Oath of Zoo

Modern*

AgentAO

Creature (25)

• 4x Knight of the Reliquary
• 2x Loxodon Smiter
• 4x Noble Hierarch
• 3x Qasali Pridemage
• 2x Scavenging Ooze
• 4x Tarmogoyf
• 2x Voice of Resurgence
• 4x Wild Nacatl

Planeswalker (3)

• 2x Arlinn Kord  ^Flip
• 1x Domri Rade

Land (22)

• 3x Arid Mesa
• 2x Forest
• 1x Ghost Quarter
• 1x Horizon Canopy
• 1x Kessig Wolf Run
• 1x Plains
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 1x Stirring Wildwood
• 2x Stomping Ground
• 1x Temple Garden
• 4x Windswept Heath
• 4x Wooded Foothills

Enchantment (3)

• 3x Oath of Nissa

Instant (7)

• 4x Lightning Bolt
• 3x Path to Exile

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Sideboard

Creature (10)

• 1x Gaddock Teeg
• 2x Grim Lavamancer
• 2x Kitchen Finks
• 1x Qasali Pridemage
• 1x Scavenging Ooze
• 2x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
• 1x Thrun, the Last Troll

Enchantment (2)

• 1x Blood Moon
• 1x Stony Silence

Instant (2)

• 1x Ancient Grudge
• 1x Dromoka's Command

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Bonfire of the Damned

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Zoo

Kord is love. Kord is life.

A Quick Primer

The deck is pretty simple in concept: Play low curve, aggressive creatures. Keep your opponents board in check with Lightning Bolts and Path to Exiles. In the late game, you just threaten to kill them and anything they could block with by just slamming 5 power+ creatures, or jamming a walker and riding it to sweet victory

Its SUPER important to recognize what role you are at any point in the game. Against the slower, grindy decks you must be playing the aggro role. Against the quick, aggressive decks you must be playing the control role. The deck can flip between the two on a dime, thanks in part to the creature-base being part of the disruption, between Qasali Pridemage, Scavenging Ooze, and Knight of the Reliquary.

Knight of the Reliquary is a special note. When the game slows to a grind, it WILL grow out of control for your opponent. Its important to recognize when KoTR is about to eat a removal spell and instead of attacking, hold it back to gain value off its ability.

Mainboard Tech choices

• Woolly Thoctar
  • The "Can't be countered" and anti-discard text of Loxodon Smiter tends to be flavor text most of the time. Thoctar can punch through the average 4/5 Tarmogoyf and Tasigur, the Golden Fang, which is important as Smiter can't.
• Voice of Resurgence
  • Simply one of the greatest cards ever printed for beating fair decks. Jam it on two and never look back.
• Ghost Quarter
  • The gold standard in slowing down Tron.
• Stirring Wildwood
  • I still prefer it over Raging Ravine for both its cheaper activation cost and ability to block Inkmoth Nexus.
• Oath of Nissa
  • Now that the deck features a Planeswalker package, Oath is super strong. It digs for key creatures, fixes lands, finds planeswalkers, helps dig for sideboard tech (especially early Lavamancers or Thalias), AND has an ability that's relevant a non-zero amount of the time.
• Arlinn Kord  
  • I have no idea how good she is yet, but she's a swiss-army knife of abilities. You'll want to plus her on the first turn against lightning bolt decks, but honestly if you curve KoTR into her, the plus is insane anyway.
• Domri Rade
  • At the worst, removal spell number 8. At the best, a grindy value engine that'll keep you ahead most of the time, all while being removal spells 9 and 10.

Matchup Guide

About Favoring

Matchup favoring is broken down into the five following buckets:

• +2 100-0 to 80-20
  • Almost unloseable. These are matchups where we are so favored that it requires an exceptionally bad draw on our part or an exceptionally good draw on theirs to lose.
• +1 80-20 to 60-40
  • Favored. These are matchups we should win most of the time, unless we miss on a couple consecutive turns.
• 0 60-40 to 40-60
  • Even. These matchups go either way, depending on who draws better and who plays better.
• -1 40-60 to 20-80
  • Unfavored. These are matchups it takes exceptional skill and luck to win. Draw well, play tight, hope for the best.
• -2 20-80 to 0-100
  • Almost unwinnable. You're almost better off conceeding and going to game 2, if there wasn't the slight chance that they mulligan to zero.

UR Delver

Favoring:+2

Show

Analysis:

It just turns out that, against specifically the straight UR variant, that everything our deck does matches up insanely well against this deck. They have Delver of Secrets  , we have Wild Nacatl. They have Young Pyromancer, we have Lightning Bolt. They have Lightning Bolt, we have Lightning Helix. Not to mention large swathes of our deck is resistant to Lightning Bolt, and our low curve and mainboard Voice of Resurgences allow us to afford not to care about countermagic.

Sideboarding Philosophy:

Take out the clunky junk that we don't want to get remanded, become more aggressive. Grim Lavamancer allows us to kill almost anything they can cast, and Engineered Explosives can kill an Insectile Aberration   and a pile of 1/1 Elemental tokens

Out

• -3 Qasali Pridemage
• -1 Path to Exile
• -3 Collected Company
• -2 Woolly Thoctar

In

• +2 Kitchen Finks
• +1 Lightning Helix
• +1 Scavenging Ooze
• +1 Grim Lavamancer
• +2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
• +2 Engineered Explosives

Dredgevine

Favoring:+2

Show

Analysis:

A surprisingly good matchup, the combination of mainboard Scavenging Ooze, Path to Exile, and pressure - combined with the relative slowness of the Dredgevine deck - allows us to put them on the back foot early and never get a chance to do any real shenanigans. Early Lotleth Troll s with regeneration up and hard-casted Golgari Grave-Trolls can present a small problem, but thanks to the ever-growing Knight of the Reliquary we can both stone-wall opposing fatties and tutor up Kessig to punch through for Lethal.

Sideboarding Philosophy:

Just get more of that stuff that makes our deck already good. CoCo is good here to hit Scavenging Ooze more consistently.

Out

• -1 Lightning Helix
• -2 Qasali Pridemage

In

• +1 Scavenging Ooze
• +2 Path to Exile

Merfolk

Favoring:+1

Show

Analysis:

Sideboarding Philosophy:

Out

In

Aggro Zoo

Favoring:+1

Show

Analysis:

Sideboarding Philosophy:

Out

In

Affinity

Favoring:+1

Show

Analysis:

Sideboarding Philosophy:

Out

In

Loam Pox

Favoring:+1

Show

Analysis:

Most of our advantage comes from the speed of the Loam Pox deck. Its glacially slow. They can take way too long to set up, which allows us to build a pretty significant board. On top of that, mainboard Qasali Pridemage beats Zombie Infestation, Tarmogoyf beats the huge amount of card types they're dumping in their graveyard, and Scavenging Ooze beats the deck. Just beat them before they can comfortably start looping Ghost Quarter.

The trick to this matchup is to respect the plan where they essentially just play a bad Jund deck. Abrupt Decay and Murderous Cut, along with gumming up the board with Lingering Souls and Vengeful Pharaoh triggers can allow them to hit the part of the game where they're super comfortable.

Sideboarding Philosophy:

Three Blood Moons and another Scavenging Ooze do a lot to lock this matchup down. Just bait out removal early before slamming the moon and it should be a done deal. Collected Company makes it easier to hit Scavenging Oozes, so respect it.

Out

• -3 Lightning Helix
• -2 Woolly Thoctar
• -1 Knight of the Reliquary

In

• +2 Blood Moon
• +1 Magus of the Moon
• +1 Scavenging Ooze
• +2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben

Jeskai Control

Favoring:+1

Show

Analysis:

Sideboarding Philosophy:

Out

In

CoCo Zoo

Favoring:0, the mirror match.

Show

Analysis:

Its the mirror match. Just play tighter, draw better, and save your Paths for the KoTR. This matchup basically comes down to huge Knights punching into other huge Knights, combined with Kessig pumps. Don't underestimate the ability for an exalted trigger or two to push your board over the edge!

Sideboarding Philosophy:

As a general philosophy, the guy who wins the mirror is the one who's capable of going slightly bigger and slightly slower. We want to board in cards that push through larger creatures and can win an extended board stall. Helixes and Paths are also much better than Bolt post board, for their ability to gain life and kill Knights respectively.

As a side note, Blood Moon isn't great here because chances are our opponent, in the mirror, is also playing around and has potential to bring in Blood Moon. Just play as thought you both boarded in Moon, even if no one has it. If you opponent seriously disrespects Moon in game two, board it in for game three.

Out

• -1 Collected Company
• -2 Lightning Bolt
• -3 Qasali Pridemage
• -1 Wild Nacatl

In

• +2 Kitchen Finks
• +1 Scavenging Ooze
• +1 Lightning Helix
• +2 Path to Exile
• +1 Outpost Siege

Tron

Favoring: 0, highly play-draw dependent.

Show

Analysis: This is the kind of matchup where Wild Nacatl shines. Nacatl on one, into Goyf on two provides a pretty quick clock, and by the time they get to Ugin, the Spirit Dragon or Oblivion Stone to clear the board, we can rebuild with an end-step Collected Company or finish the game with burn. Noble Hierarch on one, into Knight of the Reliquary on two, into a fetched up Ghost Quarter can easily seal the game as well, as it slows down the Tron while creating a huge clock.

Sideboarding Philosophy: Go lower to the ground, moon them. Cut Woolly Thoctar because they just get exiled by Karn Liberated on curve, increase the burn and Wurmcoil Engine answers. Add in Thalia to tax their draw spells.

Out

• -2 Woolly Thoctar
• -1 Knight of the Reliquary
• -2 Scavenging Ooze
• -3 Voice of Resurgence

In

• +2 Blood Moon
• +1 Magus of the Moon
• +1 Lightning Helix
• +2 Path to Exile
• +2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben

Jund

Favoring:0

Show

Analysis:

Sideboarding Philosophy:

Out

In

Burn

Favoring:0

Show

Analysis:

Sideboarding Philosophy:

Out

In

Boggles

Favoring:0

Show

Analysis:

Sideboarding Philosophy:

Out

In

Grishoalbrand

Favoring:0

Show

Analysis:

Sideboarding Philosophy:

Out

In

Junk

Favoring:-1

Show

Analysis:

Sideboarding Philosophy:

Out

In

Grixis Control

Favoring:-1

Show

Analysis:

Sideboarding Philosophy:

Out

In

Tokens

Favoring:-1

Show

Analysis:

Sideboarding Philosophy:

Out

In

Infect

Favoring:-1

Show

Analysis:

Sideboarding Philosophy:

Out

In

Scapeshift

Favoring:-1

Show

Analysis:

Sideboarding Philosophy:

Out

In

Soul Sisters

Favoring:-2

Show

Analysis:

It's a deck where the primary focus is gaining a bunch of life and chucking tons of tokens on the board. Simply, everything we want to do they are explicitly designed to beat. Kessig is a MUST in this matchup to punch through secure the wastes and processions, and bolting as many of their sisters as possible is a MUST.

Sideboarding Philosophy:

You basically need to play this like a tempo game, stick an early threat and keep them off tilt long enough to prevent their life gain strategy from succeeding. Additional Paths come in SPECIFICALLY to beat Serra Ascendant, and given the huge number of tokens they play we bring in Explosives. Pridemages have to stay in incase they stick a Worship or Rest in Peace.

The hatebear package of Thalia and Ooze aren't bad here either. Ooze lets us beat a Mistveil Plains or Proclamation of Rebirth plan, while Thalia beats Spectral Procession and Secure the Wastes.

Out

• -3 Collected Company
• -2 Woolly Thoctar
• -1 Knight of the Reliquary
• -3 Voice of Resurgence

In

• +2 Engineered Explosives
• +1 Grim Lavamancer
• +1 Lightning Helix
• +2 Path to Exile
• +2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
• +1 Scavenging Ooze

Living End

Favoring:-2

Show

Analysis:

The most important factor of this matchup isn't necessarily the combo of Living End and creatures in the graveyard, but the fact that Living End is essentially a Wrath of God that also happens to bring back large bodies. Fulminator Mage and Avalanche Riders are also really good at tearing our manabase apart, and has to be played around.

The important thing is being aggressive. Making them fire off a cascade spell with a sub-optimal graveyard to prevent dying, then re-grouping on board and doing it again. The second living end can't just be a board wipe, which is super important as our creatures are capable of outsizing theirs.

Sideboarding Philosophy:

More exile, some hate for their sketchy manabase, and extra Oozes. Thalia is a boss here, since it makes the combo cost 2 more.

Out

• -3 Qasali Pridemage
• -3 Lightning Helix
• -2 Woolly Thoctar
• -1 Wild Nacatl
• -1 Noble Hierarch

In

• +2 Blood Moon
• +1 Magus of the Moon
• +2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
• +1 Scavenging Ooze
• +2 Path to Exile
• +2 Kitchen Finks

Date added	8 years
Last updated	8 years
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	7 - 2 Mythic Rares 38 - 9 Rares 5 - 3 Uncommons 7 - 1 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	1.82
Tokens	Elemental */* GW, Emblem Arlinn Kord, Emblem Domri Rade, Human 2/2 G, Wolf 2/2 G
Based on	Collected Zoo - Pre-Twin Banning AgentAO MDN