The Unkillable Beast: Do Board Wipes Affect Progenitus?
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The short answer is: generally, no. Progenitus, the five-colored Avatar from Alara Reborn, boasts the formidable ability of “protection from everything.” This makes it incredibly resilient, especially against board wipes. However, the nuances of Magic: The Gathering are deep and require a more detailed understanding of how protection interacts with various game mechanics. Progenitus simply can’t be damaged by anything, enchanted or equipped with anything, blocked by any creatures, or targeted by anything.
Understanding Protection from Everything
To grasp why most board wipes bounce harmlessly off Progenitus, we need to dissect what “protection from everything” truly means. This ability is essentially a shorthand for protection from each of the five colors (white, blue, black, red, and green) as well as protection from colorless sources. Protection is an ability that helps protect your creature from other permanents, spells, or effects that your opponents may have.
Protection prevents four key things, often remembered by the acronym DEBT:
- Damage: All damage that would be dealt to Progenitus is prevented.
- Enchanting/Equipping: Progenitus cannot be enchanted or equipped.
- Blocking: Progenitus cannot be blocked.
- Targeting: Progenitus cannot be the target of spells or abilities an opponent controls.
How Board Wipes Interact with Protection
Most board wipes in Magic operate by destroying creatures. Cards like Wrath of God, Damnation, and Supreme Verdict all utilize the word “destroy.” Here’s where Progenitus’s protection comes into play.
While “protection from everything” doesn’t directly prevent destruction, it does prevent the board wipe from targeting Progenitus (which it doesn’t, as most board wipes don’t target) and from dealing damage to it. Since Progenitus has Protection from White, Wrath of God is prevented from removing Progenitus from the battlefield. Furthermore, most of the time, since a card can’t deal damage to it because of protection, then it won’t be affected.
The Rare Exceptions: Bypassing Protection
While Progenitus is incredibly difficult to remove, a few niche scenarios exist where board wipes (or similar effects) can affect it:
- Sacrifice Effects: Protection does not prevent a player from being forced to sacrifice a permanent. Cards like Liliana of the Veil can force Progenitus’s controller to sacrifice it. Sacrifice effects do not target and do not deal damage.
- -X/-X Effects: Cards that reduce a creature’s toughness to zero without destroying it (like Toxic Deluge or Languish) could theoretically work, but Progenitus has a very high toughness.
- Effects That Ignore Protection: Some extremely rare cards specifically state that they ignore protection. These are exceptions to the rule and are very uncommon.
Summary: Progenitus vs. Board Wipes
In the vast majority of cases, Progenitus will survive a board wipe unscathed thanks to its “protection from everything” ability. The few exceptions involve sacrifice effects or highly specific cards designed to bypass protection. It’s a testament to the power and unique design of this iconic creature.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. Can Progenitus be countered?
Yes. Abilities, unless specifically stated otherwise, apply when the creature is on the battlefield. Thus Progenitus only has his stated protection as a creature, not as a card, and thus can be countered. Spells like Counterspell or Negate can prevent Progenitus from ever entering the battlefield.
2. Does Progenitus have protection from colorless?
Yes. “Protection from everything” includes protection from all colors and colorless sources.
3. Can you buff Progenitus?
Since Progenitus has protection from everything, he cannot be enchanted or boosted by normal means. Attaching auras or equipment to it is impossible. Some effects that don’t target, such as anthem effects, could still provide a buff to Progenitus.
4. Can you clone a Progenitus?
Yes, you can clone Progenitus. However, because Progenitus is a legendary creature, having two on the battlefield will cause both to be put into the graveyard because of the “legend rule”. You can clone Progenitus with cards like Clone or Spark Double.
5. Does indestructible protect against sacrifice?
Indestructible does not protect against being forced to sacrifice a permanent. Sacrifice effects are a way to bypass indestructible. In the game rules, though sacrifice does kill a creature, it doesn’t destroy it – this means effects like indestructibility and older mechanics like regeneration don’t apply to it.
6. Can you attach equipment to Progenitus?
No. Progenitus can not have anything enchanted, equipped, or fortified to it. Any effect that would try to attach something to it simply fails; any effect that would move something from another zone into play attached to Progenitus will cause that permanent card to stay where it is.
7. Does Progenitus have summoning sickness?
Yes, Progenitus is affected by summoning sickness like any other creature. It cannot attack or use abilities with the tap or untap symbol until you have continuously controlled it since the beginning of your most recent turn.
8. What is the lore of Progenitus?
Progenitus is known as the Soul of the World, who had grown tired of creation and unleashed five storms to consume it: Wildfire, Earthquake, Windstorm, Flood, and Void.
9. Does prowess trigger if the spell is countered?
Prowess goes on the stack on top of the spell that caused it to trigger. It will resolve before that spell. Once it triggers, prowess isn’t connected to the spell that caused it to trigger. If that spell is countered, the ability’s effect will still resolve.
10. Can a board wipe destroy Hexproof?
Granting hexproof to a permanent or player doesn’t cause opponents’ Auras to become unattached. A card that has ‘hexproof’ is still affected by board wipes that don’t target specifically that card. Hexproof only prevents targeting.
11. Can Progenitus take damage?
No, Progenitus cannot take damage. Protection from everything prevents all damage that would be dealt to it.
12. Who chooses relic of Progenitus?
If you activate Relic of Progenitus’s first ability, the targeted player chooses which card to exile. The choice is made as the ability resolves. You can activate Relic of Progenitus’s second ability even if no players have any cards in their graveyards.
13. How many board wipes should I have?
Board wipes are an intrinsic part of the format. Some players love them as the great leveler for the board. Others only run one or two or opt to only run asymmetrical board wipes. Whether you use them to reset the board or to spring ahead for a win, chances are you see one or two each game.
14. What is the best board wipes for dragons?
However, within a Dragon deck, Crux of Fate can serve as one of the most effective board wipes in the game. Few other board wipes are capable of as much one-sided destruction as Crux of Fate, making it an auto-include in any Dragon decks that have black within their color identity.
15. Does Deathtouch beat indestructible?
Indestructible creatures also ignore deathtouch. Normally, a creature is destroyed if it takes damage from a creature with deathtouch. But since indestructible creatures can’t be destroyed, they’re immune. Darksteel Myr could block Ambush Viper until the end of time without suffering any ill effects. Learning more about how the game works can be facilitated through community resources, such as the Games Learning Society, which explores the educational aspects of gaming. For more information, visit GamesLearningSociety.org.