Aggro Valakut Deck From Grand Prix Dallas/Fort Worth
April 11, 2011 | Posted by Dee
If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know about my love for Valakut decks. I think I’ve written about the archetype more than any other deck.
It’s not the only deck I play but I have played it a lot. I kept playing it because I kept winning. I did well at FNM and the deck got me my first top eight finish in a big tournament.
I’m still doing well with the deck but it’s taken a big hit with the current metagame. Caw Blade is the choice of many players and it has a pretty good matchup against Valakut.
Fortunately, it looks like we can modify the traditional Valakut list to make it stronger against Caw Blade without losing much against other matchups.
Here is an interesting take on the archetype from Grand Prix Dallas/Fort Worth by Justin Corbett.
| Aggro Valakut | |||||||||||
Creatures (18) Spells (15) Lands (27) | Sideboard (15) |
| |||||||||
You may remember Justin. He put the deck on the map with a top eight finish at a Starcitygames Standard Open. This was back when Primeval Titan didn’t exist. Then, after Titan was released, he added it to the deck and top eighted a PTQ.
With a full set of manlands and Hero of Oxid Ridge, his version is definitely different from the traditional list. But he decided to make the deck more combat oriented to fight Caw Blade. Hero of Oxid Ridge is great in world of 1/1 Hawks and 1/2 Mystics. Also, many Caw Blade lists don’t have cheap instant removal to stop Hero.
(Check out the lastest eBay auctions for Hero of Oxid Ridge.)
Lotus Cobra and Viridian Emissary are cheap ramp creatures that work well with Hero. Cobra flourishes just like Hero because of the lack of cheap removal in many decks. Viridian Emissary is great against all the aggro decks trying to beat Caw Blade. If you really need Emissary to die, you can even cast Arc Trail to kill it while also destroying an opposing creature.
Inferno Titan is great these days because it dodges Sword of Feast and Famine. Also, it can take out multiple x/1s or a Hawk equipped with a Sword. Two seems like a good number because you don’t have as much ramp as the traditional list.
Of course, you’ve still got Primeval Titan to get Valakuts and win with fiery Mountains. The deck is attacking from two different angles, which seems to slow it down slightly. But as a tradeoff, you get a more resilient build that doesn’t fold as easily to hate like Spreading Seas, Flashfreeze, and Memoricide.
(Buy Primeval Titan on eBay for a low price.)
Bestial Menace looks funky but it’s good against aggro and it combos really well with Hero. Tumble Magnet is great at stopping equipped creatures.
Lightning Bolt is great as always especially now that you are attacking a lot. Harrow is the ramp spell of choice because it works well with all your cheap spells (burn spells, Cobra, and Emissary). Also, it’s a beating when you have active Valakuts.
The land base looks solid. It’s got 13 green sources, which is my magic number for traditional Valakut lists. It’s only got 10 Mountains but you don’t need more because you’re planning on dealing a lot of damage through non-Valakut sources. For the same reason, 27 land should work out well rather than the typical 28.
I’ve found that four fetchlands is a good number to feed Cobra. You could go with more but that’s risky since you might run out of Forests to fetch. Maxing out on Raging Ravine fits the combat damage plan and it’s a great manland to fight Jace, the Mind Sculptor.
I recommend the deck because it placed five out of six players in day two of the Grand Prix. That’s a great record, considering you need to go at least 7-2 to make day two. Ironically, Justin, the deck creator, was player who missed the cut. But he said he doesn’t regret playing it and would play it again.
Source: Deck Tech – Aggro Valakut with Justin Corbett
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