How to beat RG Zoo with a control deck?

by **rancor** » 13 Dec 2012, 13:17

Hello

I need some ideas to beat a really fast deck called RG Zoo. I have a knight deck with which I am able to beat RG Zoo but I want to win it with a control deck. Your opinions and ideas will be very welcome. This is the nightmare deck:

Lands
4 Mountain
5 Forest
4 Stomping Ground
4 Taiga
4 Wooded Foothills

Creatures
4 Grim Lavamancer
4 Kird Ape
4 Garruk´s Companion
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Figure of Destiny
4 Rip-Clan Crasher

Instant
4 Lightning Bolt

Sorcery
4 Chain Lightning
1 Wheel of Fortune

Artifacts
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby

I am not very good making control decks so I need your help to face this monster deck.

Thank you

Edit by Stassy : Moved to proper section

by **stassy** » 13 Dec 2012, 16:56

Well, there are plenty of deck available in ML to counter zoo decks, but I must admit AI can play them very well as long as he have the lands to do it

For example, you can take a classic Scepter Control deck like the one made by awww1979:

Code: Select all: ;0-Scepter Control ;Blue/White ;User ;User E-Mail ;14/07/2009 ;1 ;4th Edition ; .1 1 Ancestral Recall .585 3 Boomerang .4996 1 Fact or Fiction .720 4 Mana Drain .1455 4 Memory Lapse .1084 1 Merchant Scroll .1527 1 Mystical Tutor .10 1 Balance .64 2 Disenchant .672 1 Holy Day .240 4 Swords to Plowshares .290 3 Wrath of God .1291 2 Iridescent Angel .9627 4 Plumeveil .6632 3 Chrome Mox .6690 4 Isochron Scepter .167 1 Mox Pearl .169 1 Mox Sapphire .230 1 Sol Ring .1487 4 Flooded Strand .1713 4 Hallowed Fountain .694 1 Karakas .2305 1 Kjeldoran Outpost .438 1 Library of Alexandria .254 4 Tundra .126 4 Island

Lot of removal, sword weenie, unlimited counter with Isochron and Outpost and Angel as finisher

A more recent and standard one is Jace Nin deck, though a bit harder to play since it's way slower than the above :

Code: Select all: ;Jace, Stealer of Staffs ;NetDeck ;Demarge ;PlayDeckAnalyser@slightlymagic.net ;dec. 13, 2012 ;1 ;4th Edition ;This PlayDeck was imported from NetDeck by PlayDeck Analyser v0.4b .12661 3 Azorius Charm .12695 1 Cyclonic Rift .2452 3 Dissipate .770 1 Remove Soul .11945 3 Feeling of Dread .9395 1 Negate .12788 1 Psychic Spiral .12451 1 Righteous Blow .12834 2 Sphinx's Revelation .12843 3 Supreme Verdict .12483 3 Terminus .12623 3 Staff of Nin .12662 3 Azorius Guildgate .8212 4 Ghost Quarter .10419 4 Glacial Fortress .1713 4 Hallowed Fountain .126 6 Island .188 5 Plains .12757 2 Jace, Architect of Thought .11821 2 Jace, Memory Adept .12479 1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage .12704 2 Detention Sphere .12771 1 Martial Law .12079 1 Snapcaster Mage

Still, my current favorite control deck is Black Control : Consuming Vapor inspired from Innistrad :

Code: Select all: ;Consuming Vapors2 ;Black ;Player ;no@spam.com ;02/11/2011 ;1 ;4th Edition ; .11417 3 Black Sun's Zenith .10892 4 Consuming Vapors .1588 4 Corrupt .1275 3 Damnation .55 4 Dark Ritual .68 3 Drain Life .10542 4 Gatekeeper of Malakir .1592 4 Tendrils of Corruption .812 1 The Abyss .1226 1 Visara the Dreadful .12147 2 Chalice of Life .166 1 Mox Jet .1467 3 Wayfarer's Bauble .1505 2 Cabal Coffers .239 21 Swamp

Gatekeeper for removal and chump blocker, Consuming Vapor as slower since AI will not cast anything fearing rebund if vapor is out, lot of mana acceleration like ritual, bauble, coffer, the abyss to shut down weenie and Visara/Chalice as finisher.
I also did a Sanguine Bond version, it's a very fun deck once it's out

In the same theme, AI do wonderful job with BGR Jund as long as it can get out a Forest or Savage Lands, else it will die pitifully with nothing in play.

Code: Select all: ;BGR Jund ;Red/Green ;User ;User E-Mail ;03/08/2011 ;1 ;4th Edition ; .145 4 Lightning Bolt .282 1 Wheel of Fortune .9148 4 Garruk Wildspeaker .10244 4 Bituminous Blast .10246 4 Bloodbraid Elf .1442 4 Broodmate Dragon .10309 4 Maelstrom Pulse .10330 4 Putrid Leech .10078 4 Sprouting Thrinax .1471 4 Terminate .17 1 Black Lotus .165 1 Mox Emerald .166 1 Mox Jet .168 1 Mox Ruby .9 4 Badlands .1488 4 Bloodstained Mire .1204 4 Savage Lands .1473 4 Wooded Foothills .91 1 Forest .164 1 Mountain .239 1 Swamp

The advantage of BGR Jund compared with RG Zoo is that AI can destroy anything hindering him with Maelstrom Pulse, while RG Zoo cannot if shut down by an enchantment or an artifact. It's also one of the fastest deck I know in the ML deck pool that can match nearly any type of deck if well played (of course it cannot match broken deck like Dredge or Natural Order...).

by **RanDomino** » 13 Dec 2012, 22:08

Kitchen Finks to buy time for Wrath of God/Day of Judgment/Damnation/Supreme Verdict.

by **rancor** » 14 Dec 2012, 15:13

Thank you very much for your ideas. I am building a mono-white prison deck. I have tested it and I can beat 60% of times to RG Zoo but I need to improve it. My deck is:

20 Plains
4 Oblivion Ring
4 Ghostly Prison
2 Soul Snare
3 Prison Term
4 Arrest
4 Spirit Link
2 Sphere of Safety
2 Martial Law
3 Journey to Nowhere
1 Touch of the Eternal
2 Porphyry Nodes
1 Reverence
4 Festival
1 Darksteel Reactor
2 Elixir of Immortality
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Zuran Orb

The problem of the RGZoo: It´s really fast. The AI always starts with nonbasic land which brings forest and mountain of mana (Stomping Ground, Taiga, Wooded Foothils) and even a mox and then in the first turn you have a 2/3 Kird Ape and a 2/2 Rip-Clan Crasher with haste. Then in the next turns, the deck become progressive faster with converted 4/4 Figure of Destiny or even 10/8 and Tarmogoyfs. Since a lot of his cards are burnt to the graveyard (or your cards), Tarmogoyfs become monster of 4/5 or 5/6. I have forgotten an important detail: in the first turns, rancors with a 2/3 kird ape or Garruk´s Companion; I hate that. Who is the creator of this evil deck? He is a genius.

The fails of my prison deck: I have a lot of enchantments that prevent the large amount of creatures that RGZoo has to attack me but I am not able to stop the monster deck until I have 11 life or even less. I stop the monster deck but as the evil deck has 4 lightning bolt and 4 chain lightning, AI burn me with those instants and sorceries. I want an enchantment to give my life progressively because Zuran Orb and Elixir of Immortality are not enough. I have token the idea of the deck from this web:

http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=359394

I love the concept to win the game with only a card: Darksteel Reactor. It´s really boring but effective. It´s a shame that the ability of Peacekeeper doesn´t work for me. Do you have any ideas to improve the monowhite prison peace deck with the current Manalink 3? I will test your decks, stassy; and my apologizes for putting this put in a wrong place.

by **stassy** » 15 Dec 2012, 16:27

Who is the creator of this evil deck? He is a genius.

This deck and a few others mean decks are introduced in the Challenge mode made by jatill, who took them from emblematic decks of the past, so you know the devil behind them :mrgreen:

For info they have been converted in dck and should be in your Playdeck folder if you downloaded from Circ archives, they are :
UGW Exhalted
BGR Jund
RG Zoo
RUG Soul of Elements
UG Spymaster
WRB Evil Angels
WBG Treefolks
...

There are also less mean decks used in Challenges but still efficient for their time under the j* tag (jgoblin, jmerfolk...)