Magic: The Gatheringis no stranger to mysterious and terrifying powers. The kind of dark forces that would compel someone to stick a hundred needles in their head and then flay their lips for that perfect smile. That’s the sort of aesthetic you should be prepared for before diving intoDuskmourn: House of Horror’s Endless Punishment Commander deck.
But besides rocking a Hellraiser attitude, Endless Punishment also has a bunch of sadistic cards aimed at poking and prodding your opponents until they scream for mercy. These cards might be gruesome, ugly, and more than a little weird, but they’ve also got heart (which is still beating despite being ripped from someone’s chest).
10Séance Board
A Lively Friday Night
As far as mana rocks go, Séance Board has some flaws and some serious strengths.The flaw is that it doesn’t produce mana naturally. You’ll need to wait a few turns for creatures to die before Séance Board will start producing mana. And even when it does, it will only be useful for instants, sorceries, Demons, and Spirits.
But if you’ve got those spells, and youplan on killing a lot of creatures, thenSéance Board can produce a lot of manafor just a few turns' investment. It’s especially good at keeping up with the increasing mana costs of your Spirit or Demon commander.
9Suspended Sentence
Playing The Long Game Over A Spiked Pit
Four mana is a lot to pay for instant-speed creature removal, but there are a few things that redeem Suspended Sentence. First, it causes some life loss, which is essential for Endless Punishment’s game plan. And second,it’s a two-for-one.
After killing your first creature, three time counters tick by beforeSuspended Sentence kills again. There’s no guarantee that you’ll have a second target, but in a color combination that’s often starved for cards, getting as much value out of each spell is paramount.
8Gleeful Arsonist
Just A Little Firebug
There’s a lot of potential in Gleeful Arsonist.Dealing damage every time a player casts a non-creature spellcould turn into quitea big number if you’re playing opposite decks that don’t have a lot of creatures. And even if they do, you could enhance Gleeful Arsonist’s power to have it deal more damage when those few non-creature spells do come out.
Odds are that Gleeful Arsonistwill do at least some damage if it lasts into the late gamewhen everyone is trying to cast kill spells on opposing commanders, so prepare to get some good value out of this little firebug.
7Fear Of Burning Alive
Just Keep On Burnin'
There’s a lot to love in Fear of Burning Alive. First it deals four damage to each opponent as soon as it enters, and then as soon as you activate its delirium trigger, you get tostart doubling all your noncombat damage.
Fear of Burning Alive is the perfect addition to a burn-heavy deck, or a deck that just deals a lot of damage from random sources like Endless Punishment. The only trick is figuring out how to activate delirium, but with so many discard outlets in red, that shouldn’t be too hard.
6Sadistic Shell Game
Keep Your Eye On The Ball
I just love spells that rely on the goodwill and cooperation of everyone at the table. Note that each player chooses creatures they don’t control, meaningeach player(other than one)could decide to blow up a specific player’s creatures, making this a one-sided board wipe.
Much like Wrath of God and other board sweepers,Sadistic Shell Game is a spell best played while you’re behind other players. You don’t want to misjudge the table and accidentally make yourself the target of your own Shell Game.
5Spiked Corridor / Torture Pit
The Perfect AirBnB Description
Many red enchantments offer a multiplicative effect on the noncombat damage dealt, but those are usually swords that cut both ways. Torture Pitis a roomthatonly adds two damage, but that damage is only dealt to opponents, not yourself.
That two damage can really add up over time, especially when so many cards in Endless Punishment deal one or two damage almost every turn. Spike Corridor is also a nice addition for its three pinging Devil tokens, but the Torture Pit is really the star of this AirBnB profile.
4Barbflare Gremlin
Mana Burn Is Back
Barbflare Gremlin offers two really good things. First, it could bea huge mana ramp for the casting player, as you’ll be able to attack the turn it comes into play and then tap all your land for double mana at the cost of that much damage.
Second, if Barbflare Gremlin attacks and survives,it will start burning every other player at the table every time they tap their lands. That’ll either lock down the table, or it’ll start throwing out a ton of damage for Endless Punishment to capitalize on.
3Star Athlete
He’ll Get A Scholarship If He Survives
A 3/2 with menace for three mana is already pretty good, but then Star Athlete offers its signature move of hating on non-land permanents. It’s typically pretty difficult for red to remove permanents besides artifacts and creatures, soanything that offers a widers pool of potential targets is rad.
Of course,it comes with the condition; the opposing player could just take five damage to save their precious non-land permanent. But Endless Punishment has ways of making that five damage seem much, much worse.
2The Lord Of Pain
This Guy Gets Way Too Much Screen Time
If you want to put a game of Commander on a clock, look no further than The Lord of Pain. Every spell cast each turn will deal damage equal to that spell’s mana value to someone else. Combined with preventing any life gain,every spell pushes each player closer and closer to oblivion.
The interesting thing about The Lord of Pain is howit encourages each player to play the highest mana-costed spell they have in order to deal the most damagethey can to other players. The Lord of Pain is destined to be the new favorite for maniacal Magic players everywhere.
1Valgavoth, Harrower Of Souls
Like A Flame To A Moth
Valgavoth offerssomething that’s historically very difficult to find in red/black:consistent card draw. Usually, the red/black deck either blows its hand and starts top-decking or it has to rely on its black side to spend life to draw cards. Not so with Valgavoth.
With Valgavoth, every turn an opponent loses life, you draw a card. The more players at the table, the more chances you’ll have to draw cards before your next turn.This can potentially lead to a ton of cards, given how consistently Endless Punishment can deal damage. Add on top of that evasion, ward, and getting a +1/+1 each time Valgavoth triggers that card draw, and you’ve got the perfect commander to build a red/black deck around.
