Pyro's Season 5 Legendary Zoo
- Last updated Aug 29, 2014 (Naxx Launch)
- Edit
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Wild
- 27 Minions
- 3 Spells
- Deck Type: None
- Deck Archetype: Unknown
- Crafting Cost: 1160
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 8/22/2014 (Naxx Launch)
- Pyromelter
- Registered User
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- 5
- 30
- 26
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Battle Tag:
Pyro#1988
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Region:
US
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Total Deck Rating
130
Update:
Just a note on this deck, if you are running into a lot of midrange hunters, you want to go drop the Leper Gnomes and possibly undertakers, and put back in Power Overwhelming and Void Terror. Midrange has a hard time dealing with bigger minions as well as the 4/4 nerubians, while this deck as constructed is meant to maintain board control via deathrattle minions, it doesn't build the big minions that the Void Terrors do. This deck is much better against the cancer/secret type decks, so know your meta.
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This is the deck I used to hit legend. The initial intention of this deck was to re-gain the advantage over secret/mad scientist type hunter decks. When mid-range hunter started gaining popularity, the Void Terror/Nerubian Egg synergy along with occasional chomping of minions buffed with Power Overwhelming was godly against mid-range. But when secrets hunter came out, Freezing Trap became a real issue with tempo, as well as mad scientists being able to easily take out minions such as Flame Imp. Frankly, Void Terrors are too slow to beat the mad scientist hunter deck. Once I switched out my Void Terrors and Flame Imps for Undertakers and Leper Gnomes, I quickly shot up into legendary.
You will note, this deck does NOT contain Flame Imp. This is intended. In the current meta, 2-health minions without a deathrattle are awful. Plus, the extra 3 damage to your own face can be deadly against hunters, where games can be very close on life/health as they are trying to pressure you as much as you are pressuring them.
The general strategy is to get your minions to 3 health as much as possible. Initially, this was built to defeat explosive trap. What I found is that this strategy pays off huge against other classes as well.
Starting hand mulligan strategy is a little different than you might expect. You don't always go for Undertaker and deathrattle minions. Of course, it depends on who you are playing. Here is a quick rundown of mulligan strategy:
Hunter (any):
You want to hard mulligan for Argent Squire and Voidwalker as your one drop attack minions, and also for Abusive Sergeant and Dire Wolf Alpha. You also should not mulligan your Ironbeak Owl, because this card will gain you insane tempo versus Mad Scientist when you silence it. Haunted Creeper is also worth keeping in an opening hand, assuming you can pull a Dire Wolf or an Argent Squire. Remember, this deck is built specifically to deal with hunter secrets. Your goal is to either silence the secrets, or work around them by boosting your minion's health to 3, and also using buff minions to attack first (when a secret comes out, always always attack with cards like Abusive Sergeant or Defender of Argus. Getting battlecry minions back in your hand is almost like a free shadowstep).
Hunters can still mess you up badly with Buzzard/Unleash the Skill combos, and weapon/secret synergy. But with the kind of starting hand I described, you can always handle webspinner, mad scientist, and animal companion fairly easily, gain tempo, and roll over the hunter. Ideally, you want to try to draw into Defender of Argus. Hunters only have 3 removal spells, so one voidwalker, 2 other minions, and a defender of argus = very sad hunter, even with combo.
In recent days, it seems that hunters are becoming aware of this deck. If you find hunters beating you, you want to use the trade I suggested below, -2 Leper Gnome, +1 Power Overwhelming +1 Ironbeak Owl (the extra PO is mostly for activation of the nerubian eggs for more pressure on the hunter, but also helps as a finisher)
Priest:
Priest, you absolutely want argent squire + abusive sergeant. That said, if you have coin, Undertaker + leper gnome is godly. Your goal in the first 2 turns is to be able to do 3 damage on turn 2 to take out Northshire Cleric. This can also be achieved (without coin) by using Leper Gnome + Dire Wolf Alpha. Do not be afraid to aggressively kill the Cleric. A cleric that lives is absolutely deadly, and a cleric that dies will make the priest very sad. Also, often on turn 3 the priest will get out a deathlord. This is where you use things like Soulfire aggressively to remove the Deathlord.
Here's a cool tip you might not know: If you have an undertaker on the field, and you kill a deathlord, if the minion that is summoned has a deathrattle, your undertaker will be buffed.
Paladin:
Mulligan aggressively for undertaker and deathrattle minions. Paladins have no good way of dealing with your undertaker in the first 3 turns, so you can really put the screws to paladins with an undertaker. Also, never mulligan out abusive sergeant (sensing a pattern here?). You can even aggressively throw down a Knife Juggler on turn 2 knowing the paladin can't do jack to it.
Warlock (demon or zoo):
Argent Squire or Voidwalker + abusive or dire wolf. An argent squire with a + damage buff minion is such a huge tempo gain on any early game.
Warrior:
Possibly the toughest matchup. This is all about doing as much damage as soon as possible. The goal here is to get 4 damage on turn 2 to take out any early Armorsmiths. This can be achieved by leper gnome turn 1 followed by abusive sergent, or, if you have coin, something like voidwalker + argent squire turn 1, followed by a dire wolf alpha turn 2. This game you want to race.
One thing: Do not play around Brawl. You can sort of play around it by playing haunted creeper and nerubian egg aggressively, but this matchup is a race. If the warrior has a brawl, and RNGesus gives him a favorable brawl (by, say, keeping alive a 0/2 nerubian egg), you're probably going to lose. Warriors only run 1 brawl however, and by turn 5, you should be looking to get the warrior into lethal range.
Updated note: If you are running into a lot of control warriors, I would not play this deck. Warriors have too much aoe and removal, and too much healing in the late game, you're lucky to win 25% against control warrior at higher ranks.
If you are facing a beatdown warrior, you want to get your deathrattle minions on the board and buffed by defender of argus asap.
Shaman:
Very few shaman on the ladder, but they can be a tough matchup. For this one, I like to keep as many of my "toughie" minions in my hand as possible, argent squire, haunted creeper, harvest golem. Shaman have a lot of outs against you, so your goal is to either have minions at high health (4 health and up), or low health (1 HP). Mulligan out Nerubian eggs, because earth shock will make you sad, and it's better to combo the eggs in the later game with either undertaker or defender of argus.
Druid:
I pretty much don't see druid at all on the ladder. But, if you run into druid, your goal is to sucker out wrath on either your argent squire or voidwalker, and then flood the board with undertaker and deathrattle minions. With all your buff minions, you should be easily able to kill their 4 and 6 health minions, save Owl for Ancient of War, and try to get as many minions at 2 health as possible, as very few druids run starfall, and 2 health minions will survive the ping 1 of swipe. If you are close to lethal, you can ignore Ancient of Lore, but don't let an Azure Drake live because of the swipe synergy.
When I would play druids, a lot of times I would bleed their cards because they couldn't draw from Wrath or Ancient of Lore, and a druid without cards is a dead druid.
Rogue:
Rogue is sort of an all-or-nothing type RNGfest, if you get your right draws, you'll be almost impossible to beat, and same for the rogue, however if you both draw well, the Warlock should win. Definitely mulligan again for Argent Squire, Haunted Creeper is also really good, and your abusive sergeant will help those 1 attack minions knock off any SI:7 agents or earthen ring farseers. These tough minions will then last through mid-game and pressure the face of the rogue. Not having Flame Imp makes this version of zoo way, way better against Miracle, since the extra face damage from flame imp puts you closer to the Rogue's Leeroy/Shadowstep reach lethal, and flame imp is so easily removed by backstab.
General Card notes:
Because I was facing a lot of warriors and midrange hunters, I made the following trade:
-2 Leper Gnome +1 Power Overwhelming +1 Ironbeak Owl
Final notes:
Knife Juggler - The goal with this guy is to synergize him with an attacking Haunted Creeper
Haunted Creeper - this, my friends, is the most imbalanced 2 drop in the game. Every warlock, hell, every deck, should have this card in it. It's got 7 total power for 2 mana. That's 3.5x power for mana. Even the uber value card Cairne Bloodhoof has only a 3x power for mana value. And at 2 health, it lives against so much more than you would expect, for example webspinners, argent squires, Paladin "guys," it absolutely wrecks druids who have to waste way too many resources to kill it... on and on. Basically, if you are a warlock, and you're not playing Haunted Creeper, you're doing it wrong, and I would expect that eventually most of the deckbuilder theorycrafters are going to catch on, and this thing will be in every single deck just like Pagle was when he was overpowered back in the day.
Proof of Legend:
http://i.imgur.com/AwMEH8I.png
My highest legend ranking so far this season is 208, including beating well known players such as tidesoftime and ErA.
Just a quick thanks to Pyromelter: I hit legend last night for the first time using this deck. Previously peaked at rank 3, averaged rank 8, was at rank 12 2 days ago. With this deck and some more focussed concentration, I went on an run of rank 12 to legend in 2 evenings.
The deck is well balanced, versatile and consistent. I especially found removing the flame imps to be beneficial in this meta. Undertakers are brilliant in their role, there being plenty to combo with them, giving them more staying power in either the early game or even against later board clears.
So, thanks!
I went on crazy win streaks today from rank 3 and made the legend rank for the first time with this deck. I was playing handlock for days after the hunter nerf but got frustrated at control match-ups. I think Zoo is really good for slow meta right now. Play style-wise, I would not trigger the death rattle unless you have to. It helps you a lot against AOE when you still have deathrattle minions on board. Went 19-4 since I switched the deck and made the legend within 3 hours. Here is my stat.
http://imgur.com/1AKNjLN
I just hit legend using this deck on 09.26.2014. I got stuck laddering up from levels 5-3, but after that it was pretty smooth sailing to legend. Thank you for the great insight.
Do you have any stats you can share from your rank 5+ climb? Thanks!
Do you have any stats you can share from your rank 5+ climb? Thanks!
I think this deck has the best balance of any deck I have ever played. My main problem in climbing the ladder recently has been Priest, which lines up with many of the comments below. I find it most difficult to deal with the Deathrattle type because they can just put up a wall early on with Undertaker, and Zombie Chow. Does anyone have a recommendation on potential changes to improve this matchup?
Pretty solid deck up to lvl 14 then started losing to pretty much everything.
The problem with this deck right now is the abundance of priests. I think warrior is an ok matchup with at least 50% winrate, but it's worse against priests...especially the deathrattle version that has tons of early minions. Lately I'm seeing more priests than hunters, which is definitely a big issue.
This deck doesn't work anymore. Even with the Void Terror and Power Overwhelming (a better build in nearly every matchup), it's not going to get you to Legendary. I went 22-12 early on but by the time you reach rank 12 this is a .500 deck at best. Back to the drawing board.
You can't be that good at this game. I just started playing ranked a week ago and I am currently rank 3 and climbing using this *exact* deck. You're probably doing bad mulligans or playing unoptimally.
Hey quick question, I'm some what new to the game and while I have and can craft the cards in this deck, I cannot get undertaker at the moment since it's behind a 2,100 gold wall. So what should/could I replace it with?
The power of the undertaker is that it can snowball into a 1 mana 4/5 minion very quickly. One Hellfire for removal and activation of the egg, and an Elven Archer for damage utility can work. Flame Imps are dangerous because of all the Hunters running around that can just Hero Power down a Warlock that burns his health with Life taps. Taking out a Harvest Golem and adding 2 Scarlet Crusaders and a Blood Knight is very good if you have him. Also consider Shattered Sun Clerics, Argent Commanders, or even Frostwolf Warlords can be good in a Zoo deck. Also read the author's update at the top.
Do you still have the leaper gnome ?
I reached Legend with this deck last season with a 65% winrate. I found the owl to be pretty sweet. I was concerned, at first, because I thought you'd end up discarding it before you get to the belcher or highmane or whatever optimal silence target you want...but I found that it's really good to use early even against a haunted creeper or harvest golem...with the best target being a mad scientist. It gives you a big tempo swing and still puts a 2/1 token on the board that can be used with abusive, direwolf, etc. to take out a bigger target.
Many times I silenced the mad scientist and then traded with one of my minions...next turn used the owl to test the trap...got a freezing trap and put it back in my hand to be used on highmane and/or houndmastered beast later.
Nice guide!
What about Leeroy in that deck?
The deck is awesome without Leeroy. He is annoying in zoo because if you get him early, there's a huge chance you'll discard him to soulfire/doomguard. The tech cards ironbeak owl and power overwhelming are only acceptable because you can get value out of them early on...because once you get to like turn 5, you want to be playing whatever you draw to keep your hand empty for soulfire/doomguard draws.
The specific reason why Leeroy doesn't work in this deck is because he is only good as a finisher, and you want to be able to empty your hand as soon as possible every game. The reason you want to empty your hand is for doomguard/soulfire value.
If it's turn 6 and you have say an argent squire, leeroy, and soulfire in your hand, and you aren't anywhere near lethal, you can't just empty your hand, versus if that leeroy was instead a dark iron dwarf, you can just throw that guy out there and get a free four damage from your soulfire with no penalty.
This deck has a lot of topdeck outs, between power overwhelming, soulfire, and doomguard, you generally don't need leeroy as an out. That said, he can work as a finisher combo, I have used him in past zoo decks well, he just doesn't work as well with soulfire and doomguard because you can't just throw him down like every other card in your deck.
Just reached Legend for the 3rd time. This deck worked quite well:
64 games from rank 4 to Legend. 41-23 overall (64.1%) - I had multiple 3-4 game losing streaks as well as an 8 game win streak...don't judge the deck based on a string of bad luck/matchups. I also had multiple misplays so the stats could be significantly better. I have not yet mastered this deck!
Thanks for the guide as well...it really opened my eyes to the importance of dire wolf/abusive sergeant...I used to mulligan for the best early minions/curve rather than looking for the right opening combos to deal with early threats/gain tempo. Before this deck I had only played zoo on ladder for about 30 games total, so this was a fun/effective learning experience.
Record against each class:
Druid: 2-3
Hunter: 19-4
Mage: 2-0
Paladin: 0-1
Priest: 1-4
Rogue: 4-2
Shaman: 0-0
Warlock: 3-4
Warrior: 10-5
Last two games before Legend are highlighted here: twitch.tv/jeffee83
http://imgur.com/YaJPiG9
Lost all my games with this deck in CASUAL...I suck