Some RL testing - Thanks Charles!

A friend of mine who has been out of magic for a while, but was slinging turn 1 Juzams back in the day came over and played a few games with my terrible proxy decks.  The goal of which was trying to help me get a more realistic handle on the Valakut matchup, since i'm 0-n(matches), 0-2n(games) against that recently.
All games were post-sideboard, with the Valakut deck having 3x Acidic Slime as their anti-PA, and taking out 3x Pyroclasm (which do nothing against my deck).  I brought in my ultra-controlling anti-ramp sideboard of 3x Mindbreak Trap, 4x Flashfreeze, 1x Volitions Reigns.
Findings from my point of view:
1) I had no chance of victory without starting with at least one counterspell.
I kept some speculative Ascension, or Treasure Hunt hands, and they turned into alot of lands, or burn spells that didn't "get there" as it were.
2) Many of my game-wins involved casting two or three counterspells on turns 4-6.
The Valakut deck never got more than 4 threats attempted, and MBT eliminted alot of the explosiveness of the deck.
3) Some of the wins revolved around a "missed" summoning trap.
Getting a wall, or a Slime, is not what the deck wants to be doing.  I'd say roughly half of the traps (that resolved - 50% of all traps?) missed.  This is probably lucky on my part.
Of course, the Valakut player won a game or two where they missed on their trap, despite missing (7 non-threats to the bottom, check)
4) Several of the games would have been won by the other deck had the other deck gotten one more turn.
This is a testament to the explosiveness of the Valakut deck, and the methodical nature of the PA deck.  One Titan resolves, and it may be game over right then. (Turn 10).  That said, 2nd Staggershock to the face to charge PA, followed by Bolt + Bolt, or Bolt + Call to Mind is game over.  (4 + 4 + 6 + 6).
5) Volitions Reigns seemed pretty bad.
In all scenarios, I'd rather this had been Demolish.  I was never in a position to cast VR on a creature and not be dead anyway, or have things happen in response that effectively killed me.  VR would probably be alot better against MGE, where they cast their Eldrazi T6, and I take it on my T6, rather than the Valakut plan of casting PT on their T4, and me being dead, or casting it on T10, and me being dead to Valakuts that turn.  The in-between case rarely happens.  (The PT-ing player can often just kill the PT, or me, with the double-Valakut fetch from casting the thing)
The best thing I stole with VR was Valakut.  It might have won me that game, or it might have pulled a bunch of instant speed fetching + losing.
6) I lost several games where the Valakut player never resolved a "Threat".
In retrospect, I needed to counter the Acidic Slime that killed my PA, and just PA them out, instead of letting that resolve, taking 4-6 from AS and 15 from Valakuts.
The "just play lands out" with a Valakut or two in play was often good enough to kill the 11-counter deck.
7) Mana Leak is pretty bad if they are patient.
The 9-mana PT + Summoning Trap hand makes Mana Leak look really bad.  Mana Leak + Flashfreeze, or Mana Leak + Mana Leak can't solve both problems, so you have to have Mindbreak Trap, or you lose.  (They could not have the Trap, but they can just wait until they do, or have Valakuts, etc)
Basically, a patient Valakut player is pretty hard to beat, because they have inevitability in a few different ways.  (Mana Leak irrelevance, Valakut, Trap, or any of the threats resolving)
The best use for Mana Leak was countering a T3 Harrow, or T2-4 KHE.  If KHE resolves, Mana Leak is 100% irrelevant. (And they get to 2 mana on the play before you get 2 mana for Mana Leak)
I have to have it, to enable [Mindbreak Trap] OR [2x 2cc counters] Turn 4, to prevent dying to the Threat + Trap.  Drawing it turn 5+ is pretty close to dead.
8) I altered my Halmir Depths playstyle in this matchup. 
I played it more turn 1 in these games than I probably have in the hundreds of games I've played online.  (and there, I am playing it in desperation to find a land)
The reason was, I was never going to cast a counterspell (or hold one up, intentionally) turn 2.  I am going to cast Treasure Hunt, or Pyromancer Ascension turn 2, and hope to be holding 2 counters, or a MBT, turn 4.  I do fairly frantic tap-outting turns 1-3, so I can be "set up" for the turns that "matter" (aka where the threat that kills me resolves or doesn't)
Normally, I hold HD for turn 3, or turn 5, or some late turn, because I want to both maximize the yield of Treasure Hunt, or Scalding Tarn, and keep making land drops.  I still think this is a good strategy for the general match, because I may need to counter turn 2-3, and playing HD doesn't do anything about drawing those next few cards.  I just draw them in a different order.  So being able to get rid of them entirely with Scalding Tarn, or set up a big draw-2 or draw-n with Treasure Hunt turn 5 or 7 is a much better use of the card in general.  I just don't have that luxury against Valakut, and the spells I'd be countering aren't happening until turn 4 anyway.
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Observations from Charles's Perspective:
1) Frustration off the start, since I was playing a presideboarded control deck against a deck with few threats.  Playing a land (or a ramp spell) and saying go isn't "exciting", and when your biggest beater is a 2/2 for 5, things tend to drag out a bit.
2) Many mulligans from the Valakut deck, but it won games where it mulled to 5 (and I've lost those games online too).
3) As the afternoon wore on, the Valakut deck started winning more and more, and Charles exclaimed "I think I was just keeping bad hands".
The starting 7 Charles liked the most was 2 Valakuts + some junk.  That was a T8 win or so, which was about as fast as any game ended.
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This sideboard plan is trying to play the control role, and near the end of our testing, Charles made a suggestion that would be Heresy to the general player.
"What if I took out Mana Leak for 'something else'" (says Charles, not knowing the format).
That got us thinking, and Deprive seems like a non-horrific option.
Upsides:
-Still good after T3
-Reuses Halimar Depths (which are pretty awesome, with Treasure Hunt, Scalding Tarn, Preordain)
Counters small stuff late.
-2x Hard Counters off PA is just as good as 2x Mana Leak, and sometimes better.  You only have to pay the cost (which includes returning the land) on the one you actually cast, not the copy.
-People play around Mana Leak.  The only thing better than them playing around mana leak (and giving you extra turns) is not actually having Mana Leak in your deck.
-Early problems can be solved with the red half of the deck (Bolt it), let the blue solve the late game (via saying No, and meaning it)
-Deprive is only dead when any counterspell would be dead.  Mana leak is almost certainly dead after turn 7 or so.  (Doubled Mana Leak can still counter things, but I'd rather double Deprive, and reuse HD T7)
-Late game, I am often bouncing some dire threat that has a low casting cost (Kor Firewalker, Ratchet Bomb, Luminarchs Ascension, Sword of Body and Mind).  Being able to bounce it EOT, and counter it for real the next turn is good.
Downsides:
-Tempo hit.  Picking up a land is rarely purely good.
-Harsher casting cost.  Some games have only U3, and double-deprive T4 vs Valakut is non-plausible.  (Deprive-Flashfreeze is possible though, for the 2x counter mana leak + flashfreeze would give)
-You still have to pay the casting cost (aka return a land) even if it is countred.
-UU is harder to hold up on turns where you cast sorceries (your blue draw spells), which probably means you'll hold off on your draw spells until turn 5 or so (which means you have to hope you draw lands naturally?), or put down the counter shields.
Mindbreak Trap is also non-terrible.  I often side in MBT for Mana Leak in some matchups.
Upsides:
--Deals with Bloodghast (+ Bounce), which is a "recurring" problem.
--Deals with Vengevine
--Deals with Kuldotha Phoenix (Seen in casual room more than TPR)
--Deals with Eldrazi in a way that doesn't shuffle other answers back in.
--Semi-relevant to exile vs Sun Titan
--All the upsides of a pure counter, especially T4+
--Trap cost occasionally relevant
----counter wars
----final turn burn-out
----ww quest glink hawk/memnite turn.
----multi-preordain/explore turn from a UG ramp deck. (UG, BUG, RUG)
--Better than Mana Leak vs ramp.
--Not hit by Inquisition of Kozilek. (Hit by Duress, but IoK is more common)
Downsides:
--I do often counter things T2 in a general matchup. (as a proxy burn spell most of the time)
--Holding 4 mana up is alot more obvious/hard.
--More likely than either other option to be semi-dead against aggro.  (They have threats in play, you have counters in hand...)
--Even worse than Mana Leak to reveal off a Treasure Hunt.
If I went with either of these, I'd probably still do 4x Flashfreeze, 3x Mindbreak Trap (or Deprive) in the side. for ramp.
This is the control route.  It may be the best one, but both games we played after implimenting the "Mana Leak = Deprive" rule were mono-land Valakut Burn-outs.
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Possible alternative strategy: AGGRO!!!1!!one!
From online experience, the only G1's I've won vs Valakut were games where I won T4-5 on the back of an active ascension, 2x Staggershock to the face, and other burn/recursion.  I don't think I've ever won a game where I killed a Primeval Titan, or where a Summoning Trap was played for the trap cost. (G1)
It could be a good idea to have a sideboard strategy that emphasizes this (winning?) methodology
Such a plan would look like:
+4 Goblin Guide (8 damage by t4 if in opening hand and castable)
+4 Kiln Fiend (basically an ascension for my bolts/burn.  Better than ascension for Burst, Staggershock)
-8 of:
-4 Into the Roil (can bounce Wall/KHE to give another turn to swing)
-4 Mana Leak
-4 PA, to blank the Disenchant sb plan?
-2 Foresee (Too slow?)
-2 Call To Mind (probably not)
This is a very all-in-ish plan, that may stress the mana base quite a bit, depending on the -8.  A normal turn 12 has me with 3 mountains and 7 blue sources.  Red mana T1-2 is not seriously optimized.  And, if they ever get a Valakut off, or cast Pyroclasm (while I have creatures) or keep in bolts (fairly unlikely) it could be a fast loss.  Creatures also don't work terribly well with pyromancer.  They don't charge it up, and don't benefit from it being charged.
To that end, siding out the PA could be a reasonable plan.  It leaves in 12x burn, 8x ultra-aggressive creatures, 4x bounce (or counter) to remove blockers/reset KHE, and 8x 1-2cc draw spells.
Siding out PA also eases the mana stress.  (Taking out "red" spells for red spells is less stressfull on the must-dump-hand strategy than taking out 8x blue for 8x red)
Goblin Guide draws them to threats, but if they are still alive T5, they've probably won anyway. When I was testing KF before, I put it in for something terrible like Burst, instead of something terrible like Mana Leak, PA, or Into the Roil.  The hand of PA + Kiln Fiend + 4 land + something is pretty sad.
A T1 Goblin Guide means I only need 12 damage from other cards by turn 4 to have won, and I see at least 9 (8 + mountain) other cards on the play by turn 4.  (With no draw)
A T2 Kiln Fiend  means I need ~3 burn spells to win, or ~6 any other spell. (or ~4.5 spells total)
Burst does 5.
Staggershock does 10
Bolt does 6
The KF does 1 itself each turn.
I'd be ~58% to have at least one of the two in my hand off the start.
T1 Mountan/Tarn Goblin Guide (18)
T2 Land Kiln Fiend (16)
T3 Preordain into something else (4 to 7)
T4 Any spell (-10 to 1)
is pretty sweet.  Staggershock can fill it T3 as any two spells (with rebound on T4).  This plan uses 8 out of my 11 cards (3 land), plus a Preordain draw.
And of course the absurd:
T1: Goblin Guide (18)
T2: Double Goblin Guide (12)
T3: Double Bolt (0)
Or:
T1: Goblin Guide (18)
T2: Kiln Fiend (16)
T3:Bolt, Burst, Preordain  (-1)
8 of 9 cards (+ preordain draw) used on the play, with no two of the same card.  Bursts and Bolts are redundant in this draw.
This plan is about as far from casting Mindbreak Trap as is imaginable, but the Mindbreak Trap plan isn't winning any games against the Valakut land-draw.
Of course, any of these plans auto-loses to a castable pyroclasm on T2 (which might not happen, between ETBT lands, drawing Pyroclasm, and having a playable hand otherwise)
I'll run a few goldfishes with it, to see what happens, since goldfishing is 100% relevant with this sideboard plan.  Report to come later.
Historical weaknesses of this strategy are drawing PA + creatures, Not drawing T1 red, or just having bad hands (which mulliganing may fix?)