This Too Shall Pass: Progenitus Permission

Commander / EDH* Control Creatureless Five Color Multiplayer Ramp

sophomore

Ramp (23)

• 1x Animist's Awakening
• 1x Avatar of Growth
• 1x Blighted Woodland
• 1x Bring to Light
• 1x Circuitous Route
• 1x Collective Voyage
• 1x Cultivate
• 1x Explosive Vegetation
• 1x Far Wanderings
• 1x Farseek
• 1x Grow from the Ashes
• 1x Harrow
• 1x Hunting Wilds
• 1x Kodama's Reach
• 1x Nature's Lore
• 1x New Frontiers
• 1x Nissa's Renewal
• 1x Ranger's Path
• 1x Skyshroud Claim
• 1x Spring / Mind
• 1x Three Visits
• 1x Verdant Confluence
• 1x Veteran Explorer

Recursion (7)

• 1x Bring to Light
• 1x Mystic Retrieval
• 1x Praetor's Counsel
• 1x Regrowth
• 1x Restock
• 1x Seeds of Renewal
• 1x Verdant Confluence

Removal (20)

• 1x Akroma's Vengeance
• 1x Austere Command
• 1x Bane of Progress
• 1x Bring to Light
• 1x Cleansing Nova
• 1x Deadly Tempest
• 1x Decree of Pain
• 1x Descend upon the Sinful
• 1x Fracturing Gust
• 1x Hour of Revelation
• 1x Magus of the Disk
• 1x Merciless Eviction
• 1x Nevinyrral's Disk
• 1x Oblivion Stone
• 1x Perilous Vault
• 1x Planar Cleansing
• 1x Play of the Game
• 1x Rout
• 1x Sublime Exhalation
• 1x Supreme Verdict

Draw (13)

• 1x Allied Strategies
• 1x Bring to Light
• 1x Conflux
• 1x Decree of Pain
• 1x Liliana's Contract
• 1x Mind Spring
• 1x Painful Truths
• 1x Precognitive Perception
• 1x Search for Azcanta  ^Flip
• 1x Secrets of the Golden City
• 1x Sphinx's Revelation
• 1x Spring / Mind
• 1x Tidings

Commander (1)

Land (40)

• 1x Bayou
• 1x Blighted Woodland
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x Canopy Vista
• 1x Cinder Glade
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 11x Forest
• 4x Island
• 2x Mountain
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 8x Plains
• 1x Savannah
• 3x Swamp
• 1x Taiga
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x Tropical Island
• 1x Warped Landscape

Wincons (3)

• 1x Electrodominance
• 1x Magister Sphinx
• 1x Sorin Markov

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Maybeboard

Draw (8)

• 1x Dig Through Time
• 1x Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
• 1x Opportunity
• 1x Overflowing Insight
• 1x Time Spiral
• 1x Timetwister
• 1x Treasure Cruise
• 1x Urban Evolution

Removal (4)

• 1x Blasphemous Act
• 1x Destructive Force
• 1x Martial Coup
• 1x Vona's Hunger

Ramp (1)

• 1x Khalni Heart Expedition

Wincons (3)

• 1x Dark Depths
• 1x Tilonalli's Summoner
• 1x Twilight Prophet

Recursion (1)

• 1x All Suns' Dawn

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This Too Shall Pass

Don't piss off The Soul of the World. It will wipe the floor with your board. Then kill you. Painfully. Slowly. Utterly.

Deck History

This deck was originally an Omnath, Locus of Rage beatdown deck that was designed simply to get Omnath in play, dump as many lands onto the field as possible, and alpha strike. It was very linear and not very good, but the resilience of land-based ramp was satisfying, as was my favorite interaction: Thieves' Auction . Which was usually a beating because I wouldn't have any valuable permanents for my opponents to steal while I could maintain control of Omnath, steal a couple permanents, then get way too many Elementals all at once. I usually won after a resolved Auction, which got me thinking…

Introduction

It turns out a deck that uses only land-based ramp and doesn't commit permanents to the field is very difficult to disrupt. Of course, that deck will be more vulnerable to opposing threats for the same reason, and will also have a harder time threatening opponents. However, there are ways around these problems: namely, (1) Board wipes that conveniently don't destroy your own nonexistent permanents, and (2) a 10/10 commander with protection from everything.

To be more comprehensive, here are this deck's pros and cons:

Pros:

• Very reliable game plan
• Deceptively powerful
• Relatively inexpensive

Cons:

• Very slow to win the game
• Difficulty against combo and hyper-aggro
• Not always so fun for "other people"

Why you might like this deck:

• You like having the most permanents on the field at any given time
• You like not ever having to worry about whatever your opponents are doing
• You like consistency through redundancy
• You like keeping appearances low, then sneaking in an inevitable win right at the end
• You like playing on a budget: swap out the ABUR duals and this deck is <$200/50 tix.
• You like keeping your deck on the table: sooo much land searching

Why you might not like this deck

• You like winning quickly
• You like subtle, strategic, back-and-forth interaction between you and your opponents
• You like wild variation between games

Card Choices

Ramp Show

Ramp is ever important in Commander, and while artifact ramp may be faster, land fetching is so much more resilient it's almost not worth comparing. Normally, 5-color decks require absurd mana bases that equally punish the life total and the wallet (not to mention being crippled by Blood Moon , Ruination , Back to Basics , etc.). However, because this deck is basically GW splashing UB, it can afford to run mostly basics without too much trouble provided it gets a green source and a couple ramp cards in the opening turns.

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Most of the ramp in this deck is fairly straightforward: simply the best and most efficient land fetching available. This section will discuss the less obvious inclusions.

• Avatar of Growth : Three mana for two lands onto the field is already above curve, plus it comes with a 4/4, and the lands enter untapped so you can put them to work the same turn. Of course, simultaneously bumping all your opponents up by two lands is technically card disadvantage, but not when they use that extra mana to overextend into a board wipe and are left with empty hands.
• Bring to Light : Playing 5-color has its advantages. Remember to use all 5 colors when casting this to be able to grab any ramp spell besides Animist's Awakening , New Frontiers , Nissa's Renewal , and Verdant Confluence .
• Collective Voyage : See Avatar of Growth above.
• New Frontiers : ibid.
• Veteran Explorer : ibid. Careful relying on this in the early game; if nobody else feels like killing it you'll be in trouble.

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• Khalni Heart Expedition : Great in the early game, but equally terrible in the late game.

Removal Show

So many board wipes. These are common in Commander, but generally as emergency measures, gobbling up your own permanents as painful but necessary collateral. This deck, however, functions by breaking this parity. When you have no nonland permanents of your own to be destroyed, board wipes become sources of simply ridiculous card advantage, trading one card and four to eight mana for many times that investment from your opponents.

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Most of these won't be surprises, but I'll discuss the less orthodox selections.

• Bane of Progress : There are cheaper ways to achieve this effect, but this is a ramp deck, and none of the cheaper options leave you with a giant beater on the field.
• Bring to Light : Grabs Cleansing Nova , Fracturing Gust , Magus of the Disk , Rout , and Supreme Verdict .
• Cleansing Nova : More expensive than Wrath of God and doesn't come with any tack-on effects like Phyrexian Rebirth , but the flexibility is much more valuable than either.
• Deadly Tempest : This deck is woefully short on offensive cards, and this card at worst clears the board and pings your opponents for a few, while at best it completely destroys token decks.
• Descend upon the Sinful : Delirium is rare except against opposing mill, but this is still strictly better than Final Judgment , and exile is meaningful surprisingly often.
• Fracturing Gust : Instant-speed and lifegain are both neat perks for a card that's already reasonably priced considering it only hits our opponents here.
• Hour of Revelation : Destroy everything for 3 mana? Yes please.
• Magus of the Disk / Nevinyrral's Disk : If these survive their tapped turn, being able to clear the board for 1 mana at instant speed is the most secure feeling ever.
• Merciless Eviction : This is mostly a worse Austere Command , but exile is useful against the likes of Darksteel Forge , as is the incidental ability to hit planeswalkers.
• Play of the Game : Often enough at least one other player will be in a spot where they're happy to help you out—or have no other choice. Even if not, eight mana is no big deal for a ramp deck, and exiling everything is about as good as it gets.
• Rout : People don't expect this. (At least not the first time.)
• Sublime Exhalation : This is a ramp deck, but cheap stuff is still convenient for early-game emergencies and being able to cast multiple spells per turn.

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• Blasphemous Act : Can become very efficient, but relying on that is dangerous, as is relying on damage to kill what really needs to go.
• Destructive Force : A unique wipe that kills most creatures and also logarithmically increases our mana lead. However, the latter effect strikes me as win-more, and we run better creature wipes.
• Martial Coup : An efficient way to clear the board and immediately have threats to take advantage. However, this isn't a wipe until you're able to commit 7 mana, and I'm partial instead to cheaper or more powerful wipes plus a little patience.
• Vona's Hunger : Can be extremely efficient, and instant speed is nice, but the low cost is less of a determining factor in a ramp deck that can afford to just blow up everything instead.

Wincons Show

Actually winning is this deck's greatest weakness, since Progenitus , while the best available general for the deck, is honestly not that amazing. 10 power still requires 3 hits to win by commander damage, and protection from everything does not protect against our own board wipes. However, we do run a few offensive cards to speed the process.

• Electrodominance : For one mana more than Blaze , we get to convert mana directly into damage and cast a board wipe for free at instant speed? Who the heck decided this was a fair card?
• Magister Sphinx : Immediately puts somebody within kill range. All it takes is one attack from Progenitus or two from Magister Sphinx itself.
• Sorin Markov : Cheaper, more versatile Magister Sphinx . BBB can be tricky though.

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• Dark Depths : A mana sink that can be cracked at instant speed into an indestructible 20/20 is pretty darn good. The only reason this isn't an auto-include is that it eats a land drop and does nothing until you can invest 30 mana into it. This is one of those cards that's only good if you're already ahead, whereas the mainboarded wincons above are useful for catching up as well.
• Tilonalli's Summoner : Another mana sink that can get out of control quickly. It is, however, vulnerable to our own board wipes, and everything else ever.
• Twilight Prophet : Once we've ramped our lands onto the field, the expected damage from this card is pretty high given this deck's high average CMC, especially considering we gain that life and draw the extra card as well. But again, this deck is not looking to commit permanents to the battlefield long-term.

Draw Show

Notably absent from this deck are the standard tutors. The only cards I've included that search for anything besides lands are Conflux and Bring to Light . This is a personal choice because I think that too many tutors makes Commander decks predictable and less fun. If you wanted, you could swap out many of the cards below for tutors and possibly make it more competitive.

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That said, because this deck dumps its lands so early and packs so much redundancy, drawing multiple cards at once might very well be better here than 1:1 card searching. Here's why some of them made the cut (and others didn't).

• Allied Strategies : 5 mana for 5 cards seems solid…
• Bring to Light : Searches out Allied Strategies , Precognitive Perception , Secrets of the Golden City , and Tidings .
• Conflux : Not actually a draw spell but I'm not giving this thing its own category. My usual spread for this is: (W) an appropriate board wipe, (U) Bring to Light as a catch-all, (B) Sorin Markov for actually winning, (R) Electrodominance as the only red spell in the deck, and (G) Praetor's Counsel to do it all over again.
• Liliana's Contract : The demon clause is meaningless to us, but 4 cards for 5 mana isn't bad by any means.
• Mind Spring : The rare X spell that's nearly as efficient as its fixed-cost equivalents. This is technically a worse Brain Geyser, but this deck is killing exactly zero opponents by drawing them out, and Mind Spring is prettier.
• Painful Truths : A satisfying card, for some reason. 3 cards for 3 mana and 3 life isn't amazing, but I haven't found anything that's noticeably better, especially as the lower cost is helpful digging for ramp in the early game and later on being able to cast a board wipe the same turn.
• Precognitive Perception : Strictly better Jace's Ingenuity .
• Search for Azcanta  : One of the best cards in the deck. Once it becomes a land it's immune to our board wipes and most other common interaction, and since we run next to no creatures and clear out our lands early, 3 mana to dig 4 is a steal.

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• Dig Through Time : Probably a solid choice. I'm just not that enamored.
• Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur : Even if he doesn't survive that long, drawing seven cards and wrecking a hand or two isn't half bad. 10 mana is a lot though, and the draw doesn't happen until your end step, which sucks.
• Opportunity : Instant speed is nice, but draw is often necessary to find mana in the early game, and Tidings and Precognitive Perception go as deep for one mana less.
• Overflowing Insight : Potentially better, potentially worse Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur . 7 mana is still a lot if you're digging for a board wipe you need this turn.
• Time Spiral / Timetwister : I'm always wary of refilling opponents' hands, but it's very possible we can still make better use of this than most other decks.
• Treasure Cruise : This might very well be a better Painful Truths or Liliana's Contract , but for now I'm sticking with the latter for the same reason above.
• Urban Evolution : This would take the place of Precognitive Perception , but I'm not sure the extra land drop is worth sorcery speed and the loss of scry.

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Date added	5 years
Last updated	5 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	8 - 0 Mythic Rares 40 - 0 Rares 12 - 0 Uncommons 12 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	4.57
Tokens	Angel 4/4 W, City's Blessing