Curious Zoo

[Phele]

As Jacob Orlove started to think about a three-color-build without standstills, we are testing more aggressive versions, that lay more weight on Curiousity, disturbing the opponents mana base even more, and deal enough damgage quicker than fish. For that we cut the manlands totally for the lacking synergie they have without standstill. Out came some zooish build that has shown some great testing results against workshop builds and 4cc so far but need further testing.

4 Quirion Dryad
4 River Boa
3 Grim Lavamancer
3 Serendib Efreet
2 Gorilla Shaman

4 Curiousity
4 Brainstorm
4 FoW
2 Misdirection
2 Stifle
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk

2 Null Rod

4 Tropical
4 Volcanic
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
2 Rishadan Port
4 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
1 Island
1 Mox Saphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby

Sideboard ist metagame dependend aswell as the grim lavamancer/gorilla shaman count. Do you think this could be a way for fish to go?

[Misemaster]

Phele I really like the look of the deck. It seems like it would be a blast to play. I do think this is one way fish could go. Standstill + manlands has not been as good to me as it used to be. I for one hate conclaves and although I will miss the factories I am going to test this deck. I just have a couple of questions.

How have the serendibs been treating you? Has the removal of manlands allowed you to support a 3 casting cost slot in fish?

Is rishidan port needed? I understand the desire for extra disruption but I believe that shaman fills that role rather nicely. Also, you removed manlands and replaced 2 of them with ports. i ma not sure if I like this because they tie up roughly the same amount of mana. I have not tested so correct me if I am wrong. I can see there usefulness in tapping down a workshop during upkeep. If they were replaced I would probably go with another island and a Library of Alexandria.

Only 2 null rod? Partially do to my meta and my personal bais towards one of my favorite cards, I always felt the need to run 3 in my fish builds to ensure that I saw one. I understand it is very very easy to draw into them but I really like them in my opening hand.

Last question, Do see many Sundering Titans in your area? Like many fish builds i can see this deck having a problem with them. Maybe even more so due to the lack of manlands leaving more of the mana base vunerable. I think this deck can hold its own though with null rod, shaman and lavamancer keeping the big bad titan away. And after sideboarding rack and ruin should help things out.

[Master]

Phele, I do like where you are going with this deck but have a few concerns....

You already know where I stand on the standstill vs. brainstorm issue. But I guess there is no way your deck could possibly support the former.

No Spiketail Hatchling! Especially if you're even more focused on attacking their manabase.

Spiketail Hatchling is like a timewalk when played in the first several turns. They'll either have to wait an extra turn anytime they wish to play something important or they'll have to have a key spell of their's countered.

No Daze! Daze is one of the best disruption spells in fish. In a deck like fish that only needs a few lands, it's a FoW without the card disadvantage for the first several turns. I would play atleast one if not two. Once your opponent had a spell dazed, they will hesistate everytime they tie up their mana. They WILL wait till they have two extra mana if you already have a spiketail hatchling in play. And this WILL win games.
 
I would cut a misdirection. Misdirection can be game swinging in certain matchups. But there are many matchups where it will not find a single target. Plus, your deck is especially low on blue sources. I'm not even sure it can support 6 pitch cards.

Both Quirion Dryad and River Boa are very strong creatures. But playing both together makes Dryad a bit weaker. Dryad really shines in my deck because it is the only green spell in my entire deck.

Don't underestimate Mishra's Factory. It's not standstill that made the card good. By itself, it can block to trade with a 3/3. With another, it can really screw up an aggro deck. Combined with lavamancer, it can take out some monsterous critters.

Serendib Efreet is a nice card. That's what I was playing in my River Boa/Quirion Dryad slot before I opted for a splash. The deck is certainly stronger because of the splash, but Efreet has rarely failed me.

[Phele]

As said, this is just a try to get fish in a little different direction dealing more damage quicker. I would never say so far, that this is any better than Gay/r with wich I made so great experiences.

On the Serendibs: To me they were soso either. I really would like to fit in Call of the Herd. But as mentioned, with the Serendibs I have more blue cards to feed the fetch-spells (21 blue spells should really be enough, did you miss the efreets, master? ) and I allready have a synergie lack with Boas and Dryads together.

Daze I really like just with Spiketail together, which I cut for the damage dealing reason. But for sure both are great tools for time advantage, which is fish's greatest strength. But again: We tried to create some kind of disturbing damage-dealing-machine with support of Curiousity.

No third Null Rod is really an issue we have to solve. I just couldn't find space yet, but I'm open for ideas what to cut for it.

I played against a Bob.Deck but as allways in Workshop decks, not the big guys - in this case the titan - are the problems. The Welder are. When you manage to keep them of their mana resources and manage to wipe out the Welder, no Titan will show up. Fire/Ice will help here too after boarding.

No Mishra's and two Rishadan Port is just a test in the moment: In the moment I'm fine with the constellation.Without many manlands the three-casting-cost-slot of the efreets is not a problem.

[Jacob Orlove]

This was all from inside another fish thread, but it really needs to be its own topic. Fixed.

[Nijo]

Imho you should replace Rishadan Port with CoW.
Rishadan Port is a trade of 2 of your own lands vs one of your opponents and he can still use it to cast instants during his upkeep, whereas CoW allows you to kill one of his lands per round.
If you make that change then of course you should be playing Factories as well and put thought into maybe playing Crop Rotation.

[pp]

Ive always liked Zoo-decks, as I think they are among the most fun decks avaliable.

Im more or less quitting MtG as its almost dead in my area. Im planning to sell most of my cards, but Ill have a few decks ready just in case. Yours is JUST what Id like, together with my Nether Void deck.

I was just wondering how youd change your deck if playing in a non-powered meta. Also, if you were to use the Spiketail Hatchling / Daze "combo", what cards would go out from your current build.

Im sorry for not posting anything thats helping your deck, but like I said, I havent played the game in a LONG time (hehe, maybe like 20 games last 2 years)

Thanks for posting this deck. Looks really fun.