Beastdown (Zoo)
This article provides a comprehensive guide to the Beastdown (Zoo) deck in Yu-Gi-Oh! Goat Format, detailing its strategy, viable builds, and strengths.
What is Beastdown?
Beastdown, often known as “Zoo”, is a Yu-Gi-Oh! Goat Format deck that is distinguished by its aggressive beast and beast-warrior monsters: 3 Berserk Gorilla and 2-3 Enraged Battle Ox in particular. Enraged Battle Ox can give piercing to the deck's other beast monsters, possibly including King Tiger Wanghu, Giant Rat, and Bazoo the Soul Eater. Beastdown plays a heavy trap lineup to bolster its aggression that often includes Trap Dustshoot. There are a few different directions that the deck can be taken, but all of them focus on aggression first and foremost.
How Does Beastdown Work?
Its general strategy is fast, no-nonsense aggression. Like other aggro decks, it can use 3 Trap Dustshoot to apply further pressure. Berserk Gorilla is psuedo-card advantage in that it can attack over some of the most commonly played monsters in Goat Format like Abyss Soldier, Airknight Parshath, Tribe-Infecting Virus, and Skilled White Magician. Beastdown is an underexplored strategy that has a lot of different options. It can incorporate an anti-meta flavor by adopting King Tiger Wanghu or Skill Drain. It can also use Giant Rat (but not alongside King Tiger Wanghu), which can gain piercing from Enraged Battle Ox and can search out either Exiled Force or Injection Fairy Lily. Another approach could be to build the deck around Return from the Different Dimension using Bazoo the Soul-Eater, D.D. Assailant, and Gigantes.
Beastdown Example Decklist
https://www.duelingbook.com/deck?id=3395588
Why Beastdown is Viable
Berserk Gorilla is a great card against other aggro decks due to its superior attack points. Skill Drain can be devastating against most strategies in the format. Beastdown’s fast clock combined with Trap Dustshoots and Skill Drain makes it a good choice to beat combo decks, which are picking up in popularity. Gravekeeper’s Spy is still vastly underplayed (as of April 2019), which is Beastdown’s biggest weakness. Beastdown has a pretty straightforward gameplan, which makes it difficult to misplay with and easy for new players to pick up.
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Are you looking to build an aggressive Goat Format deck? Here are some other possibilities:
- Anti-Meta Warriors Deck Guide
- Chaos Recruiter Deck Guide
- Gravekeepers Deck Guide
Do you have any questions about Beastdown or want to share your own Beastdown decklist? We’d love to hear from you in the comments. Want expert help to construct your own Beastdown deck? Then join our Discord server.
ACP
ACP is a co-founder of GoatFormat.com, along with Skully. He has been an active contributor to the revival of Yu-Gi-Oh!'s Goat Format from 2012 onward. In 2017, he created the Angel Chaos deck, a notable contender in the Goat Format metagame. He has a long history of being a TCG content creator, first for The Game Academy (now defunct) and later for GatheringMagic.com. He has placed in the top32 of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series three times. A mathematician by profession, he is known for his logical and analytical approach to gaming.
