It’s the first round of your first Extended tournament of the year. You’re shuffled and sleeved and ready to scrape knees. Your opponent’s pink sleeves* are a bit off-putting, but you give him the benefit of the doubt; maybe his shop had sold out of the respectable colors.
He starts out with the typical fetchland that you expected in your rigorous Extended testing; however, this time, rather than the anticipated Kird Ape, a larger, more fierce critter crept up to the crossroads. A Cat Warrior of epic construction…
No biggie. One extra power is nice, but still not game-breaking. Until, of course, you add its power to the pair of Apes that joined the table on the next turn. So now, going to your second draw step, you’re facing down seven power and no foreseeable answer to the three creatures in play, let alone the infallible flame-filled follies forecast in the future.
This start isn’t scary for all comers, of course. Some have Engineered responses, but they are still giving up ten or more damage if they wait until turn 2 to play it. Some lean on Firespout to do the equalizing. You can Threads of Loyalty, Vedalken Shackles, or take the lead with a trio of Frogmites and an Enforcer to back them up with Horny Orni Plating. You can Sakura-Tribe Elder into Damnation/Wrath, or combo them off in an Elvish epiphany.
There are a variety of answers to that monstrous start, but are any of them really that appealing, or fast enough, other than turn 1 Explosives? Many of them also involve Chrome Mox, which means you’ll be two cards down just to cast your answer a turn earlier. Makes Mox seem like the worst accelerate in the history of Magic when you word it like that, right? I mean, Seething Song is one card that gives you two mana, and Chrome Mox is two cards that only yields one. And on top of that, Song is a common coffee coaster, while Mox will burn holes in your pockets like flame-covered rockets.
In Berlin, Zoo led the field by a mile, with nearly 30% of the decks sporting Wild Nacatl. The Day 2 metagame was much different, with Zoo falling short to Elves, with 37 and 38 of each deck type represented. With Zoo being the second most-played deck, making up 20.42% (59) of the total decks played at Worlds, it’s poised to have its most potent season ever ahead of it.
I anticipate the PTQ numbers to be slightly higher for a couple of reasons. Last year in Valencia, Zoo was a part of a virtual five-deck tie for the most played, enabling a much more open format than today’s Extended. However, at all of the PTQs I attended, Zoo was easily the most popular deck, since it’s been one of the big decks in Extended for the past few years now.
For all the PTQ and GP hopefuls, those numbers are very important. Not only will you have to navigate your way through the Zoo to win a blue envelope or Day 2, but you’ll also probably have to take it down two or three times, meaning you’d better have a suitable plan to combat the one-mana intensive creature curve.
The basic fundamental aggressive line of attack is the perfect pick up plan for those who are unprepared, yet its complex decision tree and castability of all its spells in the first couple of turns makes it an ideal choice for the best magicians, to outplay their opponents. 2006 Rookie of the Year, Sebastian Thaler, had the only flawless Extended record with this deck of many creature types, so that’s as good a starting point as any.
Zoo
6-0 Extended Portion, 2008 Worlds
Sebastian Thaler
1 Blood Crypt
3 Bloodstained Mire
2 Flooded Strand
1 Godless Shrine
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Steam Vents
1 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Dark Confidant
4 Kird Ape
4 Mogg Fanatic
3 Shadow Guildmage
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Lightning Helix
3 Oblivion Ring
1 Seal of Fire
1 Tarfire
4 Tribal Flames
3 Umezawa’s Jitte
Sideboard
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Deathmark
1 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Gaddock Teeg
4 Kitchen Finks
2 Sundering Vitae
4 Thoughtseize
So, we have 21 mana sources, eight of which produce mana, the other 13 Lightning Bolt you. We’re used to this; ever since Ravnica debuted, starting at 17/16/14 has been the norm. With the wide arrangement of mana we can cast the most powerful mana-cost-to-power ratio creatures available.
Turn 1 Apes and Fat Cats represent the beefy dudes, while Mogg Fanatic and Shadow Guildmage provide the utility one-drops that are key pieces to disrupting Elves and other combo decks while retaining value when you’re looking to trade up in combat. I don’t need to elaborate on Apes or Cats, but the other seven one-drops are an awesome metagame choice right now with Elves running rampant, although it’s a deck I see as ‘on the down’ since it’s so easily disrupted and metagamed around. There are two other one-drops in the deck – Seal of Fire and Tarfire – both singletons that look to mise some extra power from Tarmogoyf while being fine spot removal to clear a path for the Zoo’s inhabitants.
The two-drops include the heavy-hitting heifer Tarmogoyf, and the card advantage kid Dark Confidant. This is also where the quality two-mana burn spells come into play. Tribal Flames, when combined with this greedy manabase, is five to the dome, while Lightning Helix provides a quality burn/life gain combination to deal with the mirror match’s one-drops. Umezawa’s Jitte is the last of the two-drops that provides
The three-drop slot is the skinniest on the curve, and includes a Vindicate replacement in Oblivion Ring. Personally, I hate O-Ring, as I always feel like such an idiot casting it because they always find an instant speed answer at some point down the line that always manages to screw me over. That’s in Standard of course, but I suppose there isn’t much bounce or Enchantment removal in Extended, which validates Thaler’s choice.
The sideboard is where you can get a good grasp about what Sebastian was thinking when he threw this brew together.
Four Kitchen Finks makes for the perfect attrition creature whenever two Zoos collide. We’ve seen Finks shine in Standard, and when a matchup consists of merely attacking and killing opposing attackers. Finks is a sleeker-suited sideboard card than the previously proven Loxodon Hierarch, and, given his smaller frame yet built-in attrition, there’s a good chance you’ll get a bit more mileage out of him. It’s like upgrading to a lean Prius from a bulky Suburban.
Thoughtseize is the other four-of, and works more of an answer to an answer than actual disruption as one might initially think. Sideboards are going to be well prepared for a trip to the Zoo, so counteracting their Wrath effects, Engineered Explosives, and Condemns is important, and it’s about the best answer to opposing Kitchen Finks short of switching to Magma Spray.
Gaddock Teeg is much like Thoughtseize, since it has good value in many control-oriented matches. Death Cloud, Tron variants, and any deck sporting Engineered Explosives as their only source of hard removal will have trouble with Teeg, and I’d probably want a third copy, given how popular Explosives are going to be.
Sundering Vitae takes me back to Worlds ’05, when Ghazi Glare was all the rage. I picked the deck up blindly and somehow squeezed a couple of Vitae in there for the numerous Tron, Greater Gifts, and mirror matches in my area. Its usefulness comes whenever you’re up against Affinity or Tron. It provides an awkwardly costed artifact-removal spell for Chalice and those Tezzerator decks, and is especially important in the mirror where Jitte advantage and opposing O-Rings will be ever-present factors.
The rest of the board is just a collection of versatile one-of cards that fit into other sideboard packages.
This is the Zoo deck that everyone will be playing (or at least basing their tweaks upon). There’s just not too much wiggle room. Here’s another successful Zoo deck, that PV piloted to 4-2.
Zoo
4-2 Extended Portion, 2008 Worlds
Paulo Vitor Damo De Rosa
1 Blood Crypt
4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Godless Shrine
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Steam Vents
2 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Dark Confidant
2 Figure of Destiny
4 Kird Ape
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Lightning Helix
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Seal of Fire
4 Tribal Flames
2 Umezawa’s Jitte
Changes from above:
-1 Dark Confidant
-1 Umezawa’s Jitte
-3 Shadow Guildmage
-1 Oblivion Ring
-1 Tarfire
+4 Tidehollow Sculler
+2 Figure of Destiny
+1 Seal of Fire
Apparently you had to have five wins to have your sideboard posted on the mothership. Thankfully, Paulo filled out the details in his excellent report:
3 Duergar Hedge-mage
4 Kitchen Finks
2 Shadow Guildmage
3 Jund Charm
3 Gaddock Teeg
PV’s approach is a touch unconventional, as he adds a Zombie and Kithkin exhibit at his Brazilian Zoo.
Figure of Destiny is there to round out the one-drops while providing a beefy late game option. 4/4 is the biggest non-Llurgoyf creature, which gives him a decisive trump in the mirror matches. Meanwhile, Sculler makes an inspiring appearance that provides artificial food for Goyf, ideally if Spell Snared before combat, and gives this deck a bit more reach game 1 than you’d expect from such a linear aggro deck.
1 Seal of Fire / 1 Tarfire is much better than 2 Seal of Fire, and I’d assume PV would make the same swap if he’d considered it again. They both do exactly the same thing. However, if you are going to draw both copies of the burn one-drops, it’s much better to have tribal and enchantment bases covered for Goyf games.
Zoo
5-1Extended Portion, 2008 Worlds
Willy Edel
1 Blood Crypt
3 Bloodstained Mire
2 Flooded Strand
1 Godless Shrine
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Steam Vents
2 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
4 Windswept Heath
3 Wooded Foothills
1 Figure of Destiny
2 Gaddock Teeg
4 Kird Ape
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Lightning Helix
3 Oblivion Ring
2 Seal of Fire
4 Tribal Flames
3 Umezawa’s Jitte
Sideboard
3 Duergar Hedge-Mage
4 Ethersworn Canonist
3 Jund Charm
4 Kitchen Finks
1 Ranger of Eos
Again, assuming Thaler’s version (being the most praised) is the stock build:
-3 Shadow Guildmage
-4 Dark Confidant
-1 Tarfire
+1 Seal of Fire
+1 Figure of Destiny
+2 Gaddock Teeg
+4 Tidehollow Sculler
Honestly, this deck makes more sense than the above two. Cutting Confidant is probably the right call for the PTQ season with inflated aggressive deck numbers. I’ve always used that as a good guideline for approaching a PTQ. At pro events you can expect a healthy amount of control being played to the top, whereas in PTQs I always notice more aggro decks due to their seemingly easier playability and capability to win out of nowhere. I feel like aggro decks are much harder to play to perfection, since control decks give you a lot of room to work, but that’s a topic for another time.
The Confidants are replaced with Sculler and Teeg, which makes curve a little thicker, but less susceptible to Chalice for 1.
Jund Charm is an extremely arousing sideboard option for a variety of decks, since it’s a combo inhibitor as well as an instant speed Wrath for Mono-Blue Wizards/Faeries and Elves. Duergar Hedge-Mage is the artifact/enchantment removal, but I’d really rather have Sundering Vitae on my roster. Canonist and Finks are both typical. However, Canonist doesn’t seem practical or necessary as a four-of. The decks that are drastically affected by him all know how to tiptoe around the White Artifact, and leaning on him instead of a card like Teeg, that actually stops them from casting spells, is risky business.
Zoo
5-1Extended Portion, 2008 Worlds
Christian Flaaten
1 Blood Crypt
4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Godless Shrine
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Steam Vents
2 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Dark Confidant
2 Ethersworn Canonist
4 Kird Ape
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Lightning Helix
1 Oblivion Ring
3 Seal of Fire
3 Tarfire
3 Tribal Flames
3 Umezawa’s Jitte
Changes:
-1 Tribal Flames
-2 Oblivion Ring
-3 Shadow Guildmage
+2 Ethersworn Canonist
+2 Seal of Fire
+2 Tarfire
Christian has the lowest creature count of these four lists with 22, whereas Thaler and Willy have 23 and PV has 25. And really, the spells he cut are only Shocks. Seal and Tarfire maybe more Goyf-oriented, but they also make Chalice for 1 a near auto-loss with the depleted Tribal Flame count. This isn’t the direction I would want my Zoo deck to take, but at least everyone can agree on 21 lands.
Zoo
4-2 Extended Portion, 2008 Worlds
Gerry Thompson
1 Blood Crypt
3 Bloodstained Mire
1 Flooded Strand
1 Godless Shrine
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Steam Vents
1 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Dark Confidant
4 Kird Ape
4 Mogg Fanatic
2 Shadow Guildmage
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Lightning Helix
3 Oblivion Ring
3 Seal of Fire
4 Tribal Flames
1 Umezawa’s Jitte
Sideboard
1 Dark Confidant
2 Duergar Hedge-Mage
1 Forest
3 Jund Charm
4 Kitchen Finks
3 Shattering Spree
1 Umezawa’s Jitte
Again, changes:
-1 Dark Confidant
-1 Shadow Guildmage
-1 Tarfire
-1 Land
-2 Umezawa’s Jitte
+2 Seal of Fire
+4 Tidehollow Sculler
GT apparently doesn’t agree with the 21 land tendency, and didn’t appreciate the Tarfire/Seal slot split. He also doesn’t want to be doing Jitte thangs in the mirror… but I’m really digging three Dark Confidant with the full case in the sideboard. It’s hard to squeeze the Sculler in there. One way or another, you’re going to have to sacrifice some consistency for power. It’s just a matter of whether or not you intend to cut spells or creatures, and with 25 critters in GT’s list, he chose to rely on his creatures for Game 1.
That leaves us with this average list, a la Frank Karsten:
4 Kird Ape
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Tarmogoyf
2.8 Dark Confidant
2.4 Tidehollow Sculler
1 Shadow Guildmage
0.6 Figure of Destiny
0.4 Ethersworn Cannonist
0.4 Gaddock Teeg
23.6 Creatures per deck
4 Lightning Helix
3.8 Tribal Flames
2.4 Oblivion Ring
2.2 Seal of Fire
2.4 Umezawa’s Jitte
0.8 Tarfire
15.6 Spells per deck
20.8 Lands
Thanks for reading!
Kyle
Top 5 Pooches
1) Blue-Nosed Pitbull
2) Great Dane
3) Border / Rough Collie Cross
4) Rottweiler
5) Dachshund
* Seriously though, I believe the Zoo-wielding population makes up at least a third of pink sleeve sales. The other 2/3 consists of foolish Faeries, arrogant Affinity, and those goofy Goblins.