Endless Punishment is the Rakdos precon from Duskmourn. It features a RB version of the set’s infamous demon Valgavoth, and encourages you to bring your group slug game. Find out how to turn up the heat with our $50 Budget Upgrade Guide.
Duskmourn Commander has four Commander decks: Death Toll, Endless Punishment, Jump Scare and Miracle Worker. Today we’ll check out the Red-Black offering, Endless Punishment, and figure out how to pilot it… and where to upgrade it.
ENDLESS PUNISHMENT: VALGAVOTH, HARROWER OF SOULS
Valgavoth is the Elder Demon responsible for making the plane of Duskmourn what it is. Here, we have a cheaper to cast alternative to the splashy Mythic from the main set. It’s a fairly straightforward card; when your opponents lose life during their turns (for the first time), Valgavoth gets a +1+1 counter and you draw a card. WIth the ability to have this happen up to three times in a turn cycle, it’s a steady stream of cards.
We’ve seen Commanders like this before, and in the case of Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin, they tend to overly focus on their combo potential. Ob Nix is even played in cEDH, right?
Valgavoth seems a more casual option for those wanting to engage in ping and group slug, and I for one am going to be building it as one of my personal decks.
The alternate Commander here is The Lord of Pain. It’s a political/social version of Kaervek that costs a little less, for the most part. It’s not something I’m super excited to run in the Command Zone, but it’s decent in the 99. That’s why we’ll stick to Valgavoth for this deck upgrade.
SLUG IT OUT
The precon comes with some interesting new cards, and I think for anyone interested in playing burn or group slug, these cards are some of the coolest (hottest?) designs we’ve seen for some time.
Gleeful Arsonist is here for a good time and for a long time, especially with her having Undying. Barbflare Gremlin is Mana Flare meets Manabarbs on a body, and I’m into it. It’ll be especially good in decks running Saddle or Crew.
Seance Board is a really interesting little mana rock, and one that I think will be a surefire hit in aristocrats decks, if I’m being honest. Or maybe, someone in R&D just has a Kykar deck that they really want to upgrade.
REPRINTS OF DESIRE
This precon also has some really solid reprints.
Kederekt Parasite has been in high demand for a while now, and a reprint is always welcome, so that Valgavoth and Ob Nixilis can share.
One of my favorite utility lands, Witch’s Clinic sees a much needed reprint here too. Giving Valgavoth lifelink is amazing, especially if you’re slowly whittling down life totals with a Group Slug approach.
Two classic slug/burn Commanders also feature here: Vial Smasher the Fierce, and Mogis, God of Slaughter. Both still see plenty of play, and fit right at home in this build.
ENDLESS PUNISHMENT $50 BUDGET UPGRADES
On the upgrade path with this deck, I wanted to keep the following in mind:
- Increase access to strong or cheap ping effects to enable Valgavoth
- Make our card draw and removal stronger
- Add protection for Valgavoth, who will likely be removed often
Check out the $50 budget upgrade package, ready to roll, on Moxfield.
Underworld Dreams | Razorkin Needlehead
First up, I added some really good ways to trigger Valgavoth. Chandra is particularly strong, as her emblem will stick around long after she leaves play. She can also wipe smaller bodies off the board pretty well, which is always handy. Zo-Zu, Underworld Dreams, Rug of Smothering, Spellshock and Razorkin Needlehead will all trigger in the opponent’s turn for them just doing what they already want to be doing. They’re efficiently costed.
Perhaps our most efficient option, and the one I like the most – as it comes down on-curve – is Roiling Vortex. It punishes freecast spells, and it can also shut off lifegain. Superb for just two mana.
Karazikar is another all-star for us, as it triggers Valgavoth while pushing damage elsewhere and drawing us even more cards. What’s not to love?
Two hugely important cards for the deck are Untimely Malfunction and Bolt Bend. These serve to keep Valgavoth in play as long as possible, and I feel are essential to a strong build. I also upgraded Feed the Swarm into Withering Torment, and threw Kazuul’s Fury in the manabase – one of my preferred “bonus” finishers when going tall.
As for what to take out? Well, it amounts to a lot of the more medium cards or cards that don’t directly feed into the strategy. They might ping, or burn, but they don’t do it efficiently or at the right time to trigger Valgavoth.
You can find the cuts in the sideboard of the final upgraded decklist, over on Moxfield.
The upgrades we’ve squeezed into the $50 allow the deck to function with a gameplan more often, and smooth over some of the rougher edges. If you wanna spend further though? Let’s look at some options.
FURTHER UPGRADES
The deck would, of course, benefit from some of the spendier Rakdos staples. A good manabase, access to Deflecting Swat and Demonic Tutor, and maybe even the Ozolith if you take it in the +1/+1 counters direction.
One card I’m hype to include is Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor. Having been to the celebrity stylist responsible for Lurtz and Ariana Grande, Gix is ready to make a glorious debut in a Valgavoth deck. It incentivizes opponents to attack elsewhere, increasing the slug-clock, while triggering Valgavoth.
We’re all about passive life loss in this deck, and Forsaken Wastes is one such piece of tech that can help to get that clock moving. It even domes someone for 5 for them trying to remove it.
Shadowspear is an amazing equipment, and one this deck desperately wants to help Valgavoth hit hard.
If you do go down the counters route, then I feel like All Will Be One is a smash hit for the deck, especially if you can trigger counters in an opponent’s turn, therefore being able to trigger Valgavoth. The best part is that it doesn’t go infinite, so people will be less terrified of you. Win-win!
Finally, my discord and I have been ruminating on how good Jeska will be here as a way to facilitate Valgavoth assassinations. Regardless of if you’re stacking burn and slug effects, this card seems poised to help you win games.
END STEP
The Endless Punishment precon is a lot of fun out of the box, and with a few edits? It gets downright smooth to play. Valgavoth has a lot of directions to consider once you put in the enablers – full group slug? Demons? Voltron? Counters? All feel like valid strategies to me.
Kristen is Card Kingdom’s Head Writer, and member of the Commander Advisory Group. Formerly a competitive Pokémon TCG grinder, she has been playing Magic since Shadows Over Innistrad, which in her opinion, was a great set to start with. When she’s not taking names with Equipment and Aggro strategies in Commander, she loves to play any form of Limited.