My Decks

[psillusionist]

There's more. But they're still in the playtesting stage.

[psillusionist]

Here's another deck.

AJWinterZoo

2 Forest
1 Mountain
1 Plains
4 Savannah
4 Taiga
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Gaddock Teeg
4 Kird Ape
2 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Loam Lion
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Watchwolf
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Path to Exile
4 Winter Orb

Winter Zoo is just one among a series of decks I made around Winter Orb. The thing about Winter Orb is it’s a symmetrically disruptive card that can hurt most decks that are not prepared to work around it. Every turn, each player gets to untap one land only. So to deal with this, it makes sense to build a deck around it that has a very low mana curve and could effectively run even with very few mana sources available. There are many possible decks that can fit that requirement and Zoo happens to be one of them. What I like about Zoo is the fact that all the creatures it uses are quality creatues. For one mana, you usually get a 2/3 or even a 3/3 creature. A little higher up the curve gives you a 3/3 and sometimes a 4/5 creature for two mana. Even its removal spells are cheap too.

Most of the card choices are no-brainers especially Tarmogoyf, but some cards require a bit of explanation. I chose Path to Exile over Swords to Plowshares ‘cause you really would rather have your opponent gain one land than gain more life in this deck. You might argue that Path to Exile gives your opponent tempo, but with Winter Orb, that extra land is pretty much useless. Additionally, the deck runs on 20 lands only. If you happen to have the misfortune of having a one-land opening hand, Path to Exile can help you fetch a basic land. About Knight of the Reliquary, I added two copies of that card instead of Woolly Thoctar ‘cause this deck packs several fetch lands that the knight can benefit from. Also, the knight’s land sacrificing ability allows you to put a tapped land into your graveyard and replace it with an untapped land, thereby bypassing the Winter Orb effect. But the knight is more of a lategame plan in case the match drags on too long. Birds of Paradise is still an unsure choice. In my playtests, it allows you to keep playing two-drops even with the orb in play and it provides great mana-fixing, but sometimes I feel the slot can be best served for removal spells. But the birds have saved me from several bad opening hands though. About the fetch lands for those who aren’t fans of these awesome cards, fetch lands basically provide two things: mana-fixing and deck thinning. This is a three-colored deck that needs the right mana source at the right time. Fetch lands help you do that. Also, its fetching ability removes lands from your library thereby increasing the chances that you will draw more threats than lands, especially in moments where you already have enough lands in play (usually just two or three). Paying 1 life to get the right land and improve the quality of my card draws is definitely worth it in my opinion.

AJWinterZoo.deck

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