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MostMagic: The Gatheringgames can be interpreted as a sort of race. Each player wants to deal more damage to their opponents on their respective turn in order to win.Duskmourn: House Of Horror’s Endless Punishment Commander deck, however, looks beyond merely doing damage on your turn and instead tries to deal damage on every other player’s turn too.
There’s no respite for your opponents as you inflict the deck’s titular endless punishment. With your foes taking damage not just on your turn, but their turns as well, you race so far ahead that there’s no hope of anyone ever catching you.
Mountain (8)
Endless Punishment Commander Deck Themes
Most red/black Commander decks are hyper-aggressive and indiscriminately throw damage at other players. Endless Punishment is no exception, withtons of cards that just deal damage alongside other effects(see Grab the Prize and Suspended Sentence).
What sets the good red/black decks apart from the bad isharnessing that damage for something greater. Endless Punishment does that best through its boxtopper commander, Valgavoth, Harrow of Souls.
Valgavoth’s ability to draw cards and gain +1/+1 counters whenever an opponent loses life for the first time on their turn allows you toharness this seemingly indiscriminate damage and turn it into something truly powerful: card advantage.
With Valgavoth on the table,all you need to do is make sure an opponent loses life on their turn to give yourself one card and give Valgavoth a +1/+1 counter. With three opponents, that’s a potential three cards and three counters before it’s even your turn again.
The best way to ensure damage is dealt on your opponents' turns is totie that damage to something players typically do during their turn; either playing lands, drawing cards, or casting spells. Nightshade Harvester, Fate Unraveler, and Rampaging Ferocidon are all great ways to ensure that timely damage is dealt.
It doesn’t take long for Valgavoth to draw you a ton of cards and grow to become a game-ending threat. Valgavoth even comes with built-in evasion and protection thanks to the flying and ward keywords.
Unlike Duskmourn’s other Commander decks, Endless Punishment comes withseven other potential commanders, but none of them have the sort of synergy with the rest of the deck as Valgavoth. Some don’t synergize at all and will be removed in favor of better cards in our suggested budget upgrades.
Endless Punishment Commander Deck Analysis
With Valgavoth at the head, Endless Punishment’s game plan is simple:play cards that dole out the damageearly on andthen play Valgavothas soon as you canto start drawing cards and gaining +1/+1 counters. Then with Valgavoth at the fore, you attack with your giant moth Demon to win.
There’sno shortage of damage dealers in Endless Punishment. Mogis, God of Slaughter deals damage unless opponents are willing to sacrifice a creature, Fate Unraveler deals damage whenever an opponent draws a card, and Blood Seeker deals damage whenever an opponent plays a creature.
You only need one damage dealer to trigger Valgavoth, so if you’ve already got Stormfist Crusader on the table, maybe retain your Kederekt Parasite in hand in case your Stormfirst eats a kill spell.
Red/black decks often become the center of attention during games of multiplayer Commander. Dealing damage to an opponent is the surest way to get on their bad side, anddealing damage to everyone basically ensures players will try to gang up on you.
To help keep yourself alive, Endless Punishmentfocuses on creatures for solid defense(32 besides Valgavoth himself). You’ve also gota few sources of life gain(see Mask of Griselbrand, Basilisk Collar, and Blood Artist), anda few ways to wipe the boardif things get out of hand (see Decree of Pain and Blasphemous Act).
Being able to respond nimbly to threats is important in any game of Commander, andEndless Punishment does a decent job of including answerslike Chaos Warp, Infernal Grasp, and Bedevil. However, you’re likely to need more given how red/black has trouble making friends.
Endless Punishment could also do with a little refinement. There are several cards that deal damage, but crucially, they don’t deal damage during your opponent’s turn and thus do not trigger Valgavoth. We’ll be looking to cut those cards in favor of more synergistic options in the next section.
Grab the Prize
Vial Smasher the Fierce
There areonly 17 cards in the deck that could benefit from Seance Board, which isn’t a lot. It’s decent for keeping Valgavoth around if he manages to die a few times, but doesn’t see much value beyond that.
Thought Vessel is a decent mana rock, but the deck already has quite a few mana rocks, andhaving an unlimited hand size doesn’t seem like it’s all that useful.
Combustible Gearhulk,Vial Smasher the Fierce,Grab the Prize, andGray Merchant of Asphodelall deal damage during your turn and not your opponent’s turn. While they’re all decent cards, they could be replaced by something that plays better with Valgavoth.
Falkenrath Noble is a little expensive for what it provides, andFear of Burning Alivehas a delirium requirementthat might be difficult to achievein a deck with relatively few ways of throwing things into your graveyard.
With these substitutions trying to focus more on the theme of doing damage on your opponent’s turn rather than your own,it might be really hard to get Rakdos, Lord of Riots on the board, so he gets cut.Massacre Girl is fun,but she doesn’t really help the overall game plan.
Finally,Theater of Horrorsis an expensive way to deal damage thatcould be improved with a minor substitution.
Endless Punishment Commander Deck Budget Upgrades
What Endless Punishment needs ismore consistent damage dealt on opposing turns and a few more answers to threats. We’re going to provide both in our budget substitutions.
Reason
Bolt Bend
Valgavoth is conveniently a four-power creature, which means Bolt Bend is a one-mana instant that redirects an enemy spell. Great value for a fun red trick.
Chandra, Awakened Inferno
Chandra’s loyalty-gaining ability provides exactly what Valgavoth wants: one damage to every opponent every turn. She’s a little expensive mana-wise, but she’s worth it even if all she does is put that emblem down.
Karazikar, the Eye Tyrant
Karazikar, the Eye Tyrant is perfect for Valgavoth. Goaded creatures deal damage during your opponent’s turn, and Karazikar’s second ability also ensures at least one damage is dealt not on your turn. Plus you get a 5/5 and a source of card draw out of the deal.
Magebane Lizard
While most spells cast in Commander are creature spells, there are certainly plenty of noncreature spells cast too, and Magebane Lizard will ensure damage is dealt whenever one of those spells are cast. It’s also a cheap Lizard with four toughness, making it great on defense.
Pain Distributor
Theoretically, your opponents could just let all those Treasure tokens pile up and never cash them in, but let’s be real. Nobody can stare at free Treasure and not use it for long. And once those Treasures start cracking, Valgavoth is laughing.
Reckless Impulse
Reckless Impulse is better than Grab the Prize. You don’t deal damage, but it’s damage that would be dealt on your turn, so it hardly matters, and at least with Reckless Impulse you don’t have to discard anything.
Roiling Vortex
One damage every turn is already perfect, but also being able to turn off life gain whenever you want is the real winner with Roiling Vortex.
Rug of Smothering
Everyone casts spells, which means Rug of Smothering offers consistent damage on opposing turns. It also damages you, but as they say: no pain, no gain!
Underworld Dreams
Even more than playing spells, drawing cards is the most consistent thing a player will do on their turn. Underworld Dreams ensures that opponents suffer for it, and Valgavoth grows in power.
Untimely Malfunction
Utility hate, redirection, and combat tricks all in a single two-mana spell. It’s hard to beat Untimely Malfunction’s utility.
Zulaport Cutthroat
Cheaper than Bastion of Remembrance, Zulaport Cutthroat will often deal damage on opposing turns and also will gain you a bit of life for your trouble.
Zurzoth, Chaos Rider
Valgavoth is a Devil, and so is Zurzoth, Chaos Rider, so whenever they attack a player, you get to draw a card and then discard one. This works well with Underworld Dreams, Fate Unraveler, and Spiteful Visions, but it also produces 1/1 Devil tokens that deal damage when they die. An easy way to make sure they die is to block with them, which also helpfully triggers Valgavoth.
