The May installment of the European Extravaganza has just concluded. We're still seeing Dragonlink, Shaddolls, and Prank-kids, as expected. There is, however, one peculiar development. ZooBrigade has been rising in popularity, and this recent event has solidified its rise to the top among the Tri-Brigade Variants.
ZooBrigade Powerhouse Weapon
Tri-Brigade Revolt is Soul Charge, Burial from a Different Dimension, Reinforcement of the Army and a Farfa all in one card. ZooBrigade having the ability to summon up to 4 monsters both from the graveyard AND the banished zone, then immediately link summon using said monsters - that's a banger. If it wasn't good enough summoning out Shuraig to banish (non-targeting) one card on the field, it also triggers your Tri-Brigade Kitt and Nervall! This allows you to search and refill your graveyard - essentially running through your engine during the opponent's turn. Look familiar? That's what people hated against Orcust! In addition to all of that, you can also chain-block Shuraig's effect! It's also a trap, making it even harder to stop! Very few things can prevent you from resolving this card (such as Ghost Belle, Red Reboot, etc).
Searching the Revolution
Having established Revolt being a ridiculously good card, a question arises. "How does ZooBrigade get to it?"
Well, it's a normal trap, so you know where this is going. Trap Trick has been around for ages now and is only getting better. This can add up to 3 more copies of Revolt to your ZooBrigade deck. You'd preferably have more targets for this, though. Torrential Tribute and Needle Ceiling have already shown that they are good staples. However, Ice Dragon's Prison has proven itself invaluable for a few formats now. Several key interruptions such as potentially outing Dragoon, banishing both Miscellaneosaurus and Souleating Oviraptor (on field), or simply putting more damage on board to go for game. These are just some reasons why IDP has garnered as much value throughout the months gone by.
Bearbloom, packed in Lightning Overdrive (LIOV), gives ZooBrigade (or Pure Tri-brigades) the ability to search Revolt every turn. It's going to make it so consistent, it'll be disgusting. Bearbloom is by no means broken. It doesn't search Revolt for free as you'd have to place 1 card from your hand back into the deck. In addition to that, you'll be locked into Tri-Brigade monsters after using this effect. This can easily be worked around if you play it right!
ZooBrigade's Extravaganza Success
ZooBrigade had 2 entries in the UK Extravaganza Main Event's Top 8, a 3rd place at DE Main Event and a lot of qualifier tops all across the board. This is both surprising and mesmerizing. This is a sudden explosion of the deck after having been relatively quiet with the Bird-up and Pure/Trap variants.
Being able to run Tenki to search for Fraktall has always made adding Zoodiac monsters an obvious possible route for Tri-brigades. After scrounging around for Zoo-Brigade lists from the Extravaganza, this Zoo lineup seems to be the consensus: Ratpier, Ramram, and Whiptail (plus the Barrage, of course). This is very similar to what the OCG lists have been running for a while now. ZooBrigade has been dominating over in that region - but they do already have Bearbloom. Just imagine if we get that link 2 AND the top contenders of this meta get hit!
Zoodiac cards add a different dimension to the deck. Ratpier sending another Zoo from the deck to the grave. Chakanine and Tigermortar help with filling the grave, too. You can get to a Drident and a Ferrijit PLUS a loaded graveyard for your Revolt. The funny thing is, Ferrijit can also special summon Zoo's from the hand, so there's that little interaction! This also gives the deck the option to "Normal summon a Zoo" going second. And I'm pretty sure we all know how powerful that is. There are several boards that cannot deal with a singular normal summon of a Zoo monster that gets to an AA-Zeus with 4 materials!
Versatility is King
Not having all your eggs in one basket is increasingly mandatory for Yu-Gi-Oh! decks to be dominant. Dragonlink has a consistent 3-interruption board, one of which is a trap. Virtual World had, and still has, a floodgate and a quick effect Trap-Pop. And don't even get me started on Invoked Shaddoll Dogmatika.
Point is, having the ZooBrigade add more dimension to the monster side of things, while still keeping a lot of space for real traps - is a great thing to have. I haven't even gotten to how ZooBrigade lists usually don't even run the "bricks" of Barrier Statue of the Stormwinds and Apex Avian! This makes the deck more compact and less likely to brick on your soft garnets.
Not losing to a singular backrow removal card like Harpie's Feather Duster, or to a Dark Ruler No More, makes the deck really good! Also, having 6 copies of Revolt makes it a lot more likely that you'll have a follow-up for the next turns, and be able to outgrind a lot of decks! Overall having a simpler board that doesn't lock your opponent out, but leaves you with interruptions in the form of monsters and traps appears to be a very viable tactic.
Conclusion
ZooBrigade has been able to make noise in a format where Bearbloom isn't even legal yet. This bodes great for the deck going forward, as it's not likely to get hit. With the power level of the current top meta contenders bound to be lowered on the next list, ZooBrigade (or maybe even Pure with Bearbloom) could potentially spring to the very top of the metagame, so watch out!
