Upgrading the Endless Punishment Precon from Duskmourn, on a small budget
By Brock Preston
Endless Punshiment is a new Rakdos preconstructed Commander deck, helmed by Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls.
This commander has evasion and protection built-in and wants to bring the pain on your opponent’s turns. This deck is fast-paced and chaotic, keeping it truly in-line with its color identity.
Maxxing out Valgavoth
The key feature this guide wants to focus on is Valgavoth’s final ability, “Whenever an opponent loses life for the first time during each of their turns, put a +1/+1 counter on Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls and draw a card.”
Not only does this give us some nice card draw, allowing us to manage what’s in our hand, but it allows us to grow the commander into a truly terrifying flier. Let’s get into the upgrades!
If you’re looking to pick-up and play this precon, ManaPool has you covered!
However, if you’re looking to take Valgavoth to the next level, without breaking the bank, have a look at this 20 upgrades under $20 guide.
The new cards for our plan
To get these upgrades, you can get easily get all the cards into your cart with this link on Mana Pool.
Here’s the list of upgrades, and we’ll dig into the strategy in depth.
Consistent Damage
Polluted Bonds may be a bit on the expensive side at 3BB, but what do your opponent’s need to do on their turn? Play lands. When does Polluted Bonds deal 2 damage to them and heal you for 2? When they play lands.
The only option that doesn’t help you further hamstrings them by not playing a land. This is one of the key cards for this upgrade.
Pooling Venom is a unique pick, but a solid option. Enchanting an opponent’s land to deal damage whenever it becomes tapped can help to trigger Valgavoth, while also locking down an opponent’s utility land or just keeping them behind the curve.
Jinxed Idol is an old card, but quite an effective one. At the beginning of its controller’s upkeep, it deals two damage to them. Its ability, “Sacrifice a Creature: Target opponent gains control of Jinxed Idol,” does cost you a creature (which can synergize with cards like Blood Artist, Falkenrath Noble, and Mayhem Devil) but it triggers Valvagoth and forces opponents to remove their own creatures. This does have a political aspect, so make sure to explain ‘creative’ threat assessment to keep the Idol from being passed back to you.
Witch Hunt is another fun card that leans into the chaotic aspects of the deck’s Rakdos identity. Repeatable damage on your opponent’s upkeep feeds Valvagoth, preventing players from gaining life makes each hit matter more, and the random opponent selection keeps players on their toes and engaged (I always recommend a roll-off where the lowest player loses).
Damaging Defenders
Panicked Altisaur is a strong reacher with five toughness, making it resistant to a lot of removal. Though this is useful to add onto a deck that may struggle against fliers, its second ability, “{T}, deal 2 damage to each opponent”, is what makes this addition shine. Activated abilities can be activated at instant speed, so you get a powerful blocker on your turn and can tap it on an opponent’s end-step to make sure that they get damage on their turn which grows Valgavoth and draws you cards.
Brimstone Trebuchet is cheaper at only 2R, but a bit more restricted having paired Reach and Defender. However, it does have an additional benefit with its ability to untap itself whenever you play a knight. The decklist doesn’t run a ton of knights, but with powerhouses like Syr Konrad the Grim and Stormfist Crusader, you can tap during your turn to trigger damage effects then cast a powerful card with a great ability to have this available during your opponent’s turns.
Thermo-Alchemist is the cheapest of these creatures with only a 1R cost but also the weakest with both defender and 0 power. However, the major benefit is that Thermo-Alchemist untaps itself whenever you cast an instant or sorcery. With so many low-cost and synergistic instants, you could easily trigger this ability on each opponent’s turn.
Magewright’s Stone is an integral piece of the strategy for adding these cards. For 1 generic, you can tap Magewright’s stone and untap any creature with an activated ability that includes {T}/tapping in its activation cost. In addition to allowing you another ping with any of the creatures above, it also synergizes very well with Brash Taunter. Brash Taunter’s fight ability not only damages an opponent, but by equipping it with Basilisk Collar or Mask of Griselbrand you can remove specific threats and gain some life.
Effective Instants
Shriveling Rot though this can be pricey, especially if you pay the entwine cost, this card allows you to damage opponents when their creatures die, or to effectively give all creatures in combat deathtouch. This can certainly be useful when you’re attacked, but by playing it when your opponents crash their boards into each other, you can massively change the game.
Direct Current is a classic for a reason. Cheap damage on your opponent’s turn, which can be cast again from the graveyard by discarding a card. The discard may seem like a rough sell, but as long as you cast it on an opponent’s turn then Valgavoth’s ability draws you a card to cover the jump-start cost.
Corrupted Conviction draws two cards at the cost of a creature, which is a decent ability on its own. This card really shines when combined with Blood Artist, Falkenrath Noble, or Mayhem Devil. If you cast it on an opponent’s turn, these creatures allow you to draw an additional card and feed Valgavoth.
Not Dead After All serves as a bit of an insurance policy for any creature that you want to keep around. It returns a target creature you control to the battlefield and equips it with a Wicked role token. Role tokens aren’t the most popular, but Wicked’s ability, “Enchanted Creature gets +1/+1 and when this aura is put into your graveyard, each opponent loses one life,” offers an extra level of protection as players are likely to hesitate before destroying your creature on their turn, lest they trigger the moth.
Shock is an excellent inclusion in this deck and I’m honestly shocked it wasn’t included in the precon. One mana to deal damage and feed Valgavoth is incredibly efficient, and if you have your Thermo-Alchemist out, you can use it to reset him for another opponent’s turn. These two cards allow for a turn cycle where Valgavoth draws three cards and gains three +1/+1 counters, exclusively on your opponents’ turns.
Big Plays
Mindcrank is the most expensive card on this upgrade list, and for good reason. Its ability, “Whenever an opponent takes damage, they mill that many cards,” can be absolutely devastating. Every hit from every creature (not just yours), every instant, every ability, costs your opponents cards off the top. This can always throw off any opponent, but is particularly nasty when up against opponents who rely on top-deck strategies. This deck cares about damage above anything else, and this just gives you even more advantage.
Grimoire of the Dead has quite a hefty cost, costing a total of seven mana and three cards before you can activate its terrifying ultimate ability. However, Valgavoth’s ability to consistently draw you cards allows you to offset this a good bit. This deck has destruction, discard, and mill, rapidly filling up your opponents’ graveyards. The ability to pull every creature back at once, then combine with the next two cards on our list for an absolutely devastating swing.
Rising of the Day is an excellent card from The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle Earth that has flown under a lot of radars. Although it was overshadowed by powerhouses like The One Ring and Orcish Bowmasters, giving all of your creatures haste is an excellent ability that pairs phenomenally with Grimoire of the Dead. Its second ability, “Legendary creatures you control get +1/+0,” is also useful as it benefits 6 creatures in your 99 as well as Valgavoth.
Bitter Reunion is a cheap way to discard a card and draw two cards upon its entry. Although card advantage is always useful, its second ability is the main draw. Bitter Reunion can sit on the battlefield, having no effects and being overlooked by your opponents, until it’s time to activate Grimoire and let you engage in a massive swing. Additionally, this second ability can be activated the turn you cast it, only increasing the mana cost from 1R to 2R.
Utility Lands
Tyrite Sanctum is a great land that allows you to stay on-curve by coming in untapped. For two generic mana you can add a +1/+1 counter to a legendary you control and make them a god in addition to their other types. This is a useful ability, but the key lies in its final ability, “(4) {T} Sacrifice Tyrite Sanctum: Put an Indestructible counter on target God,” offering instant-speed protection for any Legendary Creature you’ve targeted with its second ability, or just to protect Mogis, God of Slaughter.
Rogue’s Passage is considered by many to be a staple, and for good reason. This deck grows your commander to colossal proportions quickly, almost by accident, and Rogue’s Passage allows you to ensure that commander damage can always get through.
What to replace
To make room for our modified game plan, here is a list of cards that you can cut. These cards make room for cards that synergize with our new big plays and don’t pair well with our modified game plan and mana base.
| Original Card | Why Replace |
|---|---|
| Barbflare Gremlin | Good but letting opponents double their mana is too risky. |
| Enchanter’s Bane | Repeatable enchantment removal, but only does damage on your turn. |
| Fellwar Stone | With so much card draw, there is less need for mana rocks that may struggle to produce the colors you need. |
| Florian, Voldaren Scion | Exiling cards from the top of your library equal to the life opponents lost on your turn can be good, but doesn’t synergize well with what Valgavoth wants to do or with Grimoire. |
| Geothermal Bog | Always enters tapped, and there’s not much that cares about land types. |
| Grab the Prize | Valgavoth is already drawing plenty of cards, and the damage is only on your turn. |
| Gray Merchant of Asphodel | Devotion to Black is about equal to devotion to Red, and it’s difficult to trigger this ability multiple times. The healing is good, but the damage is on your turn. |
| Light up the Stage | Unnecessary with Valgavoth’s draw and works against Grimoire. |
| Massacre Girl | Although the -1/-1 ability may be useful to help wipe out tokens, she just isn’t contributing much to the gameplan. |
| Mind Stone | Drawing is unnecessary, only taps for colorless. |
| Morbid Opportunist | Drawing a card is good, but only once per turn and only when a creature dies. Redundant with Valgavoth. |
| Mountain | Makes room for utility lands, more Black pips than Red pips in the deck. |
| Rampaging Ferocidon | Decent card, prevents you from gaining life as well, damage on creature cast is redundant with several other creatures. |
| Shadowblood Ridge | Having a land that can’t tap for mana on its own can lead to a lot of misplays and the fixing isn’t that necessary. |
| Sign In Blood | Sorcery speed, not a terrible card but doesn’t synergize with Valgavoth. |
| Star Athlete | Decent ability, but doesn’t synergize well. |
| Seance Board | Can be good after a few turns, but the restriction on what you can spend the mana on can be limiting at the worst moments. |
| Talisman of Indulgence | With several cards keeping you from gaining life, paying life to get your colors can be a hard sell. |
| Tectonic Giant | The first ability is good, but the second ability is redundant and works against Grimoire. When opponents know that targeting it costs the table life, they’re unlikely to target it. Expect the damage only on your turn, which doesn’t trigger Valgavoth. |
| Temple of the False God | Bad land. Tapping for two colorless can be good, but getting this early can really derail you. |