Breeding Pool
1x Hallowed Fountain
1x Horizon Canopy
1x Sacred Foundry
1x Steam Vents
1x Stomping Ground
1x Temple Garden
1x Ghost Quarter
1x Forest
1x Plains
4x Wild Nacatl
4x Tarmogoyf
4x Knight of the Reliquary
3x Kird Ape
3x Loam Lion
2x Ranger of Eos
1x Qasali Pridemage
1x Trygon Predator
Spells - 14
4x Path to Exile
3x Lightning Bolt
3x Lightning Helix
2x Spell Pierce
2x Unified Will
Planeswalkers - 2
2x Elspeth, Knight-Errant
3x Flashfreeze
3x Naturalize
2x Gaddock Teeg
2x Unified Will
2x Vendilion Clique
2x Gideon Jura
1x Rule of Law
Here's the list with the changes.
4x Misty Rainforest
4x Arid Mesa
2x Marsh Flats
1x Scalding Tarn
2x Stomping Ground
1x Breeding Pool
1x Hallowed Fountain
1x Horizon Canopy
1x Sacred Foundry
1x Steam Vents
1x Temple Garden
1x Ghost Quarter
1x Forest
1x Plains
Creatures - 22
4x Wild Nacatl
4x Tarmogoyf
4x Knight of the Reliquary
2x Kird Ape
2x Loam Lion
2x Ranger of Eos
1x Goblin Bushwhacker
1x Grim Lavamancer
1x Qasali Pridemage
1x Trygon Predator
4x Path to Exile
3x Lightning Bolt
3x Lightning Helix
2x Spell Pierce
2x Unified Will
Planeswalkers - 2
2x Elspeth, Knight-Errant
3x Flashfreeze
3x Ancient Grudge
2x Gaddock Teeg
2x Unified Will
2x Goblin Guide
2x Gideon Jura
1x Rule of Law
I took him out because of his anti synergy with Goyf and KotR. What would you swap him out for, Loam Lion?
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RGB Jund BGR
WGB Junk/Abzan Company WGB
LEGACY
RUGB Delver GURB
EDH
UW Geist of Saint Traft Aggro-Control WU
RUG Riku of Two Reflections Combo GUR
BBB Skithiryx Control BB
RGB Jund BGR
WGB Junk/Abzan Company WGB
LEGACY
RUGB Delver GURB
EDH
UW Geist of Saint Traft Aggro-Control WU
RUG Riku of Two Reflections Combo GUR
BBB Skithiryx Control BB
Bant Charm is nice because it's so versatile, but each of those effects can be had for much cheaper. Running it almost demands that you also play 4x Noble Hierarch, which has it's upsides and downsides. In Boom//Bust Zoo the Druid is obviously necessary, but I don't particularly like the Bantish "CounterCat" lists, as they are a hybrid of Bant and Zoo. Personally, I'd rather run Snapcasters if I were to focus more on Blue, as that card is very strong and can provide much more tempo and card advantage than Bant Charm. If I were to run Snapcasters, I'd probably have some number of Spell Pierces and Mana Leaks or Negates in the deck as well, but no more than 2-3 main (most likely 2 Spell Pierce). Also, in a deck trying to run 1-drops and Ranger of Eos, Snapcaster seems like a better fit than Bant Charm.
I'm going to build off of Paolo Vitor Damo da Rosa's list at worlds for my "Fast" version of Zoo, as I'm not sure Boom//Bust is as strong as it was when 12post was around. http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/eventcoverage/worlds11/topmod (Paolo is about 1/4 of the way down the page)
Back to the original point though, I'd consider 1-2 Lavamancers in a list with Ranger of Eos, but most of the time you are just going to fetch 2x Wild Nacatl or 2x Goblin Guide, or some combination of the two, as they are the most aggressive creatures you can search for. If you run out of those in your deck, then Kird Apes would obviously be your third, less exciting option.
I would also still be interested in trying out Proclamation of Rebirth alongside a true 1-drop Zoo list.
RGB Jund BGR
WGB Junk/Abzan Company WGB
LEGACY
RUGB Delver GURB
EDH
UW Geist of Saint Traft Aggro-Control WU
RUG Riku of Two Reflections Combo GUR
BBB Skithiryx Control BB
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