An atrial based pacing protocol promotes intrinsic conduction. An entire cardiac cycle is monitored for ventricular activity and permitted to lapse with ventricular activity. Ventricular pacing is available in a cardiac cycle immediately subsequent to such a skipped beat. When monitoring for intrinsic ventricular events, an event is expected within a given window. If no such event is detected, the cardiac cycle is truncated, leading to a shorter cycle that is devoid of ventricular activity. The subsequent cycle has a high likelihood of a ventricular sensed event and a greater than normal AV interval is provided prior to pacing.