Oloro, Esper King

Commander / EDH* Combo Lifegain Multiplayer WUB (Esper)

KylerStar

Land (33)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Brightclimb Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Castle Locthwain
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x Clearwater Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Fabled Passage
• 1x Fetid Pools
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Glacial Fortress
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Hengegate Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Irrigated Farmland
• 1x Island
• 1x Island
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Maze of Ith
• 1x Nimbus Maze
• 1x Otawara, Soaring City
• 1x Plains
• 1x Plains
• 1x Plains
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Raffine's Tower
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Underground River
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Watery Grave

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Dakkon, Shadow Slayer

Creature (18)

• 1x Aboleth Spawn
• 1x Archivist of Oghma
• 1x Breena, the Demagogue
• 1x Cathar Commando
• 1x Crested Sunmare
• 1x Deep Gnome Terramancer
• 1x Drannith Magistrate
• 1x Esper Sentinel
• 1x Faerie Mastermind
• 1x Kambal, Consul of Allocation
• 1x K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth
• 1x Loran of the Third Path
• 1x Murderous Rider
• 1x Notion Thief
• 1x Ranger-Captain of Eos
• 1x Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
• 1x Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose
• 1x Witch of the Moors

Enchantment (13)

• 1x Authority of the Consuls
• 1x Black Market Connections
• 1x Blind Obedience
• 1x Cleric Class
• 1x Exquisite Blood
• 1x Ghostly Prison
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Polluted Bonds
• 1x Propaganda
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Smothering Tithe
• 1x Tainted Remedy

Sorcery (6)

• 1x Agadeem's Awakening  ^Flip
• 1x Damn
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Sea Gate Restoration  ^Flip
• 1x Toxic Deluge

Commander (1)

Instant (16)

• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Beacon of Immortality
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Fierce Guardianship
• 1x Lim-Dul's Vault
• 1x Malakir Rebirth  ^Flip
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Teferi's Protection
• 1x Vampiric Tutor
• 1x Void Rend

Artifact (12)

• 1x Aetherflux Reservoir
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Archaeomancer's Map
• 1x Bolas's Citadel
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Norn's Annex
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Shadowspear
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Talisman of Hierarchy
• 1x Talisman of Progress

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Maybeboard

Creature (8)

• 1x Cliffhaven Vampire
• 1x Consecrated Sphinx
• 1x Dauthi Voidwalker
• 1x Grand Abolisher
• 1x Resplendent Angel
• 1x Serra Ascendant
• 1x Snapcaster Mage
• 1x Spellseeker

Instant (4)

• 1x Despark
• 1x Force of Despair
• 1x Force of Will
• 1x Reality Shift

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Vanquish the Horde

Land (2)

• 1x Glacial Chasm
• 1x Prismatic Vista

Enchantment (2)

• 1x Monologue Tax
• 1x Painful Quandary

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Intro

It is no secret that I am obsessed with Esper. Oloro is like my Esper dream card. He represents white with Life gain every turn. He represents Black with Table drain. Lastly he represents Blue with card advantage. The only thing that would make him better, would be if he was a vampire Shaman or Warlock(Witches have these sub-types) instead of a Giant Soldier.

I originally set out to make a curse deck, for I am a witch and have always loved the idea. Though it was gimmicky and fun, I could not make it competitive enough to keep up with my Husband and my playgroup. This is what the deck has become.

Deck Mechanics

Life gain/Life Matters

Rather than having huge spells that gain large amounts of life, I prefer to have many triggers of lifegain instead. Such as with Kambal, Authority of the Consuls, Archivist of Oghma, and Polluted Bonds. This is better for getting more activation out of Oloro.

Running a deck that gains so much we need to weaponize it, not just let it sit around. A card that has closed many games in this fashion is Aetherflux Reservoir. Digging many, MANY cards deep with Necropotence leverages this lifegain as well.

Talking about spending life, life is definitely a resource for this deck. The life cost of fetch lands and cards like Anguished Unmaking, Murderous Rider, or K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth become negligible.

Value Engines

Card advantage definitely wins games. I love to run effects that tax my opponents' plays to generate tons of value. Such as Deep Gnome Terramancer, Rhystic Study, Aboleth Spawn, and Smothering Tithe. I try to run very few cards that shut my opponents out of the game. Shutting my oppnents down tends to slow my own tax engines to a crawl and make others have a bad time. This is why I have excluded Opposition Agent. Drannith Magistrate remains to shut down decks with a combo piece in the command zone. Notion Thief also remains as it can dig incredibly deep for our own combos and stop others from finding theirs.

We can also leverage value out of cards that will always see lifegain. Crested Sunmare checks for lifegain at the end of every turn, not just our own. Allowing us to create a wall of indestructible blockers very quickly. Witch of the Moors may only trigger at the end of our own turn, but the effect is HUGE. Getting a creature back to hand at the end of turn isn't the worst thing as many of our creature's have Flash. On top of that, we make every opponent sacrifice a creature.

Benevolence

I've really grown to appreciate drawing my opponents cards. Obviously there has to be some sort of balance. Giving too many cards to my opponents will see them run away with the game. However, as a combo deck, we definitely needed a way to gain some political power and garner good will at the table.

I have included Faerie Mastermind, Breena, the Demagogue, and Loran of the Third Path. All 3 do a little bit more for me and play well together. At best we trigger Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, Smothering Tithe, etc. Opponents drawing more cards means they play more cards for us to tax. At worst these are blockers.

These cards also help draw into our combo. Notion Thief turns these cards into pretty decent draw engines. Specially Faerie Mastermind

Victory

Win-conditions

The main win condition of this deck is to leverage lifegain with Aetherflux Reservoir. The best way to do this is to find Bolas's Citadel as quickly as possible. With Aetherflux Reservoir casting cards off the top of the library quickly ramps into gaining more life than we are spending. Having so many creature's with flash also allows us to play cards off the top on opponent's turns. Necropotence and Sensei's Divining Top can both be used to remove lands off the top of the library to go near infinite. However Sensei's Divining Top is notably better as it increases the storm count each time it is cast from the top of the library. Casting Vampiric Tutor, Enlightened Tutor, or Lim-Dul's Vault off the top with Bolas's Citadel will guarantee we find exactly what we want on top. Dark Ritual, Brainstorm, and dropping a ton of rocks help to cast cards that are stuck in our hand during this process.

Combos

When our main win condition takes a hit, there are some other combos we can turn to.

Beacon of Immortality paired with Tainted Remedy is absolutely a player killer.

Exquisite Blood plus Cliffhaven Vampire and/or Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose creates an infinite Loop.

K'rrik can drain a ton of life with Blind Obedience. He has a ridiculous interaction with extort. K'rrik is also a great way to bypass needing 3 black sources for Necropotence and Bolas's Citadel. Allowing to ramp out Necropotence as quickly as we can put K'rrik on the board. Sticking Bolas's Citadel 3+ turns early also feels pretty great when everything goes according to plan.

When all else fails, we can try to trigger Oloro, Ageless Ascetic's draw/drain ability as many times as we can as quickly as possible.

Chopping Block

Cards that I feel are under preforming will be highlighted here.

Notion Thief:This card puts in a TON of work. However, its ability to utterly blow someone out of the water at instant speed leaves people feeling incredibly bad about it. Notion Thief is also a non-bo with Smothering Tithe. Possible we replace with Alms Collector. Not convinced as it won't effect opponents drawing multiple cards one at a time.

Top Ranked	Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Lifegain 4 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH WUB (Esper) 4 years ago
Date added	7 years
Last updated	1 year
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	12 - 0 Mythic Rares 67 - 0 Rares 11 - 0 Uncommons 3 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.75
Tokens	Horse 5/5 W, On an Adventure, Shapeshifter 3/2 C, Treasure, Treasure, Treasure
Folders	Commander Ideas, EDH, Oloro lilfegain, Buy, Oloro, Commander, Life Gain, commander decks, Cool Decks, Oloro