April 5th - Zenith Zoo

On Tuesdays, I'm intending on telling people what I will be playing for weekly Legacy, and how I got to the deck.  Here's another take on Zoo, if you're not sick of it already.


I've been enamored by Green Sun Zenith since it was spoiled - I just haven't gotten a good chance to mess around with it yet.  There are just so many strengths and weaknesses to the card that must be addressed.

Strengths:

• Toolbox with Silver Bullets, lets you have outs and access to outs in Game 1's
• No sacrificing on threat density for adding it, it'll always be a creature
• Gets around Counterbalance
• MORE TARMOGOYFS

Weaknesses:

• Costs 1 more for the creature as paying 2 for a Wild Nacatl is embarrassing
  
• You need more mana sources to capitalize on it
• Drawing Silver Bullets when you don't want them makes some hands awkward
• Spell Pierce translates to a sad trombone
• Doesn't fuel Grim Lavamancer
• More Perish targets

Here's Kemper Pogue's Green Sun Zoo - but looking at his sideboard, it shows that he doesn't really know what he's doing with Zoo.

Green Sun Zoo - Kemper Pogue | The Rusty Machete

22 Creatures:  
4 Grim Lavamancer
3 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Noble Hierarch
2 Qasali Pridemage
4 Tarmogoyf
1 Terravore
4 Wild Nacatl

14 Spells:  
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Lightning Bolt
4 Green Sun's Zenith
3 Sylvan Library

24 Lands:  
3 Horizon Canopy
1 Plateau
2 Savannah
3 Taiga
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Wasteland
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Forest
1 Mountain

15 Sideboard:  
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Qasali Pridemage
2 Choke
1 Ghostly Prison
2 Enlightened Tutor
2 Krosan Grip
2 Path to Exile
2 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Gaddock Teeg

Here's what I think should be happening:

Zenith Zoo | The Rusty Machete

24 Creatures:  
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Grim Lavamancer
3 Qasali Pridemage
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Loaming Shaman
1 Thrun, the Last Troll

16 Spells:  
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Lightning Bolt
3 Lightning Helix
4 Green Sun's Zenith
2 Sylvan Library

22 Lands:  
1 Plateau
2 Savannah
2 Taiga
4 Windswept Heath
3 Wooded Foothills
4 Wasteland
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Forest
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Treetop Village
1 Horizon Canopy

15 Sideboard:  
2 Kitchen Finks
1 Burning-Tree Shaman
2 Ranger of Eos
1 Heartwood Storyteller
1 Granger Guildmage
2 Krosan Grip
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Sulfuric Vortex
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Karakas

There are, of course, the 4-of's that I will not compromise on.  I will admit that this deck doesn't look like a Zoo deck anymore - Noble Hierarchs, Swords to Plowshares, not a full set of Lightning Bolts; it hurts me, being a champion of other Zoo lists.  However, consider the advantages:

• You have access to a couple game 1 bullets that solve significant Zoo problems: Gaddock Teeg for various flavors of combo decks, or Zoo killers like Engineered Explosives or Humility.  I'm well aware that Gaddock Teeg alongside Green Sun Zenith is a non-bo; this isn't your concern.  After you get Gaddock Teeg, you intend on winning the game because of him.
• Loaming Shaman shuts down Academy Ruins, opposing Knight of the Reliquary and potential graveyard decks in game 1 while not being embarrassing.
• 4 Wasteland to press your mana advantage, and 8 ways (Hierarch and Zenith for Arbor) to get there.
• Multiple Lightning Helixes to handle aggressive mirrors.
• This makes better use out of my favorite man-land, the Treetop Village to get some exalted trample going to beat things like Elspeth, Knight Errant.

Looking to the sideboard, this is where you can put your more situational bullets.
Kitchen Finks - Aggro mirror
Burning-Tree Shaman - Sensei's Divining Top, Lands, Thopters (not first target for Thopters)
Heartwood Storyteller - Locally, there is always some variety of creatureless control decks; this has to be answered in some fashion.  Even if a Humility is dropped onto it, you still draw a card - and potentially an out.
Granger Guildmage - Dark Confidant, Vendillion Clique, Peacekeeper, Grim Lavamancer; the list goes on.  He's no Grim Lavamancer, but I really wanted to figure out some sort of maindeck slot for him - but he's kind of an embarrassing card choice if you're not playing against creatures.  Interesting note - both abilities are relevant.

From the rest of the sideboard, there are my standard Zoo choices - some combination of Krosan Grips and Oblivion Rings, the Bojuka Bog and the Karakas, so that I can sideboard up additional lands, and they're Knight bullets.  Add in the attrition package of Ranger of Eos, and control killer of Sulfuric Vortex, and you've got quite a bit of flexibility.

This is what I think Big Zoo should look like - there aren't a lot of actually big creatures you want to be attacking with, just Zenith for the right creature at the right time.

-G