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I am working on a deck that features Progenitus as my Commander and started looking at Fist of Suns. Besides just being good because of the large number of high cost spells in the deck, I was curious how this worked with my Commander on every cast beyond the first. And honestly, I'm not entirely sure how to word this question.

For each cast of the Commander, the mana cost is increased by 2 colorless. The Fist of Suns Oracle text says

You can't pay more than one alternative cost for a spell.

Does the additional colorless cost added after the first casting of a Commander count as alternative costs? Can I use Fist of Suns to make the cost of Progenitus WUBRG every time, or just the first time it is cast? I know that it can't be cast for WUBRG plus the additional colorless, since it seems unreasonable to combine mana costs like that.

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  • Arowaaron wanted to share: "As a side note if you're interested in building Big Stuff tribal now with the release of Dominaria we have Jodah, Archmage Eternal which essentially acts as a Fist of Suns in the command zone."
    – ikegami
    May 4, 2018 at 16:48

1 Answer 1

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Fist of Suns only replaces the mana cost. The mana cost is the cost written in the top-right corner of the card [CR 202.1]. You seem to think it's the total cost or the portion of the total cost payable using mana, but that's not the case.

Fist of Suns doesn't replace any additional costs or cost increases, so you still have to pay the Commander tax.

In game terms,

  • Fist of Suns provides an alternative cost [CR 117.9].
  • The Commander tax is an additional cost [CR 903.10].

total cost to cast the second time
= mana cost or alternative cost + additional cost and cost increases - cost reductions [CR 601.2e]
= alternative cost ({W}{U}{B}{R}{G}) + additional costs ({2})
= {W}{U}{B}{R}{G}{2}

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  • I guess ultimately I was unsure of whether the extra mana constituted an alternative cost for the card as a whole or not, without thinking that it was just a cost increase. Thanks for clarifying.
    – SocioMatt
    Feb 11, 2013 at 19:05
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    Something extra is never an alternative cost. (And if it was an alternative cost, you couldn't use Fist of Suns's alternative cost.)
    – ikegami
    Feb 11, 2013 at 23:26

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