Standard

RG Valakut After States – the Ultimate Primer

image from manadeprived.typepad.com

by Vincent Thibeault

So you are wondering what to play in Standard after States? Does all this Frost Titan action make you uncomfortable? What is happening to the good old Primeval Titan, which used to be, without a doubt, the best Titan around? I worked on a few different lists and this RG Valakut list has been performing quite well so far. If you want to learn about the Scars updated version of the deck, as well as its new side tech, this article should provide you with some insights.

Valakut Ramp

Lands
12  Mountain
1 Raging Ravine
4 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
6 Forest
2 Terramorphic Expanse
2  Evolving Wilds

Creatures
4 Overgrown Battlement
3 Avenger of Zendikar
4 Primeval Titan
3 Wurmcoil Engine

Spells
2 Summoning Trap
2 Harrow
4 Cultivate
4 Khalni Heart Expedition
3 Lightning Bolt
4 Explore

Sideboard
1 Summoning Trap
1 Lightning Bolt
2 Oracle of Mul Daya
3 Pyroclasm
3 Naturalize
2 Acidic Slime
3 Gaea's Revenge

So here is my current version. The deck only lost Siege-Gang Commander and Rampant Growth from M10 and the deck plays pretty much the same way as it used to. The mana base now includes 11 lands that can get you green mana, which is essential to the deck. I used to have 6 fetch-lands in it but too many lands came into play tapped and it became more important to be able to cast a threat costing 6 mana on the fourth turn now that the Siege-Gang Commander is gone. The Raging Ravine can be fetched and can be useful against control decks as it is not affected by Day of Judgement, Mana Leak, Oust or Jace the Mind Sculptor. After sideboard, if a UW player manages to play a Leyline of Sanctity, you can get the Ravine instead of a Valakut with your Primeval Titan and carry on the beating.

The creature base is similar to the earlier built of RG Valakut. The newcomer, Wurmcoil Engine, is now widely recognized as the best 6-drop for the deck after the Primeval Titan. Efficient against UW control (Day of Judgment does not deal with him really well and Flashfreeze from the sideboard does nothing) and the lifegain comes in handy against the aggro decks like Fauna Shaman.dec and RDW.dec. Avenger of Zendikar is a team on his own, so when you know you are going to cast it you may want to keep a fetch-land in your hand if possible. Against other creature decks, he provides countless chump blockers, giving you enough time to draw other threats and get the Valakut active.

The Primeval Titans are the soul of the deck and once they resolve, you usually want to have on the board 4 mountains and at least 2 Valakut, so you can attack the next turn and unleash the Valakut power by getting two mountains. With the effects that can get you two lands at the same time (Primeval titans, Khalni Heart Expedition or Harrow), you usually want to go from 4 to 6 mountains so you can maximize the damage you inflict. The Overgrown Battlements are not part of the usual Valakut lists but having tried them I believe they are very useful in the deck. They slow down other aggro decks and if they use their removal on them, your other threats may stick on the battlefield. If they get countered there is always the risk that you play Summoning Trap on the second turn, which is rarely a pleasant experience for any opponent. As soon as you have two Battlements on the board it allows you to get to your bigger threats way faster.

Then, for the non-creature spells, you have two Traps in the maindeck and one in the sideboard. They were an innovation at the Canadian National’s this summer but now they are found in most lists. They are good against counterspells, obviously, but also against other creature decks. To be able to play your massive threats as an instant is a useful combat trick and can allow you to avoid sorcery-speed creature removals like Day of Judgement, Consuming Vapors, Oust, or Volition Reins. It forces as well control decks to play more cautiously, keeping two counterspell back-ups instead of one, giving you a lot more time to draw your threats and get active Valakuts.

Cultivate and Khalni Heart Expedition are pure card advantage: you get two lands for one card. Explore helps later on with drawing threats and is useful with the lands that come into play tapped. You can often on the third turn play it and put down a Valakut and a Terramorphic Expanse. The two Harrow can seem a bit weird, as some players abide by the dogma that if a card is good, you should play 4 of them, otherwise, you should not play it. I do not subscribe to that and I am well known to play 2-offs or one-offs. It gives your deck a greater diversity, making it harder for your opponents to anticipate your plays, and some cards are good but not so much in multiple or in certain match-ups.

The Harrow for instance works really well with Valakut and Khalni Heart Expedition, as well as when you play them in response to the activation of a Tectonic Edge. When Goblin Ruinblaster used to be popular, I often played Harrow in response to my opponent casting it, destroying my only non-basic land in the process, and forcing them to target one of their own lands once the Goblin hit the battlefield. The Harrows, however, are not a card advantage like Cultivate or Khalni Heart Expedition, and they become in fact a card disadvantage if they get countered. Having only two allows you to play around the counterspells more easily. With four you fill yourself in situations where you have to take a risk with them more foten. Some people play Growth Spasm in their Valakut, but it only gives you one land so I prefer Harrow and Cultivate in the spot of the 3cc mana acceleration. Only three Lighting Bolts are in the deck because they are not really good against control decks and in the mirror match. The fourth one is in the side in case you play against aggro creature decks.

The sideboard is prepared to deal with different problems that the Valakut player can encounter in the current metagame. Summoning Trap is against the U based control decks, the Oracle of Mul Daya are there for the mirror match, where my strategy is just to add more acceleration and cut the Bolts. Pyroclasms are there for WW Relic decks and Shaman decks, as well as other random aggro decks. Naturalize and Acidic Slime come in handy against decks with artifacts (like WW relic) or enchantment (like some UW control post-board). You can use them to deal with Leyline of Sanctity, Journey to Nowhere, Luminarch Ascension, Pyromancer’s Ascension, Volition Reins, Mimic Vat, Everflowing Chalice, Lux Cannon, Chimeric Mass, Brittle Effigy, Wurmcoil Engine, Molten-Tail Mastice, Eldrazi Monument, Basilisk Collar and countless others.

The Acidic Slime can be played with the Summoning Trap, which is an advantage, and they are quite good to bring in, in certain match-ups, if you are not sure what their sideboard plan is. It is rarely a dead card and in the least you can do is target one of their lands to slow them down. The Gaea’s Revenge are there because of the popularity of U control decks. They cannot get countered; they often kill a Jace when they come into play, they cannot be Condemned or bounced and are immune to Volition Reins, which is a popular card right now. Even Frost Titan, the new cool kid on the block, cannot control it. Baneslayer can block it, but hopefully by then Valakut is going to be active and you will manage to deal with it.

Now a quick word on how to sideboard for the different matches.

UW control: The question here is: what are they bringing in? Leonin Arbiter was a very popular sideboard card at the start of the new Standard format, so I used to keep my three Lightning Bolts just in case. If you do not see it in the second game though, or if you know they do not run it, you should cut them. Harrow has to be sided out for sure, as well as the Avengers, and you can side out one Cultivate and one Khalni-Heart Expedition. Why those? Because they are acceleration that asks you to search your library, so you want to cut some of them so a potential sided-in Arbiter does not hurt you as much.

So, against an unknown sideboard, I would : – 3 Avenger of Zendikar, -2 Harrow, -1 Cultivate -1 Khalni Heart Expedition;  +3 Gaia’s Revenge, +2 Acidic Slime, +1 Summoning Trap, +1 Naturalize.

Of course, if they play a lot of enchantments or artifacts, like Leyline of Sanctity, Spreading Seas, Journey to Nowhere, Volition Reins and Everflowing Chalice, you want to get in all your Naturalizes.

RDW: In the sideboard, the Obstinate Baloths have gone missing, as I consider them not necessary anymore. I loved them against Jund, but we have enough cards already to side in for that match-up so we do not need them. Now that RDW is not all about hasty creatures, Pyroclasm becomes golden against them. The Bolts come in as well, but nothing else, as you do not want to slow down your deck too much by cutting acceleration or threats. Your Overgrown Battlements shine here, slowing them down and  chump blocking happily for your safety. A savvy RDW player may bring in Tunnel Ignus, which is not to hard to deal with and can be bolted and played around a bit. Mark of Mutiny, on the other hand, is a real pain in… well, the battlefield, and you can only pray that you have a Battlement to throw in the way of what they are stealing you.

+1 Lightning Bolt, +3 Pyroclasm -1 Avenger of Zendikar, -2 Harrow, -1 Khalni Heart Expedition.

Fauna Shaman.dec: I am well aware that they come in multiple iterations and that you have to adjust to their specific built. You have to aksi guess their sideboard plan against you. A sideboard plan that is difficult to deal with is one with several Acidic Slimes. If your opponent follows that plan and tries to get rid of your green mana sources, you have to keep in mind that with your acceleration you have to get more forests than you need on the board, just in case. It is going to slow down your Valakut activity, but it will avoid you getting color screwed. Bolt and Pyroclasm work wonders against that deck.

+1 Lightning Bolt, +3 Pyroclasm, -1 Avenger of Zendikar (a bit slow), -2 harrow, -1 Khalni Heart Expedition.

Mirror Match: Different Valakut players have different theories on how you should play it. Some bring in Tunnel Ignus, other black mana and Memoricide, which seem like a clunky plan. I prefer to add more acceleration in the form of 2 Oracle of Mul Daya and more threats with a Summoning Trap.

-3 Lightning Bolt, +2 Oracle of Mul Daya, +1 Summoning Trap.

Mono-Green Eldrazi: The match-up is about even and the one that plays a Titan first usually wins. If they play Terrastodon it is pretty much over. The Lightning Bolts are only useful against their Joraga Treespeaker and sometimes their Eldrazi Spawn tokens, which is less than impressive. The Wurmcoil Engines are quite good if they land Kozilek or Ulamog, as you can sacrifice it to the Annihilate effect and block their Eldrazi with the Wurm Deathtouch. Here I am not totally sure of the sideboard plan. You could cut the Bolts that are sometimes good to put in a Summoning Trap and 2 Oracle of Mul Daya, or you can leave the deck as it is.

-3 Lightning Bolt, +2 Oracle of Mul Daya. + 1 Summoning Trap, or do not side in anything.

There are other match-ups that should be analyzed but by now you should have a general idea of how the sideboard works. You rarely want to side in too many cards as it slows down your deck and removes threats. I used to have Inferno Titans in the maindeck, but then moved them to the sideboard, and now they are somewhere far away in one of my countless boxes, spending time with some junk rares. If creature-based aggro decks become very popular again, I could consider moving them back in, but for the time being, Wurmcoil Engine has been cooler, more effective and a better killing machine. I am not a fan of Koth as it is hard to protect him in that deck and he is only really good against control decks.

If you have other suggestions for the deck, do not hesitate to propose them in the comments section below. And make sure you cheer your Canadian friends going to the GP Toronto this weekend to defend their turf against outsiders from across the border.

Till next time,

Cheers,

Vincent Thibeault

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