The Commander
Protection from everything
If Progenitus would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, reveal Progenitus and shuffle it into its owner's library instead.
Guide
Gameplan
Progenitus is a five-color value pile: ramp hard, cheat or pay the 10 mana, and use a 10/10 protection-from-everything beater that can't be blocked, targeted, or killed. In practice the commander is just a colorless excuse to play the best cards in all five colors, leaning on ramp, fixing, and a powerful midrange-to-combo gameplan while Progenitus serves as an unstoppable backup wincon.
Strengths
- Access to the entire color pie means no card pool restrictions and the best tutors, ramp, and removal in the game
- Protection from everything makes Progenitus nearly impossible to interact with—unblockable, untargetable, can't be destroyed
- Built-in recursion (shuffles back instead of dying) keeps it as a reliable threat all game
- Connects for 10 evasive damage, three hits to kill any opponent
Weaknesses
- 10 mana is brutal without ramp or cheat effects; clunky in the early game
- No built-in card advantage or board impact from the command zone
- Vulnerable to non-targeted answers like edicts, sacrifice effects, -X/-X wraths, and exile-all
- Five-color manabase is expensive and fragile to mana denial
- Protection doesn't stop chump blockers, fogs, or flashy combo decks that win first
Key Cards
- Cultivate — Premium five-color ramp that fixes and accelerates toward the ten-drop.
- Chromatic Lantern — Solves all color requirements in a WUBRG manabase in one card.
- Smothering Tithe — Snowballing mana that pays for Progenitus and the rest of your expensive spells.
- Cyclonic Rift — Best-in-color blue reset that complements the all-colors goodstuff plan.
- Rampant Growth — Cheap fixing and ramp that smooths the five-color mana early.
- Maze of Ith — Doesn't stop Progenitus due to protection but neutralizes opposing attackers.
Upgrade Path
Prioritize fast, redundant ramp and fixing (Mana Crypt, Sol Ring, Mana Confluence, Prismatic Omen) so Progenitus and your bombs land early, and add cheat-into-play effects like Sneak Attack or Quicksilver Amulet to dodge the cost. Then layer in a tight combo finish—Thassa's Oracle, infinite-mana outlets, or extra-turn loops—so you don't rely solely on combat. Cut clunky high-cost cards that don't advance ramp, protection, or a fast win.
Core Cards
The most-played cards for this commander, built from aggregated deck data (the Mythic Graph). Build public decks to seed it.
Win Conditions
- ▸Three swings with an unblockable, untargetable 10/10 Progenitus
- ▸Assembling a five-color combo (e.g. infinite mana or extra turns into a payoff)
- ▸Grinding out card and mana advantage, then closing with big spells and Progenitus
- ▸Reanimating or cheating in additional fatties alongside the commander
Archetypes
- Five-Color Goodstuff — Open color identity lets you jam the strongest cards from every color around a resilient finisher.
- Ramp/Midrange — Heavy mana acceleration powers out Progenitus and a curve of bombs.
- Reanimator/Cheat — Effects that put creatures into play sidestep the steep 10-mana cost.
- Combo — WUBRG access supports any five-color combo line with Progenitus as insurance.
Combos
- Magus of the Candelabra + Staff of Domination + Keeper of Progenitus
→ Infinite card draw, Infinite draw triggers, Infinite lifegain
- Ashaya, Soul of the Wild + Magus of the Candelabra + Keeper of Progenitus
→ Infinite green mana, Infinite mana lands you control can produce
- Ashaya, Soul of the Wild + Pili-Pala + Keeper of Progenitus
→ Infinite colored mana
- Springheart Nantuko + Overlord of the Hauntwoods + Spelunking + Keeper of Progenitus
→ Infinite ETB, Infinite creature tokens, Infinite tapped Swamp tokens
- Springheart Nantuko + Dryad Arbor + Keeper of Progenitus + Akroma's Memorial
→ Infinite ETB, Infinite tapped creature tokens, Infinite landfall triggers
Combos via Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (BGRUW), by popularity.
