Valakut Side Board Opinions
Deck Help forum
Posted on May 23, 2011, 1:13 p.m. by Fatsuno
I'm currently piloting a Valakut list at my local FNMs and such. I know, I know, Bleh to Valakut and all that jazz. It's worked great for me and I'm slowly starting to mold it into a great list that does well against my store's metagame.
The problem I'm running into mostly involves my sideboard. It's a pretty good board, just needs a bit of tweaking atm.
2 Ricochet Trap 3 card:Nature's Claim3 Combust 2 Pyroclasm 2 Obstinate Baloth 2 Acidic Slime 1 Slagstorm
Ricochet Trap works wonders against counter magic, splintertwin, disruption, you name it and Ricochet Trap has probably saved me from it. Even though it's a great card, seeing more than 2 of them is a waste so I limited it, and am dead set on keeping it.
Combust is similar. It takes care of equipped creatures, exarchs, pro-green stuff and basically says you lose target threat. I remember using against a Baneslayer Angel that my opponent Birthing Pod 'd in. He was surprised that I ruined his ladder of creatures, and I went on to stomp him.
card:Nature's Claim almost made it mainboard in my deck simply because of how many artifacts and enchantments were in my deck. I remember bringing it in against a G/W Birthing Pod deck simply because of the Birthing Pod but ended up using it on the 2 Leyline of Sanctity 's that he started the game with. I put 3 in the Sideboard in favor of more ramp and a consistent turn-4 titan.
The rest of the sideboard is what I'm considering changing. Obstinate Baloth has done good work, but getting him out early doesn't help much and the 4 life he gains me doesn't end up helping too much either. I am thinking about opting toward Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs mainly because he's such a blowout against swarm decks like Tempered Steel and the mass tokens from the Deceiver Exarch . The only thing stopping me from slamming him into the board is: 1. Splintertwin didn't do amazingly at the recent Kentucky SCG Open, and 2. He's coming out on turn 4 which in a fast hand for twin, is usually too late.
A couple more changes I've been toying with are replacing the Pyroclasm s for Slagstorm mainly because Slagstorm only costs 1 more mana, and hits equipped Squadron Hawk , Vampire Nighthawk s and other creatures that are 1 toughness too high for Pyroclasm to hit.
Another card I wanted to include but not sure what to swap out is Leyline of Punishment . Seeing the recent success of Soul Sisters at Kentucky, and the blow-out equipments like Sword of War and Peace and Batterskull it seems like a great card for this point in the format. Especially if I can bring the card out before the game begins, It'll basically shut down a lot of the recovery Caw-blade, and Soul-sisters has after my Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle starts rolling.
Some of the cards I didn't mention but got consideration are Acidic Slime , a couple khalni-gardens mainboard.
Just looking for a bit of discussion on what kind of stuff I should consider when looking at my Sideboard.
TLDR:
TheMonoOne says... #2
Personal, I love Slagstorm , I think it's one of the best wraiths in Standard. That said I think you should switch the number of Pyroclasm s for Slagstorm . This way you still have have Pyroclasm for the faster wipe in a few other arrgo match-ups.
Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs sounds like an incredible card pick up. I like it, but it doesn't have the same range that Obstinate Baloth has.
No real opinion on the last one. Sorry.
Hope this helps you in your decision.
May 23, 2011 2:48 p.m.