There is a certain type of Commander player who looks at a five-color hydra with protection from everything and thinks “yes, but what if I also had fourteen planeswalkers.” If that sounds like you, congratulations, you have found your people. This is a Progenitus deck built around going wide with loyalty, doubling up counters wherever possible, and making your commander an inevitable, unkillable closer once the board finally stabilizes. It is slow. It is greedy. It is extremely good at making one specific person at the table mutter seriously under their breath.
Is it perfect? No, absolutely not. But it’s also not crazy expensive. It works well in larger games with 4-5 people. A one-on-one scenario is gonna leave you dead, with not enough time to ramp up.
Why Progenitus
Progenitus doesn’t do a lot on his own. He just sits in the command zone daring you to hard-cast a ten mana hydra with protection from every color, then shrugs off basically every removal spell in existence once he lands. In this build he is less “the plan” and more “the exclamation point at the end of the plan.” The actual plan is a small army of planeswalkers ticking up, generating value, and slowly grinding the table into dust while your ramp package gets Progenitus into range.
The Decklist
Commander
- Progenitus — Your ten mana, five color hydra with protection from every color. He does not die to removal, he dies to people ganging up on you out of spite.
Planeswalkers
- Chandra, the Firebrand — Cheap red planeswalker that pings things or copies your instants and sorceries once she’s leveled up.
- Sorin, Grim Nemesis — Drains life every turn just for existing and can eventually just win the game outright with his ultimate.
- Sorin Markov — Sets an opponent’s life total to 10, which is hilarious against the guy who just untapped with 40 life.
- Kiora, the Crashing Wave — Draws cards or taps down blockers, and her ultimate gives you a giant octopus friend.
- Vraska the Unseen — Makes deathtouch assassin tokens and can straight up destroy an enchantment when you need it gone.
- Dovin Baan — Taxes opponents on activated abilities or draws you a card, quietly useful glue.
- Ajani Vengeant — Tempo swing on a stick, tapping down a permanent or blasting one to bits, plus a Wrath as his ultimate.
- Arlinn Kord — A werewolf planeswalker that flips into an angry wolf and starts smashing face when things go long.
- Ajani Goldmane — Cheap and flexible, either pumping your team or gaining you life to stabilize.
- Nissa, Vital Force — Ramps you a land, animates a forest into a beater, and her ultimate refills your hand with lands.
- Jace, Unraveler of Secrets — Card selection and a bounce effect, very much a blue control player’s best friend.
- Jace Beleren — Old school card draw engine, ticks up to draw you extra cards every turn if left unchecked.
- Gideon Jura — Forces attacks his way or turns into an unkillable soldier, both of which buy you time.
- Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker — Rips a card straight out of an opponent’s hand and can eventually pull the world’s meanest Mind Control.
- Elspeth, Knight-Errant — Makes soldier tokens, pumps your board, and her ultimate is a game ending anthem.
- Sarkhan Vol — Turns your dragons into monsters and can eventually transform into a dragon planeswalker himself.
- Garruk Wildspeaker — Untaps two lands for extra ramp or makes a beefy Beast token, both fine by us.
- Jace, Architect of Thought — Filters your draws or fogs combat for a turn, very much a stall-and-win kind of card.
- Ral Zarek — Gives a creature an extra combat step worth of shenanigans or straight up Lightning Bolts a face.
- Ajani Unyielding — A five color planeswalker that draws cards, buffs your board, or exiles a threat depending on the moment.
- Liliana Vess — Tutors any card to your hand for a chunk of loyalty, and can reanimate something nasty later.
Creatures
- Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind — Every time you draw a card you can ping a player for one, which adds up fast with all this card draw.
- Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter — Drains everyone at the table for the number of Vampires you control every single upkeep.
- Wall of Omens — A defensive 0/4 that draws you a card the moment it enters, cheap and efficient.
- Forgotten Ancient — Slowly piles counters onto itself and can dump them all onto anything else for a surprise blowout.
- Knight of the Reliquary — Grows bigger for every land in your graveyard and can tutor up any land you need.
- Windborn Muse — A flying hatebear that makes it noticeably more expensive for opponents to swarm you with attackers.
- Solemn Simulacrum — Fetches a land when it enters and draws you a card when it dies, the friendliest robot in Commander.
- Wan Shi Tong, Librarian — An X-cost flash flier that grows counters and draws you cards, and it gets even meaner every time an opponent cracks a fetch land.
- Inferno Titan — A giant red beater that torches something small every time it swings or enters.
- Birds of Paradise — Turn one mana dork that fixes any color you need, an absolute classic for five color decks.
- Oracle of Mul Daya — Lets you play extra lands and see the top of your library, turbocharging your ramp.
- Gilder Bairn — Doubles the counters on any permanent you control, which is absurd in a deck this loaded with loyalty counters.
- Wall of Denial — A near unkillable 0/4 blocker with protection from just about everything relevant to combat.
- Llanowar Elves — More turn one green mana, because you can never have too much ramp in a five color deck.
- False Prophet — A humble 2/2 for four that exiles every creature in play, yours included, when it finally dies.
- Evolution Sage — Every time a land enters under your control it proliferates, quietly ticking up every counter on your board.
Instants & Sorceries
- Oath of Nissa — Cheap card selection that also puts a loyalty counter on a planeswalker, tailor made for this deck.
- Austere Command — A modal board wipe that lets you pick exactly what dies, from small creatures to enchantments to lands.
- Demonic Tutor — Pay two mana, get literally any card from your deck straight to hand, still one of the best spells ever printed.
- Oath of Ajani — Puts extra loyalty on your planeswalkers or pumps your team, a nice bit of glue for this strategy.
- Terminate — Two mana, kill anything, no questions asked, a Commander removal staple for a reason.
- Oath of Gideon — Makes a soldier token and adds a loyalty counter to a planeswalker, more free value for the superfriends plan.
- Go for the Throat — Efficient black removal that handles almost any creature for two mana.
- Farseek — Grabs a nonbasic land, usually a dual, and puts it into play a turn ahead of schedule.
- Oath of Teferi — Lets you activate loyalty abilities on every planeswalker you control the turn it resolves, a genuine bomb in this shell.
- Three Visits — Fetches a forest or gate straight into play, smooth and efficient green ramp.
- Nature’s Lore — Another forest tutor that dodges summoning sickness and helps you hit your color fixing.
Enchantments
- Inexorable Tide — Every noncreature spell you cast adds a counter to something you control, which is enormous with this many planeswalkers.
- Awakening Zone — Spits out a small Eldrazi token every upkeep that can later be sacrificed for a burst of colorless mana.
- Quest for Renewal — Slowly builds toward returning a permanent from your graveyard back to hand, a bit of grindy insurance.
- Authority of the Consuls — Slows down opposing creatures and drips you life whenever an opponent’s creature shows up.
- Burgeoning — Lets you drop extra lands on opponents’ turns, an absurd ramp piece early in the game.
- Dark Intimations — A slow burn enchantment that eventually forces opponents to sacrifice permanents while refilling your hand.
- Ghostly Prison — Makes attacking you cost extra mana, which buys precious turns for your planeswalkers to tick up unmolested.
Artifacts
- Basilisk Collar — Gives a creature deathtouch and lifelink, turning any random blocker into a removal spell.
- Crucible of Worlds — Lets you replay lands from your graveyard, which is fantastic paired with all those fetch lands.
- Lightning Greaves — Free equip haste and shroud, perfect for protecting a key creature or sneaking in an attack.
- Everflowing Chalice — A scalable mana rock that gets better the more mana you dump into it early.
- Sol Ring — The best mana rock ever printed, doubles your starting mana and belongs in almost every Commander deck.
- Boros Signet — A two color mana rock that fixes red and white while ramping you a turn ahead.
- Izzet Signet — Same idea in blue and red, smoothing out your color requirements in a five color deck.
- Golgari Signet — Black and green fixing on a rock, keeping your mana base honest.
- Contagion Clasp — Taps to put a counter on a creature or a poison counter on a player, and can be sacrificed for a bigger burst.
- Arcane Signet — Taps for any color in your commander’s identity, essentially a free extra land in this deck.
Lands
- Arid Mesa — Fetches a Mountain or Plains, thinning your deck a little each time.
- Misty Rainforest — Fetches an Island or Forest, another piece of the fetch and shock manabase.
- Verdant Catacombs — Fetches a Swamp or Forest, rounding out the green and black side of the mana base.
- Hallowed Fountain — A blue-white shock land that comes in untapped if you’re willing to pay two life.
- Blood Crypt — Black-red shock land, more untapped fixing for a deck that needs all five colors online fast.
- Overgrown Tomb — Black-green shock land, another key fetch target.
- Sacred Foundry — Red-white shock land, one more untapped dual for the manabase.
- Godless Shrine — White-black shock land, keeping the Orzhov half of the deck humming.
- Watery Grave — Blue-black shock land, essential for the control-oriented planeswalkers.
- Stomping Ground — Red-green shock land, rounding out the Gruul corner of the mana base.
- Vesuva — A copy land that can mirror any land in play, giving you extra flexibility.
- Hinterland Harbor — A check land that comes in untapped as long as you control an Island or Forest.
- Crumbling Necropolis — A tri-land that enters tapped but fixes blue, black, and red all at once.
- Isolated Chapel — A check land pairing white and black, another piece of smooth fixing.
- Rootbound Crag — A check land pairing red and green for the Gruul side of the deck.
- Command Tower — Taps for any color in your commander’s identity, an auto-include in basically every multicolor Commander deck.
- Drowned Catacomb — A check land pairing blue and black, more smooth untapped fixing.
- Temple Garden — Green-white shock land, filling out the Selesnya side of the manabase.
- Seachrome Coast — A fast land pairing white and blue, untapped in the early turns when you need it most.
- Breeding Pool — Blue-green shock land, another dual to smooth out your draws.
- Glacial Fortress — A check land pairing white and blue for extra untapped fixing.
- Karn’s Bastion — Taps for colorless, but can also add a counter to a creature or planeswalker you control, right at home here.
- Swamp x2 — Basic black mana, the honest kind of fixing that never lets you down.
- Island — A single basic blue source to round out the mana base.
- Forest x3 — Basic green mana, the backbone of your ramp plan.
- Plains x3 — Basic white mana, keeping the superfriends plan funded.
- Mountain x3 — Basic red mana, for your removal and the occasional beatdown.
Game Plan
Ramp hard in the first few turns with your dorks and rocks, hit land drops off the fetches and green tutors, and start slamming planeswalkers as soon as you have the mana to protect them. You are not trying to race anyone. You are trying to survive long enough that your board has more loyalty counters on it than most tables have life points. Gilder Bairn and Karn’s Bastion turn every counter you generate into two, and Inexorable Tide quietly ticks up your whole team every time you cast a spell that isn’t a creature. Once the table is stuck dealing with four or five planeswalkers at once, Progenitus comes down as the exclamation point nobody can answer.
Strengths
- Five colors means you almost never run out of answers, whether that’s removal, card draw, or a tutor for exactly the card you need.
- The counter-doubling package built around Gilder Bairn and Karn’s Bastion makes every planeswalker feel like it’s ticking up twice as fast as it should.
- Progenitus is close to unkillable through normal means once he resolves, so games you stabilize in tend to end in your favor.
- A deep ramp and fixing suite gets you online fast despite the demanding five color mana base.
Weaknesses
- The land count is lower than a greedy five color deck really wants, which means color screw is a real risk in the early turns.
- Early interaction is thin. Most of the removal in the deck skews toward the midgame, so a fast aggressive table can put you on the back foot before your planeswalkers get going.
- Ten mana for the commander is a real ask, and games where Progenitus never shows up can feel like you’re just playing a slower superfriends deck with no actual finisher.
Upgrades
- Add two or three more lands, ideally utility lands or another dual, to smooth out the mana base before anything else.
- Slot in cheap interaction like a one or two mana removal spell or a fog effect so you have an answer before turn four.
- Consider a budget counter-doubling piece like Doubling Season if your wallet allows it, since it turbocharges every single planeswalker you already run.
- A few more mana dorks or rocks in the one and two slot will help offset the low land count while you save up for extra fixing.


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