I'd like to congratulate Jay Collette for his incredible top 8 win at the regionals in Duluth. Who knew that such a man could stack his way into making the number one most hated deck good again in February of 2020. Zoodiac is a deck that focuses on summoning Xyz monsters' using only 1 monster as material. Oh, you thought Galatea into Ding was an unfair combo - try a whole archetype revolved around that. Zoo is regarded by most players from the zexal era as a 'cancer' or 'tumor' in yugioh...but god is it fun! Watching your opponent's life drain out of the eyes as you whisper for the 5th time this turn, "chain ash blossom". While it may not be as powerful as it was in Master Rule 3 - Zoodiac can still stand its ground as a solid Tier 3 rogue deck (even if it lost Drident and Broadbull). So with that all out the way - here's all you need to know:
Let's clear things up - this deck will make another feature appearance soon. With Master 5 being released in just under two-or-so months, this deck won't have to rely on using Gravity Controller to free up zones. That being said: there are significant differences to the deck now that's been put through a new format. 1. The Link Monsters. Ignition Assault brought some new cards along, specifically the infamous link one, Gravity Controller. What it essentially does is clears up a spot for you to use, and then spins itself and a card, giving you two free spaces to Xyz summon in. The other monster, Megaclops, is slightly harder to pull off - but can be seen as your ace monster of sorts, obviously after Chakanine (the card you try to go into the most). Its tougher to pull off as you can't always meet its summon requirements - but if you open Cymbal Skeleton its a guaranteed 4000 right to your opponents face. Megaclops also recovers Xyz monsters for you - meaning you can continuously stack Zoodiac monsters even after making your beloved infinitrack.
I've had someone recommend playing a Crescendo as my Galatea target - but in my opinion that's useless. Not only do you have to run only one orcust card - you rarely see juxtaposed with the three desires. So playing it would ultimately be a brick in the end. Other than that - the only thing to address is the handtraps. It may seem a bit overkill but you usually need to run this many in order to provide disruption to your opponent. Surprisingly, two Droll seems like the optimal ratio right now as SPYRAL isn't too much of a threat as it was at the start of the format.
Overall: this deck is a cool 6.4/10. While it definitely won't take up all 16 spots of top cut like it once did, it's still a great deck to play at your locals. It has all the stacking capabilities like it use to, just not as optimal with its core extra deck monsters being banned and the zone rules put in place by Master Rule 4. I'd recommend this deck to those out there still cherishing the good old days of going 12-0 against pure mirror matches for the whole tournament. I mean listen - if Jay can top with it, what stops you from doing the same?
120
390
480
540
