Bloodbraided Blue Lightsaber Zoo

Modern Aggro Competitive RGW (Naya) RGWU Zoo

VaultSkirge

Land (22)

• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 2x Sacred Foundry
• 3x Snow-Covered Forest
• 1x Snow-Covered Mountain
• 1x Snow-Covered Plains
• 1x Steam Vents
• 3x Stomping Ground
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 2x Windswept Heath
• 4x Wooded Foothills

Creature (25)

• 4x Birds of Paradise
• 4x Bloodbraid Elf
• 2x Gruul Spellbreaker
• 2x Hexdrinker
• 4x Mantis Rider
• 2x Qasali Pridemage
• 3x Voltaic Brawler
• 4x Wild Nacatl

Instant (11)

• 4x Lightning Bolt
• 3x Lightning Helix
• 4x Path to Exile

Planeswalker (2)

• 2x The Royal Scions

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Sideboard

Creature (6)

• 2x Collector Ouphe
• 2x Knight of Autumn
• 1x Spell Queller
• 1x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben

Instant (5)

• 2x Abrade
• 1x Blessed Alliance
• 1x Celestial Purge
• 1x Ceremonious Rejection

Artifact (3)

• 2x Damping Sphere
• 1x Grafdigger's Cage

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Blue Zoo Primer

Why Zoo?

So, why should you play Zoo? I play Modern Zoo because the first deck that I played when getting into Magic was a Gruul Aggro deck and when I wanted to play Modern, Zoo was the most natural transition. However, even if you’ve played completely different decks in the past, there are great reasons to play Zoo.

• Zoo is a relatively straightforward deck to play and so is accessible to beginner players.
• Zoo is one of the cheaper Modern decks out there, because expensive cards like Noble Hierarch and Tarmogoyf can be more easily substituted for than staples in other decks.
• Zoo can consistently win on turn 4-5 and has significantly more staying power than a slightly faster deck like Burn or 8-Whack.
• Zoo is a very fair deck, so a) people won’t hate you for playing it and b) you won’t feel like you’re playing Magic wrong.

These are all great reasons to try Naya Zoo.

Card Choices

Some of the cards that I play in my deck are a bit unorthodox compared to current Zoo decks. I will explain why I chose to include the cards that currently are in my deck.

Wild Nacatl : Don’t really need to explain this one. It’s a 3/3 for 1.

Birds of Paradise : Substitute for Noble Hierarch . We need 4 slots for mana dorks to get possible KotRs or Mantis Rider s on T2 and Bloodbraid Elf s on T3.

Tarmogoyf : Most efficient 2 CMC beater in Modern. Usually comes down as a 3/4 for and grows from there, especially against Jund.

Qasali Pridemage : This card has great utility. It passes the vanilla test, the exalted is useful, and you can crack it against important artifacts/enchantments like Aether Vial .

Knight of Autumn : Great utility card, but it’s not a very efficient creature if you’re playing it as a 4/3 with no abilities for 3. It’s great with the artifact/enchantment removal or lifegain, though.

Knight of the Reliquary : This card used to be a lot more scary. Since Fatal Push was printed in Aether Revolt, it’s become significantly less good. However, it’s still the premier 3-drop in strictly Naya colors.

Mantis Rider : Here over Lightning Skelemental because of the easier splash and (literally) staying power. Skelemental will deal 6 damage and make your opponent discard 2 for 3 CMC. Rider deals 3 the turn it comes down, but it can block for you and swing multiple times.

Bloodbraid Elf : This is my favorite card in the deck. I don’t really know how to explain why this card is so good other than the fact that it gives incredible value and card advantage. Even if you cascade into a Wild Nacatl that’s still a 3/3 that you didn’t have before.

Lightning Bolt : It’s a red deck. It’s Lightning Bolt . Not much to say here.

Path to Exile : Best removal spell in the format. For one mana, get rid of any pesky creature you want. It can be used well against a Tarmogoyf to prevent it from getting too big.

Lightning Helix : This is just so incredible against Burn. Any kind of lifegain basically wrecks their deck, and this is certainly good enough of a card to justify lifegain, especially with Burn being so popular.

Cards I Would Get, But Capitalism Doesn’t Let Me

4x Noble Hierarch : This would replace the four Birds of Paradise .

Matchups

Burn: This is a 50/50 matchup. Burn is faster than we are, but Lightning Helix and Knight of Autumn help us a lot here. Opening with a Monastery Swiftspear helps them a lot because if they don't kill us by T3, we can stick a Knight of the Reliquary or Bloodbraid Elf , and casting either of these (or both, if you hit a KotR off of the Elf) will usually win us the game.

Jund: This is perhaps our worst matchup. Their grindy midrange cards and efficient removal like Fatal Push kills us here. They can one-for-one with our creatures and still power out their cheap threats early. If they stick a Tarmogoyf on T2, we're pretty much cooked.

Tron: This is slightly favorable for us, if only because of Tron's infamously sparse interaction. If we're on the play, we'll win most of the time, but a T2 Chalice of the Void on one from them hurts. Still, we can kill them before their big plays, which don't hit the field by T3, can make a difference.

UW Control: It depends on the specifics, but generally we do very well here. Lists with more Snapcasters and Vendilion Clique tend to do better, because they two-for-one our threats, but lists with more planeswalkers (especially Narset, Parter of Veils ) are crushed by the sheer number of creatures that we have.

Humans: This matchup isn't great for us. The synergy and speed of their attack combined with the ability to remove some of our threats doesn't bode well for a pure aggro deck.

All suggestions appreciated! Also, WotC should unban Green Sun's Zenith .

Date added	7 years
Last updated	5 years
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	4 - 0 Mythic Rares 27 - 7 Rares 18 - 7 Uncommons 6 - 0 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	1.95
Tokens	Energy Reserve
Folders	Great ideas, Modern Builds - G/R, Ideas!, Modern decks ideas, ideas