“Tell em the whole story”
Art:Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls
by Chris Cold
Commander can be a very expensive format with the top-end and certain cards costing a crazy amount of money, but with so many cards within the format, there are tons of great cheap versions that have similar effects and can still work very well within the deck. Valgavoth is a deck that interested me a ton as I think the commander is really cool; because of this, I started researching cheap cards that can improve the deck a ton. Below are five upgrades for the Endless Punishment precon that won’t break the bank and still provide a ton of utility! I have also included what cards I cut from the Endless Punishment Precon! Without further adieu, let’s get it!
Table of Contents
#5:
Copies of this card typically go from 0.25 to 0.50 cents.
I cut Vial Smasher the Fierce
for Rug of Smothering
Rug of Smothering has a crazy high damage output which can help us even beyond triggering our commander; Vial Smasher is only the first time a turn, and being able to hit a player or planeswalker is nice, but I feel like it only being once per turn really affects our damage output as rug of smothering can deal a ton of damage to decks in the mid-late game and while it does affect us, we typically don’t have very many turns where we are spamming spells.
I like Rug of Smothering a lot in this deck, and I’m honestly surprised it’s not included in the precon already; this card is quite strong and represents an extremely consistent way to trigger your commander continuously and really hurt decks that like to cast multiple things on a turn. As a key piece against certain strategies like Spellslinger or just for a way to trigger our commander, I like this card a lot. While this does hurt us as well, most versions of Valgavoth typically aren’t casting a ton of spells in a turn.
#4:
Copies of this card typically go from 5 to 6 dollars.
I cut Braids, Arisen Nightmare
for Ankh of Mishra
Braids fit very well into the theme of the deck, Ankh of Mishra hurts people for doing one of the things they do almost every turn and is a consistent source of damage and trigger for our commander. Braids is no doubt a great card but I really like Ankh of Mishra as I find it works with our commander much better.
#3:
Copies of this card typically go from 3 to 4 dollars.
I cut Séance Board
for Barbed Wire
Seance Board is a very fun and flavorful card but doesn’t interact with our commander or deck very well, and in my opinion, Barbed Wire is way more gameplan-focused and keeps the deck doing what it wants to do, triggering our commander and swinging hard!
Barbed Wire is a very efficient piece of equipment for the deck but has the benefit of triggering on each player’s upkeep which allows us to make our commander huge and get a ton of card advantage, even after just one or two go-arounds of this on the board our commander can hit like an absolute truck, if you have extra mana you can prevent the damage as well but i almost never do because this card accelerates our deck so much that we can easily just run opponents over and the minimal amount of life we will lose really doesn’t matter.
#2:
Copies of this card typically go from 3 to 4 dollars
I cut Theater of Horrors
for Manabarbs
Theater of Horrors is quite a bit of mana investment for not a ton of results, and in terms of production and triggering our commander as well as overall damage, Manabarbs just blows it out of the water and is way better and a cheaper way to trigger our commander and just have a high damage output overall.
Manabarbs is a true slam-dunk in this deck and deals a crazy amount of damage and can easily put a ton of pressure on our opponents; as someone who has faced against a manabarbs many of times, this card is oppressive and can really take over the game, and make even the simplest of turns a lot more painful, in this deck it buffs our commander consistently and gives us a great source of card draw for not a lot of investment and the damage it deals overall allows us to have a leg-up when its time to go to combat.
#1:
Copies of this card are typically 7 to 10 Dollars
I cut Light Up the Stage
for Bloodchief Ascension
I think that Bloodchief needs no introduction. It is an extremely powerful and very strong enchantment, and with how many things we kill in this deck, we can easily turn it on and deal a ton of damage and gain a ton of life, making us extremely hard to kill. Bloodchief Ascension is a true home run for the deck and a card that is a lot cheaper than it once was; in my opinion, this is the necessary pickup for the deck!
Conclusion:
Thanks for reading to the end and I hope you all enjoyed this short and sweet one! Stay tuned for the next few weeks when we do this for all of the commander precons for Duskmourn.