Admittedly, I haven't done a lot of playing Zoo in Modern, or for that matter Modern in general. However, from what limited experience I've had as well as several videos I've watch, Steppe Lynx simply doesn't seem like a strong card in Zoo.
In my opinion, it seems like it's only ever good if you have at least two fetches in hand after you've played it. It doesn't help that having it in your hand often forces you to make awkward plays with your mana, which is already rather stretched. And if you topdeck one in the late game, that's basically card disadvantage. Fundamentally, the flaw I see in the card is that it is far too conditional.
It simply comes across as the worst card in the deck, yet top players insist on running four of them. It seems exceedingly unlikely that my relatively uninformed opinion is more valuable than that of all of the pro tour players that ran the card, so I'd like your help in understanding what makes it worth playing.
In my opinion, it seems like it's only ever good if you have at least two fetches in hand after you've played it. It doesn't help that having it in your hand often forces you to make awkward plays with your mana, which is already rather stretched. And if you topdeck one in the late game, that's basically card disadvantage. Fundamentally, the flaw I see in the card is that it is far too conditional.
It simply comes across as the worst card in the deck, yet top players insist on running four of them. It seems exceedingly unlikely that my relatively uninformed opinion is more valuable than that of all of the pro tour players that ran the card, so I'd like your help in understanding what makes it worth playing.
Using shock mana Turn 1 and fetch-shock mana Turn 2 is definitely an option to boost your kitty.
You want the blowout early play with Kitty, so 4 Steppe Lynx or bust. Tune your fetches to be more able to get Plains.
I personally like at least 11 fetches with my Lynxes.