What is RGW Zoo? RGW Zoo is a very quick aggro deck that uses lots of powerful creatures and backs them up with the best burn in the game. It crushes other aggro decks and is capable of beating all of the aggro-control decks running around Legacy.
How do I play RGW Zoo? Start by dropping your creatures and swinging in to put your opponent low on life quickly. The main exception to this is when you are playing against Goblins and your opponent drops a Goblin Lackey . You need some sort of answer to this, whether it is to simply block with a Wild Nacatl or Kird Ape , hit it with a burn spell, or snipe it with Mogg Fanatic . After the beatdown is started, get rid of your opponent’s creatures with your removal. When they are low on life, you can start throwing burn at their face and end the game.
You should be playing anywhere from 19-22 lands, with at least eight fetches, 8-10 duals, and the rest basics. Horizon Canopy is also a possibility, as it lets you run more lands (and, thus, have a more stable manabase) but can still cycle away when you don't need it.
After that, add at least three more creatures, though it is possible to run up to 24 creatures and maybe even higher. Additional creature choicesShow
Grim Lavamancer - Excellent source of recurring damage that forces your opponent to answer it quickly. Not great in the early game but deadly later. Some people don’t play it due to the dissynergy or having too many permanents. Mogg Fanatic - Kills x/1s like Dark Confidant , Goblin Lackey , Silvergill Adept , Putrid Imp , Grim Lavamancer , Nantuko Shade , and many more. Also trades in combat with x/2s and removes Bridge From Below s against Ichorid. Isamaru, Hound of Konda - Less efficient that other 1-drops, but a 2/2 for W is still good. This is your next best choice if you don’t want to play Grim Lavamancer or Mogg Fanatic or they don’t work well in your metagame. Figure of Destiny - Comes down as a 1/1, but it grows quickly and is an excellent late game threat. Watchwolf - 3/3 for GW. Worse than Goyf, but it still has a very relevant body for a 2-drop and forces an answer from your opponent. Goblin Legionnaire - Mogg Fanatic all grown up. A decent card to use. Keldon Marauders - Either deals 5 damage for 1R or deals 2 and trades with one of your opponents cards. Wooly Thoctar - If you choose to run 3-drops, this is your guy. A 5/4 at that mana cost is just great.
Once you have the creatures and manabase decided, fill out most of the rest of the deck with burn. BurnShow
Chain Lightning - Lightning Bolt as a sorcery, which is still amazing. Great burn. Lightning Helix - The lifegain is great against other aggro decks, and it’s still an Incinerate everywhere else. Rift Bolt - Lightning Bolt that comes in a turn later. Slow, but it’s hard to ignore any cards that deal three damage for one mana. Seal of Fire - Drop it early in the game and save it to win combat, kill a creature, or just do the last few points of damage. Giving your Tarmogoyf the advantage over theirs in combat is huge. Incinerate - Three damage for two is good but not great. Mainly used in burn-heavy builds. Magma Jet - Inefficient, but digs for the cards that you need. Price of Progress - Will usually deal you several points of damage, but you should be ahead in the damage race anyways. Usually deals tons of damage. Fireblast - Mostly used as a finisher, where the sacrificed lands are irrelevant. Excellent card.
There are still a few cards left to go over. Umezawa’s Jitte is sometimes used as a 2-of, and it’s not hard to see why. Jitte swings the game into your favor in any aggro matchup and turns even your weakest creatures into huge threats. Cursed Scroll is slow, but it is uncounterable and hard to remove reach for the late game. Lastly, there is White spot removal, namely Swords to Plowshares and Path to Exile . These are excellent against the various big creatures running around Legacy, with the main ones being Phyrexian Dreadnought , Tombstalker , and, of course, Tarmogoyf . These creatures are usually too big for your burn to hit, but Swords and PtE give you an easy answer.
And, of course, you need a sideboard. Vexing Shusher and Krosan Grip are the only cards that are really necessary. Here are some additional options: Spoiler:Show
Most people go for pure aggressiveness in their maindeck and stick noncreature spells in the sideboard to deal with specific decks. However, utility and disruptive creatures are very powerful maindeck cards in some metagames, and they are also good in the board. Here’s a few of the best: Spoiler:Show
Tin-Street Hooligan - Many decks play artifacts, and many of them hurt us significantly, with Chalice of the Void being the main one. Hooligan blows up an artifact and gives you a 2/1 beater for only two mana. Gaddock Teeg andEthersworn Canonist - I mentioned these in the sideboard section, but they can also be played maindeck in the right metagame.
Counterbalance Threshold Slightly favorable. Your creatures are generally bigger than Nimble Mongoose and you can kill Dark Confidant easily if they play it, but Tarmogoyf is tough to deal with if you aren’t running White removal maindeck. The CounterTop lock is your main enemy here, though. Try to get as much damage as possibly in quickly so you only have to resolve one spell or have a creature on the board to win. Vexing Shusher and Krosan Grip from the board are good here.
Tempo Thresh These are similar to other Threshold decks, but they don’t use Counterbalance, which makes it even better for us. Just beat down quickly, use burn to finish them off, and keep hands that won’t be wrecked by Wasteland and Stifle .
Dreadstill Definitely a bad matchup. They play Phyrexian Dreadnought and CounterTop, which are very difficult for you to deal with. You can win with a fast hand if they don’t get one of those going, but it won’t happen very often. Thankfully, this gets much better after sideboarding. Krosan Grip takes care of Dreadnought, Top, and Counterbalance, and Vexing Shusher makes sure your spells resolve.
Storm Combo This is the main reason why Zoo doesn’t see a ton of play. You simply lose to combo. Even with 8 sideboard slots dedicated to the matchup, you’d be hard-pressed to bring it up to 50/50, and you already lose the first game.
Ichorid Pretty similar to Storm, but you can win if you use Mogg Fanatic to remove their Bridges and then race the Ichorid beatdown. They are also more vulnerable to graveyard hate from the sideboard.
Goblins Probably the easiest matchup you will face. There’s really not much to say here; just burn their Lackeys, Piledrivers, and Warchiefs and win with your superior creatures. This gets even better if you are playing Pyroclasm in the sideboard, but it isn’t really needed.
Landstill Landstill decks vary widely, but this is generally in your favor. They are too slow to handle the speed of Zoo. They will win if you overextend into a board sweeper, though, so you have to play smart. The UWg CounterTop Goyf variants are more difficult for you, but they aren’t widely played.
Aggro Loam This is a difficult matchup. They have lots of big creatures , Chalice of the Void , and Devastating Dreams , all of which are very good against Zoo. If you can get a fast start off of Wild Nacatl and the like and get them fairly low on life before they stabilize, you may be able to finish them off with burn. Path to Exile helps here, as it's really your only option against their creatures.
Team America Highly in your favor. They don’t have lots of removal, and the one they do play, Snuff Out deals them 4 damage. Just like Tempo Thresh, don’t let them wreck your manabase. They also play Sinkhole , so be wary of that. Also remember that their threats, Tarmogoyf and Tombstalker , are hard for you to deal with. Get in beats quickly here so you can just burn them out if they drop a finisher.
Survival Their engine is powerful, but they don’t play a ton of removal and they are quite slow. You should usually be able to race here. For sideboarding, bring in something that can deal with Survival of the Fittest .
Dragon Stompy Very tough matchup. A quick Chalice of The Void or Trinisphere will wreck you, and Moon effects aren’t great either. Any of their big creatures with a Jitte or Sword of Fire and Ice are also very difficult for us to deal with. Your main way to beat them is hope they don’t drop Chalice right away and get a powerful board position that they can’t deal with. In games 2 and 3, bring in artifact hate for their Chalices, 3Spheres, and equipment.
Very nice. I am still reading it over now, good job.
edit:Thought I'd mention the synergy of Seal of Fire with Tarmogoyf. It is minor, but its something some people overlook when deciding which burn is best for them. Not saying that makes it better than the 3 for R burn, but it is something to consider.
Are Mogg Fanatic and Grim Lavamancer maindeck staples, or are they not aggressive enough?
The ability to throw Fanatic I think makes it worth it. It allows you to hold onto big burn and darts itself at Bobs, Bops, lackeys, bridges and other random staples of the format. It also can always pull a combat trade with an x/2. In the past I have also used fanatic in Zoo decks to pull a surprise Tarmo pump, you may be surprised how many defending players will overlook this, especially early in the game.
Creature-heavy builds with Umezawa's Jitte and/or [c]Rancor maindeck: better or worse than classic, burn-heavy builds?
Almost strictly worse. Jitte/Rancor= superior combat < Burn= Removal + Kill + Combat Tricks. Top decked burn is always gas for the deck. The same is not true with Jitte/Rancor.
Is White spot removal worth playing maindeck? If so, which is better, Path to Exile or Swords to Plowshares??
Eh, maybe. If so, Path to Exile by a mile.
Is Wooly Thoctar worth playing or is three mana too much?
Too much. Inferior to a straight goyf, and may lead to mana problems.
Cursed Scroll: Excellent removal and way to finish the game, or is it just too slow?
Thanks for the opinions. I agree on all of them except the Wooly Thoctar one; it's been doing really well as a 2-of. I'd never play more than that, though.
I love Grim Lavamancer. I remember beating Life.dec with grim lavamancer activations. He is usually a 4 of in my RG decks. However, my RG decks are usually for Vintage, where creatures are either 1/1s or 11/11s. Is he really that useful here? What do you typically blow up with him? I can see him being a house against goblins, but what else out there do you want him against?
I also love rancor if you are running green and I disagree somewhat with Magic. Yes, burn gives the deck gas through direct damage/removal. Rancor does the same thing, albeit to a lesser extent, but more importantly in my opinion, causes more difficult choices regarding combat. A Kird ape with rancor is much scarier to the opponent with a lone nimble mongoose than a kird ape without it. Not only will he trade with the mongoose, some damage will carry over AND you get your rancor back. In my experience a failure in combat math can break games wide open. Rancor adds a new layer of combat math that can swing games. Burn can't always do that.
Not a fan of jitte here though. Your burn should be your removal.
I used to use goblin legionnaire in RW. He is a decent beater and a shock in the mid game. He can trade with people twice his size if needed. I would completely understand if he turns out to be subpar, but I thought he was worth mentioning.
"There are some who call me...Tim?"
Go Duke!
I apologize for my lack of grammar, spelling, and coherence in my posts.
;18110219']I love Grim Lavamancer. I remember beating Life.dec with grim lavamancer activations. He is usually a 4 of in my RG decks. However, my RG decks are usually for Vintage, where creatures are either 1/1s or 11/11s. Is he really that useful here? What do you typically blow up with him? I can see him being a house against goblins, but what else out there do you want him against?
Lavamancer is generally used against decks with lots of small creatures (mostly tribal decks; Goblins, Merfolk, Elves, etc.) and just as uncounterable burn to the face later in the game. I think he should definitely be played in metagames with lots of those decks and is at least worth considering in others as well.
I also love rancor if you are running green and I disagree somewhat with Magic. Yes, burn gives the deck gas through direct damage/removal. Rancor does the same thing, albeit to a lesser extent, but more importantly in my opinion, causes more difficult choices regarding combat. A Kird ape with rancor is much scarier to the opponent with a lone nimble mongoose than a kird ape without it. Not only will he trade with the mongoose, some damage will carry over AND you get your rancor back. In my experience a failure in combat math can break games wide open. Rancor adds a new layer of combat math that can swing games. Burn can't always do that.
I like Rancor in Zoo decks with lots of creatures, but you shouldn't play lots of creatures just so you can use Rancor if being burn-heavy would otherwise be better.
I used to use goblin legionnaire in RW. He is a decent beater and a shock in the mid game. He can trade with people twice his size if needed. I would completely understand if he turns out to be subpar, but I thought he was worth mentioning.
Legionnaire is definitely a good card, but I think he's just outclassed by other options.
With regards to rancor: If the deck runs 20 creatures the deck should run rancor. I'd rather see it in place of fireblast. 12 burn + PoP is plenty of burn. Zoo is not Sligh. Sligh tries to win as fast as humanly possible to bypass its weakness of being mono-colored. Zoo runs better cards that aren't available to Sligh to provide more versatility at the cost of a slightly slower clock (if perhaps more consistent and inevitable).
EDIT: I do love Grim Lavamancer. Is he really that good against Merfolk? I ask because I don't know. I was under the impression that the merfolk got 3 toughness rather quickly. If not then leave the Wizard in. He is a beating against two decks to beat.
I also don't see how white adds a lot to the deck. Sure, it gives the cat +1/+1, but lightning helix isn't all that great. What do really get besides a less stable manabase? I might be blind to it right now, but I don't see white helping THAT much.
"There are some who call me...Tim?"
Go Duke!
I apologize for my lack of grammar, spelling, and coherence in my posts.
;18111343']With regards to rancor: If the deck runs 20 creatures the deck should run rancor. I'd rather see it in place of fireblast. 12 burn + PoP is plenty of burn. Zoo is not Sligh. Sligh tries to win as fast as humanly possible to bypass its weakness of being mono-colored. Zoo runs better cards that aren't available to Sligh to provide more versatility at the cost of a slightly slower clock (if perhaps more consistent and inevitable).
The current version of Zoo in Legacy (this deck) is, or at least can and possibly should be, closer to Goyf Sligh than "classic" Zoo builds. There are many different ways to build Zoo, some involving Rancor and some not. A lot of the time, you shouldn't play even the twenty creatures that Rancor could work for.
EDIT: I do love Grim Lavamancer. Is he really that good against Merfolk? I ask because I don't know. I was under the impression that the merfolk got 3 toughness rather quickly. If not then leave the Wizard in. He is a beating against two decks to beat.
They would get three toughness if you let their Lords live, but you have enough burn to make sure that that doesn't happen. If they ever have more than one Lord on the board at one time, then you'll probably lose unless they're really low on life already. So, Lavamancer has been great for me against Merfolk in the ~five matches that I've played. Like I said earlier, I need more testing against them, but I think Lavamancer will end up being great.
I also don't see how white adds a lot to the deck. Sure, it gives the cat +1/+1, but lightning helix isn't all that great. What do really get besides a less stable manabase? I might be blind to it right now, but I don't see white helping THAT much.
It really is a metagame call. For example, I'd definitely play Rg over RGW in a metagame with lots of Dragon Stompy. However, White does give you some cards that may be very important to have.
-Getting Wild Nacatl as a 3/3 is actually very important; swinging for three on turn 2 puts on a lot of pressure. -Lightning Helix makes the aggro mirror a lot better. -Swords/PtE get rid of big creatures like Dreadnought, Goyf, and Tombstalker that would otherwise give you fits. -Gaddock Teeg and/or Ethersworn Canonist give you a fighting chance against Storm post-board. You really don't want a matchup that you can't win, especially in larger tournaments.
Really, you have to make the choice whether to play Rg, RGW, or just a different deck entirely, and that choice depends on the metagame. The Top 8 at Chicago does show that Zoo can be quite competitive in a field made up of the best decks in Legacy.
If you don't run 20 creatures than you shouldn't run rancor. I can understand completely why you wouldn't run 20 creatures in some metagames. I still think that if you have enough creatures for rancor you need to run rancor. If you run 15 creatures though, don't run rancor. Rancored kird ape on turn 2 used to be a beating. Imagine a rancored cat on turn 2, that is a 4 turn clock.
I love that lavamancer is good against merfolk. Like I've said twice now, I love that card. :D I think hands down, in an open meta you should run 4. But I'm biased.
I feel like if you want to run white, path to exile should be in there somewhere. White has the best removal in the game, shouldn't it be in the deck? I can imagine it making the goyf mirror that much easier.
Didn't Zoo run blue originally? Not suggesting it be run here, since we don't have ancestral recall. I just seem to remember Zoo having blue in it. For historical purposes, does anyone remember?
"There are some who call me...Tim?"
Go Duke!
I apologize for my lack of grammar, spelling, and coherence in my posts.
;18112567']Didn't Zoo run blue originally? Not suggesting it be run here, since we don't have ancestral recall. I just seem to remember Zoo having blue in it. For historical purposes, does anyone remember?
You're possibly thinking either of Extended, where blue was splashed for the sake of Tribal Flames , or Vintage where it's played for Trygon Predator and such like.
