Party All the Time - Jaina Zoo
By Tony Faber

The first iteration of Jaina Zoo added more variety by replacing one of the Kaustrons with Ryno the Short. This version is 2 honor cheaper, allows an even better pet into the mix (Jhuroon), and gives the auto-damage of Corruption.

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80 Horde Priest - Tichondrius
80 Alliance Rogue - Icecrown

Nice article, so far I have tried lotsa JZoo variant teams, I have tried with Kaustron and then Ryno and now with Elanna, and i still cant see which is better. Perhaps different maps has different outcome for each team, but i could be wrong.

Dual Kaustron is the most powerful, definitly. It also has the advantage of being the best anti-Vashj and anti-Mortimer build. Dual Elanna plays a lot differently, but it lacks defense and is IMO not as good on this map (it was awesome on the Realms map though, as my only loss all day with Vashj was against that).

The problem with dual Kaustron is that it gets a bit weak against Savin Wall, though not as much as Elanna. Jaina is pretty much forced to use Polymorph there, and if you don't get a good shot with the dice to pick off Savin's pals while he's sheeped you probably lose right there (though the pets would help, and you might be able to get Savin if you don't crit too much when attacking him). Ryno gives another magic attacker to get Savin, at the cost of weakening your Mortimer matchup (and, I wager, the Vashj matchup too). I just don't like Ryno that much though.

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"The beatings will continue until morale has improved."
- Standard corporate management technique

I was thinking of Jaina, Kaustron and Namrah for mass dispel and some healing.

The biggest problem is that she has 2 range, you could play Mass Dispel/Shadowform and Mind blast that makes her tick to 5 (able to mass dispel before the end of the tick).

I don't see how Zoo has a good match up versus mortimer, he just has to dot all your figs and wait tick 15 to win.

If Zoo plays conservatively, Mortimers just teleport dance till end of time.

Zoo actually needs to kill 6 mortimers and get 2 VP, which is pretty hard if the Mortimer player doesn't suck or without awesome rolls.

I didn't test on Nats' map yet tho...

~

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Best ranking at weekly draft : 4th (5 showed up and I got a bye :D)
Number of weekly drafts : 44 and counting.
0-4 drop at worlds (pairings suck)
Once won a game in DMF, my opponent didn't show up.

When you actually play on the boston map you'll realise that it's not easy to DoT the hunters with Mortimers at all. Pets just get in your 3 range, Kaustron just shoots and retreats. 2 Fury + 1 Kaustron is often enough to kill 1 Mortimer, and you can't risk attacking Jaina for fear of the Ice Block, so basically she can do what she wants til tick 15. Water Elemental pounds on, Hunters go kiting instead of the Mortimers in this matchup. Most likely by tick 15 you have killed 1 or 2 Kaustron and Jaina, but that is still not enough for the win. You ain't getting 2 VPs that easily.

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Dark Portal + Blink + Flamestrike + SteelWing73's Patented CritsHappen Dices = da'Bomb!

2655029:

You ain't getting 2 VPs that easily.

I agreed with everything you said up until the very end.  Where are you setting up with Zoo, that Mortimer doesn't just walk into the VP towards the end of tick 5?  In most of the playtesting I've done, it winds up being 1 elemental and most of the Mortimer party in the VP zone on the end of tick 5.  The Mortimers are out only if he chooses to be out, in order to protect them.

In fact, several of the games I've seen start out with the Mortimer player putting up 3 VP during the first allocation.  That puts a lot of pressure on Jaina players to retake the center area.  In my playtesting, Mortimers are undefeated when scoring 6VP from camping, although it's only happened twice.

But like I said, I agree about the DoTs.  Once Kaustron is active after the initial summon, Mortimer has to keep his distance.  Taking 3 physical attacks is usually death.

I've never played against or with Zoo in any format, but isn't this comment... "Kaustron can have Old Bones attack, fire his own attack, summon Fury as an instant (dismissing Old Bones), then attack with Fury—launching three attacks on the same tick" reversed? 

Wouldn't you want to have Bones attack, then cast Fury, then attack with Kaustron/Fury?  If you attack with Kaustron before calling Fury, then you will have ticked up the attack cost of Kaustron and fury won't be able to attack as the pets come in matching their master's clock....

Good read Tony!  Thanks!

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WOW Minis - RK2
WOW TCG - RK1
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2009 Durotar Realms Minis Top 8

I ROLL AT:

Steelwing has a point hehe

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"Grant me the strength to accept the things that I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to... Uuurggh! Just give me some freakin' magic before I kill somebody!"

899327:

Wouldn't you want to have Bones attack, then cast Fury, then attack with Kaustron/Fury? 

Yes.

2655029:

When you actually play on the boston map you'll realise that it's not easy to DoT the hunters with Mortimers at all. Pets just get in your 3 range, Kaustron just shoots and retreats. 2 Fury + 1 Kaustron is often enough to kill 1 Mortimer, and you can't risk attacking Jaina for fear of the Ice Block, so basically she can do what she wants til tick 15. Water Elemental pounds on, Hunters go kiting instead of the Mortimers in this matchup. Most likely by tick 15 you have killed 1 or 2 Kaustron and Jaina, but that is still not enough for the win. You ain't getting 2 VPs that easily.

Every time I tested the match up, the other player was better than I am but he agreed that Zoo had a bad match up.

The fact that Ben Isgur is better than the players he faced doesn't mean Zoo has a good matchup vs Mortimers

~

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Best ranking at weekly draft : 4th (5 showed up and I got a bye :D)
Number of weekly drafts : 44 and counting.
0-4 drop at worlds (pairings suck)
Once won a game in DMF, my opponent didn't show up.

I got a question, can i attack with Old Bones, and then with V.Kaustron and after that summon Fury and attack with Fury, is this legal?

Dig up the Turin coverage, even Ben Isgur agrees that Zoo has a slightly bad matchup against Morts. It all hinges on Ice Block, basically, and whether the Mortimer player gets to DOT Jaina or not, and whether the Jaina player can force the Mortimer player to attack Jaina (by forcing a Felguard's Cleave to target her, for instance).

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"The beatings will continue until morale has improved."
- Standard corporate management technique

1104424:

I got a question, can i attack with Old Bones, and then with V.Kaustron and after that summon Fury and attack with Fury, is this legal?

No, but if you attack with Old bones, then activate Kaustron, summon Fury and right after attack with V. Kaustron, then you can attack with Fury.

The key for such shenanigans is to summon pets before you attack.

Thanks for the info.