One of the wackier decks that made it to the second day here in Copenhagen was Gold-level pro Fabrizio Anteri's "Super Crazy Zoo" deck. Yesterday, it took him to an 8-1 record, and today I tried to find out a little more, sitting down with Anteri to get the lowdown on the latest tweaks and card choices. For reference, here's his list.
Fabrizio Anteri's Suicide Zoo – Grand Prix Copenhagen 2015
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Fabrizio Anteri
What is the game plan?
"The deck aims to resolve Death's Shadow on turn two, which you can do with a couple of fetch lands, Gitaxian Probe, and Street Wraith," Anteri explained. "Afterwards, you can make it even bigger and use the combo of Temur Battle Rage and Become Immense to win the game. The deck has twelve cycling spells, so it's not as unlikely to get these pieces together."
Why did you choose this deck?
"After trying various Modern decks, I saw a video of Frank Karsten on ChannelFireball with this Suicide Zoo. The deck looked like a pile at first, but I gave it a go and it provided surprisingly consistent turn-three and turn-four kills. It's hard to interact with it, and you surprise people with it."
Did you change any cards in the maindeck?
"The original list I saw contained Steppe Lynx, but I didn't like them as they made for really awkward draws. Drawing multiples was horrible; they had to be played on turn one to be efficient; and they also put a hefty requirement on the mana base. I replaced them with Kird Ape. I also added Stomping Ground and replaced Sacred Foundry with Godless Shrine. Ideally, you fetch for Stomping Ground and Godless Shrine. You can cast all of your spells with that configuration.
"Another swap that I made was to take out Lightning Bolt for Thoughtseize. I found myself bringing in Thoughtseize for most of the matchups, so I just added it to the main. Thoughtseize protects the combo and pumps Death's Shadow. Finally, I added two Vines of Vastwood to protect my creatures. Often, opponents wait with their removal spell with the plan of responding to Temur Battle Rage or Become Immense. With Vines of Vastwood, I can give my creature hexproof to save it at that point. I like it better than Apostle's Blessing because the +4/+4 boost is relevant with Temur Battle Rage."
Did you change any cards in the sideboard?
"The original list had Hooting Mandrills and Nourishing Shoal, but I didn't like that strategy. I have Leyline of Sanctity against Burn instead. I also added Stony Silence to try to beat Affinity because it's a bad matchup otherwise. And I added Nihil Spellbomb because I wasn't sure how popular the Griselbrand/Goryo's Vengeance deck would be and I wanted to be ready for it. Also, Dismember. Because Spellskite is a hard card to face, and Dismember is a good answer that also grows my Death's Shadow."
What are the good and bad matchups for the deck?
"The worst matchups are Burn and Affinity. You need to deal 8–10 damage to yourself to operate, and these decks are the best at exploiting that. All fair decks like Jund or Abzan are good because you are much faster than them; if their first play is a turn-two Dark Confidant, then they are just dead."
Any final words?
"Phyrexian mana is your friend."
