Beating Prossh

Commander Deck Help forum

Posted on Jan. 18, 2017, 10:06 a.m. by Argy

I'm in Izzet colours.

My friend plays Prossh, Skyraider of Kher.

What's the best way I have to beat him?

EpicFreddi says... #2

Izzet Staticaster to deal with the tokens maybe. Mizzium Mortars and Cyclonic Rift also deal with his crap.

January 18, 2017 10:21 a.m.

Arvail says... #3

Counterspell. Ez. No, but for real, you can Extract Food Chain if he relies on it too much. Prossh costs a lot of mana, so killing him is a decent option. Make sure he doesn't get access to Puprhorous or impact tremors. Wasteland his Gaea's Cradle if he runs it.

His best value engines are cards like Fecundity, Necro, Skullclamp, Phyrexian Arena, etc. depending on your level of play. If you get him off of draw and just 1-for-1 a lot of his most dangerous threats + advantage, he's going to be left struggling to piece together resources.

January 18, 2017 10:37 a.m.

Argy says... #4

I like shutting down Food Chain. Good idea.

January 18, 2017 10:40 a.m.

Mortlocke says... #5

What about playing Engineered Explosives for ? That'll get rid of any tokens he generates.

January 18, 2017 11:38 a.m.

Omeros says... #6

Several options:

  1. Be faster. See storm lists with Jeleva or Yidris.

  2. Stax the table. Deny mana, prevent untapping, and generally make life miserable. See Derevi, Brago, some Meren, or Grand Arbiter lists.

  3. Go in on Extract type effects to gut their deck's engine cards. Bitter Ordeal, Jester's Cap, Sadistic Sacrament.

  4. In combination with other methods, run Pithing Needle, Torpor Orb, Cursed Totem.

January 18, 2017 1:41 p.m.

abenz419 says... #7

It should be noted that Torpor Orb does nothing against Prossh, Skyraider of Kher himself, and would be more for other creatures. His token making ability is a cast trigger and they actually enter before he does.

Weather he's all in on the Food Chain game plan or just on the aggressive Proshh plan, targeting his tokens doesn't really help. They're not the focus of either option and their survival isn't paramount to Prossh winning. If you want to stop prossh they you have to stop them from playing him. It's the easiest way to prevent the from winning. How you go about it will probably be depend more on the actual build of your friends deck, but the harder it is for them to cast Prossh the more miserable their game is because casting him is important to every Prossh strategy. So early, countermagic, stopping them from ramping, land destruction..... these are all great ways to actually slow Prossh.

January 18, 2017 2:46 p.m.

Omeros says... #8

Yeah. Both Orb and Totem were listed because of what tends to be in the rest of the deck.

January 18, 2017 2:50 p.m.

abenz419 says... #9

Totem actually stops the aggressive Prossh plan, because you can't activate his pump ability. Not so much the Food Chain plan because it only affects activated abilities of creatures.

January 18, 2017 2:57 p.m.

K34 says... #10

Would an AEther Flash handle those tokens?

January 18, 2017 6:07 p.m.

abenz419 says... #11

Yeah it answers the tokens but it doesn't stop them from winning if they're on the Food Chain game plan. There's nothing preventing them from sacing the tokens to Food Chain and recasting prossh with Purphoros, God of the Forge on the battlefield. If they're on the aggressive game plan then it'll slow them up a little bit, but it only stops the tokens Prossh makes because they enter before him. Anything played after he's on the field is just saced in response so Prossh can swing in for large chunks of damage like they want to be doing anyways. Again... answering the tokens is not a reliable or consistent way to stop Prossh. You have to make it hard for them to cast Prossh in order to really be effective consistently against them.

January 18, 2017 6:36 p.m.

Arvail says... #12

I only Overburden hadn't been errataed.

January 18, 2017 6:37 p.m.

abenz419 says... #13

eh... even that still doesn't stop the Food Chain combo. Still a cool card though.

January 18, 2017 9:38 p.m.

abenz419 says... #14

oops.... I meant even that still WOULDN'T stop the combo, not doesn't.

January 18, 2017 9:39 p.m.

GobboE says... #15

Cheap and effective against many decks: Inferno never leave home without it :) and Blasphemous Act

January 19, 2017 6:38 a.m.

00xtremeninja says... #16

you could always just take Prosh from him and run Gilded Drake

January 19, 2017 6:59 p.m.

Argy says... #17

00xtremeninja that is an awesome idea!

I think for the first time I'm going to build a Sideboard for my Commander deck.

January 20, 2017 6:26 a.m.

MasqureMan says... #18

I play Prossh. Keep in mind that one of my assurances when playing Prossh is that even if he gets countered, I get to keep my tokens because it's an "on cast" effect. And arguably, depending on if your friend is more focused on finishing you with Prossh hits or using tokens for overruns, stax, combo, etc, tokens may be more important to him than keeping Prossh on the field.

But yes, to some points made above, taking Prossh from him will stop possibilities of recasting and of being hit by it, and your other issue is the tokens which get stopped by a variety of annoying blue cards. One cheap option is that Echoing Truth, really screws up tokens and stops Prossh in a pinch. Aetherize is another.

Fog Bank+Silent Arbiter

January 20, 2017 11:25 p.m.

Argy says... #19

I have AEtherize and AEtherspouts in my deck, along with Propaganda, Collective Restraint, and War Tax.

The pillow fort cards stop him killing me, that's for sure.

We have taken his Prossh in the past but he just kills it to get it back.

January 21, 2017 2:02 a.m.

This discussion has been closed