Zorga Simplified

Intro:

To the people who happen to read this simple guide, hi I’m Bro B and I just happened to top BSF Malaysia with Zorga. Zorga has been my main and favorite deck for a good 3 years now, so I am very happy that I got my first good event result with it. However, after the event I was asked by a few people regarding my card choices and why I still believe that the deck is still competitive in the current Icon meta. This small guide hopes to answer just that.

Why I Think Zorga is Competitive:

First let’s discuss why even in a meta filled with Aichi, Deeplands, HLL, and many other explosive decks that can confirm the win on turn 4, I still have the utmost confidence in bringing Zorga to big events. To this day I believe that Zorga is still one of if not the most defensive decks in the game. It is also a deck that always had one of the strongest alternate wincon when everything goes wrong (PG bouncing to keep Giving youself an extra turn to live). It is still also the most resource efficient deck IMO which makes it easier to decide the tempo of the game based on what decks you are facing.

The Decklist I used:

From the list above you can see that it is a bit different from the normal lists you usually see floating around. The deck still plays the usual culprits in Shadowcloack, RPD, Elf. However, you will then see other funky cards such as the tomato, shooter, tearful malice which are not found in most lists. This section hopes to give you the reasoning for these choices.

1. Shooter is the best card in the game

Sea rumble brave shooter is the energy cycler for stoichea that has 2 very simple skills which are by paying 1 CB or 3 energy u get to draw a card when guarding or ditching for ride and being able to essentially grab anything (except PG, persona, and triggers) when its called during a persona turn. In essence, shooter is the best utility card in the stoi cardpool filling up multiple roles in a card (good defensive card, ditch fodder, emergency order bouncer). People also do not really see the value in being able to draw during the opponents turn IMO.

Shooter is also rarely bad to be drawn in any stage of the game. In the early game it is very good to have it to help guard early tri lanes while at the same time being able to dig for pieces. In the mid game it still acts as an efficient guard tool to help keep the hand size stable during the opponents push turns. And in the late game, it can get you an order in the case you’re forced to ditch it for pg. Shooter was also very clutch in the games during my run. Most of the people usually ask me how I manage the energy for shooter and I simply tell them that I’m not afraid to use CB for the cost but in general its also okay to use the EB cost once if you are going first.

2. Tomato the surprising MVP

Now onto the next card people were surprised I ran. To be honest I feel the reason the main reason people are surprised is just because they did not know about the card itself lmao. Tomato covers multiple aspects in the deck which are soul generation, number pushing, and early superior calling. Seeing tomato early game can really accelerate your resource and advantage as Nadir’s EB 2 can now be used to call 1 bounce target while your not sacrificing offence and gaining soul at the same time which is a major upside in Zorga. The reason it is only played at 1 is because you do not need to see it early at all. Seeing it early sure would be a massive boost however other pieces are more important and due to the nature of Zorga, you will naturally see tomato in the game.

3. Give me Shadowcloack or I retire

Finally, to the best card in the zorga cardpool, shadowcloack. This card has been here from the very beginning from it’s release and for a good reason. It has one of the strongest mechanic in standard being PG bouncing, an extremely strong toolbox skill where I can mill any order of my choice (even a regalis piece), while being able to let you dictate how you want to play the game. During my run, I always hard mulligan for the dog. If you were at the event, you would often see me returning 5 just because I did not draw the dog (Pgs, Personas, order). So, while people always say that zorga must see RPD to win games, I always say that cloack is the card that wins games.

The Mulligan:

Contrary to what people might think, I don’t think that the mulligan for zorga is that complex. To put it in simple turns, If no cloack > Mulligan everything. But of course, there are exceptions to this, which is why I compiled a small list for the mulligan below:

As it can be seen above, the mulligan is not that difficult. The must keeps IMO are cloack, RPD, and things that help to dig for cloack. Once you see the pieces, you can basically be very flexible in what you want to keep depending on your playstyle.

Alchemagic tips:

Now this section might be the most complex for some people as alchemagic is a very niche and technical mechanic that many people might not be used to. I will try to make it as simple as possible as I do believe the core to maximize this mechanic is very simple. On a baseline, alchemagic is mainly used for 2 things which are gaining an advantage and pushing power. To further understand this, I have compiled the orders in my decklist and categorized them in the roles.

By categorizing the orders this way, it makes it easier to track what you achieved on the turn. For example, if for the turn you played Mystiark (BT) and Calliburn (A2) it means for the turn you achieved BT-A2 (Bounce target, Plus 2 to hand). This equation might make it easier for people to decide what they want to alchemagic for their turn. However, I also compiled a list of what I want to achieve during each turn in a game. It should not be taken as a rule, but it could act as a guide on what to look for each turn. Do note that these assume u already have a cloack on field.

Matchup Tips:

To end this small guide, I feel it would be good to give out some matchup tips for the current top dogs in the meta. I will not be going into too much detail as I believe there are many factors to consider and I can’t just give you “if you fight x deck just do this”. Instead I will be giving what sort of game state/game flow that I personally try to achieve when facing these decks. Note that this section will focus more on what to do going second as I really believe if you go first with this deck my advice would literally be just to not brick lmao.

Yakuza: To most people, this deck is considered the BDIF and for good reason. It has an insane defence game while also having great offence that can overwhelm most decks. However, of course it does has some weaknesses that can be exploited. For one, while being a grindy deck itself, Yakuza struggles against other grindy decks that wants to play the long game. Yakuza imo is an aggro deck that happens to have good defensive tools. This is evident with the deck not having a cc and people who faced Yakuza would also know that the deck does not have infinite resources (they will run out of gas eventually). If I fight this deck going second, I will try to control the amount of CB I give this deck a turn whether it being swinging sides (targeting the one in front of Kanda) or calling rpd as crit to force my opponent to take 2 if they desire damage. Another thing I usually do is always trying to guard the VG swings if possible. The amount of pressure the deck generates imo depends on how many crits they check similar to Overlord. By guarding the VG you can sort of control the amount of damage you take as the crit triggers allocation will be visible for you to guard accordingly. Zorga can get away with this as PG looping means that you are never really punished for actively using said pg.

Aichi: This deck when seeing the stats is one of the most popular decks and also one of the most well performing ones. So, you will eventually meet them in swiss rounds of events. If yakuza was an aggro deck that has great defence, Aichi is an aggro deck that has a disgustingly insane offence. This deck only knows one thing and it is to win fast. It has a very consistent strong early game and has one of the scariest pesona/finishing turns in the game (SSD, Gance, Zero). However, in a vacuum that’s all the deck has which the decks game flow very predictable. As such, you can always plan and prepare your guards and resources when fighting this deck. Similar to Yakuza, Aichi also struggles against long game decks and is punished even more than yakuza as they do not have any defence to speak off. Damage control is also more prevalent against this deck as by giving them only 1 CB per turn, Zero will never have its guard restrict. This is what I always do when using Zorga against Aichi, I will swing with VG and allocate all my crit triggers to rpd to make them always be in a lose-lose situation (play with only 1 cb or take to 4). And unlike most decks, Zorga by design has enough defence to tank an SSD turn if I do decide to give them 2 cb to work with (granted you have blitz and pg). Another small tip for this MU is to not be afraid to take extra dmg to deny heal as it is very possible to OTK this deck from 2 or 3 dmg easily.

Deeplands: Now this deck imo is the hardest MU in the meta rn. In general, Zorga does struggle with high multi atk decks as a PG can only guard 1 atk. The 6 atks this deck does going first while also being one of the most resource efficient decks in the format makes it very difficult to pin point what to exploit when facing the deck. However, there are a few game sequences that I try to do when facing the deck. The first is that Deeplands has a relatively tame g2 turn so I try to take as little dmg here. Then on the first g3 turn, I try to bank on a defensive within the first 3 atks. The reason for this is because if you map out the first g3 turn damage output, the overall guard value needed for each atk is similar (1 trigger to guard) granted they did not highroll. Getting a defensive early essentially shuts down or at least minimizes the damage that the deck does against you. Furthermore, taking dmg early can also deny them heals which I believe is also crucial in the MU. This deck contrary to what most people think can play the long game relatively well so with Zorga you really don’t want to play the grind game. Ideally you want to end the game on T4 as the PG and blitz loop still does not cover 2 Deeplands persona turns. This however can also be applied against Deeplands where their defence also does not guarantee surviving a persona Divine skill turn of Nadir.

These are the 3 decks that I believe are worth giving details and tips about as against other current meta decks (HLL, Overlord, strides) I usually just play normally and try to manage my resources and shields effectively.

Closing:

Well, that takes us to the end of this short guide lmao. By no means am I saying that Zorga is a perfect deck with no weaknesses. It’s actually quite the opposite; I know that this deck is a brickfest and loses the moment I do not draw cloack or RPD. However, I also believe that the deck is one of the most rewarding and fun decks to play rn. This deck really rewards good fundamentals, game knowledge, and “playing with what you have” which is really the reason I’ve been playing this deck as my main deck for 3 years. And that’s about all I want to talk about here. Do tell me if there are other things that you are interested in knowing as this is a very compressed guide and there are many other things that can be talked about. If you have reached this far in the guide, thanks so much for reading and I hope you have a good day 😊