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Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls acted as the face commander toMagic: the Gathering’sEndless Punishment preconstructed deck. This isn’t a guide for that, but rather, a guide to a commander deck fully focused on Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls itself.
The deck is all about burning your opponents constantly and slowly growing the stats of Valgavoth to make it a massive threat. The Rakdos (black/red) color works wonders as it gives you access to many cards that deal a lot of burn damage every turn cycle. If you like sitting back and letting your permanents do the damage for you, Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls is the perfect commander for you.
x10 Mountain
x9 Swamp
Tainted Peak
Witch’s Clinic
The decklistcontains one planeswalker, 28 creatures, two sorceries, nine instants, 12 artifacts, 13 enchantments,and34 lands. Much of the deck causes burn damage to occur to opponents for doing basic game actions (such as drawing) or protecting your commander.
Key Cards
Valgavoth, Harrower Of Souls
The commander of the deck,Valgavoth, Harrower of Soulsis what everything is built around. It willslowly gain +1/+1 counters on it each time an opponent loses life on their turn. This applies toevery opponent’s turn, so you have the opportunity to give it three counters by the time your next turn comes around.
The ward cost will contribute to getting a +1/+1 counter on itself. Even if Valgavoth gets removed, if it’s on an opponent’s turn, you’ll still get a card draw out of it thanks to the ward needing to be paid.
Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls also acts as its own draw engine. Rakdos can struggle with natural card draw without sacrificing something else, so Valgavoth giving you cards for no downside is especially excellent.
Mogis, God Of Slaughter
Mogis, God of Slaughter is useful for one of two things. It will eitherburn your opponent and trigger Valgavoth, orforce your opponent to sacrifice a creature. This gives you an advantage one way or another, either in card advantage or board advantage over your opponents.
SinceMogis is indestructible, it can only be removed through exiling. While two burn damage isn’t a ton on its own, it quickly stacks up with all the other ways there are to burn your opponents in the deck. It will quickly reach the point where your opponents have no choice but to sacrifice their creatures.
Roiling Vortex
You want as many ways to deal damage during your opponent’s turn as possible. Roiling Vortex is one of the best as everyone will always take one damage. Lifegain can put a hamper on your plans, so Roiling Vortex’sability to prevent lifegain for just one manais crucial in shutting it down.
Roiling Vortex comes with the bonus ofcausing massive burn damage to anyone who casts a spell without spending mana. Free spells aren’t too uncommon in Commander (especially in higher power games), so this burn can quickly rack up.
Seizan, Perverter Of Truth
A lot of cards in the deck deal burn damage whenever an opponent draws a card. This makes Seizan, Perverter of Truthone of the best ways to force even more burn damagethrough. Theextra two life lost and two cardslead to massive bursts of damage before your opponent even starts their main phase.
Seizan alsodraws you two cards and burns you for two life, but you don’t get burned for drawing excess like your opponents will with your other cards. This keeps your hand refreshed with more of your key cards to push your advantage further.
Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin
Most of the burn damage is done in one damage increments. That burn will trigger Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin’seffect, whichwill give you more cards to work with when your turn comes along. Its stats grow with each trigger, and it isn’t limited to just once per turn.
The cards exiled with Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin are able to be used untilyour next end step. This means if they are exiled during your opponent’s turn, you will still be able to use them next time your turn comes around.
Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin has bothflying and trample, making it abig threat in the air along with Valgavoth. These two cards are going to be your primary attackers, as theyare the ones that can easily rack up +1/+1 countersto deal large outbursts of damage.
How To Play The Deck
A Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls Commander deck isall aboutslowly burning your opponentswhile dwindling down their life totals with your commander. The deck deals a ton of small burn damage that rapidly stacks up to very quickly snowball into a ton of burn once you hit the late game.
One of the primary sources of burn are cards that burn when your opponent draws a card. These includeFate Unraveler, Razokin Needlehead, Scrawling Crawler, andUnderworld Dreams.
You also have sources that double damage to make the burn hurt that much more such asTwinflame Tyrant, City on Fire, Fiery Emancipation, andGratuitous Violence.
Each effect triggers individually, so they will all stack together. In the case of damage doublers, you can choose which order they are doubled or tripled as they happen.
Theprimary win condition of the deck is winning through burn damage. You can deal a ton of passive burn damage, which you want combined with damage doublers.Ojer Axonil, Deepest Mightis especially strong for that, as it causes red sources to do a minimum of four damage.
As the burn damage goes on, you can attack with Valgvaoth, Harrower of Soulsto make the life drain much quicker to get your opponents down to zero life as quickly as possible.
Thebiggest downside to the deck is a weak early game. You need some time to set up, especially becauseRakdos can’t ramp very well. You willalso be getting hurt by your burn cards yourself sometimes.
There isn’t a ton of lifegain in the deck, so coming back from the burn can be a struggle. That is why Witch’s Clinicis such an important land, as it can give Valgavoth lifelink to gain a lot of life once it has a ton of counters to help stabilize.
