Zoo did pretty well at SCG states recently, with more small zoo decks overall making it into top 8s, but big zoo seems to have put up better results. The big Zoo decks were pretty homogenous though, with the same general mix of 22 lands, 26/27 creatures, and 12/11 spells, with 3/4 copies of CoCo in all the big zoo lists.
I won MO states with little zoo and have been winning a lot with it lately - won an IQ two weeks ago too. I have a slightly different take though because I've been MDing 2-3 Eidolon with 22 one drops. It seems real strong, but the usual suspects are still rough matchups - UWR, Abzan midrange, Abzan CoCo, Kiki Chord. I did get fairly lucky matchups in my states win though - 3 of the first 4 rounds were against noninteractive combo decks (ad naus, titanshift, grishoalbrand), and these tend to be good, though the titanshift player had like 10 strong SB cards for me. The other deck I beat in the swiss was Abzan midrange (for 4-0-2 in the swiss), and in the T8 I beat burn (no Nacatls), UWR control w/ Ancestrals & 1 Kiki, and U tron in order.
Edit: I didn't have it in my board, but Declaration in Stone is the perfect SB card for a lot of matchups - especially against Abrupt Decay & Ghost Quarter decks where you would bring in Chained to the Rocks.
Hi Zoo peeps!
So, I’ve always been really into brewing decks that I can play in a competitive environment and be able to do well if I play well. Of course, I rarely actually get to test these brews because cards cost money. Anyway, here’s a list I’ve been playing on MTGO for a bit:
I'm actually playing something similar to your list now. I was playing 4 Knight, 3 Smiter, 3 Geist but I'm settling on 4 Knight and 4 Smiter along with 2 Elspeth and 1 Arlinn. I also like Bant Charm and am playing 2 copies to round out my removal. Card is bonkers.
Ok so off today. 20 matches on cockatrice. I lost 5. The 5 I lost was to goryo vegence, affinity, Tron, merfolk( long top deck game) and a LD dark dwellers deck. Ok I played 7 straight thing in ice decks, from grixis to delver, to bant to brew to sideboard from infect. I won all of them. Really cool deck but yea. 3x decks were control with thropter combo, I just won, they can't deal with walkers when they are slammed. I ultited domri then boarded in Ajani and blew up all lands. The thropter said were 2x Esper and one American, then came jund. 3 long grindy games, again they can't deal with walkers. I ultited sarkhan vol and got the dragon tokens. Dude went nuts and even pmed me asking about my deck.
Abzan junk, I play this deck a lot so I know my match could go both ways. I managed to get a 8/8 knight to kessig over for 8 trample. Then he lilied. I lost that match, after board Ajani vengemt helped then Elspeth flew over. Last game Arlinn got the ultimate. Before this build I've never seen walkers ultimate. Looking forward to my lgs's double gpt this weekend
4-1'd a league with my Tool Box Zoo. It feels pretty good. My only loss was to tron who drew 3 firespouts game 3 (if there was ever an opening I would have traversed for Magus of the Moon to lock him out. Current version:
I am sure I am missing some worth while hate bears. Based on my one loss a Burrenton Forge-Tender or Saffi Eriksdotter could be good. Grim Lavamancer seems like a good idea too. Thoughts or ideas would be appreciated.
Round 1 was a Zoo Mirror. A new player and the deck used Vexing Devil, Strangleroot Geist, and No Path to Exile. Won in 3. All three games were very fast and explosive.
Round 2 was 4c Control. Game one was a lot of snap-paths. Game 2 and 3 I flooded the board and got the wins.
Round 3 was Jund. Power game one and lived the dream of T1 Cat, T2 BTE BTE BTE Bushwacker. Game 2 his goyfs just overpowered me. Game three Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet and Scooze just blew me out of the game.
Round 4 was Jund. Tonight was a crazy night with 4 Jund players (normally just one, maybe two there). Game 1 finks/scooze got the W for him, Game 2 I was able to go fast and get the win, and game three was a back and forth game with each having a scooze out to gain life. In the end his man-lands got him the win.
So yeah, pretty rough and disappointing night. Running CoCo Zoo I never had a problem with Jund- but the small build was definitely getting overpowered if you went late into the game. Last week I never once missed by Goyfs, but today I would have loved to see him instead of Flinthoof Boar.
Last week I tried to try out Vines of the Vastwood- each time I had a chance to use it I had other options. Today I did get a chance to use it during the Jund Matchups which did save my creatures but it wasn't as effective I would hope it would be. I might go back to 4 Paths in the build.
Went 3-1 against a diverse field. Beat merfolk 2-0, lost against kiki chord 1-0, beat storm 2-1 and won against tron 2-1 (third game mulligan to five, with two fetches a ghost quarter a blood moon and a stony silence, savage). Very happy overall, I just need to make some improvements to my sideboard to control tool box decks like abzan company and the same kiki chord, they are a pain in the arse.
4-1'd a league with my Tool Box Zoo. It feels pretty good. My only loss was to tron who drew 3 firespouts game 3 (if there was ever an opening I would have traversed for Magus of the Moon to lock him out.
Firespout would have killed him since he would have had all the mountains in the world!
I decided the innate flaw in the deck is all the misses on Oath and Domri. I took out all the free cantrips and reduced CMC cap to 3. I added 8 creatures in place of chandra and the cantrips. Now I am running 4 Hangarback Walker 1 Lavamancer 1 Burrenton Forge-Tender 1 EWit and 1 Saffi Eriksdotter. Hangarback is not a miss and can be cast for 0 on 2 to enable Delirium. Obviously 17 lands with only 8 cantrips is a little more risky. Even in the old version Oath rarely missed. Hangarback both can turn on Delirium and serves as a solid road block.
I think EWit is a great addition to any deck running oath. Again - she turns an oath hit into a removal spell (if you have a bolt or path in the yard).
Man that moment.. So I went 2-2 in gpt today. The judge screwed me 3 times, the 3rd time was for game and my fault cause I took his word. Salt in wounds. First time was him telling me I couldn't pay 2 life for a shock because blood moon was out. I too him I'd still take too but it would come in a basic mtn. I was fine cause I needed red. Second time was I went to blocks, I was regenerating Thrun. What I did was, I said regen and picked him up asking judge resurence it came in tapped, he said it did. But then said I couldn't rengerate since I picked up and was moving to gy. I politly told him no I tapped mana to regen, and was asking if I came in tapped. I picked it up not sure if it came in tapped or not. To bad. Last time was he was on turn 6 of turns and swinging big with secure the waste. If I chumped right I could win on crack back turn 7 of turns. I was sweating bullets and nervous as this was to see who would be in top 8. I kept studying board. Everyone was watching, I just said out loud , damn don't think I can do it. Judge says yea, meaning I can't. So I look again and scoop. Mid scoop I look and see a out. I fealt so dumb I listened to judge. The salt was real
Hey everyone,
I know everyone has been on the oath/walker hype train, so I want to ask you: Is it actually performing better for you than CoCo has? Not "do you like it more", but have you been seeing better results from it than you were when running Naya Company? I ask since everyone here has been grinding the walkers, yet states data shows that CoCo decks did well, without any walkers versions of Big Zoo. That could be because 1) luck, 2) CoCo is still the right choice, 3) Sample size.
Let me know what you think!
First time was him telling me I couldn't pay 2 life for a shock because blood moon was out. I too him I'd still take too but it would come in a basic mtn. I was fine cause I needed red.
Yeah, he was wrong here.
I said regen and picked him up asking judge resurence it came in tapped,
Regen means it never leaves the battlefield... ?
Last time was he was on turn 6 of turns and swinging big with secure the waste. If I chumped right I could win on crack back turn 7 of turns. I was sweating bullets and nervous as this was to see who would be in top 8. I kept studying board. Everyone was watching, I just said out loud , damn don't think I can do it. Judge says yea, meaning I can't. So I look again and scoop. Mid scoop I look and see a out. I fealt so dumb I listened to judge. The salt was real
Turns meaning you had gone to time?
There's only supposed to be 5 turns.
Hey everyone,
I know everyone has been on the oath/walker hype train, so I want to ask you: Is it actually performing better for you than CoCo has? Not "do you like it more", but have you been seeing better results from it than you were when running Naya Company? I ask since everyone here has been grinding the walkers, yet states data shows that CoCo decks did well, without any walkers versions of Big Zoo. That could be because 1) luck, 2) CoCo is still the right choice, 3) Sample size.
Let me know what you think!
From my testing so far - Elspeth > CoCo > Domri. Still don't have conclusive results about Arlinn Kord.
First time was him telling me I couldn't pay 2 life for a shock because blood moon was out. I too him I'd still take too but it would come in a basic mtn. I was fine cause I needed red.
Yeah, he was wrong here.
I said regen and picked him up asking judge resurence it came in tapped,
Regen means it never leaves the battlefield... ?
Last time was he was on turn 6 of turns and swinging big with secure the waste. If I chumped right I could win on crack back turn 7 of turns. I was sweating bullets and nervous as this was to see who would be in top 8. I kept studying board. Everyone was watching, I just said out loud , damn don't think I can do it. Judge says yea, meaning I can't. So I look again and scoop. Mid scoop I look and see a out. I fealt so dumb I listened to judge. The salt was real
Turns meaning you had gone to time?
There's only supposed to be 5 turns.
I knew regen never left but it was one of those moment where dude was over my shoulder and it threw me. Off. So waits 5 turns wtf.. Man he let 7. I was at same place for iq today and a lot of people complained to the L3 today about his bad calls
In other news I went undefeated 5 rounds in gpt with my no oath walker zoo and went 1 round in top 8 and got beat second round by a coco zoo. We were going toe to toe but getting 4x 5/6 goyfs off of 2x cocos sucked and game 2 he qasali my worship and coco' into 2x big knights and kessig for game
What does everyone think of the burn heavy PSully style Zoo decks? I've been running it over the regular Naya Burn decks and I've been liking it a lot, but I'm wondering if it's best to just go full Gruul.
Go Gruul - ONLY red and green. We are very well positioned in the meta right now, but include Goblin Bushwhacker too.
I went 10-5 this weekend at Milwaukee with my abbot zoo list I've been touting for a while - good for 55th place and making some money.
Only 2 of my losses felt out of my reach and the others were mostly due to poor draws on my part and just falling a bit short. I will put up a breakdown and list later today.
I won MO states with little zoo and have been winning a lot with it lately - won an IQ two weeks ago too. I have a slightly different take though because I've been MDing 2-3 Eidolon with 22 one drops. It seems real strong, but the usual suspects are still rough matchups - UWR, Abzan midrange, Abzan CoCo, Kiki Chord. I did get fairly lucky matchups in my states win though - 3 of the first 4 rounds were against noninteractive combo decks (ad naus, titanshift, grishoalbrand), and these tend to be good, though the titanshift player had like 10 strong SB cards for me. The other deck I beat in the swiss was Abzan midrange (for 4-0-2 in the swiss), and in the T8 I beat burn (no Nacatls), UWR control w/ Ancestrals & 1 Kiki, and U tron in order.
Edit: I didn't have it in my board, but Declaration in Stone is the perfect SB card for a lot of matchups - especially against Abrupt Decay & Ghost Quarter decks where you would bring in Chained to the Rocks.
I'm actually playing something similar to your list now. I was playing 4 Knight, 3 Smiter, 3 Geist but I'm settling on 4 Knight and 4 Smiter along with 2 Elspeth and 1 Arlinn. I also like Bant Charm and am playing 2 copies to round out my removal. Card is bonkers.
Need a collection tracker? Use EchoMTG here: https://www.echomtg.com/r/7bb6961d/
Join the Zoo Discord: https://discord.gg/Yu6eTSTrzA
Abzan junk, I play this deck a lot so I know my match could go both ways. I managed to get a 8/8 knight to kessig over for 8 trample. Then he lilied. I lost that match, after board Ajani vengemt helped then Elspeth flew over. Last game Arlinn got the ultimate. Before this build I've never seen walkers ultimate. Looking forward to my lgs's double gpt this weekend
4 x Wild Nacatl
4 x Tarmogoyf
1 x Kataki, War's Wage
1 x Kor Firewalker
1 x Scavenging Ooze
1 x Gaddock Teeg
1 x Voice of Resurgence
1 x Qasali Pridemage
1 x Hushwing Gryff
1 x Kitchen Finks
1 x Ghor-Clan Rampager
SPELLS (26)
4 x Mishra's Bauble
4 x Path to Exile
4 x Lightning Bolt
3 x Gitaxian Probe
4 x Oath of Nissa
4 x Traverse the Ulvenwald
1 x Chandra Pyromaster
3 x Arid Mesa
2 x Forst
1 x Plains
1 x Sacred Foundry
1 x Stomping Ground
1 x Temple Garden
4 x Windswept Heath
4 x Wooded Foothills
2 x Electricery
2 x Stony Silence
1 x Fiend Hunter
1 x Aven Mindcensor
1 x Kor Firewalker
2 x Thalia
1 x Ethersworn Canonist
1 x Magus of the Moon
1 x Scavenging Ooze
1 x Gaddock Teeg
1 x Qasali Pridemage
1 x Spellskite
I am sure I am missing some worth while hate bears. Based on my one loss a Burrenton Forge-Tender or Saffi Eriksdotter could be good. Grim Lavamancer seems like a good idea too. Thoughts or ideas would be appreciated.
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Forest
1 Mountain
1 Sacred Foundry
3 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Experiment One
4 Flinthoof Boar
2 Ghor-Clan Rampager
4 Goblin Guide
4 Kird Ape
4 Reckless Bushwhacker
4 Wild Nacatl
2 Path to Exile
3 Atarka's Command
2 Vines of Vastwood
1 Phyrexian Unlife
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Stony Silence
3 Tin Street Hooligan
2 Vines of Vastwood
2 Path to Exile
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Round 1 was a Zoo Mirror. A new player and the deck used Vexing Devil, Strangleroot Geist, and No Path to Exile. Won in 3. All three games were very fast and explosive.
Round 2 was 4c Control. Game one was a lot of snap-paths. Game 2 and 3 I flooded the board and got the wins.
Round 3 was Jund. Power game one and lived the dream of T1 Cat, T2 BTE BTE BTE Bushwacker. Game 2 his goyfs just overpowered me. Game three Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet and Scooze just blew me out of the game.
Round 4 was Jund. Tonight was a crazy night with 4 Jund players (normally just one, maybe two there). Game 1 finks/scooze got the W for him, Game 2 I was able to go fast and get the win, and game three was a back and forth game with each having a scooze out to gain life. In the end his man-lands got him the win.
So yeah, pretty rough and disappointing night. Running CoCo Zoo I never had a problem with Jund- but the small build was definitely getting overpowered if you went late into the game. Last week I never once missed by Goyfs, but today I would have loved to see him instead of Flinthoof Boar.
Last week I tried to try out Vines of the Vastwood- each time I had a chance to use it I had other options. Today I did get a chance to use it during the Jund Matchups which did save my creatures but it wasn't as effective I would hope it would be. I might go back to 4 Paths in the build.
Firespout would have killed him since he would have had all the mountains in the world!
Need a collection tracker? Use EchoMTG here: https://www.echomtg.com/r/7bb6961d/
Join the Zoo Discord: https://discord.gg/Yu6eTSTrzA
I decided the innate flaw in the deck is all the misses on Oath and Domri. I took out all the free cantrips and reduced CMC cap to 3. I added 8 creatures in place of chandra and the cantrips. Now I am running 4 Hangarback Walker 1 Lavamancer 1 Burrenton Forge-Tender 1 EWit and 1 Saffi Eriksdotter. Hangarback is not a miss and can be cast for 0 on 2 to enable Delirium. Obviously 17 lands with only 8 cantrips is a little more risky. Even in the old version Oath rarely missed. Hangarback both can turn on Delirium and serves as a solid road block.
I think EWit is a great addition to any deck running oath. Again - she turns an oath hit into a removal spell (if you have a bolt or path in the yard).
I know everyone has been on the oath/walker hype train, so I want to ask you: Is it actually performing better for you than CoCo has? Not "do you like it more", but have you been seeing better results from it than you were when running Naya Company? I ask since everyone here has been grinding the walkers, yet states data shows that CoCo decks did well, without any walkers versions of Big Zoo. That could be because 1) luck, 2) CoCo is still the right choice, 3) Sample size.
Let me know what you think!
RGW Naya Company
RWB Mardu Control
Yeah, he was wrong here.
Regen means it never leaves the battlefield... ?
Turns meaning you had gone to time?
There's only supposed to be 5 turns.
Hopefully it is something innocuous like having extra cards in his deck box or something.
That's a shame- he was on fire this weekend.
I think the early rumor floating around is he was setting his deck after fetching, but who knows.
From my testing so far - Elspeth > CoCo > Domri. Still don't have conclusive results about Arlinn Kord.
Need a collection tracker? Use EchoMTG here: https://www.echomtg.com/r/7bb6961d/
Join the Zoo Discord: https://discord.gg/Yu6eTSTrzA
domri is entirely dependent on the meta game, and right now the format is too creature heavy and fast.
I knew regen never left but it was one of those moment where dude was over my shoulder and it threw me. Off. So waits 5 turns wtf.. Man he let 7. I was at same place for iq today and a lot of people complained to the L3 today about his bad calls
In other news I went undefeated 5 rounds in gpt with my no oath walker zoo and went 1 round in top 8 and got beat second round by a coco zoo. We were going toe to toe but getting 4x 5/6 goyfs off of 2x cocos sucked and game 2 he qasali my worship and coco' into 2x big knights and kessig for game
I've been working on a straight gruul list
4 Duskwatch Recruiter
4 Experiment One
4 Kird Ape
4 Flinthoof Boar
4 Reckless Bushwhacker
4 Ghor-Clan Rampager
4 Goblin Guide
3 Goblin Bushwhacker
1 Devastating Summons
3 Forest
8 Mountain
4 Stomping Ground
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Treetop Village
Duskwatch Recruiter has been excellent and is the card I want to see the most if the game goes long.
Only 2 of my losses felt out of my reach and the others were mostly due to poor draws on my part and just falling a bit short. I will put up a breakdown and list later today.