Death's shadow will still be a factor, where are you getting your facts from?
The deck itself is still viable for the format.it isn't dead by any means.
I put hand on some brews and made a simple bant list, I think tamiyo is really powerful, especially if you factor in oath of ajani. I just think oath of ajani putting counters on each creature is the same value as wasting mana on t5-6 for gavony proc.
You get a tempo gain from rallier, tamiyo draws you gas, Gideon is just good. You can SB spell quellers because you are bant, have access to soft counters with denial. Going to test this list for a while.
Oath of Ajani isn't very good imho, it is a win-more card (you can use Nissa, Voice of Zendikar for counters and it's not totally useless on an empty board).
Gavony Township is late-game inevitability with a low opportunity cost, it is much better (especially with KotR to find it).
Tamiyo, Field Researcher is good in "Superfriends" type decks or midrange lists, I don't see how it slots into an aggressive "Zoo" type deck.
Going with Blue for Stubborn Denial (and Tamiyo) over Red isn't worth it imho, you miss on Lightning Bolt (and L.Helix) and Atarka's Command which are more generally useful for this kind of deck.
The last zoo list to do well at bigger events somewhat consistently was bushwhacker zoo, until it got obsoleted by death's shadow. Death's shadow won't be a factor anymore and now a new BTE has been printed - Hidden Herbalists. This is the space where I'd be brewing zoo lists. Some example ideas, in increasing order of insanity:
With 8 BTEs, we're much more likely to have a busted draw with multiples. And if we have a bushwhacker, it's just bonkers. Turning on revolt isn't too hard on turn 2, though you do have to think slightly harder about sequencing lands than before. The third list is almost assurredly bad, but I'm genuinely unsure about the other two lists - manamorphose so that herbalist enables the busted T2 bushwhacker draws is good, but we can have those draws explode on turn 3 instead if we have another land. And BTE/Herbalist into a Goyf, or maybe a Flinthoof Boar is still pretty good. I think there's a lot of potential here.
I see the same promise and with HH. It is totally nuts. However, I would focus more on creature saturation and holistic pumps than spot pumps as no real creature is worth saving. Here is an example I brewed up. It needs testing, but I won't have the opportunity to test it for a long time. lol Note, it is very easy to go Naya. It is a trap imo. The problem is that it can dilute BTE and HH. If you throw the girls off turn it could cost you the game. This is why I would stick to Gruul.
Death's shadow will still be a factor, where are you getting your facts from?
The deck itself is still viable for the format.it isn't dead by any means.
Well all of the proponents of Death's Shadow zoo who have said anything about it since the ban have said the deck is dead - Sam Black and Magnus Latto, most notably. I also played the deck pretty much exclusively from GP Indy until the bans, and the reason I started playing it was because it was doing something similar to what Bushwhacker zoo was doing, but better. People will still try to play Death's Shadow decks, but it will be pretty fringe and I'm pretty sure it doesn't obsolete Bushwhacker zoo anymore.
I see the same promise and with HH. It is totally nuts. However, I would focus more on creature saturation and holistic pumps than spot pumps as no real creature is worth saving. Here is an example I brewed up. It needs testing, but I won't have the opportunity to test it for a long time. lol Note, it is very easy to go Naya. It is a trap imo. The problem is that it can dilute BTE and HH. If you throw the girls off turn it could cost you the game. This is why I would stick to Gruul.
I doubt lists like this will be any good because we won't be quite as good at puking out a pile of creatures onto the battlefield as something like elves. So cards like Banner's Raised look really suspect to me. It also causes us to mulligan very poorly since now we have to hit that critical mass of creatures for that sort of card to be good. But you know what is a lot like Banner's Raised but also a good card on its own? Atarka's Command. Also, your list definitely needs more fetches with that many revolt creatures. And Wild Nacatl is the best creature in the deck. I can't really see cutting it. The cost to splashing white is essentially nil in terms of how consistently you'll have your colors on time. It mostly costs you 3 or so more life per game, but this sort of deck is ok with that.
Narnam Renegade: really good card. Revolt is really easy to trigger, with the only downside of having to sequence your one-drop and fetches akwardly from time to time. Having 3 x/3 dudes on board by T2 was never that easy before.
Oath of Ajani: Not as good as I though it could be. Probably will not made my final list for the next tournament.
Still considering going back to Strangleroot Geist on Kari Zev's slot. Also might test Avatar of the Resolute, since now we have even more dudes with +1/+1 counters. I'll wait to see how the meta will shift after the bannings and Fatal Push. Blossoming Defense might be a good sideboard (or even mainboard) option.
I actually just came to talk about this deck. It has really explosive plays and feels like zoo, considering it's running the core dudes. I just finished watching Jeff Hoogland test it, I'll link the videos. He didn't run renegade in his list. I'd probably run guide over that in the list honestly. I think it's a solid route for zoo to look into.
Did a Modern monday with this. Felt like brewing a zoo list togather again and wanted to go domain since I got a hold of push and we were allowed to use em. Mostly made up of cards I wanted to play with, but theres actually a loose strat that went into the card numbers. The mana is correct, I've done enough domain mana bases in my life to know how to make one. Openers should fetch T1: Stomping ground, T2: Goddess shrine T3: What ever is left with blue.
Snap was likely to be dumb with this spell suite. Its literally the best things you can cast... ever. Same with the creatures. Narnam Renegade and Renegade Rallier are ok cards, but Geist, Knight, goyf, and rhino are all in their own league. Grim Flayer is a 1 of, and thats just to make sure my 2 drops were well rounded. He has odd utlity too, which is later game draw filter, getting me end game reach or spells, taking out excess land for knight, and keeping my geists solo as well as feeding snapcasters.
Sideboard could probably use an odd amount of Denials. But I was more worried about eldrazi killing me so the discard went instead.
Round 1 Vs GR Eldrazi
I went turn 1 dork, turn 2 goyf and nacatl. then turn 3 geist nacatl. I had him down to 1, but made a mistake early on in not playing flames early for 4 damage (Because I'm full of greed and stupid. Its been a while guys.) and that cost me the game. Had I drawn a bolt, rhino, flames, or snap (12 cards mind you.) Id have won, and Id have won if I didnt pass the turn then be like "wait that was dumb." So this SHOULD have been a win.
Sided in 2 aven mancers because I assumed wrong. No fetches or stuff. Sided out 2 bolts, because they dont hit enough.
Game 2, Same as above, just also their was a rhino. Ran him way over.
Sided out the avens, and another bolt for 3 discard. I forgot thats the whole reason I ran the discard in the side.
Opened a hand that let me turn 1 noble turn 2 goyf and discard. Saw his hand lacked sol lands, so I took a risk and snagged his reshaper instead, as it was the only thing he could cast. Went to pound town with goyf, dropping geist again, followed by a rhino. He eventually got to 5 mana for his threats, but goyf and team did enough damage that he was tribal flames range.
2-1/ 1-0
Round 2 Esper Control
Game 1 I saw the delta and knew I was in push land. Bring it on baby, I have a geist in my opener. So I play out nacatl, then goyf, and force him to kill my goyf on turn 3, opening him for geist, and... yeah. No chance to get back. That deck is super interactive, and takes way less damage then it used to with their new lands and push, but remands still suck, and my threats are ALL MUST KILL so his 1 or 2 removal spells will lose if they cant hit my 3rd or 4th dude.
Sided out 3 path and two push for 2 aven and 3 discard. It was clear he wasnt doing a creature based deck, and if he cast something like a mentor or what ever, I was going to die to control anyways. The discard would be a way to open up windows for me and the aven is just nasty against control.
Game 2 I opened a lack luster hand with far too many lands, but it had noble and 2 goyfs, so I kept because I figured, eh, push on my mana dork, turn 2/3 goyfs are still fine. No push, just control magic, but my goyfs... at 2 damage a turn mind you, still were doing enough, and I had tribal flames in hand. So I waited, casting something here and there which would get hit with a path or push, and I played a tempo game, eventually having him at 9 and me with flames and rhino in my hand. I drew a snap, and went for rhino, got remanded twice, brought him to 5, passed, he wiped the board, leaving up 4 mana, I rhinoed, mana leak, flames, snared, snap flames and won.
2-0/ 2-0
8 Rack
Making a long story short, a lot of discard and removal happened, but I stuck 1 Knight, 7/7, then 2. So he was dead.
Sided in 1 decay, and out 1 push. I does the same thing to pack rat but i get racks too.
I know this matchup, and its actually a really easy one. They are really bad vs us... even with push. Its just about sticking a threat. And they overload on removal game 2, so I got to worry a lot less about discard. So I got pushed a few times, but he doesnt take anything from my hand. Which is bad news for him. I get to stick two 5/5 knights, a 3/3 nacatl, and a snap in hand and bolt in yard. At 15 thats leathal baby.
2-0/ 3-0
Round 4 vs Tron
Turn 1 pushed on my mana dork, turn 2 chalice, turn 3 tron. Yeah. I concede early to hide my cards from thought-knot
Side in 3 discard, 1 decay, out all bolts.
Game 2 I faced down 2 relics on my 2 goyf hand. Greattttt... Well. I still play to my outs, holding fetchs uncracked to maybe get in some damage. I draw a crap ton of rhinos, and eventually can go all in with an alpha strike, cracking fetches, and pathing a batterskull germ token, to make my goyfs actually useful. I manage to slide him down to 8 with it, then cast a 3rd rhino, which should insure leathal even through the batterskull life link.
Then he casts all is dust.
Sigh.
0-2/ 3-1
Round 5 vs Infect
Played really cat and mouse the first few rounds since I opened a slow but removal heavy hand. I barely lost due to a topped leathal pump.
Game 2 I sided in decay and aven, explosion, and bonfire, siding out the other 3 drops for it. He must have took a really slow hand with Wild Defiance. I was swinging in with 5/5 nacatls, then dropped a aven when he went all in and blocked, then killed him on the back swing.
Game 3, I put out a few beaters, while bolting one of his threats and explosives his second, dancing around the hexproof. It opened up enough time for me to just swing and win. Rhinnnoooooossss
2-1/ 4-1
Bonus game! Vs Jund
Turn 1 Hierarch, turn 2 geist, turn 3 swing, double flames for lethal. Breakin' the turn 4 rule like a champ.
Overall
4-1 is pretty good for something I brewed up last second ehhhhhh? The deck is powerful, snaps are great at a 2 of, and 3 flames is correct if you have push, since one of flames good at killing dudes and facing. But with push the need for killing dudes is less. Plus both play great with snap, but you have to use em first, so snap is best at 2 of.
Sometimes the deck felt like it needed a bird, or grim should be cut or boosted in numbers, I think thats up in the air. Sometimes push felt like it should be 3 of and path 2 of, but It might mess with the colors a bit too much. Side was wack a noodle, but meh, always is the first time around.
Never-the-less, the deck plays like an aggressive jund deck and feels more powerful than company or walker zoos. I never felt like I was losing damage by not doing bushwacker, because I was always threathening leathal, even with disruption, and I never felt like I wasnt doing something big, because I always was.
Just watched Hoogland's videos and, holy cat. The deck seems beautiful.
Sadly I won't be able to run it this week, as my LGS has Modern at thursdays, so no Aether Revolt yet.
Next week I'm going to play it, possibly the exact list he runs in the videos if I can borrow/buy a Canopy till then.
My current deck is Burn and I've always wanted to be able to convert it at will to Zoo since it's rather inexpensive to convert. All I'm missing are Ghor-Clan, Narnam Renegade, and Kataki. Right now, I'm looking at playing something like this:
I'm torn between whether I want Hidden Herbalists or the Voltaic Brawlers. I feel like not enough of the deck is castable off of GG for Herbalists and that Brawler is a better Flinthoof Boar, though Herbalists could produce HH-BTE chains and maybe that's sufficient.
Edit: Changed Brawlers to HH and Ghor-clan to Mutagenic Growth.
My current deck is Burn and I've always wanted to be able to convert it at will to Zoo since it's rather inexpensive to convert. All I'm missing are Ghor-Clan, Narnam Renegade, and Kataki. Right now, I'm looking at playing something like this:
I'm torn between whether I want Hidden Herbalists or the Voltaic Brawlers. I feel like not enough of the deck is castable off of GG for Herbalists and that Brawler is a better Flinthoof Boar, though Herbalists could produce HH-BTE chains and maybe that's sufficient.
With 4 Bushwhackers and 18 lands, you really need another free spell or two. 2 Mutagenic Growth is pretty typical for that slot. Alternatively, shaving a Bushwhacker mitigates the problem enough in my experience. IMO Brawler is worse than Goyf if you're in the market for a 2 that doesn't have haste and isn't "free".
Personally, I think the HH plan is better. With Renegade, the deck has 12 one drops that cost G, so the mana is still pretty useful even when you don't have a BTE or another HH. And with 3 lands you can also set up T3, HH into green 1 drop + Bushwhacker. I've been thinking of it as an Atarka's Command deck that wants to dump its hand on turn 2, the try to do obscene amounts of damage on turn 3. This doesn't always happen, but it's been surprisingly common in early testing even through disruption. (My list is a few posts back)
Just watched Hoogland's videos and, holy cat. The deck seems beautiful.
Sadly I won't be able to run it this week, as my LGS has Modern at thursdays, so no Aether Revolt yet.
Next week I'm going to play it, possibly the exact list he runs in the videos if I can borrow/buy a Canopy till then.
The deck definitely looks good.
I'm suspicious of it's ability to beat removal spells but perhaps rallier makes up for it. The land count is pretty high for any midrange deck in modern. I'm fine with curving out but the flood would appear to be real. I'd rather just play Kessig than Treetop Village but that's just me -- though I'd think since this deck goes tall you'd want that over a 3/3 CIPT manland.
I actually just came to talk about this deck. It has really explosive plays and feels like zoo, considering it's running the core dudes. I just finished watching Jeff Hoogland test it, I'll link the videos. He didn't run renegade in his list. I'd probably run guide over that in the list honestly. I think it's a solid route for zoo to look into.
I gotta admit, I'm not super impressed by this video. In terms of racing, the deck is good, but in terms of racing the decks always been good. What made the landfall zoo deck bad was the fact that removal killed it alot harder and alot easier than other zoo decks.
I also didnt love that infect literally mulled every game. Seeing the deck against more of zoo's tougher matchups or bad ones would be helpful. Plus, one of the bad things for zoo was that its matchups vs control and tempo werent ever really there. A resurgence in Delver and control would help this deck far more than any card.
I'll admit that his playtest partners aren't quite on the level of Hoogland -- their piloting is a little fast and loose against Landfall throughout the night.
Lantern I'm curious how do you justify not running four tribal flames in a domain zoo list? Is push even wanted when we have access to path and bolt?
edit - to clarify, tribal flames is usually the best card in my deck which is full of cards that are just raw power. It seems strange to play less than four without a specific reason.
A zoo build with the upper hand over eldrazi is new.
Only played two rounds before double drawing in, sorry for the lack of testing.
both 2-1 against abzan midrange.
Rallier did some serious work, constantly getting back voice's for incremental annoying value.
There were a few times where the only threat I was drawing was rallier, which was pretty bad when the only thing to get back is fetchlands.
Guys please opinions on japanese cards. Lost a 3/3 creature against Japan celestial colonade. This guy played all creatures and spells in english cards, but some cards in his manabase was japanese. I dont registrated this really ( my brain say its all fine and all english to me lets attack his empty board)...and i am sure it is a Kind of legal cheating. It is not ok, but i know legal. I Hate such people. I never forget colonade normally, but with this Tricks it can happen one time in 3 years and such people take advantage of this
If I am a customer spending premium amount of dollars, I expect a premium service. Jund falls into the category of a premium deck costing more dollars than a majority of the rest of the format. I'm not getting the desired performance ratio per dollars spent out of the Jund deck because WOTC decided to make the format more diverse.
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The deck itself is still viable for the format.it isn't dead by any means.
I put hand on some brews and made a simple bant list, I think tamiyo is really powerful, especially if you factor in oath of ajani. I just think oath of ajani putting counters on each creature is the same value as wasting mana on t5-6 for gavony proc.
4 noble hierarch
1 birds of paradise
4 wild nacatl
2 qasali pridemage
1 scooze
4 tarmogoyf
4 greenwheel liberator
4 renegade rallier
4 path to exile
4 stubborn denial
Enchantment: 3
3 path of ajani
Planeswalker: 4
2 tamiyo, field researcher
2 Gideon, ally of zendikar
Lands: 21
4 windswept Heath
4 misty rainforest
1 wooded foothills
2 temple garden
2 breeding pool
1 sacred foundry
1 kessig wolf run
1 stirring wildwood
1 ghost quarter
2 forest
1 plain
1 island
You get a tempo gain from rallier, tamiyo draws you gas, Gideon is just good. You can SB spell quellers because you are bant, have access to soft counters with denial. Going to test this list for a while.
Gavony Township is late-game inevitability with a low opportunity cost, it is much better (especially with KotR to find it).
Tamiyo, Field Researcher is good in "Superfriends" type decks or midrange lists, I don't see how it slots into an aggressive "Zoo" type deck.
Going with Blue for Stubborn Denial (and Tamiyo) over Red isn't worth it imho, you miss on Lightning Bolt (and L.Helix) and Atarka's Command which are more generally useful for this kind of deck.
I see the same promise and with HH. It is totally nuts. However, I would focus more on creature saturation and holistic pumps than spot pumps as no real creature is worth saving. Here is an example I brewed up. It needs testing, but I won't have the opportunity to test it for a long time. lol Note, it is very easy to go Naya. It is a trap imo. The problem is that it can dilute BTE and HH. If you throw the girls off turn it could cost you the game. This is why I would stick to Gruul.
4x Reckless Bushwhacker
4x Burning-Tree Emissary
4x Hidden Herbalists
4x Goblin Bushwhacker
4x Kird Ape
4x Narnam Renegade
4x Greenbelt Rampager
4x Goblin Guide
4x Experiment One
4x Banners Raised
1x Devastating Summons
RESOURCES: 19
4x Copperline Gorge
4x Wooded Foothills
2x Arid Mesa
2x Temple Garden
1x Dryad Arbor
2x Stomping Ground
2x Mountain
2x Forest
YOUTUBE CHANNEL: GOBOTS
Well all of the proponents of Death's Shadow zoo who have said anything about it since the ban have said the deck is dead - Sam Black and Magnus Latto, most notably. I also played the deck pretty much exclusively from GP Indy until the bans, and the reason I started playing it was because it was doing something similar to what Bushwhacker zoo was doing, but better. People will still try to play Death's Shadow decks, but it will be pretty fringe and I'm pretty sure it doesn't obsolete Bushwhacker zoo anymore.
I doubt lists like this will be any good because we won't be quite as good at puking out a pile of creatures onto the battlefield as something like elves. So cards like Banner's Raised look really suspect to me. It also causes us to mulligan very poorly since now we have to hit that critical mass of creatures for that sort of card to be good. But you know what is a lot like Banner's Raised but also a good card on its own? Atarka's Command. Also, your list definitely needs more fetches with that many revolt creatures. And Wild Nacatl is the best creature in the deck. I can't really see cutting it. The cost to splashing white is essentially nil in terms of how consistently you'll have your colors on time. It mostly costs you 3 or so more life per game, but this sort of deck is ok with that.
Here's a list that I think is probably very good:
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Stomping Ground
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Temple Garden
1 Forest
1 Mountain
4 Kird Ape
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Experiment One
4 Narnam Renegade
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Hidden Herbalist
4 Atarka's Command
3 Reckless Bushwhacker
2 Ghor-Clan Rampager
1 X
4x Experiment One
4x Ghor-Clan Rampager
4x Goblin Guide
2x Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
4x Kird Ape
4x Loam Lion
4x Narnam Renegade
4x Wild Nacatl
4x Lightning Bolt
3x Path to Exile
3x Arid Mesa
1x Forest
1x Mountain
1x Sacred Foundry
2x Stomping Ground
2x Temple Garden
4x Windswept Heath
4x Wooded Foothills
My thoughts so far:
Narnam Renegade: really good card. Revolt is really easy to trigger, with the only downside of having to sequence your one-drop and fetches akwardly from time to time. Having 3 x/3 dudes on board by T2 was never that easy before.
Kari Zev, Skyship Raider: Pretty good so far, but still needs some more testing. It's overall a 3 power for 2, it has a good evasion and works really well with Atarka's Command and Ghor-Clan Rampager. Also helps triggering revolt.
Oath of Ajani: Not as good as I though it could be. Probably will not made my final list for the next tournament.
Still considering going back to Strangleroot Geist on Kari Zev's slot. Also might test Avatar of the Resolute, since now we have even more dudes with +1/+1 counters. I'll wait to see how the meta will shift after the bannings and Fatal Push. Blossoming Defense might be a good sideboard (or even mainboard) option.
1 Bloodstained Mire
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Windswept Heath
4 Arid Mesa
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Treetop Village
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Temple Garden
2 Stomping Ground
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Mountain
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Steppe Lynx
2 Narnam Renegade
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Plated Geopede
4 Renegade Rallier
3 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Ghor-Clan Rampager
4 Path to Exile
2 Seal of Fire
4 Lightning Bolt
The list has 61 cards and it's probably some typing mistake. Maybe it's 23 lands (I'd probably cut the 2nd Temple Garden if it has Canopy already).
I'll try this out next week. Just need to figure the right sideboard.
WGUBR 5c Humans
GWR Naya Zoo
Legacy:
GW GW Maverick
R Goblins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjHGE2Y7ifQ
Follow the link for nice cheap clothing.
Playing:
Death's Shadow Jund
Played:
Kiki Chord, Zoo variants, Goblins, Burn
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Geist of Saint Traft
1 Grim Flayer
2 Snapcaster Mage
4 Siege Rhino
12 Spells
3 Path to Exile
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Fatal Push
3 Tribal Flames
4 Arid Mesa
4 Windswept Heath
3 Verdant Catacombs
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Forest
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Godless Shrine
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Steam Vents
15 Sideboard
3 Artifact
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Aven Mindcensor
2 Enchantment
2 Stony Silence
2 Instant
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Feed the Clan
6 Sorcery
2 Thoughtseize
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Bonfire of the Damned
2 Timely Reinforcements
Did a Modern monday with this. Felt like brewing a zoo list togather again and wanted to go domain since I got a hold of push and we were allowed to use em. Mostly made up of cards I wanted to play with, but theres actually a loose strat that went into the card numbers. The mana is correct, I've done enough domain mana bases in my life to know how to make one. Openers should fetch T1: Stomping ground, T2: Goddess shrine T3: What ever is left with blue.
Snap was likely to be dumb with this spell suite. Its literally the best things you can cast... ever. Same with the creatures. Narnam Renegade and Renegade Rallier are ok cards, but Geist, Knight, goyf, and rhino are all in their own league. Grim Flayer is a 1 of, and thats just to make sure my 2 drops were well rounded. He has odd utlity too, which is later game draw filter, getting me end game reach or spells, taking out excess land for knight, and keeping my geists solo as well as feeding snapcasters.
Sideboard could probably use an odd amount of Denials. But I was more worried about eldrazi killing me so the discard went instead.
Round 1 Vs GR Eldrazi
I went turn 1 dork, turn 2 goyf and nacatl. then turn 3 geist nacatl. I had him down to 1, but made a mistake early on in not playing flames early for 4 damage (Because I'm full of greed and stupid. Its been a while guys.) and that cost me the game. Had I drawn a bolt, rhino, flames, or snap (12 cards mind you.) Id have won, and Id have won if I didnt pass the turn then be like "wait that was dumb." So this SHOULD have been a win.
Sided in 2 aven mancers because I assumed wrong. No fetches or stuff. Sided out 2 bolts, because they dont hit enough.
Game 2, Same as above, just also their was a rhino. Ran him way over.
Sided out the avens, and another bolt for 3 discard. I forgot thats the whole reason I ran the discard in the side.
Opened a hand that let me turn 1 noble turn 2 goyf and discard. Saw his hand lacked sol lands, so I took a risk and snagged his reshaper instead, as it was the only thing he could cast. Went to pound town with goyf, dropping geist again, followed by a rhino. He eventually got to 5 mana for his threats, but goyf and team did enough damage that he was tribal flames range.
2-1/ 1-0
Round 2 Esper Control
Game 1 I saw the delta and knew I was in push land. Bring it on baby, I have a geist in my opener. So I play out nacatl, then goyf, and force him to kill my goyf on turn 3, opening him for geist, and... yeah. No chance to get back. That deck is super interactive, and takes way less damage then it used to with their new lands and push, but remands still suck, and my threats are ALL MUST KILL so his 1 or 2 removal spells will lose if they cant hit my 3rd or 4th dude.
Sided out 3 path and two push for 2 aven and 3 discard. It was clear he wasnt doing a creature based deck, and if he cast something like a mentor or what ever, I was going to die to control anyways. The discard would be a way to open up windows for me and the aven is just nasty against control.
Game 2 I opened a lack luster hand with far too many lands, but it had noble and 2 goyfs, so I kept because I figured, eh, push on my mana dork, turn 2/3 goyfs are still fine. No push, just control magic, but my goyfs... at 2 damage a turn mind you, still were doing enough, and I had tribal flames in hand. So I waited, casting something here and there which would get hit with a path or push, and I played a tempo game, eventually having him at 9 and me with flames and rhino in my hand. I drew a snap, and went for rhino, got remanded twice, brought him to 5, passed, he wiped the board, leaving up 4 mana, I rhinoed, mana leak, flames, snared, snap flames and won.
2-0/ 2-0
8 Rack
Making a long story short, a lot of discard and removal happened, but I stuck 1 Knight, 7/7, then 2. So he was dead.
Sided in 1 decay, and out 1 push. I does the same thing to pack rat but i get racks too.
I know this matchup, and its actually a really easy one. They are really bad vs us... even with push. Its just about sticking a threat. And they overload on removal game 2, so I got to worry a lot less about discard. So I got pushed a few times, but he doesnt take anything from my hand. Which is bad news for him. I get to stick two 5/5 knights, a 3/3 nacatl, and a snap in hand and bolt in yard. At 15 thats leathal baby.
2-0/ 3-0
Round 4 vs Tron
Turn 1 pushed on my mana dork, turn 2 chalice, turn 3 tron. Yeah. I concede early to hide my cards from thought-knot
Side in 3 discard, 1 decay, out all bolts.
Game 2 I faced down 2 relics on my 2 goyf hand. Greattttt... Well. I still play to my outs, holding fetchs uncracked to maybe get in some damage. I draw a crap ton of rhinos, and eventually can go all in with an alpha strike, cracking fetches, and pathing a batterskull germ token, to make my goyfs actually useful. I manage to slide him down to 8 with it, then cast a 3rd rhino, which should insure leathal even through the batterskull life link.
Then he casts all is dust.
Sigh.
0-2/ 3-1
Round 5 vs Infect
Played really cat and mouse the first few rounds since I opened a slow but removal heavy hand. I barely lost due to a topped leathal pump.
Game 2 I sided in decay and aven, explosion, and bonfire, siding out the other 3 drops for it. He must have took a really slow hand with Wild Defiance. I was swinging in with 5/5 nacatls, then dropped a aven when he went all in and blocked, then killed him on the back swing.
Game 3, I put out a few beaters, while bolting one of his threats and explosives his second, dancing around the hexproof. It opened up enough time for me to just swing and win. Rhinnnoooooossss
2-1/ 4-1
Bonus game! Vs Jund
Turn 1 Hierarch, turn 2 geist, turn 3 swing, double flames for lethal. Breakin' the turn 4 rule like a champ.
Overall
4-1 is pretty good for something I brewed up last second ehhhhhh? The deck is powerful, snaps are great at a 2 of, and 3 flames is correct if you have push, since one of flames good at killing dudes and facing. But with push the need for killing dudes is less. Plus both play great with snap, but you have to use em first, so snap is best at 2 of.
Sometimes the deck felt like it needed a bird, or grim should be cut or boosted in numbers, I think thats up in the air. Sometimes push felt like it should be 3 of and path 2 of, but It might mess with the colors a bit too much. Side was wack a noodle, but meh, always is the first time around.
Never-the-less, the deck plays like an aggressive jund deck and feels more powerful than company or walker zoos. I never felt like I was losing damage by not doing bushwacker, because I was always threathening leathal, even with disruption, and I never felt like I wasnt doing something big, because I always was.
Sadly I won't be able to run it this week, as my LGS has Modern at thursdays, so no Aether Revolt yet.
Next week I'm going to play it, possibly the exact list he runs in the videos if I can borrow/buy a Canopy till then.
WGUBR 5c Humans
GWR Naya Zoo
Legacy:
GW GW Maverick
R Goblins
4 Arid Mesa
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Forest
1 Mountain
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
Spells
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Atarka's Command
2 Mutagenic Growth
4 Experiment One
4 Goblin Guide
4 Kird Ape
4 Narnam Renegade
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Reckless Bushwhacker
4 Hidden Herbalists
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Destructive Revelry
2 Kataki, War's Wage
3 Lightning Helix
4 Path to Exile
2 Scavenging Ooze
I'm torn between whether I want Hidden Herbalists or the Voltaic Brawlers. I feel like not enough of the deck is castable off of GG for Herbalists and that Brawler is a better Flinthoof Boar, though Herbalists could produce HH-BTE chains and maybe that's sufficient.
Edit: Changed Brawlers to HH and Ghor-clan to Mutagenic Growth.
With 4 Bushwhackers and 18 lands, you really need another free spell or two. 2 Mutagenic Growth is pretty typical for that slot. Alternatively, shaving a Bushwhacker mitigates the problem enough in my experience. IMO Brawler is worse than Goyf if you're in the market for a 2 that doesn't have haste and isn't "free".
Personally, I think the HH plan is better. With Renegade, the deck has 12 one drops that cost G, so the mana is still pretty useful even when you don't have a BTE or another HH. And with 3 lands you can also set up T3, HH into green 1 drop + Bushwhacker. I've been thinking of it as an Atarka's Command deck that wants to dump its hand on turn 2, the try to do obscene amounts of damage on turn 3. This doesn't always happen, but it's been surprisingly common in early testing even through disruption. (My list is a few posts back)
The deck definitely looks good.
I'm suspicious of it's ability to beat removal spells but perhaps rallier makes up for it. The land count is pretty high for any midrange deck in modern. I'm fine with curving out but the flood would appear to be real. I'd rather just play Kessig than Treetop Village but that's just me -- though I'd think since this deck goes tall you'd want that over a 3/3 CIPT manland.
Edit:
4x Arid Mesa
1x Bloodstained Mire
1x Forest
1x Horizon Canopy
1x Marsh Flats
1x Mountain
1x Plains
2x Sacred Foundry
2x Stomping Ground
1x Temple Garden
1x Treetop Village
4x Windswept Heath
4x Wooded Foothills
2x Ghor-Clan Rampager
4x Knight of the Reliquary
4x Plated Geopede
4x Renegade Rallier
4x Steppe Lynx
4x Tarmogoyf
4x Wild Nacatl
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Path to Exile
Enchantment (2)
2x Seal of Fire
2x Ancient Grudge
2x Burrenton Forge-Tender
2x Ghost Quarter
3x Lightning Helix
2x Qasali Pridemage
2x Selfless Spirit
2x Thrun, the Last Troll
I have to admit, the lack of dorks is tempting. Nothing is worse than draw mono dorks and removal spells.
I gotta admit, I'm not super impressed by this video. In terms of racing, the deck is good, but in terms of racing the decks always been good. What made the landfall zoo deck bad was the fact that removal killed it alot harder and alot easier than other zoo decks.
I also didnt love that infect literally mulled every game. Seeing the deck against more of zoo's tougher matchups or bad ones would be helpful. Plus, one of the bad things for zoo was that its matchups vs control and tempo werent ever really there. A resurgence in Delver and control would help this deck far more than any card.
I'll admit that his playtest partners aren't quite on the level of Hoogland -- their piloting is a little fast and loose against Landfall throughout the night.
WGUBR 5c Humans
GWR Naya Zoo
Legacy:
GW GW Maverick
R Goblins
edit - to clarify, tribal flames is usually the best card in my deck which is full of cards that are just raw power. It seems strange to play less than four without a specific reason.
A zoo build with the upper hand over eldrazi is new.
Tribal Zoo video series
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Arid Mesa
2 Stomping Ground
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Temple Garden
2 Forest
1 Plains
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Ghost Quarter
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Wild Nacatl
1 Birds of Paradise
4 Voice of Resurgence
4 Tarmogoyf
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Renegade Rallier
11 Spells
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Path to Exile
3 Collected Company
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Seal of Fire
1 Grim Lavamancer
2 Stony Silence
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Kor Firewalker
2 Magus of the Moon
1 Blood Moon
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Stormbreath Dragon
Only played two rounds before double drawing in, sorry for the lack of testing.
both 2-1 against abzan midrange.
Rallier did some serious work, constantly getting back voice's for incremental annoying value.
There were a few times where the only threat I was drawing was rallier, which was pretty bad when the only thing to get back is fetchlands.