Welcome back, precon pals, to our final precon guide for Duskmourn: House of Horror. We’ve brought out our surgical equipment to cut up the Endless Punishment precon. And there’s no anesthetic.

In case you missed it, go check out my review of the deck here. I gave the deck a solid grade, hindered mostly by lackluster new cards. Can we make it better?

Let’s tune up.

What’s in the Original Deck?

Endless Punishment is red and black (Rakdos), and led by Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls, a 4/4 Elder Demon with flying and ward - pay 2 life. And whenever an opponent loses life for the first time on their own turn, we draw a card and put a +1/+1 counter on Valgavoth. 

Our backup commander is The Lord of Pain, a 5/5 Human Assassin with menace that prevents our opponents from gaining life. And whenever a player casts their first spell each turn, we choose another target player and have Lord of Pain deal damage to that player equal to that spell’s mana value.

Here’s the original deck list:

What Budget Cards Can We Add to Endless Punishment?

We’ll break our upgrade up into two parts, one for budget cards (less than $5) and one for non-budget ($5 or more).

Two things I felt were missing in the precon were graveyard recursion and hand size enhancers (with all the cards Val draws, we need it). We’ll add these in for recursion: Phyrexian Reclamation and Archpriest of Shadows. And these for hand size: Reliquary Tower and Decanter of Endless Water.

After that, it’s all just about draining more life from our opponents. Let’s start by adding my favorite Magic card, Psychosis Crawler. With all the cards Val will draw you, we may as well make that hurt for our opponents. The punishment is supposed to be endless, right?

Let’s get our opponents in on the fun of draining each other. Calculating Lich does just that, by adding some extra life loss when our opponents get attacked.

Granted, if we’re the archenemy, our opponents might work together to avoid this. But this deck is meant to be the villain, so let’s play into that.

Speaking of which, how about Sower of Discord? This links two players together in a life loss scheme. But watch out, cuz if it’s just you and another player, this card ain’t so good.

For dealing out even more damage, we have Immolation Shaman, which hits opponents when they activate non-mana abilities of artifacts, creatures, or lands. Roiling Vortex hits each player for one damage on their upkeep.

Rug of Smothering drains each player one life when they cast a spell for each spell they cast in that turn. Chandra’s Incinerator pings creatures and planeswalkers when we deal noncombat damage to opponents. And Revenge of Ravens drains opponents’ life totals when they attack us.

For increasing damage our damage dealt, we’ll add in Fiery Emancipation and Tor Wauki the Younger. And to make sure Valgavoth can sneak in for commander damage, we’ll give him a Rogue’s Passage.

These cards from the precon are getting tossed into the abyss:

• Barbflare Gremlin
• Bastion of Remembrance
• Bedevil
• Braids, Arisen Nightmare
• Decree of Pain
• Enchanter’s Bane
• Evolving Wilds
• Fear of Burning Alive
• Florian, Voldaren Scion
• Mask of Griselbrand
• Mayhem Devil
• Morbid Opportunist
• Star Athlete
• Séance Board
• Terramorphic Expanse

Here’s our budget upgraded deck list:

And a few more punishing cards to consider:

• Barbed Servitor
• Burning Earth
• Feast on the Fallen
• Hissing Miasma
• Manabarbs
• Master of Cruelties
• Parasitic Impetus
• Plague Drone
• Swiftfoot Boots
• Tenured Inkcaster
• Torbran, Thane of Red Fell
• Underworld Dreams

What Non-Budget Cards Can We Add to Endless Punishment?

Now we’ll take our budget upgraded list and toss in a bit of expensive spice.

The first thing I want to do with pricey cards is gain lots of life. For that we’re adding Whip of Erebos and Exquisite Blood. The whole point of the deck is to make our opponents lose a ton of life, so we may as well make a profit off of that. 

Whip of Erebos works perfectly with all the creatures we have that deal damage. So we might as well add some more. Razorkin Needlehead, from the main Duskmourn set, hits opponents when they draw cards - which is something they tend to do often.

Another thing players like to do is play lands, so Zo-Zu the Punisher hits players for two damage whenever they do. This includes us, but we'll be fine. Trust me.

We have a lot of effects that make opponents lose one life at a time, so we’ll add in Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin, which will use that life loss to give us even more card advantage. 

For increasing damage, we’ll bring in Uncivil Unrest, which gives all of our creatures riot (when they enter, they either get haste or a +1/+1 counter), and when our creatures with +1/+1 counters do damage, that damage is doubled.

This is mainly for Valgavoth, but having our creatures enter with an additional +1/+1 counter is always beneficial.

Last we have Karazikar, the Eye Tyrant, which goads a creature an opponent controls when we attack that player, and whenever an opponent attacks another opponent the attacker and us both draw a card and lose a life. And then there’s Archfiend of Despair, a 6/6 flying Demon that prevents our opponents from gaining life and doubles all of their life loss.

These cards are getting cut:

• Basilisk Collar
• Immolation Shaman
• Roiling Vortex
• Falkenrath Noble
• Archpriest of Shadows
• Massacre Girl
• Calculating Lich
• Spiked Corridor // Torture Pit

Here’s our non-budget upgraded list:

And a few more pricey cards to consider:

• Darkness
• Orcish Bowmasters
• Sword of the Animist
• Forsaken Wastes
• Bloodletter of Aclazotz
• Solphim, Mayhem Dominus

Damage, Inc.

That’s it for our upgrade guide for Endless Punishment. And for our precon guides for Duskmourn! We took a deck full of damage and made it even more punishing.

What do you think? Did I make this deck better? Any cards I missed? What’s your favorite precon from this set? Let me know in the comments below, or hit me up on Twitter. And don’t forget to check back for more precon party here on EDHREC, cuz the precon party don’t stop.

More Duskmourn Precons:

Death Toll Upgrade Guide

Miracle Worker Upgrade Guide

Jump Scare! Upgrade Guide

Andy Zupke

Andy's been playing Magic on and off since Fallen Empires. He loves to travel, drink, eat, and spend time with family and friends.