What do you guys think of Auriok Champion in a Zoo deck? I am thinking this creature is in a really nice position in the meta right now and it wouldn't be a tough reach to include it in a Zoo deck. And I am thinking main deck not just sideboard, since it is never really dead in a deck with tons of creatures and damage from fetches/shocklands.
Some things it does are:
Prevent dying from a billion exarch/bellringer twins. Would also prevent dying from Pestermite twins if two are in play. Their only maindeck answer to it resolved is probably a singleton echoing truth.
Prevent dying from Redcap-Melira combo. Gaining an insane amount of life as well against a Finks-Melira combo.
Frustrate Jund by being an almost unkillable blocker and being a trump in a war of attrition.
Frustrate Boros in the same way. And the life gain hurts them more.
Frustrates Zoo quite a bit as well. Especially because you would also be dropping Goyfs and Knights.
Life gain makes it more difficult for storm to shoot you to death and gives you more time against empty the warrens.
I am quite happy in this list and it performs quite well in my testing. But I wanted to try to still improve it's match ups against the popular decks. So I decided to try and test Auriok Champion in it. I proxied some Champions (difficult to find some here) and replaced a Helix, a PtE, a Lynx with 3 Champions to have this list:
I liked the change when doing quite a few testing with this list. It really gave a lot of fits to creature-based aggro decks, as well as provide some in-play disruption to popular combo decks before beating down mid game. The possible downside is that it felt a bit slower than the original list I had; it has not mattered much tough in my testing but I am not sure if it would be significant against control lists and late game crushers like Tron.
So what do you guys think? I am still 50-50 on which list (Orig or Auriok) I would play in an upcoming PTQ. Has anyone else tested Auriok Champion in Zoo? Opinions and suggestions would be appreciated.
I think the main reason no one has tested Auriok Champion in Zoo is because she hits like a wuss. With her replacing Goyf/power 1-drops/Pridemage/removal, the number of Turn 4 kills definitely goes down. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben sees play because she doesn't hit like a wuss. The Champion's WW mana cost also hurts quite a bit, especially in a 4+ colour mana base. I already have a hard enough time casting Kird Ape, KotR, and Tiago in a timely fashion.
Also, Auriok Champion does not prevent death by Melira Combo. When they continuously sac Kitchen Finks with one Champion out, you gain X life while they gain 2X. When they ping you with Murderous Redcap next turn, every time the Redcap ETB, you gain 1 life while Redcap pings you for 2. They need to do that about X times to kill you. You need 2 Champions out to hose the combo, and then they might reach for Orzhov Pontiff or Elesh Norn in the sideboard.
Luckily, Chalice of the Void doesn't see much play in Modern, and even if people played that card against Zoo, they'd set it to 1 to hose 1-drops, PtE, and Bolt.
Also, in a deck this suicidal from lands alone, you're probably only bouncing back up to 20 life with Auriok Champion. UR Storm can definitely kill you on Turn 4 with that life total with Grapeshot. She definitely hampers the Empty the Warrens kill, though.
Yeah you are rght about needing two to prevent dying from Redcap. Misread that one.
You are also correct about her hitting like a wuss. But there are things in a bigger Zoo list that help her if it comes to her really needing to hit (Exalted, Elspeth, Wolf Run, and sometimes that protection also matters in getting through).
Another good point you have is about losing the powerful one drops (since I still maxed Goyf and Pridemage). But with the banning of Nacatl, I think the small one-drop zoo is already watered down so much that I think Zoo has a better chance going big mid game that going all in early like before. Boros probably has a better chance of blitzing and burning an opponent before fizzling out mid-to-late than lions, apes, and tribal flames.
When you go more midrange you have to wonder though why you're not playing jund / bant as both those are consistent, effective midrange decks. If you go more aggro you can ask yourself why you're not just playing boros.
The zoo niche is pretty small right now and relies on playing a number of one-drops, burn and bombs.
Auriok champion doesn't really help with this and as a sideboard card it is beaten out by thalia and ethersworn canonist against storm and combust against splinter twin. I would like to point out as well that it doesn't prevent a splinter twin kill via pestermite either.
As a blocker it can't block goyf which is the creature you would most want to block. Against jund it can be useful but kor firewalker is probably better there (as well as against boros). Kor firewalker is also much better against burn as it triggers off of their spells not off of the creatures you play.
Some things it does are:
My current Zoo (Blue Splash) list is:
4 Arid Mesa
1 Forest
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Marsh Flats
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Sejiri Steppe
1 Steam Vents
2 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
1 Verdant Catacombs
2 Geist of Saint Traft
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Qasali Pridemage
4 Steppe Lynx
4 Tarmogoyf
Other Spells
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lightning Helix
4 Path to Exile
2 Spell Pierce
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Aven Mindcensor
1 Bajuka Bog
1 Ethersorn Canonist
1 Gaddock Teeg
3 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Mindbreak Trap
2 Torpor Orb
2 Volcanic Fallout
I am quite happy in this list and it performs quite well in my testing. But I wanted to try to still improve it's match ups against the popular decks. So I decided to try and test Auriok Champion in it. I proxied some Champions (difficult to find some here) and replaced a Helix, a PtE, a Lynx with 3 Champions to have this list:
4 Arid Mesa
1 Forest
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Marsh Flats
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Sejiri Steppe
1 Steam Vents
2 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
1 Verdant Catacombs
3 Auriok Champion
2 Geist of Saint Traft
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Qasali Pridemage
3 Steppe Lynx
4 Tarmogoyf
Other Spells
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Lightning Helix
3 Path to Exile
2 Spell Pierce
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Aven Mindcensor
1 Bajuka Bog
1 Ethersorn Canonist
1 Gaddock Teeg
3 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Mindbreak Trap
2 Torpor Orb
2 Volcanic Fallout
I liked the change when doing quite a few testing with this list. It really gave a lot of fits to creature-based aggro decks, as well as provide some in-play disruption to popular combo decks before beating down mid game. The possible downside is that it felt a bit slower than the original list I had; it has not mattered much tough in my testing but I am not sure if it would be significant against control lists and late game crushers like Tron.
So what do you guys think? I am still 50-50 on which list (Orig or Auriok) I would play in an upcoming PTQ. Has anyone else tested Auriok Champion in Zoo? Opinions and suggestions would be appreciated.
Also, Auriok Champion does not prevent death by Melira Combo. When they continuously sac Kitchen Finks with one Champion out, you gain X life while they gain 2X. When they ping you with Murderous Redcap next turn, every time the Redcap ETB, you gain 1 life while Redcap pings you for 2. They need to do that about X times to kill you. You need 2 Champions out to hose the combo, and then they might reach for Orzhov Pontiff or Elesh Norn in the sideboard.
Luckily, Chalice of the Void doesn't see much play in Modern, and even if people played that card against Zoo, they'd set it to 1 to hose 1-drops, PtE, and Bolt.
Also, in a deck this suicidal from lands alone, you're probably only bouncing back up to 20 life with Auriok Champion. UR Storm can definitely kill you on Turn 4 with that life total with Grapeshot. She definitely hampers the Empty the Warrens kill, though.
You are also correct about her hitting like a wuss. But there are things in a bigger Zoo list that help her if it comes to her really needing to hit (Exalted, Elspeth, Wolf Run, and sometimes that protection also matters in getting through).
Another good point you have is about losing the powerful one drops (since I still maxed Goyf and Pridemage). But with the banning of Nacatl, I think the small one-drop zoo is already watered down so much that I think Zoo has a better chance going big mid game that going all in early like before. Boros probably has a better chance of blitzing and burning an opponent before fizzling out mid-to-late than lions, apes, and tribal flames.
The zoo niche is pretty small right now and relies on playing a number of one-drops, burn and bombs.
Auriok champion doesn't really help with this and as a sideboard card it is beaten out by thalia and ethersworn canonist against storm and combust against splinter twin. I would like to point out as well that it doesn't prevent a splinter twin kill via pestermite either.
As a blocker it can't block goyf which is the creature you would most want to block. Against jund it can be useful but kor firewalker is probably better there (as well as against boros). Kor firewalker is also much better against burn as it triggers off of their spells not off of the creatures you play.
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