RG Valakut Combo: Deck Building and Playing Guide
January 17, 2010
With RG Valakut getting 3rd place in a recent high profile tournament with over 300 players, there has been an increased interest in the deck. More players looking to play it.
I thought I’d share what I’ve learned from playing the deck over the last couple weeks.
On MWS, I’ve gone 16-12 in matches and 44-33 in games. This is not a great record but in most of the games, I was playing an inferior version with Lavaball Traps. Once I cut the Traps, I’ve been doing a lot better. Also, I brought it to the last two FNMs and I’ve gone 9-1 in matches.
I don’t think the deck is tier one because the mana base is a little inconsistent. Plus, the combo is vulnerable to cards like Spreading Seas and Goblin Ruinblaster.
I could be wrong with my evaluation. The player who got 3rd place, Justin Corbett, said he is favored in most matchups and only gave two unfavorable ones, TurboFog and Mono Red. In his tournament report, he said its the best deck in Standard and he’s planning on playing it at Pro Tour San Diego. He made top eight in Texas States with it too.
Whether it’s tier one or not, its the most powerful budget deck in Standard. I bought most of the deck for $40.
Here’s the list I recommend. It’s very close to Justin’s list. Feel free to skip to the playing section if you already have a list you like.
| RG Valakut Combo | |||||||||||
Spells (23) Creatures (12) Lands (25) | Sideboard (15) |
| |||||||||
Main Deck Analysis
4 Expedition Map
I saw one build on Starcitygames.com with just 3 Maps. This seems pretty bad since you need Valakut to win the game and the more Valakuts on the battlefield, the better. Map is slow but it’s the only land tutor in Standard. Plus, it can fetch a Forest if you need a green mana source.
4 Lightning Bolt
Bolt is one of the premier removal spells in Standard. It helps in the tough game one aggro matchups. Versus control, it speeds up your kill and it takes out planeswalkers.
4 Harrow
This is your best spell once you have an active Valakut. Plus, many decks have problems with a turn four Siege-Gang.
4 Khalni Heart Expedition
It does the same thing as Harrow without having to sac a land. However, it’s a little weaker since it takes some time to set up and can be destroyed by cards like Maelstrom Pulse and Esper Charm. Vampire Hexmage can slow it down too.
4 Rampant Growth
The worst mana ramp spell in the deck. Still, I think it deserves a full playset. It lets you ramp up into a turn three Bloodbraid or a kicked Ruinblaster. It speeds up your combo. It puts a counter on Khalni Heart Expedition. And once Valakut is active, you can take out Baneslayer with it and a Mountain land drop.
3 Burst Lightning
These play the same role as the Lightning Bolts. You want the extra cheap removal since one of the best plays against you is a turn one Goblin Guide or Steppe Lynx.
4 Goblin Ruinblaster
As long as Jund stay popular, these guys should have a spot. You’ll have targets versus many decks. The land destruction slows down your opponent so you have time to set up your combo. And you get a creature for attacking or blocking. Mono Black Vampires doesn’t have any targets but that’s great matchup even with the Ruinblasters main.
4 Bloodbraid Elf
This card does everything. It beats down versus control. It trades versus aggro and midrange. It gives you card advantage with most of your cascades being pretty good. The worst cascade is Map and it can still help. And cascading into Harrow with an active Valakut is insane. It’s better than Jund cascading into Blightning.
4 Siege-Gang Commander
Siege-Gang lets you spend your excess mana that you get from mana ramp spells. He provides chump blockers to slow down aggro and he’s a must-kill threat versus control and midrange. Don’t forget that Ruinblaster is a goblin.
0 Oracle of Mul Daya
I used to have two Oracles over two Burst Lightning but they were too inconsistent and slow. Half the time, they don’t flip over a land, so you just paid four mana for a 2/2 and gave your opponent free info. Plus, they are really easy to kill.
0 Lavaball Trap
Too slow, expensive, and inconsistent. Not good against hyper aggro decks like Boros Bushwhacker and RDW because even if you cast it for five mana, you could be dead by then. Many decks don’t play enough fetch lands. And once they know you’re playing Trap, they will play around it by fetching on your turn. Finally, sometimes you have kill your own creatures, which sucks.
0 Bogardan Hellkite
Eight mana is way too slow with all the fast decks running around. Plus, the midrange decks have Baneslayer or Blightning and the control decks have Flashfreeze.
3 Forest
Some decks only have two Forests, which is probably fine. I like having the third one to have a better chance of playing a turn two Rampant Growth or Khalni Heart Expedition.
11 Mountain and 3 Panorama
Justin had 12 Mountains and 2 Panoramas but I’d rather have the extra Panorama. The Panoramas are slow but they are good with Khalni Heart Expedition. They fix mana and let you play Mountains at instant speed. 11 Mountains is the lowest you can go since it’s very possible to run out of them.
4 Terramorphic Expanse
So much better than Rootbound Crag because they trigger Khalni Heart and Grazing Gladeheart twice. Plus, they can fetch Mountains.
4 Valakut, The Molten Pinnacle
Duh.
Sideboard Analysis
2 Unstable Footing
Good against TurboFog, a tough matchup.
2 Earthquake
Solid against Bushwhacker and Elves. You probably don’t want a full set because it damages you.
2 Pyroclasm
For Bushwhacker.
2 Magma Spray
Instant speed removal for RDW (especially Hellspark Elemental) and Bloodghast. Also comes in versus Bushwhacker.
4 Grazing Gladehart
Lifegain for RDW.
3 Chandra Nalaar
This card is great against midrange and control. She takes out Baneslayers and gives you another win condition if they Spreading Seas or Ruinblaster your Valakut.
Other Considerations
I think Relic of Progenitus is good if you expect Dredge.
Caldera Hellion is great against Elves.
I wouldn’t play Acidic Slime or Mold Shambler. It dilutes your combo too much if you need double green mana.
Justin played Bountiful Harvest for RDW but it seems too slow and underpowered.
Trace of Abundance can protect Valakut but I think it’s just better to have Chandra as an alternate win condition.
Sideboard Plans
Jund
No changes.
Naya
+3 Chandra
-3 Bloodbraid
Knightfall
+3 Chandra
+1 Magma Spray
-4 Ruinblaster
All American UWR Control
+3 Chandra
-3 Burst Lightning
Red Deck Wins
+4 Grazing Gladeheart
+2 Magma Spray
-4 Ruinblaster
-2 Bloodbraid
Vampires
+2 Magma Spray
+3 Chandra
-4 Ruinblaster
-1 Bloodbraid
Grixis Control
+3 Chandra
-3 Burst Lightning
Boros Bushwhacker
+2 Earthquake
+2 Pyroclasm
+2 Magma Spray
+2 Grazing Gladeheart
-4 Ruinblaster
-4 Bloodbraid
Elves (Nissa Monument)
+2 Earthquake
+2 Pyroclasm
+2 Magma Spray
+2 Chandra
-4 Ruinblaster
-4 Bloodbraid
TurboFog
+2 Unstable Footing
-2 Burst Lightning
Mirror
+3 Chandra
-3 Burst Lightning
Playing Tips
Be Flexible
You have to be flexible with this deck. Some games you win by just ignoring their creatures and sending burn and Mountains to the dome. Other games are long and drawn out where you use Valakut to kill their creatures and then late game you win with Siege-Gangs and Bloodbraids.
Let the game develop and you’ll see what you need to win. Keep good track of the game state especially life totals.
Life totals are important because with a few lucky topdecks you can deal a lot of damage. For example, versus RB Vampires, my opponent was at 17 with couple of creatures on the board. I thought I had to kill his creatures to stay alive since I couldn’t deal 17. But my next two topdecks were Expedition Map and Harrow. My plans changed really quickly. I fetched the third Valakut and killed him with an 18 point Harrow 
Play the Waiting Game With Expedition Map
Don’t use Expedition Map unless you know exactly what you need. There are many times when I just let it sit on the battlefield until I have a need for it.
Early in the game, you might be tempted to maximize your mana and use Map. Resist that urge. What good is mana maximization if you tutor up the wrong card?
If you already have one Valakut in play, it may be correct to fetch Terramorphic Expanse or a Panorama for the Khalni Heart you just topdecked. Terramorphic Expanse and Panoramas are also great if you need instant speed removal.
Also, in many cases, you can’t afford to get greedy and fetch the second Valakut. If a creature is about to kill you, you have to fetch a Mountain instead.
There is an exception to the rule though. If you’re facing a fast draw from an aggro deck, you may have to use Map right away to spend your mana efficiently to stay alive.
Also, if your opponent has cards like Pulse and Oblivion Ring, you won’t have the luxury of using Map whenever you want.
Here’s an embarassing example from an FNM game of how not to play Map.
In the image below, I just spent a couple of turns killing his Vampires and we were in topdeck mode. I drew Map. What’s the play?
I got greedy. I played Map and fetched the third Valakut.
Of course my next four draws were Forest, Khalni Heart, Ruinblaster, and Bolt. He drew creatures and I died to a bunch of flying Vampires.
What I should’ve done is play Map and then wait to see my next draws. Then, I could’ve killed him in two turns:
Turn 1: Draw Forest and hold it in case I draw Khalni Heart.
Turn 2: Draw Khalni Heart. Play it. Play Forest (one counter). Fetch Terramorphic and crack it for a Mountain (three counters and 6 damage). Sac Khalni Heart ftw (12 damage).
The Four Mountains Trick
If you have four Mountains in play and an active Valakut, you can sac Khalni Heart or cast Harrow and fetch two Mountains to deal six damage. Both Mountains “see other” so they both trigger Valakut. Here’s a link to a forum thread about the ruling.
This interaction comes up a lot so keep track of your lands.
For example, in the image below, you’re in the main phase and you haven’t played a land. What’s the right play?
You should sac Khalni Heart to kill two beasts. Then, play the Mountain to kill the other beast. If you play the Mountain first, it won’t deal any damage.
Harrow is tricky to play because of the “sac a land” drawback. Once you have 4 Mountains, Valakut, and Forest, you can play Harrow to deal 6 damage. However, you have to sac the Forest. This can be big problem if you don’t have another green mana source in hand since the deck has a lot of green spells.
Unless you have another green source in hand, don’t sac the Forest. Wait one more turn to play another land and then sac that land instead.
When Should You Play Harrow and Sac Khalni Heart Expedition?
The timing of Harrow and Khalni Heart is probably the trickiest part to playing the deck. Both spells can fetch two Mountains so in one sense, you want to save them until Valakut is online. However, ramping up your mana early in the game can be a good thing.
Let’s talk about Harrow first. Early in the game, play Rampant Growth before Harrow. Both spells give you one extra land but Harrow can deal more damage and it’s an instant.
The exception to this rule is if you need Harrow to turn on Khalni Heart. But this doesn’t come up very often. Rampant Growth is usually enough to turn on Khalni Heart quickly since you have fetch lands.
Here are reasons to play Harrow before Valakut is online.
- You’re mana screwed. For example, it’s turn three and you need to topdeck a land on turn four to play Bloodbraid or a kicked Ruinblaster.
- You need a turn four Siege-Gang. For example, the 1/1 goblins are great chump blockers versus Boros Bushwhacker.
- You need to get Valakut active quickly. For example, if you get the heavy land draw, you need to turn those lands into Bolts as soon as possible.
Other than those reasons, you should not play Harrow until Valakut is online.
Playing Khalni Heart is similar. Don’t sac the enchantment if Valakut is not online unless you have one of the above reasons. Most of the time I let an active Khalni Heart sit there like a ticking timebomb.
Conserve Your Mountains
You only have a finite number of Mountains, so it makes sense to conserve them. It’s not common but you can play a game where you need every Mountain in the deck to win.
Here’s a situation that comes up often. In the image below, it’s turn three at the end of your opponent’s turn and he hasn’t made a play in the game. Obviously, you should play Harrow to ramp up to Siege-Gang. But which land should you sac and which lands should you fetch?
The right play is to sac the Forest and fetch a Forest and a Mountain.
You don’t want to sac the Forest and fetch two Mountains because you have many green spells.
And you don’t want to sac the Mountain to fetch two Mountains. This play gives you the same lands on the battlefield as the correct play but you end up with one less Mountain in the deck.
The right play is also better because it pulls out a Forest from your deck. You don’t want to draw two Forests in a game since one Forest is more than enough operate with.
How to Play Khalni Heart Expedition
Khalni Heart does nothing without landfall, so cast it before playing your land for the turn. Also, cast the enchantment before playing Rampant Growth and Harrow.
The fetch lands trigger landfall twice so save them for Khalni Heart. For example, you mull to four with this hand.
Your plan should be:
Turn 1: Play Forest.
Turn 2: Play Mountain and Khalni Heart.
Turn 3: Play Terramorphic Expanse to trigger landfall twice.
Once you have enough lands on the battlefield, hold on to the extra lands in hand just in case you draw Khalni Heart.
If you have multiple Khalni Hearts on the battlefield, remember that sacing one of them triggers landfall for the other enchantments.
Land Drops and Cascading With Bloodbraid Elf
Should you play a land before casting Bloodbraid Elf? It may seem like the land drop doesn’t matter. But it matters because of Khalni Heart and Ruinblaster.
If you cascade into Khalni Heart, you want to make the land drop after cascading. But if you only have four mana on the battlefield, you might want to play a land before cascading so that you can pay for the kicker of Ruinblaster.
For example, in the image below, it’s your main phase and you haven’t played a land for the turn. What should you do?
It all depends.
If your opponent doesn’t have any Ruinblaster targets, the best play is to cast Bloodbraid Elf and keep your land in hand.
But if he has non-basic lands on the battlefield, then you should play the odds. How many Ruinblasters and Khalni Hearts do you have left in the deck? If you have more Ruinblasters, then make the land drop before casting Bloodbraid.
If you have the same amount of Ruinblasters and Khalni Hearts left in the deck, you should go with the best outcome. Based on the game state, is it better to destroy a non-basic land or have a Khalni Heart with two counters?
Over to You
If you have any questions, leave a comment and I’ll try to answer it as best as I can. Also, feel free to share your own experience with the deck.
29 Responses to “RG Valakut Combo: Deck Building and Playing Guide”
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seems like your worst cascade would be into an earthquake…
Great Article! I fear that this deck is just a little too inconsistent to be Teir 1, as many of my matches on MTGO have been decided strictly by luck. I either get great cascades and draws or terrible ones.
james, I cut Bloodbraid when I bring in Earthquake.
David C., thanks. I’ve had a similar experience with the deck. But it’s still fun to play and when you get the right draws, the deck does broken things.
Great article! I like very much the part about how to sideboarding!!
too much bad luck I guess.
I’ve been playing the deck in a couple of FNM and it’s mana base is very unstable in spite of the large amount of fixers + the 25 lands, I’ve have to do mulligans many times with hands of all lands (lands+ rampants+harrows), or hands without green mana and no way to fix it.
Hey Dee, I just want to say that I really love and appreciate your guides and blog posts, especially when you mention what to sideboard out and in for different deck matchups! I tend to have trouble with that, and your advice helps a lot.
Thank you for the great site!
sajarov and Abram, thx for the positive feedback
hey loved the deck, ill probably build it sometime.
Just remembered a card which would be very interesting.
Oracle of Mul Daya
What do you think?
Oracle is fine against slower decks. If the metagame shifts to include more of those decks, I would play it over Burst Lightning.
In my experience, Bloodbraid Elf is better on turn four than Oracle. But Oracle is a better late game card.
Hey Dee, I have a question, when you explain your misplay when you tutored for a third valakut instead of waiting to see if you drew khalni heart. On turn two when explaining what you should have done, you say that you played a forest and then fetched a terramorphic expanse with expedition map and broke it for a mountain to lead to you winning the game. But the map puts the land into your hand, not onto the field.
Don’t take me as the nitpicky type, I just figure you want to know if there’s an error on one of your posts.
thanks for the awesome blog (still)
Nice catch, Abram. My bad.
Turn 3 should be the time when you crack Map for Terramorphic and then play it ftw.
I’ve been playing it a bit, on mws, and with some proxies I just threw together, mostly against vampires. Wow, it is FUN! It’s definitely hard for me to be flexible, I tend to want to kill all the creatures, because a straight to the face win is not what I’m used to, my friend caught me (afterwards) killing his creatures when I had enough to deal 18 damage to him ftw.
On a different note, does chain reaction seem like a good idea in this deck? It’s kind of a red wrath, which is pretty awesome. I imagine rdw will use it…
Chain Reaction is great vs decks with a lot of creatures but it seems pretty bad versus control since they don’t have many creatures and the creatures they have are big (Sphinx of Jwar Isle, Baneslayer).
Therefore, if I was to play it, I would play it in the sb. But I think Earthquake is better because it hits planeswalkers.
Allrighty, thanks for the replies and the advice!
Yesterday and today I tested the deck, but it seems that I had much trouble getting a Valakut on play. Twice it simply didn’t come, and some other time, it came way too late. How can we make the Valakut happen more often staying in standard?
Also, I lost twice against vampires because I didn’t have the lands available (present on table, but tapped because of Khalni or Rampant Growth or the fetchers). So I was wondering if the new artifact of Worldwake, Amulet of Vigor, could help a bit, if not to say a lot. But in that case, what to remove?
Yeah, the deck is kinda inconsistent because it only has 4 ways to find Valakut.
I don’t think Amulet of Vigor does enough. It’s not better than any of the other cards imo. And in my experience, I haven’t had too many problems with the lands coming into play tapped.
With Terramorphic and Valakut, you have to plan ahead so that the tapped ability doesn’t hurt you too much.
I try to sac Khalni Heart only when Valakut is active.
Can you describe the game situations where the tapped lands cost you the game?
Ok.
The situations where it cost me the game (in the “vs Vamp deck” mode), was the following:
My battlefield: 1 Valakut, 4 Mountains, 1 Forest, 1 Khalni with 2 tokens
His battlefield: 4 swamps, 1 Verdant Catacomb, 2 Bloodghast, 1 Hexmage, 1 Nocturnus (with 1st card of deck being being “target player draws 2 cards, loses 2 life”) that just came previous turn, but before his attack.
I have 10 life left. His life is something like 15.
My turn:
My hand is Jund Panorama, BBE and Chandra. No green.
Logical choice, I play Jund to sac Khalni for 2 mountains. I kill his Nocturnus, and I sac Jund (paying 1 mana) to fetch another mountain, killing his hexmage. So all in all, I have 7 mountains, of which 3 tapped, 1 valakut and 1 forest.
I also play chandra to distract his attention from me and to kill one of his Bloodghast with it. So I have left enough lands to play BBE, but all are tapped.
His turn:
He draws the drawer, sacs his verdant catacomb, brings the bloodghast, plays another nocturnus (1st card is still black), attacks with the two BG then plays another swamp and finally uses his drawer on me. Dead.
I essentially lost because I couldn’t cast both Chandra and the BBE while having all the lands.
This scenario or similar happened twice already.
Thanks for giving the example. I created a screenshot to make it easier to see.
First, it doesn’t matter if you can cast Chandra and BBE unless you cascade into Magma Spray. You will lose anyways because the Bloodghasts will gain flying.
Second, multiple Bloodghasts and Nocturnus is hard for most decks to beat especially RG Valakut. You got unlucky on this situation.
Third, you missed a play that could’ve kept you alive.
Play Jund Panorama to put 3rd counter on Khalni Heart. Play Chandra and have her kill Nocturnus. Pass turn.
At this point, the battlefield looks like this.
You can kill his creatures at instant speed during his attack step with Khalni Heart and Jund Panorama.
Indeed, it seems like I misplayed and went on too quick by sacing my Khalni and wanting to keep my Chandra at a high loyalty.
So, I can take as general advice to forget about killing too promptly, but rather show menace to slow him down until I can perform the fatal kill (like bringing another Valakut on table)?
It all depends. If you can kill him in one turn, then you do it. But if not, then you have to kill his creatures.
In your situation, you definitely had to kill his creatures, since he was going to kill you on his turn. But the main lesson to learn from the situation is that Khalni and Panoramas are usually best played at instant speed. In other words, when you have an active Valakut, sac those cards on his turn so that you negate the ability of haste creatures like Bloodghast and Ball Lightning.
There are a few times I would sac them on my turn. For example, if they’re tapped out and I suspect Vines of Vastwood or Harm’s Way.
Also, against Vampires, always ask yourself, “If I make this play, do I lose to an attack next turn if they cast Nocturnus?” In your situation, that was definitely the case since you knew he was going to draw Sign in Blood for the last 2 points of damage. Therefore, look for the play that doesn’t cost you the game if they do have Nocturnus.
Nocturnus is generally their most powerful play, so that’s why you should keep that question in mind. For example, I will often pass the turn with 5 mana up for a kicked Burst Lightning so that Nocturnus doesn’t hurt me if they cast it on their turn.
Ok.
Now, I would like to ask what is a good hand. I often start without Valakut or Exp Map. What are good hands. I must admit that I often mulligan with this deck, but then I’m always afraid to go with 5 or 6 cards without any possibility to install a Valakut. When I have the Valakut in the starting hand, it is quite rare I lose, but when I don’t have it, it’s quite rare I win…
I mull the following hands:
*one land
*slow hands (if I have nothing that costs 2 or less; one exception, versus non-blue slow or midrange decks, I keep a hand with Harrow as my cheapest spell; Harrow can be bad vs blue b/c they have counterspells)
*no green source (one exception, I have a ton of removal vs a fast deck; also, I count Map as a green source)
*5 or more lands
Also, can you give some example hands? I can tell you what I would do with those hands.
I found this tread to be way more helpful than most other treads! Thank you and keep up the good work, YOU SHOULD BE DCI JUDGES LOL =)!
I also created my own RG valakut ramp deck, it’s a little different build and I may post it some time, but I have no time now as I must go to work!
[...] asks: I’m really enjoying Valakut Combo and I think I’ll make it my main Standard [...]
I really like to play this List. The most interesting information missing in your text is a guide to mulligans – imho one of the most weaknesses when playing with the deck for the first time(s).
@Dennis
Here’s what I wrote in a previous comment about mulligans:
This is an excellent article and a very, very interesting deck. My question is this: how does the build change now that WWK is out?
Here was the 2nd Place Valakut deck from the recent GPT Brussels event, thoughts? http://www.deckcheck.net/deck.php?id=32651
I think RG Valakut loses a lot because of Tectonic Edge from Worldwake. For example, I was playing Vampires, which was a favorable matchup pre-Worldwake. But now it’s unfavorable if they play Edge.
The deck you linked to is interesting and could be the right way to go but it doesn’t really address the Edge issue. Also, it doesn’t seem very good against hyper aggro decks.
The best way to go seems to be depending more on creatures, adding Warp World, and playing a lot of aggro hate in the sideboard. The Warp World version is posting more top finishes on MTGO than the traditional version.
Here’s a list that went 3-1 in an MTGO Daily:
4 Forest
2 Jund Panorama
11 Mountain
2 Naya Panorama
4 Terramorphic Expanse
4 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
27 lands
4 Bloodbraid Elf
2 Borderland Ranger
4 Oracle of Mul Daya
4 Rampaging Baloths
4 Siege-Gang Commander
18 creatures
1 Explore
4 Harrow
4 Khalni Heart Expedition
3 Lightning Bolt
3 Warp World
15 other spells
Sideboard
2 Caldera Hellion
2 Dragon’s Claw
4 Goblin Ruinblaster
3 Grazing Gladehart
4 Magma Spray
Last week, I played with this deck at my NQ. I thought about modifying its sideboard, but I simply found nothing to replace the cards. I finished 7th and was qualified !
I lost once and drawed once again Boss Naya, but won against Jund, UW-control (chapin’s version), UWR control, and 2 vampires.
Thanks for the decklist, then
Fror, glad to hear about your success
By the way, what is NQ? And what did you qualify for?