Let's take Zoo deck in current state, with more value-cards (like peddlers, malganis), but still with insane early game (imps, voidwalkers, eggs, jugglers into implosion etc).
What decks has good winrate against it?
Control doesn't cut it, as it's both too fast, hard to remove, don't run out of value as face decks do, and can burst really hard. Face has problems with voidwalkers (tho probably this is a good deck against it, i'm not sure). Combo/Fatigue is not even an option. Reno decks can probably make it if you can take board control back, but you need to draw Reno to win. Midranges or tempo sounds like fighting fire with fire. It's all about who wins tempo game, and Zoo is very good at it.
What else?
Please, let it be constructive thread. I know that I'll encounter a good Zoo deck on my local tournaments in the nearest future, I want to pick a counter deck.
Dragon priest, and there is a shaman deck too, but i dont remember wich one. Usually 2 sludge belchers work. Midrange druid is also not bad, with swipe and ancient of war.
Nobody mentioned Face Hunter yet? Explosive Trap easily clears a board of Zoo minions, except for Nerubian Egg. The Warlock hero power becomes a liability when your opponent is chipping at your health total every turn. Unlike other Warlock deck, Zoo usually runs no healing, so there is no way to reset the clock. And even if Zoo puts up a taunt wall with Defender of Argus, FH can still chip away health with the hero power and finish with Quick Shot / Kill Command.
Priest. Deathlord is nasty because the 2 attack are hard to deal with and you usually get crap when you kill it, and then there is the collection of AOEs and boardclears.
The answer for Zoo players is mulliganing for Power Overwhelming, Abusive Sergeant, Dark Peddler, and Dire Wolf Alpha. For the Zoo players who know what to look for, I would say its 50-50 versus Control Priest. A lot of Zoo players don't know how to play against Priest, though.
Anyway, I feel like Zoo has a bunch of bad matchups so this thread is surprising to me. Renolock is impossible to beat. Handlock is impossible to beat. Freeze Mage is hard. Dragon Priest is a decent counter. Midrange Paladin is strong. The resurgence of Zoo surprises me considering the number of bad matchups but I think one of the reasons is because the meta has gotten more aggro, again.
i play a cheap zoo deck and my matchups with priests are just horrible. between holy nova and lightbomb, my minions just couldn't stay on the board unless i have loatheb in my hand. i won some games vs priests, but my losses definitely are greater. face hunters definitely are still a problem for me. when i have a full board due to a fresh imp-losion, unleash the hounds just rekts me in combination with kill command. control warrior also is a problem, especially if they have all the board clears they need to clear my board. everytime they arm death's bite, i already cower in fright since the usually sticky minions like haunted creeper and imp-gang boss are food to it. nerubians popping out prematurely from their eggs are likewise food to it. when i play doomguard, they'll just execute it.
otherwise, i've found paladins to be snacks to my zoo. aggro shaman is also beatable in certain circumstances. mages can be a bit problematic from time to time (especially if it goes late). combo druids can burst me due to the added tap damage (i usually try to empty my hand as quickly as i can so i can play a doomguard whenever; i think it's bad practice, but the tap is a useful recovery). rogues are beatable, but not always as their blade flurries can decimate a full board, especially if they're using oil. handlock is a problem, especially if they can send out two moltens and a taunt to follow. but i think better players have a better game sense not to attack until there's guaranteed lethal on board. perhaps it was just misplays for me. any deck with reno, though.... instant concede.
my version of zoo, however, is a low-budget one, and my only legendary is loatheb. i also don't own any LoE wing, yet. but i hope my experiences with some decks would give you more insight.
Nobody mentioned Face Hunter yet? Explosive Trap easily clears a board of Zoo minions, except for Nerubian Egg. The Warlock hero power becomes a liability when your opponent is chipping at your health total every turn. Unlike other Warlock deck, Zoo usually runs no healing, so there is no way to reset the clock. And even if Zoo puts up a taunt wall with Defender of Argus, FH can still chip away health with the hero power and finish with Quick Shot / Kill Command.
If both players play well, zoo vs facehunter is a fairly even matchup.
Other than the aforementioned Freeze Mage and Control Priest, which I can vouch for, I've also found Oil Rogue pretty effective against the deck as well, if you want to give that deck a spin.
Entomb Priest is zoo killer.In rush zoo you dont play a lot of big minions and if you do priest just can easily take them with Entomb and use them or kill them with Shadow word pain.If you have some board he can just stop you with Deathlord boostt heal combo and he can have 6 removals in one game which destroy your board 2 holy nova,2 evil,2 lightbombs and I dont talk about Shadow Madness and Cabal Shadow Priest.
Most priest's decks I've seen run 3 or 4 (2 bombs, 1 Nova, maybe 1 evil). Nobody runs 2 Novas and 2 Bombs plus 2 Evils.
Let's take Zoo deck in current state, with more value-cards (like peddlers, malganis), but still with insane early game (imps, voidwalkers, eggs, jugglers into implosion etc).
What decks has good winrate against it?
Control doesn't cut it, as it's both too fast, hard to remove, don't run out of value as face decks do, and can burst really hard.
Face has problems with voidwalkers (tho probably this is a good deck against it, i'm not sure).
Combo/Fatigue is not even an option.
Reno decks can probably make it if you can take board control back, but you need to draw Reno to win.
Midranges or tempo sounds like fighting fire with fire. It's all about who wins tempo game, and Zoo is very good at it.
What else?
Please, let it be constructive thread. I know that I'll encounter a good Zoo deck on my local tournaments in the nearest future, I want to pick a counter deck.
Freeze Mage counters it
Don't think I ever lost to zoo with my fatigue priest.
Do a good job against it with OG Handlock and Malylock.
Demon handlock 75% winrate. But when I was playing demon zoo myself a little I would say the worst matchup is priest, its almost auto concede.
Dragon priest, and there is a shaman deck too, but i dont remember wich one. Usually 2 sludge belchers work. Midrange druid is also not bad, with swipe and ancient of war.
f2p, playing for fun ^^
Nobody mentioned Face Hunter yet? Explosive Trap easily clears a board of Zoo minions, except for Nerubian Egg. The Warlock hero power becomes a liability when your opponent is chipping at your health total every turn. Unlike other Warlock deck, Zoo usually runs no healing, so there is no way to reset the clock. And even if Zoo puts up a taunt wall with Defender of Argus, FH can still chip away health with the hero power and finish with Quick Shot / Kill Command.
Any hunter really, though you have a chance against more controlly midrange.
Dragon Priest (actually most priest decks) which is funny because in the old days the priest/warlock matchup was way in locks favor.
some of the druid decks can punish it, but it is more 50/50 or draw dependent.
When running into a lot of freeze mages (when I was playing zoolock) I actually teched in a Curse of Rafaam which made that match wayyyyyy easier
I was having success with Anyfin against Zoo.
I have the most problem with control warrior. I eat facehunter for breakfast.
i play a cheap zoo deck and my matchups with priests are just horrible. between holy nova and lightbomb, my minions just couldn't stay on the board unless i have loatheb in my hand. i won some games vs priests, but my losses definitely are greater. face hunters definitely are still a problem for me. when i have a full board due to a fresh imp-losion, unleash the hounds just rekts me in combination with kill command. control warrior also is a problem, especially if they have all the board clears they need to clear my board. everytime they arm death's bite, i already cower in fright since the usually sticky minions like haunted creeper and imp-gang boss are food to it. nerubians popping out prematurely from their eggs are likewise food to it. when i play doomguard, they'll just execute it.
otherwise, i've found paladins to be snacks to my zoo. aggro shaman is also beatable in certain circumstances. mages can be a bit problematic from time to time (especially if it goes late). combo druids can burst me due to the added tap damage (i usually try to empty my hand as quickly as i can so i can play a doomguard whenever; i think it's bad practice, but the tap is a useful recovery). rogues are beatable, but not always as their blade flurries can decimate a full board, especially if they're using oil. handlock is a problem, especially if they can send out two moltens and a taunt to follow. but i think better players have a better game sense not to attack until there's guaranteed lethal on board. perhaps it was just misplays for me. any deck with reno, though.... instant concede.
my version of zoo, however, is a low-budget one, and my only legendary is loatheb. i also don't own any LoE wing, yet. but i hope my experiences with some decks would give you more insight.
cheers.
Thanks for all the replies here.
Anyfin works bad against Zoo, my personal experience and other anyfin players experience too.
So that means freezemage and priest is way to go as first pick against it, then reno if it dont work out.
Weakness to hunter and face is interesting, I wonder if facemage is good against it too.
Anyway, now I know some decks I should learn how to play.
Soo, I've heard "priest" in this thread too much.
What cards actually make the game against Zoo when playing priest?
How do you deal with eggs->PO? Nerubians are 4-health, so it looks like the only removal is Auchenai+circle combo, no?
holy nova, lightbomb, auchenai +CoH. tons of card draw also helps, and i think you can never go wrong with at least one owl or something.
Other than the aforementioned Freeze Mage and Control Priest, which I can vouch for, I've also found Oil Rogue pretty effective against the deck as well, if you want to give that deck a spin.
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priest... to be clear: turn 6