Since I went on the road for the past week and a half to look at colleges, I haven't seen the tournament metagame as of late. That's 9 days I missed. And in one day while I was gone, the metagame switched from heavy control to Sligh. And this was very hard for me to adjust to. Being a Stacker 2 player, I was used to battling it out against control and having all the silver bullets and maindeck hate that made decks like Keeper and BSB cringe. But in no way in my mind can Stacker 2 stand up to Sligh. So I had to find a new deck to play.
Now, when you ask me off the bat what I'd play against Sligh, I'd probably say combo. But most combo decks are extremely expensive, and most of my friends don't even have the cards for powered Academy, Worldgorger, and Parfait. So I thought of what else could beat Sligh. And then I thought.. Stompy. But Stompy can sometimes find it's creatures not enough to force through lethal damage. So, you add burn to the deck. And then you have Zoo. Now, when people think Zoo, now-a-days it's more of Ice Blue Zoo than anything else. Also fully powered. But Zoo traditionally is one of those decks that doesn't even need to be powered to work. It can work fine off just
4 Kird Ape
4 Skyshroud Elite
4 Basking Rootwalla
4 River Boa
2 Gorilla Shaman
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Giant Growth
4 Incinerate
4 Rancor
1 Stormbind
1 Sylvan Library
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Black Vise
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Taiga
9 Forest
9 Mountain
Now, this is a very unconditional Zoo deck for most "vintage adepts". It's got a lot of unusual and new creatures, and some new and interesting card choices. But I assure you, it's all good.
Round 1: Richard, Butterknives (splash red for Wheel and Bolts)
He rushes out of the gate with Swamp and Mox Diamond, making up a second turn Shade, but I return fire with Taiga to Kird Ape. He lays Badlands and attacks with the Shade, showing me how good that little bugger is. After laying a mountain and Rancoring my Kird Ape, he starts to get nervous and hopes for a Bolt or Edict. He rits to Negator and in response to a Hymn I bolt his Negator, leaving him with only the two creatures. Rootwalla, Elite, and a Incinerate later and he gives the game to me.
- FYI: Games at the Lair are played on 1 match basis. -
Sean? playing Lackey Sligh
Okay, I commend him for his idea of playing Lackey Sligh, which sometimes beats regular Sligh, however Lackey Sligh has absolute junk compared to my version of Zoo. He has to triple block just to take no damage from a Rancor'd Kird Ape. Plus, Lackey never even has a chance to attack. He tries to burn my life total away but like in most Sligh vs. Stompy matches, the bigger critters prevail.
Rob playing powered Sligh
Now usually I'd just concede after hearing this guy had consistently drawn either Ruby, Diamond or Lotus and done a first turn Ball Lightning. But I take my chances and face him down. I drop a Taiga, Kird Ape. He busts out of the gate with.. Lotus, Mox Diamond, Wasteland. Making it so my Kird was more of just a Turd via wasteland, he stomps me down to 5 and has a Chain Lightning to answer my second turn Gorilla Shaman. Things get even worse from there as he empties his hand of burn then Wheels into two Fireblasts which he shoots at my dome. By the time I see the four mountains hit the graveyard, I know what's happening and pick up my cards to leave.
Some scrub playing Sui
Oh my god. If there wasn't a more entertaining match to watch that day, it was this. He rits to Negator first turn. I Bolt. He plays Flesh Reaver off Petal and a Lake of the Dead. I drop an Elite with a Giant Growth in my hand. Him, figuring he'd just take four and get rid of the Elite ran right for me. I GG'd his Reaver. He took 7, and hey, I lost my Elite. No biggy. I end up going down to 4 life from Library, but I draw just the right amount of burn to toast him away.
Store regular playing Academy
Ooh, combo deck. Ooh, mox monkey. See, a huge Stroke 3rd turn (Which he was about to play) is good and all, but when I lay an uncountered Mox Monkey first turn to rid him off Moxen and a turn-before him Wheel, he flat out concedes. Losing Stroke and Recall will do that to you.
Steve, playing BSB
Steve and I go way back, however he and I get into arguements about Magic constantly. This was no exception. After Rancoring my Rootwalla, I went for the jugular to put Steve at four. In response, he pops his keg with 1 counter. In response, I tap 5 and Shaman his Keg. He calls a judge over and starts bitching about how his Keg still went through reguardless. The judge agrees with me, and Steve gets a sour attitude with me and concedes. I sort of felt bad, however he shouldn't have been so quick to quit on the match like that. Oh well, on to the next round
I'm 5-1 which is usually 1st or 2nd place, however 2 decks have managed to go 6-0. I'm playing one of them.
DJ playing WW
When we get underway, I jawdrop after hearing DJ made it 6-0 with white weenie. After the first few turns, I see why. He has 4 Soltari Monk and Priest, accompanied by Mothers, Phantom Nomads, and Suntail Hawks. Oh yeah. And 4 Cho Manno's Blessing. For a while though, we end up trading blows until he pulls the big trump card: Catacylsm. He ends up sacrificing all but Phantom Nomad, Divine Sacrament, and a Maze of Ith. I'm feeling like this is the end, but oh no.. I end up playing a Library and going down to 3 after a few turns of drawing up my library. But drawing what? Bolts and Incinerates, of course. His life total goes from 11-9-6-Dead with the help of two Skyshroud Elite.
Ah, finals. What a great feeling to have piloted such an unorthodox Zoo build to the bitter end. And bitter it will be. My final matchup is against Rob, and just look at the first game against him if you want to know what happened..
But then again, my deck did pretty well, and I'm pretty happy with the results.
Now, I know that I said Sligh was very dominant, and it was that day.. Atleast 70% of the field was Sligh. I just got most of the nonsligh matchups.
