Looking to upgrade the new preconstructed Commander deck Endless Punishment? This new Rakdos Duskmourn: House of Horror precon features the archenemy of the set, Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls. Coincidentally, you might become the archenemy of the table with this powerful Commander.
The Endless Punishment precon has several key upgrade opportunities that shouldn’t be overlooked. We’ll explore these essential additions to maximize your deck’s potential.
Before we get started, let’s take a look at Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls, the face Commander for the deck:
As we can see, Valgavoth wants opponents to lose life on their turn. If they do, Valgavoth will get a counter and you will draw a card. Since Rakdos doesn’t have many synergies with +1/+1 counters, our primary focus in this deck is creating card advantage for ourselves by pinging opponents on their turn.
In this list, we will focus on upgrades that achieve this goal or improve the damage of pings themselves. The precon list already has a few notable and powerful pingers, but it’s missing quite a few potent ones.
For this list, we have not included generally powerful cards, such as Dark Ritual or Demonic Tutor. Instead, we are focused exclusively on cards that synergize well with the deck’s core strategies.
It’s time to see what horrors await! Here is our list of the Top 15 Best Precon Upgrades for the Endless Punishment Commander Deck:
#1 Sulfuric Vortex
First on the list is Sulfuric Vortex. Somehow this wasn’t included in the precon, but it should have been. It packs a punch with two damage to each player on their upkeep and prevents life gain. This will trigger Valgavoth on each opponent’s turn.
#2 Roiling Vortex
Roiling Vortex deals less damage than Sulfuric Vortex, but you get to play it a turn earlier. Plus, there are plenty of decks and cards that players cast for free these days, and the damage from Roiling Vortex really adds up.
#3 Forsaken Wastes
Starting to see the theme? The combination of turning off life gain while triggering Valgavoth every turn is powerful. We didn’t include every upkeep pinger on the list, but the ones that prevent life gain are worth running.
#4 Mount Doom
Mount Doom is a must-upgrade for this deck. While you won’t notice its effect every game, every now and then you’ll get an extra draw and trigger by using its ping ability. If you’re running Legendary artifacts like The One Ring, there’s also a non-zero chance you can use it as a board wipe in a pinch.
#5 Mana Barbs
Mana Barbs might be the most powerful card on this list, but play it with caution. As soon as this card hits the board, you’ll become the archenemy of the table. If you manage to stay alive, it can do a ton of damage and trigger Valgavoth each turn.
#6 The Rollercrusher Ride
Fresh from Duskmourn is The Rollercrusher Ride. This card will double all the damage you deal with your pingers, plus it can wipe the board. Just be sure you have some diversity of permanents, fetch lands, etc., so you can trigger Delirium.
#7 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
Sheoldred will also draw the ire of the table, but players have been used to seeing it across every format, so it’s more accepted in casual play than Mana Barbs. The biggest downside here is that it shares the mana cost of your Commander, and it’s pretty expensive for a single card. If you already have a copy, it’s a powerful addition.
#8 Karazikar, the Eye Tyrant
Karazikar hits the sweet spot of helping your opponent help you. It will goad a creature so it has to attack someone else, causing that player to lose a life and draw you a card, and triggering Valgavoth to draw you an additional card. I’ve been pretty impressed with this as an impactful midrange Rakdos card in Commander, and it should play nicely in the Endless Punishment precon.
#9 Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might
Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might is insane at ramping up damage from pingers. Pair this with Mana Barbs, and your opponents will be taking 4 damage per mana they attempt to access. Ojer might be the most powerful card in this deck, given you go the ping route. It’s also a card that will draw hate from opponents.
#10 Pyrohemia
Pyrohemia is another card that opponents must answer. Until opponents manage to deal with it, you can keep wiping the board of everything but your Stuffy Doll or Brash Taunter, while triggering Valgavoth every turn.
#11 Painful Quandary
While this might not draw you any cards, it’s a painful tax on opponents. They either have to take a ton of damage or discard a card for every spell they cast. This stops a lot of decks from really going off and whittles down everyone’s life total or resources at the table. Even discarding lands is detrimental to opponents as it prevents them from double spelling or casting their big spells late game.
#12 Razorkin Needlehead
We can’t run Nekusar, the Mindrazer, but Razorkin Needlehead will get the job done. It’s easy to cast by turn 3, and punishes players who play Rhystic Study or other card advantage engines.
#13 Ancient Runes
Ancient Runes is a bit of a meta call. In most games, at least 2 players will have 2 or more artifacts out at a time. Some players will even have 5-6+ artifacts out. With token-based and treasure decks becoming more and more popular, Ancient Runes becomes a powerful hate card that advances your strategy in this deck.
#14 Orcish Bowmasters
If you’ve got more money to throw at this deck, Orcish Bowmasters fits right in. It’s an extremely powerful and efficient Commander card. Whenever someone draws a card and it isn’t your turn, you’ll be able to use it to ping a player and draw a card with your Commander.
#15 Zo-Zu the Punisher
Finally, we have Zo-Zu the Punisher. Zo-Zu is one of the few other cards that can consistently ping for two damage a turn for only three mana. Being a creature makes it less persistent than enchantments, as it dies to any board wipe. It does do a good job keeping green decks in check.
That’s everything! With all these cards put together, you should have a powerful upgraded precon that can burn your opponents out to smithereens while having a powerful card advantage engine in your Commander.
If you’re interested in other Rakdos Commanders, go check out our list on the Best Rakdos Commanders in MTG.
