Blood & Taxes v1 by BrainVirus

Format: Commander

Commander: Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls

Bracket: 4

DeckCheck Threat Index: 40

Deck overview

This deck is a Rakdos Group Slug strategy built around Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls. The game plan revolves around deploying cheap, persistent damage sources like Roiling Vortex, Razorkin Needlehead, and Fate Unraveler that deal damage to opponents on their own turns. When Valgavoth enters the battlefield, these triggers draw an extra card and add a +1/+1 counter during each opponent's turn, generating up to three bonus cards and substantial stat growth per table rotation. Mid-game scaling pieces such as Manabarbs, Spellshock, and Solphim, Mayhem Dominus severely punish standard game actions, draining life totals whenever opponents tap lands or cast spells. The deck closes games through compounded noncombat burn, evasive commander combat damage, life-drain finishers like Gray Merchant of Asphodel, or the infinite drain combo of Exquisite Blood and Sanguine Bond. While lacking countermagic and direct tutors, its extreme functional redundancy ensures consistent execution.

Decklist (100 cards)

• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Arid Mesa
• 1 Ash Barrens
• 1 Badlands
• 1 Basilisk Collar
• 1 Bedevil
• 1 Blackcleave Cliffs
• 1 Blasphemous Act
• 1 Blazemire Verge
• 1 Blood Artist
• 1 Blood Crypt
• 1 Blood Seeker
• 1 Bloodchief Ascension
• 1 Bloodstained Mire
• 1 Brash Taunter
• 1 Chaos Warp
• 1 Citadel of Pain
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Decree of Pain
• 1 Dragonskull Summit
• 1 Enchanter's Bane
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Exquisite Blood
• 1 Fate Unraveler
• 1 Feed the Swarm
• 1 Fellwar Stone
• 1 Foreboding Ruins
• 1 Gleeful Arsonist
• 1 Graven Cairns
• 1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1 Harsh Mentor
• 1 Haunted Ridge
• 1 Immolation Shaman
• 1 Infernal Grasp
• 1 Kaervek the Merciless
• 1 Kardur, Doomscourge
• 1 Kederekt Parasite
• 1 Leechridden Swamp
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Luxury Suite
• 1 Magebane Lizard
• 1 Manabarbs
• 1 Marsh Flats
• 1 Massacre Girl
• 1 Massacre Wurm
• 1 Mayhem Devil
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Mogis, God of Slaughter
• 1 Morbid Opportunist
• 7 Mountain
• 1 Nightshade Harvester
• 1 Orcish Bowmasters
• 1 Persistent Constrictor
• 1 Pyrohemia
• 1 Rakdos Charm
• 1 Rakdos Signet
• 1 Rampaging Ferocidon
• 1 Razorkin Needlehead
• 1 Roiling Vortex
• 1 Rug of Smothering
• 1 Sanguine Bond
• 1 Scalding Tarn
• 1 Scrawling Crawler
• 1 Shadowblood Ridge
• 1 Shadowspear
• 1 Shivan Gorge
• 1 Sign in Blood
• 1 Smoldering Marsh
• 1 Snuff Out
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Solphim, Mayhem Dominus
• 1 Spellshock
• 1 Spiked Corridor // Torture Pit
• 1 Spiteful Visions
• 1 Star Athlete
• 1 Sulfurous Springs
• 7 Swamp
• 1 Syr Konrad, the Grim
• 1 Séance Board
• 1 Tainted Peak
• 1 Talisman of Indulgence
• 1 Teferi's Puzzle Box
• 1 Thought Vessel
• 1 Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls
• 1 Verdant Catacombs
• 1 Vial Smasher the Fierce
• 1 Witch's Clinic
• 1 Zo-Zu the Punisher