General Easy support for Zoo?

[Hathaway]

So I am wondering if there are cards that people have had success with to support some kind of multi-color aggro strategy. I don't know if things like Kird Ape are worthy of inclusion, but I want to have the option to support 2 or 3 color beatdown past Wild Nacatl.

Here's a link to the cube if you want to get an idea of power level: http://www.cubetutor.com/viewcube/39758

 

[Onderzeeboot]

A 2/3 for one mana is gold in aggro decks, Kird Ape certainly is worthy if you support aggro in imo. Naya aggro is harder to support, but Woolly Thoctar certainly gets there on stats. A good mana base is absolutely crucial for cards like these to get picked though. I think your fixing density might be a tad too low for an aggro deck in three colors? In my own cube I heavily support three color decks, but I hand out free trilands (e.g. Jungle Shrine) with three-color cards. That way players are more incentivized to play their three color cards (since they already have the fixing). Also, the boosters are less flooded with lands, which makes them more interesting. Even though (good) drafters will agree mana fixing is important, it's always the boring part of the deck.

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

Fwiw those decks do well with a more fetchland based mana base to ensure the creatures are getting the land buffs.

Those three color aggro decks were kind of the default, I thought. The aggro drafter would kind of pivot around into a wedge or shard looking for one drops, reach, etc. That was the aggro solution. Didn't think they required explicit support?

 

[Salmo2]

Fwiw those decks do well with a more fetchland based mana base to ensure the creatures are getting the land buffs.

It's actually funny you mention that as I was going to suggest the same, but then I checked OP's list and saw he was running x2 of all the fetches so he's def able to support that style.

 

[sigh]

I have not experienced fully functional three color agro decks consistently arise out of the drafters necessity. You still need to guide their hand with thoughtfully chosen components that they can select from. It might not be as difficult to design as some engine deck, control deck, or whatever, but support still needs to be there. My format's agro default is definitely two color.

Some of my favorite cards (you may or may not have already) for a "zoo-style deck" would probably be:

The go-wide theme really plays into a lot of avenues. You can extend the usefulness of low-drops and you can capitalize on tokens. I like the buffs to bring inevitability and tilt the board state in your favor. Trading up with Ghor-Clan is solid game, and rancor makes all your random dorks must-blocks.

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

Sure, but lets not forget that your aggro decks are well designed, so they can exist compartmentalized in two colors, as they should be able to.

For example, many cube formats don't really have B/W aggro, they have B/W aggro on paper, and than everyone just drafts mardu because its 1000x better. Thats one of the nice things about having great fixing: you can have giant gaps in your format, but it kind of works itself out naturally. This is the fixing structure he has.

You don't have to resort to that, since your format is thoughtfully laid out. He hasn't actually ran this current iteration (as I have been nagging him to do ), and this problem might not really exist for him: if anything his problem might be making sure people draft the two color variants.

We won't know until we get some real data.

 

[Hathaway]

Wednesday night, Grillo, I promise.