“Not all who wander are lost.”
Art:Oloro, Ageless Ascetic
by Eric Deschamps
Table of Contents
Today’s Featured Commander Is:
2013 has returned, and the former boogeyman of the format is back! I still remember the days of being generally afraid of going against Oloro and thinking how broken his eminence before eminence ability was. Oloro has certainly fallen from favor within the format, and besides a dedicated community, there are not a ton of people rocking out with Oloro these days. I love former powerhouses in the format and for this deck I realized that there actually is a ton of amazing support and while Oloro isn’t as strong or as pushed as he once was, he is quite strong and still an absolute blast to pilot. I am super excited to showcase this one today, without further adieu lets get it!
The Deck:
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Oloro, Ageless Ascetic Lifegain Brewed EDH!
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Why Oloro, Ageless Ascetic?
Oloro is a big part of the deck and the best part is that they don’t even have to come out to make an impact, the passive lifegain every turn is great and positions us well against creature-based or aggressive strategies as well as allowing us to continuously trigger our lifegain payoffs. Even if we do cast Oloro we rarely attack with them and typically just block if its a favorable block and use their ability as a strong source of supplemental card draw.
Where does this deck fall on the power scale?
This deck is quite powerful in many ways but in terms of the power-scale I would say it falls to about a seven, we do have some infinite combos and this deck certainly can compete but it is by no means CEDH and is not representing a very quick win or complete control of the game. I like rating this deck a seven, and I think it does well but nothing too crazy against a table full of other sevens.
Deck Overview:
This section contains information about cards in the deck and how they function within the deck! I also highlighted some of my favorite cards in the deck! The infinite combos and loops in the deck are listed below in the “Main Win Conditions” Section.
Creatures:
To start off, we have some great life-gain creatures in Soul Warden
and Soul's Attendant
, as well as some additional payoffs like Suture Priest
and Creeping Bloodsucker
. The Gaffer
is a very strong creature for the deck that provides consistent supplemental card draw since we almost always meet the requirement. One of my favorite cards to help get that trigger going is Rhox Faithmender
which is very strong in this deck and before you know it we can easily hit one-hundred or more life with this card out. Another amazing payoff is Witch of the Moors
which is quite the one-sided card and allows us to wreak havoc on opponents boards and can also help us be stronger in combat. A great card to coincide with this in combat is Bloodletter of Aclazotz
which is a very easy way to kill an opponent and depending on our board we can easily get a one-shot off with this. A great support card for the bloodletter and just a great card for the deck is Archangel of Thune
, which makes our creatures pretty formidable after only being out for a few turns. We have some strong token producers that coincide nicely with our lifegain like Crested Sunmare
and Resplendent Angel
are both insane and we trigger them every turn they are out and the tokens can be great attackers or blockers as needed.
Planeswalkers:
Ajani, Strength of the Pride
is a very awesome planeswalker for the deck. Their plus gives us a ton of lifegain, but for our deck, the most important ability is their minus, which gives us copies of Ajani's Pridemate
and with all of the lifegain in the deck gets out of hand very quickly. This Ajani doesn’t have an ult but their zero can be a great way to invalidate artifact strategies or creature based strategies. Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord
is quite strong and pretty cheap as far as Planeswalkers go. They don’t have the most impactful abilities, but their passive is what we are really here for. Giving our whole board lifelink makes the life gain go absolutely crazy and makes us pretty hard to stop. The damage and recursion are nice bonuses to have as well.
Instants:
Almost all of our removal lies in our instant package and we have some very strong spells here. Mortify
and Fracture
are two very strong and cheap removal spells that allow us to take out some of our opponent’s biggest and best threats. We also have Dovin's Veto
, Counterspell
and Arcane Denial
which are all effective ways to stop opponents threats on the stack and never let even an ETB trigger.
Sorceries:
Damn
is one of the best removal spells in the deck and clears the way for our creatures in combat and can be great if an opponent is getting ahead and out of control. Farewell
is another great board wipe and is a great way to reset the game, almost never want to cast this one if you are doing ok, but if an opponent gets out of control it can be used as needed. Continuing our removal we have Vindicate
which is a decently costed piece of removal that has the big benefit of being able to hit anything. Demonic Tutor
is another classic EDH card and is just a great way to tutor up a needed card or mostly combo pieces.
Artifacts:
Most of our artifact package is mana rocks, and those don’t have a ton to explain so lets focus on our non mana rocks. To start off, we have Alhammarret's Archive
, which can come down early through our artifact ramp and is just a bomb for the deck. Double life and double cards allow us to get pretty far ahead on our opponents, if your opponents have artifact removal I wouldn’t be surprised if it targeted this. Archive also works perfectly with another card draw machine in the deck Well of Lost Dreams
. Chalice of Life // Chalice of Death
does not look that impressive but when we flip it we can hurt our opponents every turn and continuously pressure them with it, it is quite easy for us to fulfill the ten more than starting life requirement. Venser's Journal
is a great way to get some payoff for all of the supplemental card draw in the deck, the no maximum hand size helps with an absolute ton as well.
Enchantments:
Paradox Haze
is a very sweet enchantment in our deck since we get double Oloro triggers in our upkeep and who can say no to more life! Boon Reflection
is a perfect example of why we love Paradox Haze and with just a few turns we can get quite out of hand with this one we also have a ton of other outlets throughout the deck that make this quite strong as well. Since we want to keep our life total high we have both Ghostly Prison
and Propaganda
which are great ways to persuade opponents not to attack us. If our opponents decide to pay the tax and do end up getting through we also have No Mercy
which is very strong against creature-based strategies. I love Phyrexian Arena
and Black Market Connections
in the deck since they are both great utility sources and can be great for some card draw.
Land Base:
We have a pretty strong landbase thanks to a few recent sets the prices of many of the more expensive lands like the on-color fetches and shocks which are all going down in price and are much easier to include in a deck. Since we have the shocks/fetches in the deck, it makes our landbase very strong, and we can typically get our colors established with relative ease. Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
is one of my favorite lands in the deck since it helps us get esper established much easier. There is not a ton to say about the rest of the landbase, which mostly consists of additional duals and some other pieces of utility. We are running higher than the average and since there is a ton of more expensive cards I find this number to be effective, also need to consider that we are running three-color so having more lands is way better than running light.
Strengths of the Deck:
- Our commander positions us decently against aggressive strategies since we passively gain life throughout the game.
- We have a ton of payoffs for our lifegain and they allow us to get a ton of benefits like buffed up creatures which makes combat much easier for us.
- We have quite a bit of non-combat damage throughout allowing us to whittle down our opponents.
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- Our commander is awesome in that they give us life passively, but they can be quite expensive and often aren’t worth casting over playing a stronger creature or spell.
- Generally weak to creature hate.
- We can be a little slow in the early game.
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Main Win Conditions:
We do have a few combos in the deck, most of which are centered around the classic combo of Sanguine Bond
+ Exquisite Blood
. We have a ton of strong creatures in the deck and lifegain payoffs so the combos in the deck are not a primary way to win but a great option if needed and because of the heavy emphasis on combos throughout most decks in commander these days offers us a way to compete. Below are all of the combos in the deck explained:
Exquisite Blood + Sanguine Bond
Requires:
Exquisite Blood must be on the battlefield. Sanguine Bond must be on the battlefield. You have a way to gain life or a way to cause an opponent to lose life.
Steps:
- Gain life.
- Sanguine Bond triggers, causing target opponent to lose life equal to the amount you just gained.
- Exquisite Blood triggers, gaining you life equal to the amount of life the opponent lost.
- Repeat from step 2.
Results:
Infinite lifegain. Infinite lifegain triggers. Infinite lifeloss.
Exquisite Blood + Marauding Blight-Priest
Requires:
Exquisite Blood must be on the battlefield. Marauding Blight-Priest must be on the battlefield. A way to gain life or cause an opponent to lose life.
Steps:
- Gain life.
- Marauding Blight-Priest triggers, causing each opponent to lose 1 life.
- Exquisite Blood triggers for each opponent that lost life.
- Resolve one of the Exquisite Blood triggers, gaining 1 life.
- Repeat from step 2.
Results:
Infinite lifegain. Infinite lifegain triggers. Infinite lifeloss.
Exquisite Blood + Epicure of Blood
Requires:
Exquisite Blood must be on the battlefield. Epicure of Blood must be on the battlefield. You have a way to gain life or a way to cause an opponent to lose life.
Steps:
- Gain life.
- Epicure of Blood triggers, causing each opponent to lose 1 life.
- Exquisite Blood triggers for each opponent that lost life.
- Resolve one of the Exquisite Blood triggers, gaining 1 life.
- Repeat from step 2.
Results:
Infinite lifegain triggers. Infinite lifeloss.
Exquisite Blood + Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose
Requires:
Exquisite Blood must be on the battlefield. Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose must be on the battlefield. You have a way to gain life or a way to cause an opponent to lose life.
Steps:
- Gain life.
- Vito triggers, causing target opponent to lose life equal to the amount you just gained.
- Exquisite Blood triggers, gaining you life equal to the amount of life the opponent lost.
- Repeat from step 2.
Results:
Infinite lifegain. Infinite lifegain triggers. Infinite lifeloss.
Queza, Augur of Agonies
+ Drogskol Reaver
Requires:
Queza, Augur of Agonies must be on the battlefield. Drogskol Reaver must be on the battlefield. You have a way to draw a card. Your deck size is greater than your opponents’ combined life totals.
Steps:
- Draw a card.
- Queza triggers, causing target opponent to lose 1 life and you to gain 1 life.
- Drogskol Reaver triggers, causing you to draw a card.
- Repeat from step 2.
Results:
Infinite card draw. Infinite draw triggers. Near-infinite lifegain. Near-infinite lifegain triggers. Near-infinite lifeloss.
Conclusion:
Oloro is a classic commander who reminds me of when I first started playing magic, and hanging out with this ghost of the past is pretty awesome. While Oloro is a classic commander who was printed quite a long time ago they still have a ton of strong support and this deck is filled with a ton of new cards. This deck is an absolute blast and I have been having a ton of fun with it, I get some pretty awesome reactions at my LGS when I bring this old fella out. Thanks for reading to the end and for all of your support!