Under50 is a series that I started to share budget decks under 50 USD. Earlier articles in the series are listed below. Follow me for more content like this!
With card prices increasing on the daily, it can seem tough to build great decks on a budget. A deck that has recently risen in popularity is the obnoxious Zoo Light deck, which has claimed a top spot in GUDeck's Meta section.
Most variants of this deck include Asterius, Glittering One and Sern, The Moderator which are sitting at $60.62 and $37.58 respectively at the time of writing. Could a Zoo Light deck work without these legendaries? Let's find out.
Deck Overview and Key Card Explanation
Deck Link: GUDecks
The deck's ability to produce immense value while being aggressive is what makes it shine. Like any other Zoo archetype, swarming the board and gaining early board control is the goal of the game, before finishing the opponent off with a flurry of attacks. At just 0.0118 ETH (~45 USD), it is an affordable alternative to the typical Zoo Light deck.
Light's Levy is one of the best cards in this deck without a doubt. I always keep it in my opening hand given the chance due to how good it is. Light's Levy can deal with most early-game units including the infamous Pyramid Warden. For just 3 mana, you obliterate the opponent's creature (bypassing any Afterlife effects) and gain a 2/2 for free. Without this card, the deck would not be as strong as it is. The amount of value this card provides is amazing!
Radiant Dawn is another one of the cards that I tend to keep in my starting hand. By turn 3-4, it is common to have 3-4 creatures on the field, which in turn results in a total increase of +3-4/+6-8 stats. Not to mention that the +2 health it gives to all creatures can allow your creatures to trade much more efficiently.
Continuing on the value train, Blind Martyr and Holy Enchanter helps to make your creatures that much more sticky. In the early game, health is critical for efficient trading, and these cards enable that.
Echocaster was my substitute for Asterius in the 6-mana slot. My reasoning for including Echocaster was so that it could retrieve Light's Levy or Radiant Dawn should the game drag on a bit longer. I'm not too sold on it yet, but as a 1x include it seemed fine.
Golden-Wing Sphinx is a valuable 5-cost unit - I'd say that it is better than Guild Enforcer in this deck. Frontline and the Protect buff on the god is nice against other more aggressive decks but nothing to write home about, but the main utility comes from its Afterlife ability. If the ability activates on your opponent's turn, barring a board wipe spell, it makes clearing the rest of your creatures doubly hard. If the ability activates on your turn, you get to make very efficient trades for free.
Summon Acolyte isn't a card but a god power, but I think it deserves mention. At a 3-mana cost, it is one of the costliest god powers that you can select. However, summoning a 2/2 without requiring a card is honestly pretty good once you consider the low mana curve of this deck. 2/2 Acolytes don't die to 1 damage pings, allowing them to receive buffs more easily from the buff cards above.
Deck Performance
Starting Rank: Mythic (1591 MMR)
Ending Rank: Mythic (1638 MMR)
Play Period: A few Weekend games, followed by weekday games
Win Rate: 76.2% over 21 games
| Opponent Deck | Score (Wins / Total Games) |
|---|---|
| Nature | 7 / 8 |
| War | 2 / 5 |
| Magic | 4 / 4 |
| Death | 2 / 3 |
| Deception | 1 / 1 |
| Light | 0 / 0 |
| Total | 16 / 21 |
Disclaimer: Matches on weekdays are easier than those on the weekends due to the Weekend Ranked event.
Mulligan Strategy
Other than ensuring that there is a turn 1 play, I always keep Light's Levy and Radiant Dawn in my opening hand if possible. Light's Levy is almost always playable on turn 2 (with the extra mana gem) or 3 for extreme value. Even if I couldn't milk Light's Levy for its maximum value, it usually helped to regain any lost tempo. Radiant Dawn helps to deal with early threats and increases the stickiness of the creatures on the field - I may play it with only 2 creatures on the field if it can help me regain board control.
General Deck Strategy
Like most Zoo decks, you simply try to swarm the field as quickly as you can and end the game by turn 6-8. The right play is often not going for the face until turn 5 when you have cleared your opponent's board efficiently and have a bunch of creatures on your side of the field. Then, playing any one of these three cards: Golden-Winged Sphinx, Radiant Dawn, or Holy Enchanter, usually helps to close the game up with a win.
The only thing that you might need to take note of is your hand size. If you are running low on cards, it might be wiser to use the Summon Acolyte god power instead of using up your cards. Take for example a situation where I have 4 mana but only a Bright Mage in my hand. In terms of pure stats, Bright Mage is only a +1/+1 difference compared to the Acolyte. If I didn't need the Bright Mage's heal ability immediately, I often opted to simply summon an acolyte. Also, if I was anticipating a board clear, I also usually opted to simply summon acolytes every turn, waiting for the board clear to be played before swarming the board again.
Gameplay Footage
I recorded two matches of my games with this deck. The first one was against mid-range Nature. My opponent played a turn 1 Pyramid Warden, usually a show-stopper against any aggressive decks. Even though I didn't have Light's Levy in my starting hand, I managed to regain board control with Radiant Dawn and Blind Martyr. While my opponent had great luck with his early draws and Lightning Strike, the non-stop buffing from Radiant Dawn, Blind Martyr, and Holy Enchanter proved to be unstoppable.
The next match was against a Magic deck. This time around, I had a Light's Levy in my starting hand which enabled me to regain some early board control as I dealt with my opponent's Wild Hog. My opponent had many early removal spells and managed to deal with many of my early game creatures, but ultimately his removals fell short as I swarmed the board with Summon Acolyte and cheap units. Hitting the face regularly also allowed me to buy more cards from the Sanctum, further improving my board control.
The games shown aren't best-case scenarios for this deck - in both cases, the opponents got what they needed to deal with an aggressive deck, but ultimately still faltered in the face of the wide buffs that this deck provides. Even without Sern or Asterius as game finishers, the deck proved to be a formidable Zoo deck.
Card Swaps
Since this deck was built on a budget, there were many cards that couldn't be put in due to their cost. Here are some cards that you can swap in for potential better performance.
Ritual Rod and Cudgel of Atonement can often 2-for-1, dealing with 2 early-game units. There's not too much to say about them other than the fact that they help with early board control. You probably only need 2 weapons in this deck and Cudgel of Atonement is the better choice if you can afford it, as the extra durability for Ritual Rod is unlikely to be procc-ed. ($64.31 for the Cudgel vs $9.28 for the Rod)
Highborn Knight and Master of Indulgences are great swap-ins for the 3 and 4-cost units in the deck, as they have high value. Highborn Knight is hard to deal with efficiently, and Master of Indulgences can make a Pyramid Warden look like a joke. The only problem? Highborn Knights cost $625.05 per pop right now. ($15.49 for Master of Indulgences)
Canonize is a strong buff card that is very sorely needed in this deck to deal with the onslaught of Guild Enforcers - I have lost many games just because the opponent put down a single Guild Enforcer. If I had a Canonize, the Guild Enforcers would be no challenge. ($23.68 for Canonize)
Asterius, Glittering One is the game-finisher if you have it at 6-mana. I don't think more needs to be said, but if you have Asterius, you should definitely put it in. ($60.62 at current prices)
If you find trading efficiently to be an issue, adding in Shieldbearers or an additional Felid Janissary can help. A +1/+1 can help your 2/3 Wild Hog trade with a 2/3 Shield Maiden with a 3/2 leftover.
Concluding Thoughts
Without the two legendaries, it seems like Aggro Light decks still work! The sheer value that Light's Levy and Radiant Dawn cannot be understated. If you're still wondering why Zoo Light has been skyrocketing in popularity, here's your sign to try this deck out. Let me know if you tried it out!
Other Articles in the Under50 series
Resources
- Gods Unchained Media Kit, as given here
If you are a deckbuilder on Hive, do check out my GUListCreator tool that helps you to create a view of multiple cards quickly - it can now export transparent PNGs of cards! All card images in this post were created with this tool.