FFfreaky Friday – Triggering Valakut for Fun and Profit
Posted by Brad Nelson
March 11, 2010 | 
39 comments
Battle-Tested Lists
The time came and I was ready to battle. I grabbed my deck and a traveler's pillow for my epic journey to the Midwest Masters in Minneapolis. I should have known this trip was going to be a disaster when I realized I left my iPod at home, but I was too distracted with thoughts of winning and glory. We got onto the highway all right, but then we realized something very important: there was a quarter-inch of pure ice on the roads thanks to freezing rain.
That's right, we were skating down the highway without any clear answer as to when we could even get off the road. At this time an idiot rolls past us going 75 miles and hour. One guy in our car said we were going to see him in a ditch a mile up, but before he finished talking, the white car spun out directly ahead of us. If it wasn't for my roommate and savior Ryan already feathering the brakes to slow us down from 50 to 40 m.p.h., we would have been totaled. After that, we decided to pull over at the next exit.
We found a very nice diner to wait out the rain and head home since we would not get to the tournament until two hours after the first round. The trip wasn't over, though, because a jackknifed semi half on the road brought traffic to a stop for another hour. I got home just in time to start watching coverage. It was a fun weekend. Props to Fargo's own Dan Green for taking second place. He may not be able to hit a Blood Seeker trigger to save his life, but he can cascade himself to the finals of a tournament.
I was ready to gun some Standard, so I was pretty disappointed we didn't make the tournament. MTGO was my competitive outlet once again; I decided to grind out 45 qualification points as fast as possible. I ran as many Standard and Block daily events as I could from Saturday to today.
I am not going to go into detail about this deck list, but since I did not get to sling it last weekend at the Midwest Masters, I don't want it to go to waste.
I hope this list brings someone more happiness than it did me.
I was very pleased to get to take a swing at Block Constructed. Last week I talked about the format a bit and put up some of the more exciting lists on the format. Now I get to game them. I bought a few overpriced Jace, the Mind Sculptors and went to battle with UW Control. This lasted for all of fifteen minutes.
I don't know if others playing the format know this, but that deck is not great. It has all of the pieces to make a powerful control deck, or so I thought. Even though the deck has a Wrath of God, a Signet, and a draw engine, it still is rather weak. The win conditions take forever to get online and the entire deck is weak to a man-land. Tectonic Edge is available, obviously, but that threatens to make your mana base rather weak. It was a train wreck.
Shortly after deciding UW Control was pretty terrible, I ran into Michael Jacob, who was also running the Block Dailies. We started talking about Block. He had an updated list of Valakut Ramp he was nice enough to share with me. I registered his 75 and went to battle. After two Daily Events I was 8-0 and had a new love. After a few more events I started to make a few changes to it, but 70-75 are still Michael's original choices.
MJ's Valakut Ramp
This has got to be the most fun I have had playing Magic in a while. This deck is explosive and powerful, but the most fun is the game you play post-sideboard in the mirror and against UW control. Michael did a lot of work to make the UW matchup a breeze. The numbers might seem a bit weird so I will go over them.
Oracle is the most powerful card in your main deck. The ability to play lands of the top of your library lets this deck do very explosive things. The problem with the card is having two is always terrible. It is just a wasted card when you have it. The other thing is that when you play it and play a land off the top, you have already gotten a ton of value out of the card. Now if your opponent wastes the turn killing the Oracle and not putting pressure on you, you get ahead in the game. Playing a second Oracle after that is a waste of time on your part more often than not.
I didn't understand the importance of this card until my opponent played a Bloodghast and I had Sparky in my hand. Bloodghast is a real problem for this deck. It's only bad matchup, after all, is Vampires. If it weren't for the hasty 2/1, Vampires wouldn't win a game against Valakut. Sparkmage is also really good against random Steppe Lynxes and shooting down 3/3s with the help of Punishing Fire.
3 Burst Lightning, 3 Punishing Fire, 2 Searing Blaze
These numbers are still being moved around, but the burn spells in the deck are very similar. The only problem is they all excel in different situations. When the metagame shifts, so does the burn package. Right now I think these are the correct numbers.
Expedition Map is a very weak card. It is slow and doesn't usually do much for the deck. Because Valakut Ramp cannot afford to run many lands that make green mana, however, Expedition map not only fixes Forests, but can search up Valakuts as well. It might not be the best way to get them, but it is the best we have found so far.
Have you read this card? It is the best spell I have cast in a long time. The first time I saw this card I thought of it as a Fireball. It certainly is not like its old ancestor burn spell. This card means business and can do unfair things.
The rest of the cards are pretty self-explanatory. Let's get into the matchups:
VAMPIRES
Yes, this deck is still the most popular deck in the format. I still don't understand how they could print a card like Gatekeeper of Malakir (I really really really hate this card!). You have your best shot in the first game. You barely board against them, but they don't get to Mind Sludge you. The problem cards in game one are Bloodghast and Mire's Toll. Any powerful draw will easily destroy them. A few Valakut triggers backed up by a few burn spells easily get the job done.
Sideboarding
-2 Burst Lighting
+ 2 Cunning Sparkmage
Some Vampire players don't learn their lesson and take out most of their cheap removal since you don't have many early creatures. They keep in 4 Gatekeepers and 2-3 Urge to Feed. If they draw one or two removal spells for your 1-2 creatures the games can be tough. If not, a single Sparkmage can take over the game. Don't get too invested in trying to combo against them and just try to overload the board with man-lands and Rampaging Baloths. They will attack the hand a bit more, so getting caught in the middle of setting up a Valakut can make things very awkward.
UW CONTROL
The secret to this matchup is to understand that they will have a tough time killing you. Just like in Standard when I am playing Naya against it, I just try to deal damage when I can without overextending. If there is a spell you don't want to get countered, just don't cast it. It is as simple as that. They will tap out eventually and you can capitalize on this with a game-breaking spell. Some lists have Tectonic Edges and those are really good against you. Make sure to use your Maps to full value by only grabbing Ravines and Valakuts.
Sideboard
-4 Khalni Heart Expedition
-4 Harrow
- 2 Searing Blaze
- 3 Burst Lightning
- 1 Comet Storm
- 1 Punishing Fire
+ Sideboard
That's right! I board in my entire sideboard in this matchup. Every card comes in and changes your game plan in this matchup. Oracle only gets better when you have 29 lands. It is also surprising how many control players get caught off guard by a Scute Mob. I have gotten a concession already with turn 1 Scute Mob, turn 2 Explore. They took out all of their removal and had no outs.
They will be more prepared to deal with a late game, bringing in Spreading Seas and a few more counterspells. That is the big reason to have a transformational sideboard. With them having more counterspells like Spell Pierce, your Harrows are worse. Once you take Harrow out of the equation both Expeditions get much worse. This is why all of the creatures in the sideboard get boarded in.
I know Hellkite Charger does not seem like a great creature for this matchup, but if all of their removal is sorcery speed, you have one hasty source of damage. This matchup is a joke after sideboard and until the UW players have a good answer to this strategy it will continue to be.
RG VALAKUT
There is not much to say in the mirror. It comes down to seeing who can go off bigger and better then the opponent. You must deal with the opponent's Oracle, but after that it's simply whose draw is better.
Sideboard
-2 Searing Blaze
-3 Punishing Fire
-3 Burst Lightning
-2 Cunning Sparkmage
-2 Expedition Map
-1 Comet Storm
+ Everything but Sparkmages
Yes, the mirror is a 13-card sideboard. Why is there so many cards boarded in the non-Vampire matchups? Because you will play Vampires three times before anything else. And the sideboard against UW is just as powerful against the mirror. Again you take the responsibility of winning the game off of Valakut's shoulders and let your six-drops get to work.
This is the matchup that Hellkite Charger truly shines. Setting up a lethal Charger can easily win games, and even though Comet Storm is able to take it down, your opponent has to dedicate his entire turn to dealing with the dragon. Just don't get yourself caught with your hand in the cookie jar when he takes the dragon out after you invested 7 mana into a second combat phase.
Make sure you understand what your opponent can and cannot do during his turn. If you are positive he cannot have a game winning turn then don't waste your time casting a Ruinblaster if you have more important things to accomplish.
WHITE WEENIE
There are two different styles of white weenie floating around right now, Kor and Allies. Both are very powerful and have similar strategies. The most devastating card out of each of them is Brave the Elements. They both are aggressive. One of the most important things to do in this match is try to keep your life total as high as possible – don't sacrifice points when you don't need to. They both lose a lot of steam after five or so turns and you will win the late game.
Sideboard
-2 Expedition Map
+2 Cunning Sparkmage
If both these decks did not have Brave the Elements, I would think about playing something as powerful as Chain Reaction. Because they do, however, it is important to deal with each creature as it presents itself. Sparkmage is very powerful in these matchups and will get you great value if it is in your opening hand. Just keep a high life total and play your ramp spells when you get time.
People aren't playing many other decks right now. These are the big four right now and until someone breaks a new archetype, I don't think much will change.
I'll have a Daily event video up soon using Valakut. Until next week, good luck!
Brad Nelson
FFfreaK on MTGO
Mastersshake@yahoo.com
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About This Author
Brad Nelson
Brad got his start on Magic Online, but recently has been dominating live events with equal ease. He won Grand Prix DC 2010, and followed that up a week later with a Top 8 finish at Pro Tour San Juan. He also made Top 8 at US Nationals 2009 and&hellip
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JulianB says: March 11, 2010 @ 9:44 pm
No namedrop ;_;
Jim Varney says: March 11, 2010 @ 9:56 pm
Nice, I’ll definitely give it a chance. I’m fairly certain that aside from the U/G combo in extended, I’ve never won a constructed match against a Valakut deck, regardless of how good the matchup is for me.
dawnyoshi says: March 11, 2010 @ 10:27 pm
Been watching you and MJ tear through a few dailies. The deck seems sick, and I look forward to grinding out some QPs with this and/or vampires for the month, assuming I can find some more time in the next week to play.
Chris Lachmann says: March 11, 2010 @ 10:58 pm
Brad is so sexy I wish I was more like him he writes the best articles in the world.
Vand says: March 11, 2010 @ 10:59 pm
I’ve been playing valakut and have liked the matchups in the zen block queues, your addition of rampagin baloths is ingenius, i never even thought of the card.Comet storm hasnt been going the distance at all for me so i completely cut it from even the sideboard, itd be interesting to see it play out in your videos.
No geopede?He’s been MVP for me more often then not!
Brady says: March 11, 2010 @ 11:42 pm
Baloths has been in every Valakut deck I’ve played against since Zen came out.
Grunch says: March 11, 2010 @ 11:48 pm
I’m curious why Brad is so certain U/W control is terrible. I personally have been on a tear with the deck.
I also have yet to lose to Valakut playing U/W. Though, in fairness, I maindeck both Tectonic Edge and Spreading Seas.
Brad Nelson says: March 11, 2010 @ 11:50 pm
That sounds like a challenge Grunch
conrad says: March 12, 2010 @ 12:20 am
no Lavaball Traps? or Chain Reactions? Those might help in the mirror and vamps/white weenie matchups, respectively? Also it seems criminal to include a Cunning Sparkmage in a decklist and not have Basilisk Collar?!
rainsville says: March 12, 2010 @ 1:15 am
[quote]You must deal with the opponent's Oracle, but after that it's simply whose draw is better.[/quote]
And you expect to do that with just 3 Comet Storm post board as removal? (Valakut doesn’t count, as it is either too late for the Oracle or it is easily destroyed)
GOlai says: March 12, 2010 @ 2:05 am
Have you played against the block version of Eldrazi Green? I keep thinking a couple of Chain Reactions would be nice to have in the board, but I’m reluctant to mess with a list that looks so well-tuned.
JJ says: March 12, 2010 @ 3:09 am
What do you think of Avenger of Zendikar? Seems way better than Baloths against creature decks.
Killer Bee says: March 12, 2010 @ 3:24 am
Oooooooo
Niksodus says: March 12, 2010 @ 4:12 am
I see you had 0 points in the last 2 Daily events.
Did the metagame change or were there some bad draws?
j_iramain says: March 12, 2010 @ 7:03 am
Any particular reason why there arent any lava ball traps in the md?
TugaChampion says: March 12, 2010 @ 8:19 am
do sparkmage and comet storm really make the deck good? It was pretty bad before wwk.
rk says: March 12, 2010 @ 8:42 am
this deck is complete jank. Its like the competitive RG valakut with a bunch of casual cards throw in for fun.
rk says: March 12, 2010 @ 8:44 am
LOL, ah crud. Its BLOCK constructed. MY BAD!!!
Blah says: March 12, 2010 @ 9:07 am
It seems that the Ffreak just doesn’t like old school Control decks. I’m not good enough to say I’d play it and beat him….but I’d love to see Chapin or Nassif playing the UW and Nelson playing w/e and see who wins
armlx says: March 12, 2010 @ 10:44 am
1. MJ is a complete master, so there’s min 50/50 chance this deck is actually unbeatable.
2. Your UW list probably has trouble finishing because you are viewing the deck wrong. It’s not supposed to be like the standard builds, its closer to a Critical Mass deck from back in the day. You have insane threats in the late mid-game and all you have to do is stay stable until they hit. There aren’t nearly enough counters for the deck to be draw-go.
Chris says: March 12, 2010 @ 1:03 pm
I’m with Grunch on this one. I have a UW control and my main testing buddy has numerous decks, including a RG Valakut. While I admit that beating a land damage based deck can be tough at times for UW, the games are nowhere near lopsided. It can go either way. I don’t drop Iona til all the valakuts are Islands or dead, and once that happens it’s over.
As for white weenie. Don’t take damage unless you have to? This is one of the matchups where I would say the exact opposite. Why save all your life at the cost of dudes or spells? Go all the way down to 1 against them. They have no burn or haste to get that last point from you as long as you don’t let a creature stick around for more than a turn.
chaos_noise says: March 12, 2010 @ 1:49 pm
Thoughts on Seer’s Sundial? I’ve played against a Valakut ramp deck that rocked those and it made for some explosive combo action with Oracles and Explores. Definately gave the deck more of a late game.
lackhand says: March 12, 2010 @ 3:06 pm
I know UW control was good before Worldwake, but haven’t tried it after. Mainly because I won’t be paying through the nose for Jace anytime soon.
But I actually quit playing the deck long ago because the UW mirror is just miserable. Most of the games just go to decking, even if you’re not trying to mill! Longest and most boring matches ever. Has Worldwake changed that any?
Brian Ruble says: March 12, 2010 @ 3:07 pm
Why no Jund breakdown for the deck? Is it that bad against it?
jk…this deck rocks…is jund losing it’s edge? Because I still see a bunch of people playing it.
Runco says: March 12, 2010 @ 4:49 pm
@lackhand
In the preWW ZEN block the UW mirror’s didn’t go that long. Maybe the first match, but the second and third were pretty fast because it was all about the Ascensions and those usually went live pretty fast.
Kevin! says: March 12, 2010 @ 5:28 pm
@Brian Ruble: The Valakut deck is built for Block Constructed. Only cards from Zendikar and Worldwake are legal — it just so happens that Vampires, UW control and WW happen to be decks in both Standard and no-Shards no-M10 formats.
Blazerunner says: March 12, 2010 @ 6:28 pm
@ Chris
I think the type of reach he means is due to Brave the Elements… You don’t chump this turn thinking you still have one more turn to chump, and they don’t have haste or burn, etc, then they make the entire team unblockable next turn… It’s like what PV said about chump blocking
Sure, if you can keep them with no creatures, you will win anyway. But I think what he means is, if you have two choices, and one involves taking more damage (like, remove first or ramp first? Chump with Oracle or wait one more turn to see if you get a land on top?) then the correct one is more often than not the one that saves more life
(I never played the deck, and don’t know if that is really the correct play, just pointing what it seems he meant)
Sly says: March 12, 2010 @ 6:46 pm
Love the deck idea … but i find it hard to beat Vampires and i kill it easy with my white Weenies even UW control can even somethimes beats it … just my testing
Trackback MTGBattlefield says: March 12, 2010 @ 9:02 pm
FFfreaky Friday – Triggering Valakut for Fun and Profit…
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Dekz says: March 13, 2010 @ 12:54 am
Brad, I’d love to see you post a Standard legal Valakut Ramp list. It’s my deck of choice right now and I’d be really interested to see your take on it.
RosbacherMan says: March 13, 2010 @ 2:44 am
Nice deck i gave it a try at a daily event. I made a nice 4-0 finish.
Jim Varney says: March 13, 2010 @ 5:18 pm
I’ve been playing it and I’ve found it to be terrible. It gets horribly clunky draws, and it mulligans really poorly. It also doesn’t have enough green sources. It’s also awful against the U/W allies deck that I play every other round. Their guys just build up too quickly for your burn. I’m just really unimpressed by the deck in general.
Jeremy says: March 13, 2010 @ 6:25 pm
Wow! got on channel fireball in time to read this and i have to disagree with some points you’ve made…i’ve been slinging uw control with 4 jaces( < omg that’s amazing), and i’ve been taking notes on all the matches i’ve played in 2 man and 8 man que’s, and 1 daily event and here are the decks i’ve played against and the results:
GUW control in 2 man que: (2-1)
Valakut ramp in 2 man que: 2-0
vampires: in 2 man que 2-0
boros: in 2 man que 1-2 < this is tough matchup for u/w control
valakut ramp: 2-0 8 in man que
valakut ramp: 2-1 in 8 man que
vampires: 2-0 in 8 man que
valakut ramp: 2-0 in 8 man que
boros: 0-2 in 8 man que < yet again, this is rough!
my u/w list has been altered quite a bit from normal lists but i’ve gained insane profits from it as you can see…
also, i dont board against valakut by taking out all my removal…i found out the secret creature strategy of valakut, i did this becuz i made my deck and forgot to make a sideboard for it and actually benefited my very first match against valakut
and as you can see, i found boros to be very rough for my list so i made some sideboard modifications to help the matchup alot…
But i think you single handedly made this deck INSANELY popular…becuz i’ve played against this deck about 10x more than all the other decks!
lackhand says: March 14, 2010 @ 12:40 am
@runco – Yeah, the ascensions can speed things up game 2 and 3. Unless you’re both also boarding Kor Sanctifiers. Oh, and Into the Roil still kills it. In my experience, the ascension occasionally leads to fast blowouts, but not usually as there are still just too many ways to deal with it.
Andy says: March 14, 2010 @ 8:57 am
Grunch is preboarded against Valakut so he can go suck a duck.
Grivan says: March 15, 2010 @ 8:47 am
I have tested Valakut the last couple of days and I really don’t see how UW can possibly be a favorable matchup. Your sideboard plan takes out all of your ramp, so I don’t see how you plan to outrace a UW deck that will still have its ramp and draw spells. Once they get to 9 mana you just lose depending on what finisher they have included. If you land a creature at that point they will either have an answer to it in the form of a counter or something else in hand or it will find a kicked rite of replication. Also if you aren’t careful they will win the race to Iona locking you out of green leaving a 9 mana comet storm as your only out. The only way valakut wins here is to land multiple ruinblasters in the early turns of the game. Maybe I was just playing wrong in testing (which is a high likelihood) but I don’t think I ever took a match against UW.
luca says: March 15, 2010 @ 4:20 pm
@jeremy: you realise that winning a 2 man zen block queue wins you 1 ticket……INSANE PROFITS
Stormheart15 says: March 15, 2010 @ 7:17 pm
I played a slightly tinkered list to 4-0 in todays daily queue, and i have to agree that it is very good.
U/W is practically a bye right now. I really don’t know why they are not using the tools available to gun for this deck.(I am not playing u/w or advocating it, but very few u/w players are boarding correctly against valakut)
The most difficult matchups for this deck are probably allies if you dont start off fast, and vampires.
I like the avenger, but post-board i think baloth is better because it can at times be difficult to make it beyond 7 against dedicated hate.
Also there is an anti-valakut deck making the rounds, its pretty annoying, and solid.
Pingback FFfreaky Friday - Blocking Successfully | ChannelFireball.com says: April 1, 2010 @ 8:58 pm
[...] Valakut has not changed at all since I last wrote about it. There have been a few updates of Green/Red variants, but if you are looking for Valakut strategy just go here. [...]