Normally, when a card is exiled in Magic: the Gathering, it is gone forever. But Prosper, Tome-Bound, is one Commander with a strategy revolved around exiling cards.
Prosper is a grindy, value engine. This deck makes TONS of mana and has many ways of playing cards from exile, and Prosper generates value every time you do.
Prosper, Tome-Bound
Prosper’s first ability, nicknamed Mystic Arcanum, looks a lot like the “Khans node” of Outpost Seige, another long-time Commander staple. Each turn, you can exile the top card of your library and play it until the end of your next turn. In a way, this is like drawing two cards every turn and it accumulates a lot of card advantage.
The real appeal to playing Prosper is his second, more unique ability. Whenever you play a card from exile, Prosper creates a Treasure token. Of course, this synergizes with Prosper’s first ability. And there are plenty of other ways to capitalize on the ability which I will cover in this Commander guide.
Maximizing Exile Shennanigans
To make the most of Prosper’s toolkit, this deck uses a variety of spells that let you cast cards from exile.
Reckless Draw Spells
In Magic, red doesn’t often have unconditional card draw like blue does. Many red draw spells require you to discard cards, as seen on Cathartic Union. But red has another type of card-drawing effect that synergizes perfectly with Prosper.
Cards like Reckless Impulse, March of Reckless Joy, and Ignite the Future, exile cards from the top of your library for you to cast within a certain time frame. This is like drawing cards in a way, and when you cast those spells from exile, you’ll make Treasure tokens with Prosper.
Laelia, Blade Reforged
Laelia is like a reckless draw spell stapled onto a creature spell. Every time she attacks, you can exile the top card of your library and play it for the turn. This enables consistent opportunity to make Treasures with Prosper. And with all the other exile synergies in this deck, Laelia’s second ability will giver her tons of +1/+1 tokens.
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Opposition Agent
This is a Commander staple that happens to have extra synergies within a Prosper, Tome-Bound, deck. Flash Opposition Agent into play when your opponent attempts to search their library with Demonic Tutor or a fetch lands like Scalding Tarn. You’ll get to search your library for your opponent and exile what you find. Then you can cast it later and make a Treasure with Prosper.
You’ll only trick your opponents once with Opposition Agent. But as long as it sits on the battlefield, it will prevent your opponents from searching their libraries.
Dauthi Voidwalker
As long as it sits on the battlefield, Dauthi Voidwalker will exile your opponents’ cards similar to Leyline of the Void. This effect is good in its own right, putting a major damper on your opponents’ graveyard strategies.
But if you exile something really good with Voidwalker, you can cash it in and cast one of your opponent’s exiled cards, triggering Prosper in the process.
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Chandras
Chandra planeswalker cards have a long history of reckless draw effects, exiling the top card of your library to play. In this way, both Chandra, Dressed to Kill and Torch of Defiance synergize with Prosper.
But in addition to this synergy, these two Chandras have the ability to add mana, ramping out spells like Tibalt, Cosmic Imposter.
Greedy Treasure Synergies
Over the course of a game, Prosper, Tome-Bound, makes a ton of Treasure tokens due to its own ability and with the assistance of the many synergistic cards I just outlined. Now, let’s make the most out of those Treasures.
Winning With Treaures
Prosper’s ability generates many Treasure tokens over the course of a game. It is enticing to spend them as soon as you get them. But if you save up ten Treasures and play Revel in Riches, you will automatically win the game on your next turn.
Revel and Riches even generates value on its own. Whenever an opponent’s creature dies, you make a Treasure token. This fuels its own win condition but also makes tons of mana.
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Xorn
Xorn doubles Prosper’s Treasure generating ability. But it also improves all of the other Treasure-related cards in the deck better.
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Goldspan Dragon
When Goldspan Dragon hits the battlefield, it immediately doubles the amount of mana each of your Treasures produces, leading to some massive plays. Additionally, the Dragon makes its own consistent stream of Treasure.
Magda, Brazen Outlaw
It makes Treasure itself. But the best part about Magda is what it can do once you have enough Treasure tokens on the field. Sacrifice five Treasures and you can put key artifacts like Bolas’s Citadel and Cloudstone Curio.
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Generating Extra Treasures
Although Prosper can make a Treasure token each turn, sometimes you’ll want a burst of Treasures. Dockside Extortionist, Ruthless Technomancer, and Brass’s Bounty immediately give you Treasure tokens that you can use to fuel your big plays.
Biggest Payoffs for Prosper
With all the different ways to make Treasures in this deck, you’ll have access to a lot of mana. You can use that mana to churn through your deck casting multiple spells in a turn. But you can also ramp into one big spell that might just win you the game on its own.
Valki, Cosmic Imposter
Each of Tibalt’s abilities exiles your opponents’ cards in different ways. His emblem, which comes into play when Tibalt does, allows you to cast all of these spells.
Hellkite Tyrant
Similar to Revel in Riches, Hellkite Tyrant will flat out win the game if you control enough artifacts, but this ability is not limited to specifically Treasure tokens. All of your artifacts will contribute to Hellkite Tyrant’s win condition.
This Dragon can steal opponents’ artifacts. And Hellkite Tyrant is also a good tutor target for Magda, Brazen Outlaw’s ability.
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