The Lord of Pain Commander Deck Tech

Lights, Camera, Pain

Enter the plane of Duskmourn: House of Horror, where The Lord of Pain

As colors flash across the screen, the tension rises. The Lord of Pain springs into action whenever a player casts the first spell in their turn. You choose a target player, and that player takes damage equal to the mana value of that spell. In a multiplayer format like Commander, it's constant punishment. The Lord of Pain triggers off every player's first spell, both yours and your opponents', which can quickly start to dish out tons of damage. With the bonus of blocking life gain, there is absolutely no escape from the increasing pain.

Familiar Faces in the Horror Show

Before we go into how to make the most of The Lord of Pain's ability, a few cards have effects similar to The Lord of Pain. The first is Vial Smasher the Fierce

Maximize the Harm Done

How can you make the most of The Lord of Pain

Bloodsoaked Insight

In my opinion, the coolest cost-reducer is Shadow of Mortality

Another way to maximize the amount of pain our opponents feel is by casting spells on your turns and theirs. The Lord of Pain

Join the Party 

While The Lord of Pain is awesome, we need other ways to deal with the damage. Adding other ways to deal damage helps to give depth to your strategy and keeps opponents on their toes. Some options listed below mesh pretty well with the general theme of dealing damage, but they all do it in different ways.

Damage from Card Draw

Your opponents won't want to draw cards when Stormfist Crusader

Damage from Creatures Entering the Battlefield 

Rampaging Ferocidon

Damages from Casting Spells

Scytheclaw Raptor

Damage from Creatures Dying 

Looking to take advantage of death on the battlefield, say no more. Cards such as Massacre Wurm

You can mix and match your flavors of pain. There are a bunch of options for these tax-like effects. You don't need to include all these options in your deck, but pick and choose your favorites!

Doubling Down on the Pain

Between The Lord of Pain and any added sources of damage on the field, our opponent's life totals can quickly shrink. To speed up the process, we can add some damage and/or life-loss-doublers into the mix, acting as solid win conditions.

Fiendish Duo

Bloodletter of Aclazotz

I will say that quite a few different damage-doublers and life loss effects are floating around, all at varying converted mana costs, permanent types, etc. Pick and choose your favorites. I wouldn't overload on these effects because, with too many of them, you won't have enough sources of actual damage.

Painful Payoffs

The Lord of Pain and other cards in the deck all deal damage though noncombat damage and a lot of it. We can take advantage of this through some payoffs. Standouts include Fear of Burning Alive

Florian, Voldaren Scion

Lifelink

While The Lord of Blood states that opponents can't gain life, we can earn tons of life by giving The Lord of Blood lifelink. Assuming each player plays at least one spell on their turn, The Lord of Blood will have its ability trigger four times, and with lifelink we'd gain life on each trigger. The easiest way to give our commander lifelink is through Equipment, such as Basilisk Collar

With the Power of Friendship

What better way to amplify the agony than teaming up The Lord of Blood with Obosh, the Preypiercer

Obosh is a great companion for this deck. It pairs exceptionally well with The Lord of Blood, doubling the damage dealt by the ability this entire deck is centered around. We've talked about how deadly doubling damage is, and having easy access to a damage doubler throughout the game will end games even quicker. 

The Final Curtain: A Painful Encore

As the credits roll, this deck is a real scream-a-thon full of twists and turns with a plot of just pure pain for your opponents tying it together. Every card plays a character in this show of horrors, continuously creating tension as your opponents will be on edge with anticipation.

So, what do you think? How would you extend the twisted strategies of The Lord of Pain to amplify the agony even more? Thanks for reading, and I'm eager to hear your spine-chilling ideas!