RG Valakut Combo, a Budget Competitive Standard Deck
November 25, 2009
Update 1/17/10: I wrote a guide on how to play the deck. The guide includes an improved decklist. Check it out.
I’ve been having a lot of fun playing the RG Valakut Combo deck. I’m looking to start playing Standard Constructed on Magic Online (MTGO) but I don’t want to spend a lot of money in the beginning. I checked out my budget options and it looks like RG Valakut has posted good finishes on MTGO. The BU Crypt of Agadeem deck aka Standard Dredge has also done well, but I think RG Valakut is better for the MTGO metagame. The most popular deck by far in MTGO is Jund and RG Valakut seems to have a better matchup against it.
Here’s my current list.
Bloodchief Ascension Standard Deck List (7th Place out of 56 Players)
November 25, 2009
Bloodchief Ascension was a Zendikar card that many players including pros thought would be a Standard staple. It’s cheap at one mana and when you turn it on, it’s very hard to lose. However, the card has not shown up in the popular competitive Standard decks.
That might change though because of the following Mono Black deck list that got 7th place out of a 56 player tournament yesterday on Magic Online (MTGO). The tournament was six rounds of swiss and the deck posted a 5-1 record before losing in the quarterfinals.
How Good is Naya Lightsaber?
November 23, 2009
By now, if you follow competitive Magic The Gathering, you’ve heard about results from Worlds 2009. Andre Coimbra took the Individual World Champion title with a Naya deck built by Mike Flores. Mike called the deck “Naya Lightsaber” and actually posted the list on his blog about two weeks ago.
Spreading Seas Cascade Deck From a Worlds 2009 Standard PTQ
November 22, 2009
Spreading Seas and Convincing Mirage were probably not cards you thought would be in a competitive Standard deck. But most of the decks in Standard don’t play blue and there are many multicolor decks, so these two blue enchantments often act as pseudo Stone Rains for two mana.
Consider how much one Goblin Ruinblaster can wreck a Jund deck and you can see that land destruction is a viable strategy.
In this video, Gerry Thompson talks about his new deck dubbed “Spread ‘Em” that combines the blue enchantments with cascade spells. Cascade works well since Gerry setup the deck to cascade into an enchantment every single time.
With 12 cascade spells and the eight enchantments, one third of his deck messes with his opponent’s lands.
Running Diary of the Top 8 Webcast for Worlds 2009
November 22, 2009
2:50am CST — Looks like they’re a little late. The webcast was supposed to start at 2:45am CST but there’s no link yet on the webcast page.
2:56 — Ah, just got a tweet. It starts in 6 minutes. No problem. That gives me time to make some predictions.
David Reitbauer (Jund) vs Florian Pils (Jund) – The dreaded Jund mirror. Both decks have similar decks including a full set of Ruinblasters in the sideboard. I’ll pick David since he has Stag in the board which seems better than Florian’s Mind Rots.
Worlds 2009 Standard Deck List: Jacerator, Undefeated Turbo Fog Deck
November 21, 2009
Turbo Fog is usually not considered a tier one deck but Joel Calafell built a blue/white list that went undefeated (6-0) in the standard portion of Worlds. His deck features the usual suspects with a full set of Howling Mines, Jace Belerens, and Font of Mythos along with eight fogs. But he also has some interesting inclusions like Time Warp, Kabira Crossroads, Flashfreeze, and Sunspring Expedition. In this video, he talks with Brian David-Marshall about the deck.
Worlds 2009 Standard Deck List: Standard Dredge by Michael Jacob
November 21, 2009
About two weeks ago, 2006 Player of the Year Shouta Yasooka surprised the MTG Standard community with a Dredge Deck that went 4-0 in an MTGO Standard Daily. You can check out his list at this link. It’s the second deck on the page.
His deck featured Hedron Crabs and Traumatizes to mill yourself. And then, you usually won with one or two big turns by unearthing a bunch of creatures. Crypt of Agadeem was very important in the deck because it allowed you to generate a lot of mana.
Michael Jacob took the list, made some modifications to make the combo faster, and then went 4-2 with the deck in the Standard portion of Worlds. In this video, he talks about his deck and what makes it work.
Worlds 2009 Standard Deck List: Boros Bushwhacker by Brian Kibler
November 20, 2009
Starcitygames just published a premium article by Brian Kibler about his Standard deck. He went 4-2 in the Standard portion of Worlds 2009 with an unconventional deck list of the Boros Bushwhacker archetype. His list featured 0 Kor Skyfisher, 0 Teetering Peaks, 1 Akrasan Squire, 3 Earthquake, and 3 Terramorphic Expanse.
Worlds 2009 Standard Deck List: Magical Christmasland by Conley Woods
November 20, 2009
Conley Woods is an MTG pro that’s known for his competitive rogue decks. In this deck tech video, he talks about his latest brew, a Jund mana ramp land destruction deck that features a full set of Lotus Cobras and Violent Ultimatums. He went 5-1 in the Standard portion of Worlds 2009 with the list.
7 Reasons Why Nissa Monument is a Tough Matchup for Jund
November 11, 2009
If you’ve been following Standard, you’ve probably heard of the latest big T2 tournament to hit the scene, the Nashville 5K by Starcitygames from last weekend. This tournament had 340 players and it featured three green decks in the top eight that had Nissa Revane and Eldrazi Monument (results here).
Here’s the Nissa Monument deck list.
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