Valgavoth by FirstStrike

Format: Commander

Commander: Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls

Bracket: 3

DeckCheck Threat Index: 27

Deck overview

This is a Rakdos punishment deck built around Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls. The commander rewards any opponent losing life during that opponent's turn, so effects such as Manabarbs, Mogis, God of Slaughter, Roiling Vortex, and Fate Unraveler can generate counters and cards while taxing the table. The list also includes a Voltron package with Blackblade Reforged, Fireshrieker, Hard-Won Jitte, Swiftfoot Boots, and The Reaver Cleaver, plus alternate pressure from Shredder, Shadow Master. Its main weakness is that the engines are expensive and exposed, while the deck lacks enough acceleration and protection to operate like cEDH. It can create strong incremental advantage and punish ordinary play, but it does not reliably convert that advantage into a full-table kill. Large drain spells, combat damage, or Bolas's Citadel can finish favorable games, but their combined prerequisites are not dependable enough for a fixed ordinary finish turn.

Decklist (100 cards)

• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Barbflare Gremlin
• 1 Basilisk Collar
• 1 Bedevil
• 1 Blackblade Reforged
• 1 Blazemire Verge
• 1 Blood Artist
• 1 Blood Seeker
• 1 Bloodfell Caves
• 1 Boiling Rock Prison
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Bolas's Citadel
• 1 Brash Taunter
• 1 Canyon Slough
• 1 Cemetery Gatekeeper
• 1 City of Brass
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Cool but Rude
• 1 Dark Ritual
• 1 Demonic Tutor
• 1 Dragonskull Summit
• 1 Eidolon of the Great Revel
• 1 Emeritus of Woe // Demonic Tutor
• 1 Escape Tunnel
• 1 Eternal Thirst
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Exsanguinate
• 1 Fabled Passage
• 1 Fate Unraveler
• 1 Fire Nation Palace
• 1 Fireshrieker
• 1 Gleeful Arsonist
• 1 Goblin Sharpshooter
• 1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1 Hard-Won Jitte
• 1 Harsh Mentor
• 1 Hawkeye, Young Avenger
• 1 Hexing Squelcher
• 1 Infernal Grasp
• 1 Kardur, Doomscourge
• 1 Kederekt Parasite
• 1 Manabarbs
• 1 Marauding Blight-Priest
• 1 Massacre Wurm
• 1 Mayhem Devil
• 1 Mogis, God of Slaughter
• 1 Morbid Opportunist
• 7 Mountain
• 1 Necropotence
• 1 Nightshade Harvester
• 1 Ob Nixilis, the Hate-Twisted
• 1 Painful Lesson
• 1 Rakdos Carnarium
• 1 Rakdos Charm
• 1 Rampaging Ferocidon
• 1 Razorkin Needlehead
• 1 Razortrap Gorge
• 1 Read the Bones
• 1 Reflecting Pool
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Rocky Tar Pit
• 1 Roiling Vortex
• 1 Screaming Nemesis
• 1 Shredder, Shadow Master
• 1 Sign in Blood
• 1 Skullclamp
• 1 Smoldering Marsh
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Spellshock
• 1 Stab Wound
• 1 Stensian Sanguinist // Exsanguinate
• 8 Swamp
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 Syr Konrad, the Grim
• 1 Terminate
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 The Frightful Four
• 1 The Reaver Cleaver
• 1 Thought Vessel
• 1 Torment of Hailfire
• 1 Toxic Deluge
• 1 Tree of Perdition
• 1 Valgavoth's Lair
• 1 Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls
• 1 Vampire Nighthawk
• 1 Vector, Imperial Capital
• 1 Victimize