Budget EDH: Kaervek's Wrath

Interesting, thank you.

Great deck! I love punishment decks. Haha. You should think about doing a Grixis punishment EDH deck with Nekusar as the commander

* With the exception of Price of Knowledge I don't see any cards that support your commander. I would expect Black Vise, Iron Maiden, Viseling etc., all of which are budget. Next step would be to include cards that let everybody draw. If good old Howling Mine is still too expensive for you, there is Otherworld Atlas and Temple Bell. Instead you run stuff like Blightning which has bad synergy with both Price of Knowledge and your commander.

* Is this for single play or multiplayer? Cards like Blightning do not only have bad synergy with your commander, they are also pretty useless in multiplayer EDH. Slightly annoying a single player isn't worth much, especially in a free-for-all, all you are doing is making enemies without achieving much. Skull Rend, at least, hits all opponents, but Blightning has the additional disadvantage that it can't hit creatures. You don't see people running Hymn to Tourach in their EDH decks even though Hymn is one of the best discarders ever made. Why? Because this is a 1-on-1 card where games are fast and where an advantage of a single card makes all the difference. But in EDH you can consider it a wasted draw since you have more than one opponent, discarding often times helps them and the games last longer, so you could have had something devastating instead.
Having said all of that I would KEEP that Duress! You can pick what to discard and that can make all the difference, sometimes you just have to get rid of a bomb.

* Witch Hunt, while being a fun card, does probably not belong here. Yes, you have no lifegain yourself that Witch Hunt could shut down, however, that's precisely why you shouldn't play this. See, every single life of yours is precious and Witch Hunt does it's first 4 damage to you! Since your deck tends to be annoying, you won't have many friends anyway, so I don't see how this would help when several opponents are angry with you. Again, this would probably be okay in 1-on-1 where it is easier to judge how much damage will be incoming. However, in 1-on-1 the With Hunt will come back to you every turn for sure!
Same is true for Havoc Festival - you also have to cut your life into half each turn and I don't see any card in the deck that let's you get rid if it.
If you want to prevent lifegain, my suggestions would be:
- Leyline of Punishment (this, at least, doesn't hurt you)
- Skullcrack (it's one-shot, however, it can be played in response to lifegain, wasting that lifeganing spell and cathing the opponent by surprise because he counted on that life. Enchantments suffer from the problem that the opponents see them - so they wait with their lifegaining spells until they can destroy the enchantment)
- Punishing Fire (it doesn't prevent the lifegain but you get it back each time and thus can negate to of the life - or kill a creature which is also fine)

* Smash is good but for multiplayer I would strongly prefer Shattering Pulse.

* Since you have access to black mana, Tormod's Crypt is a bad choice, should be upgraded to Nihil Spellbomb.

* I may be wrong but I think you run a tad bit too much artifact mana. Problem being here that a) at some point you don't need more mana and b) sooner or later somebody will blow up a Disk, Pernicious Deed or similar, destroying all your jewellery. I recommend to at least replace that Worn Powerstone with Mind Stone which can be sacced in response to destruction or when you don't need it in order to draw a replacement card. Also, in a 2 colour deck, I would play Bloodstone Cameo over Prismatic Lens.

* For the same reason I would not play with those Myrs at all! As low-toghness artifact creatures they are MUCH more fragile, in fact a toughness 1 artifact creature is about the most easily destroyable permanent. Instead try:
- Nightscape Familiar (makes your red spells cheaper und unlike those Myrs he can regenerate)
- Grinning Ignus (you generate +2 mana the turn you use him and then he sits safely in your hand)

Oh and Scuttlemutt is strictly better than than Palladium Myr.

* The deck is light on mass creature removal. Probably due to budget reasons because Damnation, Mutilate and so on are expensive. However, there are budget alternatives and isn't it your job to find those? EDH decks can't survive without mass removal, especially not a deck like this that runs no lifegain and has no defense, just offense that pisses everbody off! Archfiend of Depravity is a good start and Massacre Wurm deals with weenies, but that's hardly enough. You also run Earthquake but that hurts yourself, too, I wouldn't play that in this deck because when you need it, you probably can't afford to play it anymore. There are cards (within budget restaints!) that equal damnations in multiplayer EDH:
- Chain Reaction
- Chandra's Ignition (that is, if you have one fatty)
- Magma Quake (should replace the Earthquake, it hits ALL creatures AND planeswalkers but NOT you! This is a no-brainer)
- Deathbringer Regent

* Running 35 lands in addition to all those mana artifacts and creatures is also risky. Yes, you have some quite expensive cards, but sooner or later you will sit there with lots of mana and an empty hand. I would replace one Mountain and one Swamp with cycling lands. It probably doesn't matter much for this deck if you go with Barren Moore and Forgotten Cave or with Smoldering Crater and Polluted Mire. Go with whatever is a few cent cheaper :P

* You have zero ways to handle enchantments. I know that there isn't much you can do in black and red and that the few options may be too expensive for budget, but I would at least run a Nevinyrral's Disk that you can tutor for. The ones from Commander 2013 and 2014 are way below 2 dollars.

* Similarily you run zero land destruction which will also come back on you in any environment that isn't complete noobs/budget. If you can't stop Volrath's Stronghold or out-of-control Cabal Coffers or Tolarian Academy for example, you'll be dead. There are lots of viable options, easiest (and budget) would be Ghost Quarters but since you are running the the primal land destruction colour there is a plethora of other options like Lay Waste/Volcanic Summersion (can be cycled if you don't need it).

* Skimming the rest of the cards I have to stress once more the fact that you damage yourself alot without having any way to replenisch your life. I especially question that Kothophed guy - in fact the presence of him in this deck makes me wonder if you have ever actually played EDH. His last ability is NOT a *may* effect! A simple Wrath of God may cause you to lose a dozen or two life. Kothophed is suicide in multiplayer!
Even if this is for 1-on-1 (which I doubt because you run Skull Rend), he is way too risky. And you already run Read the Bones and Bloodgift Demon ... at least, the latter one's ability is a may effect, but at this point I really think you should add lifegain. To make room I would cut, as explained above, the Myrs. And the Kothopod guy. Here are good budget EDH lifegainers:
- Crypt Incursion, Suffer the Past (doubles as a foil against reanimation strategies which virtually any good EDH deck employs)
- Sun Droplet (triggers in each player's upkeep, so in a 5 player game, you get back 5 life per turn)
- Exsanguinate (it costs a dollar but it's so much worth it inmultiplayer!
- Whip of Erebos (gains you MASSIVE amounts of life. It's also about 1 dollar, though)
- Eternal Thirst/Mark of the Vampire (If 1 dollar is still too much to ask you can use these to grant lifelink. If you manage to put one on Kaervek, it should be a pretty sweet deal)