As you can see, we're slow with the updates again.  Part of this is attributed to the fact that I don't have anything noteworthy to discuss.  I've been playing a ton of extended lately, but haven't quite got to where I did that first PTQ.

Oh well, I have a beer in one hand and a dash of hope in the other.  Let me talk about my experiences with Zoo...

The deck that I made the finals of, is what you would call 'speed zoo' or 'one drop zoo'.  It ran Steppe Lynxes among twelve  one drops.  Part of the reason I did so well is that I am the best player in the room.  By that I mean I nut drew people all day long with double lynx plus 2-4 fetches for turn 4 kills all over the place.    Since then, I've read my internet articles faithfully, particularly the ones that decry the use of Steppe Lynx, condemning it as 'high variance' and what have you.   So when Worldwake dropped in our collective laps, the first question was 'what do we do with Loam Lion?'  Do we take out our weakest one drop (Steppe Lynx perhaps?) or do we just shove him somewhere in the deck and make him one drops number 12-16?
Two weeks ago, I entered an extended for a mox tournament and opted for the latter.  I played the speediest of speed zoo.  16 one drops, burn spells for days and a clock so fast my opponent should be dead by the time the people next to us resolve mulligans.  So what happened?

My first round, opponent plays Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Thoughtseizes me turn 1.  Turn 2 is Dark Depths into Vampire Hexmage.  On the play.  Nice deck.  I pretend I'm a poker player looking at his hole cards for the first time and do the slow squeeze with my topdeck.  Is it a Path to Exile?  No sir, onto game 2.

Game 3, he has Thopter Foundry-Sword of the Meek assembled on turn 2, thanks to a timely Chrome Mox.  I do resolve a Qasali Pridemage and blow up the Foundry, but he Thirst for Knowledges into a second one and I die.  Ok then.

Round 2 against Hypergenesis. =/   He mulls to 5 game 1 and I win.  The major problem with Hypergenesis is it doesn't mulligan too well.   I can live with that.

He doesn't mulligan in the next two games, and he goes off turn 2 in both games.  Game 3 I had the Negate in hand, but since it was my turn two and I didn't have a one drop (how that happens I don't know), I played a Tarmogoyf instead.  I figure he has to have a cascade spell and Simian Spirit Guide, or else he loses.  Naturally, he has both.

0-2 drop.  Humorously, I do a side draft where my first two picks are both Gigantiform.  Guess how that turned out?

The first takeaway here is that I thought my deck was fine and I basically got nut drawn two matches in a row.  It happens.  Not much you can do about that. Plus Hypergenesis is rough for zoo.  Is that not why we play Dark Depths though?  Does it not sometimes just nut draw people and get the turn 2 20/20 plus discard spell?  It didn't really bother me, but I wanted to give myself a fighting chance. The important thing is not to let two rounds of unlikely nut draws dissuade me from playing one of the best decks in the format.

I contact Doogle the week before the PTQ and he shows me the zoo list that FFfreak had advocated.  After having played a PTQ with it, I call it slooooow zoo.  The list looks like this:


I tested against Zoo,  Bant, Dark Depths and Hypergenesis and did very good to OK against each of these.  It seemed that the deck was very well streamlined, easy to use and sideboard with and had a fighting chance against pretty much everything.  At least post board.   Notice how this version is glacially slow compared to the 16 one drop version I ran with two weeks prior.

This weekend I attended a PTQ in Portland, OR with this list in tow.  Round 1, I played a zoo mirror which I destroyed, since my version was not only more powerful, but he also threw burn spells at my dome when I had 3-4 cards in my hand, so his experience with this matchup is questionable at best.  I take this down in two short games.

Round 2 I played against U/W Tezzerator and game 1, he gets early Thopter-Sword and I lose.  It's at this point it hits me... I can't kill him fast enough.  This deck is just too slow and gives him ample time to set up his combo.

Fortunately for game 2, I'm able to land a Damping Matrix and his entire deck can't beat that one card.  My hand is slow as molasses, but I can counter the 2 bounce spells he plays with Bant Charm/Negate.

For game 3, on the draw, my hand is the following, Arid Mesa, Forest, Sacred Foundry, Tarmogoyf, Lightning Bolt, Knight of the Reliquary, Woolly Thoctar.  Seems reasonable, no?  So turn 1, I play the Arid Mesa and fetch Temple Garden. Oops.  Big punt.  Guess who drew three Bant Charm in a row?  This guy!  If I had a blue mana, I would have blown this kid out.  As is, I sit there like a jackass and have to Path to Exile my own Thoctar like a moron and lose.  I 100% deserved this. Terrible, terrible play on my part.  Instead of tilting, I drink some coffee and slap myself a few times in the face Saito-style and get ready to win the next 6 matches in a row.

Round 3 I see my opponent bridge his cards while shuffling and he is shuffling toward me.  I look directly at his deck (I mean straight at them, not at an angle/cheating) and I sneak a peek of a Sword of the Meek and a Spellstutter Sprite.  Thopter/Fae it is.
He wins the roll and leads with Swamp then Chrome Mox imprinting Spell Snare and passes.  I lead with a Hierarch and eat a Spellstutter Sprite.  My next plays are three drops which gets Smothered and countered.  I lose to the Sprite and a Vendillion Clique.

Game 2 I just played creatures and his own Bitterblossom killed him.

Game 3, he has a turn 2 Bitterblossom, and I played three drops again and he just Deathmarks/Spellstutters/Smothers them and I just lose.

I thought my fae matchup was insane with zoo.  It is when I'm playing a faster version of zoo.  When it's this slow, they can just chump with Bitterblossom tokens and remove fatties at their leisure.

After two lackluster performances with zoo, I have to wonder, what version should one play going forward?  I was watching the zoo decks at the top tables and I think the best plan is to play a version that's more middle of the road: slower than speed zoo, but faster than ffreak zoo.

If I were to play zoo in a PTQ next week I would make the following changes to ffreak zoo:

-4 Woolly Thoctar

-4 Negate

+4 Qasali Pridemage

+4 Loam Lion

Yeah, more than 4 one drops are definitely needed.  Conveniently, there is a PTQ in Vancouver, BC this weekend.  Hopefully, I have a tournament report for you that's more interesting than 1-2-catchphrase.  Wish me luck.

-G Pelly