Zoodiac in OCG April 2017

How to survive without Drident and Barrage 101


Decklist

 ============ Main Deck : 41 ============

Zoodiac Viper x3
Zoodiac Thoroughblade x3
Zoodiac Marmorat x1
Zoodiac Ram x2
Gameciel, the Sea Turtle Kaiju x2
Ghost Ash & Beautiful Spring x3
Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit x2
Pot of Desires x3
Harpie's Feather Duster x1
Cosmic Cyclone x3
Fire Formation - Tenki x2
Mask of Restrict x2
Imperial Order x1
Eternal Nightmares x2
Macro Cosmos x3
Mistake x2
Solemn Warning x1
Solemn Judgment x1
Horn of Heaven x3
Magic Drain x1
============ Extra Deck : 15 ============
Zoodiac Tigress x3
Zoodiac Hammerkong x3
Zoodiac Broadbull x3
Zoodiac Lyca x3
Zoodiac Boarbow x3
============ Side Deck : 15 ============
Maxx "C" x2
Ice Hand x3
Skull Meister x1
Fire Hand x3
Kumongous, the Sticky String Kaiju x1
Gadarla, the Mystery Dust Kaiju x1
Ghost Ogre and Snow Rabbit x1
Drowning Mirror Force x2
Mask of Restrict x1

Date: 1 April 2017

Limit Regulation List: April 2017 OCG
Venue: Japan
Number of Participants: 20 Teams (60  Players, Each team consisting of 3 Members)
Source: 1st Oyama Cup Team Battle
Player B of 1st Place

Source: Beyond the Duel 

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Zoodiac remains in the metagame, just barely, as a Meta Beat deck.

Despite the harsh hits, Zoodiacs can still enter a series of Xyz summons and perform a search via Zoodiac Broadbull. Hence, consistency is still present. It is also an unexpected deck, currently, and hence the element of surprise might also help.

The deck has access to Zoodiac Boarbow which can end up as high as a 2800ATK beatstick with just a normal summon, and on top of it all, Zoodiac Boarbow can direct attack which is very neat.

The deck has plenty of support cards to augment the strength of Zoodiacs. Gamecial the Sea Turtle Kaiju is in the Main Deck presumbly to address Master Peace, the Dracoslaying King and Kozmo Dark Destroyer. Zoodiacs has always faced a power ceiling and have trouble against high attack monsters and now without Zoodiac Drident, things get tougher.

Triple Pot of Cupidity to provide draw power, which heavily tech options such as Mask of Restrict, Imperial Order and Eternal Nightmares in the Main Deck are employed to combat the other stronger meta decks, ensuring that even True Draco won't have an easy time against a deck everyone thought was dead.

Mistake and Macro Cosmos falls under the Anti-Meta category, the latter indicating the Zoodiac deck abandoning all hopes of recovery, and explains why Zoodiac Combo isn't seen in the deck. Magic Drain stuns and provide more negation alongside Horn of Heaven, which adds more negation this deck can afford on top of the Solemn trap series. This is all to prevent True Draco decks from sucessfully normal summoning.

The Extra Deck wise, with the flooding capabilities of the deck gone along with Zoodiac Ratpier, it makes sense that staple Rank 4 which requires two Level 4 monsters are gone from the deck. However, dedicating all 15 slots to just Zoodiac Xyz monster seem pretty drastic to me.

Ice Hand and Fire Hand works better against Dinosaur decks. Skull Meister is gaining popularity to negate True Draco spells/traps. Drowning Mirror Force is an effective mass removal option.

Conclusion

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Zoodiacs are alive, but barely.

Under the same reasoning and argument, a Zoodiac engine can still be played in True Draco decks to provide a draw and direct attacks via Zoodiac Boarbow. The direct attack is the only factor differentiating Zoodiacs from other Meta Beat decks.

Another added advantage the deck has is the ability to summon Link Monster Missus Radiant with relative ease.