I was looking through the StarCity Games Premier Invitational Qualifier decklists from the Richmond Open and I came across a Zoo list played by Jeff Szablak to an eighth-place finish that looks really interesting to me.
Jeff Szablak 8th Place SCG Premier IQ
[Deck title=Jeff Szablak Zoo]
[creatures]
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Loxodon Smiter
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Qasali Pridemage
3 Scavenging Ooze
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Wild Nacatl
[/creatures]
[spells]
3 Collected Company
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Path to Exile
[/spells]
[lands]
4 Arid Mesa
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
2 forest
2 plains
[/lands]
[sideboard]
1 Ethersworn Canonist
3 Kor Firewalker
3 Blood Moon
2 Choke
2 Stony Silence
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Bonfire of the Damned
[/sideboard]
[/deck]
The reason I want to bring this deck up is because it uses [card]Collected Company[/card] as a powerful card advantage engine that adds directly to the board. This is definitely something I want to test out because it looks like a blast to play. I love the use of hatebears in the sideboard like [card]Thalia, Guardian of Thraben[/card] and I’m curious to try some other cards like [card]Aven Mindcensor[/card], [card]Gaddock Teeg[/card], or even something like [card]Magus of the Moon[/card] to try to attack people off of Collected Company.
As a Zoo enthusiast, I just wanted to bring this build to everyone’s attention. I plan on trying out [card]Collective Company[/card] Zoo in some of my next few local Modern events. I’ll let you know how it goes!