With the release of the Duskmourn: House of Horror set came 4 new commander pre-cons (pre-constructed commander decks), and we got our hands on one of the pre-constructed Commander Decks, from our LGS, Classroom The Gaming Center. It’s none other than the pre-con featuring Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls. Here’s our MTG Duskmourn Endless Punishment Review and here’s what I think about it.
MTG Duskmourn Endless Punishment Review
The Commander: Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls
Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls is an Elder Demon that costs 4 mana {2} {1 Black}{1Red} and is flying 4/4 Rakdos commander. Ward is nice, isn’t it? Well, Valgavoth comes with it and the price is 2 life. Even if Valgavoth kicks the bucket from spot removal, you get a card because of his ward, but this benefit will only trigger on your opponent’s turn. Instant speed removal won’t trigger this benefit on your turn, sadly.
How Does the Deck Work?
So, Valgavoth is a little tricky to run, because you will need to pay attention to when life-loss is triggered, and it must be on anyone else’s turn but yours. Despite that, Valgavoth does not need to be on the board for you to win the game; he’s a card draw engine with good value for 4 CMC (Casting Mana Cost), but not a win-con (Win Condition).
The deck runs a lot of synergistic effects in tune with Valgavoth’s passive ability with cards like Nightshade Harvester, Rampaging Ferocidon, and Stormfist Crusader. All these cards are included in the pre-con and have abilities that trigger during an opponent’s turn, forcing opponents to deal with it before the cumulative loss of life begins to affect them in the long run. Some cards make great removal bait, with threats like Blood Artist and Mogis, God of Slaughter reprinted in this deck. Take a look at the decklist we obtained from MTGGoldfish below:
The Goal
The goal is to get your opponent’s life total to zero, and this deck can do this very effectively with or without Valgavoth in play. The secondary commander, The Lord of Pain will more effectively hurt your opponents than Valgavoth himself. Costing 5 mana {3} {1 Black} {1 Red}, The Lord of Pain comes with Menace and shuts down life gain for your opponents, and the second ability will dish out damage every time a spell is cast, based on the CMC of the spell.
To effectively increase the damage, the deck comes with a nice red Room card, Spiked Corridor // Torture Pit that costs 4 mana {3 } {1 Red}. The Spiked Corridor side will create 3 Devil (1/1) creature tokens that deal one damage to any target when it dies. Meanwhile, the Torture side is the one you want, because if your opponents are taking non-combat damage, then they’ll take an additional 2.
Let’s Talk about Reprint Value
The deck has a couple of recognisable and fairly good reprints, with Mogis, God of Slaughter having its second reprint after showing up in that abomination of a Secret Lair, sAnS mERcY. As of 2nd October 2024, and based on Card Kingdom, the valuable reprints in this deck are shown below:
The mana base in this deck is more than just good for a pre-con, it’s great! Sure, the deck isn’t super-fast unless you have a starting hand with Sol Ring and Arcane Signet, but with few interruptions, you can get the deck going long before your opponents catch on.
Potential Upgrades
We’d like to recommend Grievous Wound and Bloodletter of Aclazotz for a straight-up instant-kill combo. Sure, it’ll only work for one opponent, and the other 2 players might just end you for it, and it’s still just 2 cards out of 99; nevertheless, any chance at a KO is still a chance. Both cards can be found on Card Kingdom for USD1.29 and USD29.99 respectively.
Another card that you could run in the deck is Unstoppable Slasher, – USD5.49 on Card Kingdom – a resilient creature that is difficult for opponents to remove for just 3 mana {2}{1 Black}, and it will turn you into a threat on the board. You could also play Sanguine Bond and Exquisite Blood, because all those tiny increments of life-loss and life-gain will eventually pay off in the end. Both cards can be found on Card Kingdom for USD 4.99 and USD 29.99.
The only problem I see in a deck like Valgavoth is if your other draw spells don’t come out and over-reliance on Valgavoth as a draw engine is eventually going to catch someone’s eye. So, running Unholy Annex // Ritual Chamber, a Room Enchantment, to add more card draw never hurt, and the best part is that Valgavoth is a demon and can immediately take advantage of the the Unholy Annex side. It’s an awesome new Duskmourn card that is valued at USD0.69 on Card Kingdom.
Not too long ago, we ran into an article by MTG Rocks that pointed out Chandra, Awakened Inferno’s massive bump in value recently due to the Valgavoth pre-con; she’s now going for USD 8.99 on Card Kingdom. It goes without saying that this card is a great addition to the deck, not just because it’s a Planeswalker, but it’s a Planeswalker that can’t be countered, which is a big deal. On top of that, Chandra’s plus ability gives opponents an Emblem that deals 1 damage to them at every upkeep, and Emblems are special tokens that can’t be removed.
Should You Get the Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls?
Out of the 4 pre-cons available, Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls commands a deck value of USD 85.21, based on the full deck list info we got from MTGGoldfish. Speaking just value-wise, if you pre-ordered the deck, you would have picked the deck up for a good price. Locally, here in Malaysia – at Classroom Cafe – an LGS store we go to (in fact, got our decks at) – during the pre-order phase, it was going roughly RM 157.5- RM 175 per deck (if you pre-ordered the bundle of 4 pre-cons).
At the moment, as the deck appears to be popular, it’s sold out on the Wizards official store on Shopee, with a listed price of RM203.99. That said, the deck is going for anywhere from RM 350 onwards – making it the most expensive deck to obtain from the Duskmourn set. Although, we are sure that some stores, at least locally, allow you to buy all 4 decks for a slightly cheaper price, therefore making all the decks cost pretty much the same. Case in point, you could get all 4 decks for RM 900 with Classroom, which brings each deck to about RM 225 each.
Personal Thoughts
I have never played Red in any of my Commander decks, but this deck was quite fun to play right out of the box. Black is my favourite colour to play, and my first deck is a mono Black deck, with Forge, Neverwinter Charlatan, as my Commander. So, the deck does things that I find familiar, and I do appreciate not having to deal combat damage in order to hurt my opponents, so that part was super nice. I can safely say it’s a deck I don’t mind playing, but personally I’d pick my Forge deck over it, ehe.
If you like what the deck does or you like the commander, I’d say get the deck, but not for an over-the-top price tag. The deck is good, but not good enough to warrant a price tag that goes over RM 200. For me, I probably wouldn’t mind giving the deck another few rounds of play, because it was fun to play, but that’s about it, so the deck isn’t worth it for me.
I feel the Esper (White, Blue, Black) deck, with Aminatou, Veil Piercer as the commander is interesting. Unfortunately, I didn’t get my hands on the deck to play it, and it is also a fiercely popular pre-con from this set, as it is sold out as well. However, if I do get to play it, I’ll be sure to share my thoughts with you.
So, if you’re looking to pick up the pre-con, Endless Punishment, Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls, then you can head on over to Classroom Café in Uptown, as that’s where we got our Valgavoth deck from. Alternatively, you could head over to your nearest LGS, or even check out Wizards the Coast’s Official store on Shopee that still has the pre-con bundle for sale.
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