pie chart

Your Loss Is My Gain *PRIMER*

Commander / EDH Bracket 4 Casual Lifegain Multiplayer WUB (Esper)

NV_1980

Upvote 0
0

Creature (27)

Instant (9)

Land (36)

Sorcery (3)

Commander (1)

Commander: Oloro, Ageless Ascetic

Artifact (14)

Enchantment (10)

Welcome to Your Loss Is My Gain

Hi there! Welcome to the primer of this Esper, life-gain combo deck; commanded by Oloro, Ageless Ascetic. On the secret plane of Insula Aeterna, he dwells in solitude. Where he contemplates the secrets of the multiverse while simultaneously guarding the only known source of Aqua Vitae; arguably the greatest treasure ever known. Many ambitious, greedy beings have attempted to find it and to conquer it. These efforts were always made in vain. Most never found it to begin with. The few that did came to face a force of guardians so formidable that no one survived the encounter. So, for the most part, Oloro’s home has remained undisturbed over the course of its existence. Until now that is, for you have found it. Will you be the one to overcome its defenses or is your life-essence about to become part of this place? Only one way to find out! This deck is meant to be played casually. It’s not meant to be used in a competitive fashion, but of course anyone is welcome to try! Feel free to comment on anything you (dis)like throughout this primer; hope you will enjoy it!

He’s one of the few commanders in MTG, that allows one to benefit from him being in the command zone as well as being on the battlefield. Life-gain is an excellent way to keep oneself around in a game of magic and when one can tie this in with drawing cards, like Oloro, Ageless Ascetic can, then it becomes even nicer. Though he’s not cheap to cast, he has excellent power/toughness and will thus not easily die. His color combination also gives one access to most great life-gain mechanics along with great opportunity for drawing more cards.

The following ten parameters have been used to determine the strength of the deck. For each, a score of 5 (very good), 4 (good), 3 (mediocre), 2 (bad) or 1 (very bad) has been allocated; when totalized this score represents the power rating of the deck (maximum score is 50 points).

  • Mana: indicates the availability of mana sources within the deck.
  • Ramp: indicates the speed at which mana sources within the deck can be made available.
  • Card Advantage: indicates availability of filter- and draw resources represented within the deck.
  • Overall speed: indicates the deck’s potential for pace, based on resource availability and mana curve.
  • Combo: indicates the measure of combo-orientation of the deck.
  • Army: indicates the deck’s creature-army strength.
  • Commander: indicates how much the deck is commander-oriented/dependent (less dependency is better).
  • Interaction: indicates how much this deck can mess with opponents’ board states and turn-phases.
  • Resilience: indicates whether the deck can prevent and take punches.
  • Spellpower: indicates the availability and strength of high-impact spells.

Mana: 3

Decent number of rocks (eight of them) cover most of this deck’s mana needs. A way has also been included to cheapen the casting of white spells along with two options that can generate treasure tokens.

Ramp: 1

Two cards have been included to make this work. One allows for the searching of multiple basic lands in the library, while the other allows for playing lands from the top of one’s deck.

Card Advantage: 5

Aside from the deck’s commander, this amalgamation contains ten direct-draw options. Most of these are triggered by life-gain. To cycle through cards needed under specific circumstances, two filtering mechanisms have been added. For specific searches, two tutors can be used.

Overall speed: 4

It would be fair to classify this deck as relatively fast, which means that on average it will be able to truly cast/do things (that will impact opponents) by turn 4. This is helped by the deck’s ample resources and a nice, low average mana-cost of its spells.

Combo: 5

In all this deck features eight differently structured combos. Most are in the business of draining opponents of life while providing secondary benefits. The great thing about many of these combos, is that they can be executed with different combinations of cards that produce the desired effect. This makes it very difficult for opponents to stop each variant.

Army: 4

A great mixture of different combatants can be found within this deck. Though some serve more a utilitarian purpose than being an aggressor/defender, twelve creatures can at the very least be considered battlecruiser-type specimens.

Commander: 5

Honestly, during most games, Oloro, Ageless Ascetic doesn’t need to come from his throne at all. While he’s there, he provides consistent additional life anyway, so all one would need him for is additional card advantage. Since this can be supplied for through numerous other options, the question becomes: why bother?

Interaction: 5

Draining life is by far the most common form of interaction this deck can impose on its opponents. Some thirteen options have been included for this. Other cards can cause opponents to lose life without this deck’s controller gaining it (three cards). Then there’s also ways to exile opposing permanents, slow opponents down and prevent them from casting spells.

Resilience: 5

Massive life-gain potential resides within the bowels of this deck, meaning one must do a ridiculous amount of damage against it to make it go away. Twenty-four life-gain options (including Oloro) ensure that one’s life-points aren’t going to become low any time soon. Aside from these, mass protection spells have also been included.

Spellpower: 3

Some excellent mass-effecting spells in here that can do a whole host of things. Mass-bounce, mass-drain, mass-draw, mass-destruction, mass-life-gain, mass-protection, mass-tapping and mass-whither.

Total power score: 40

What makes this deck powerful, is that it’s very consistent. It’s great at protecting itself, it has more than enough resources to keep itself from stalling out and it can dish out some serious punishment within a decent amount of time. Its commander is simultaneously strong, but not a condition for winning. Its combos are almost unstoppable and only need a few cards for them to work. Flinging masses of disrupting spells/effects (like milling) at this deck is basically the only way to truly stop it from working.

This deck can win slowly, through the application of combat damage. It can also win very fast, through a sudden combo that drains all opponents of all life they had in an instant. Whichever road one chooses, one shouldn’t be in any rush, as this deck makes it very easy for one to gain life. So easy in fact, that one is even guaranteed additional life during every one of its turns (as Oloro grants life whether he’s in the command zone or on the battlefield). Unless opponents have ways to deal infinite (or very high) damage to the deck’s controller, one can adopt a passive approach with the occasional aggression to keep opponents on their toes. More formidable opponents will feel the wrath of this deck’s combatants though, which can be made formidable.

At least three cards in the starting hand ought to be lands (or two lands and a cheap-to-cast rock like Arcane Signet or Sol Ring). It is recommended not to start a game without this hand (even if one has to mulligan down to three cards). The ideal hand would also contain some additional ramp (like Land Tax) and/or low-cost draw options (like Sensei's Divining Top).

Take it easy and start with some resources. Any of the signets like (Azorius Signet, Dimir Signet or Orzhov Signet) or talismans (Talisman of Dominance, Talisman of Hierarchy or Talisman of Progress) will do nicely. Now, sit back and get some card advantage operational. The most ideal examples are cards like Necropotence and Rhystic Study. Next comes easy life-gain to extend the deck’s advantage over its opponents, in the form of Authority of the Consuls, Serra Ascendant, Soul's Attendant and Soul Warden. It’s also advised to add cards that grant draw based on gained life. Especially Haliya, Guided by Light and The Gaffer are great at this.

Chill out and grab your first genuine resources for defense (and aggression, should the mood strike you). Since a lot of life is going to be gained from this point forward, it’s best to employ creatures that get stronger as a result. This means cards like Archangel of Thune, Cleric Class, Elenda's Hierophant, Exemplar of Light, Heliod, Sun-Crowned and Karlov of the Ghost Council. Note that there’s no real need for all out aggression. Just make sure no one gets it in their head to stomp this side of the battlefield.

While continuing to build up a defensive (or aggressive) force, let’s lounge and start some draining. The deck features ways to have opponents lose life (without attacking). This is where cards like Sheoldred, the Apocalypse and Walking Ballista can help. The latter can also be used to zap annoying creatures from the opposing side. Then there are cards that can literally drain opponents. Strong examples of these are Cliffhaven Vampire, Indulging Patrician, Marauding Blight-Priest, Starscape Cleric and Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose.

Using any of the above serves as a nice passing of the time while waiting for one (or more) of the cards required for a game-ending combo. Keep trying to gain life as well, to offset any efforts from opponents at ending the deck before an effort (in the form of a combo) can end them.

Life-gaining can be used as an activation mechanism by many permanents to drain life-points from opponents. Here’s the funny part though; some cards can do the exact reverse. That makes for some excellent infinite looping. Other permanents can use life-gain to elicit draws, while others can do the exact reverse.

  • Starting position: both permanents are on the battlefield .
  • Primary benefits: drains all opponents from all life-points.
  • Secondary benefits: gain all life drained from opponents.
  1. Gain life through any means (Oloro is an excellent dependable source for this).
  2. The life gained triggers Sanguine Bond/Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose/Enduring Tenacity/Marauding Blight-Priest/Cliffhaven Vampire/Starscape Cleric/Vizkopa Guildmage. The trigger from the previous step resolves, at least one opponent loses 1 life.
  3. This loss of life triggers Bloodthirsty Conqueror/Exquisite Blood. Conqueror/Blood’s trigger resolves, gain at least 1 life.

Repeat from step 2.

  • Starting position: both permanents are on the battlefield. Controller has at least 51 life.
  • Primary benefits: deals enough damage to kill all opponents.
  • Secondary benefits: gain at least 50 life.
  1. Pay 50 life to have Aetherflux Reservoir deal 50 damage to an opponent. The life-loss triggers Bloodthirsty Conqueror/Exquisite Blood.
  2. Conqueror/Blood’s trigger resolves, their controller gains 50 life.

Repeat from step 1.

  • Starting position: both permanents are on the battlefield. 1symbo:W available. Ballista has at least two +1/+1 counters on it.
  • Primary benefits: deals enough damage to kill all opponents.
  • Secondary benefits: life gained equal to damage required to destroy all opponents.
  1. Use the 1 to have Heliod, Sun-Crowned to grant life-link to Walking Ballista.
  2. Activate Ballista by removing one +1/+1 counter from it and deal 1 damage to an opponent. This triggers Ballista’s life-link.
  3. Ballista’s controller gains 1 life, this triggers Heliod’s ability to grant +1/+1 counters upon a creature.
  4. Allocate the counter to Ballista.

Repeat from step 2.

  • Starting position: all permanents are on the battlefield. Ballista has at least two +1/+1 counters on it. If Cleric Class is involved, it has level 2.
  • Primary benefits: deals enough damage to kill all opponents.
  • Secondary benefits: life gained equal to damage required to destroy all opponents.
  1. Activate Walking Ballista by removing one +1/+1 counter from it and deal 1 damage to an opponent. The life-loss triggers Bloodthirsty Conqueror/Exquisite Blood’s life-gain ability.
  2. Ballista’s controller gains 1 life. This triggers Archangel of Thune/Cleric Class.
  3. Resolve Archangel/Class’s trigger, which allows for putting a +1/+1 counter on at least Ballista.

Repeat from step 1.

  • Starting position: both permanents on the battlefield. Bloodchief Ascension has three or more quest counters. A source can deal (initial) damage.
  • Primary benefits: deals enough damage to kill all opponents.
  • Secondary benefits: life gained equal to damage required to destroy all opponents. Mill all libraries.
  1. A card deals damage to an opponent. This triggers Mindcrank.
  2. Resolve Crank, the opponent mills a card. This triggers Bloodchief Ascension.
  3. Resolve Ascension’s trigger, having the opponent lose 2 life.

Repeat from step 1.

  • Starting position: all permanents are on the battlefield.
  • Primary benefits: draw all the deck’s cards.
  • Secondary benefits: gain life equal to the number of cards drawn.
  1. Draw a card (at the start of a turn). This triggers Shabraz, the Skyshark/Sheoldred, the Apocalypse’s life-gain abilities.
  2. Resolve the life-gain abilities, to have their controller gain 1 life. This triggers Drogskol Reaver’s ability.
  3. Resolve Drogskol’s ability and draw a card. This triggers Shabraz/Sheoldred’s life-gain abilities.

Repeat from step 2.

  • Starting position: both permanents are on the battlefield.
  • Primary benefits: draw all the deck’s cards.
  • Secondary benefits: drain life equal to the number of cards drawn.
  1. Draw a card (at the start of a turn). This triggers Queza, Augur of Agonies’s drain ability.
  2. Resolve the drain ability, to have an opponent lose a life while Queza’s controller gains one. This triggers Drogskol Reaver’s ability.
  3. Resolve Drogskol’s ability and draw a card. This triggers Queza’s drain ability.

Repeat from step 2.

  • Starting position: Top is in hand. Haliya and Citadel are on the battlefield. 1 mana available.
  • Primary benefits: draw all the deck’s cards.
  • Secondary benefits: infinite ETB/LTB triggers.
  1. Use the 1 mana to cast Sensei's Divining Top. This trigger’s Haliya’s life-gain ability.
  2. Resolve Haliya’s ability to gain 1 life.
  3. Activate Sensei's Divining Top by tapping it. Draw a card and put Top on the top of the library/
  4. Use Bolas's Citadel’s ability to cast Top from the top of the library for 1 life.

Repeat from step 2.

  • Starting position: Beacon of Immortality is in hand, the other permanents on the battlefield. Enough mana to cast Beacon. An opponent has less life than the caster.
  • Primary benefits: drain an opponent of all life.
  • Secondary benefits: none.
  1. Cast Beacon of Immortality. This triggers Sanguine Bond/Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose/Enduring Tenacity/Vizkopa Guildmage.
  2. Resolve the trigger mentioned in the previous step. The opponent loses life equal to the caster’s life-points.
  • Starting position: Sheoldred on the battlefield. Peer Into the Abyss in hand. Enough mana available to cast Peer.
  • Primary benefits: immediate loss of the game due to life-loss.
  • Secondary benefits: none.
  1. Cast Peer into the Abyss, targeting an opponent. The opponent loses half their life (let’s say they started out at 60 life to be generous, so they lose 30).
  2. The opponent now draws half their deck. This triggers Sheoldred, the Apocalypse.
  3. Resolve Sheoldred to deal 2 damage per drawn card to the opponent. This means that even at 30 life, one would only need to force the opponent to draw 15 cards to kill them.

Forms the base of the deck’s energy-generation capacity:

Additional ways to generate mana aside from lands:

  • Arcane Signet: in terms of efficient mana rocks, there’s few better than one that only costs 2 to cast but provides all colors with no additional downsides.
  • Azorius Signet/Dimir Signet/Orzhov Signet: cheap sources of colored mana are greatly appreciated in non-green decks, even when they require a small activation cost to use.
  • Black Market Connections: mostly in here for the treasure that it can generate at the cost of life, but the additional draw and tokens are nice too.
  • Land Tax: time this right, and one can’t just tutor for multiple lands, but one can also immediately play one after. For white, there’s no greater repeatable ramping card.
  • Smothering Tithe: perhaps the greatest early/mid-game ramping card of all time. Very few opponents are going to pay draw tax (especially not 2!) so in a playgroup of four, this guarantees at least three treasure tokens per turn-cycle while it lives.
  • Sol Ring: best card in any opening hand. Auto-include.
  • Talisman of Dominance/Talisman of Hierarchy/Talisman of Progress: these are even better than the signets; especially in a deck that can recoup life-loss as easily as this one can.
  • The Wind Crystal: doesn’t just act as a Pearl Medallion but also doubles one’s life-gain. The third ability can be game ending if opponents can’t block fliers.

The resources to obtain more casting options:

  • Bolas's Citadel: top-decking for life seems extremely advantageous for this deck.
  • Consecrated Sphinx: possibly the most powerful draw mechanism that doesn’t require sacrifices or life. Others draw and its controller draws two; astoundingly strong and usually enough to end games within a few turns if its continued existence is allowed by opponents.
  • Demonic Tutor: find a single card and use it. No downsides, cheap to cast and positively lethal in a deck that features many infinite combos.
  • Drogskol Reaver: drawing based on instances of life-gain is extremely powerful in a deck that has many avenues for this. When it attacks, due to double strike and lifelink, it deals damage twice, which triggers two instances of lifelink and thus two cards drawn.
  • Exemplar of Light: a flyer that gets strong very fast with all the life-gain going on in this deck, and as a bonus one gets to draw an additional card per turn.
  • Haliya, Guided by Light: an additional Soul Warden that allows for draw if one gains enough life per turn.
  • Lim-Dul's Vault: in terms of its life-cost, this is a bit more expensive than the usual tutors one could employ. The benefit over such tutors though, is that one can make the next few additional draws predictable.
  • Necropotence: oh, how insanely powerful is this. Draw as much as one wants at the end of each turn. Recipe for success in a combo-deck.
  • Peer into the Abyss: can be used for oneself, or to severely screw with an opponent.
  • Rhystic Study: pay the one?
  • Sensei's Divining Top: cheapest but best artifact card-filter out there. A staple in a lot of commander decks for these exact reasons.
  • The Gaffer: same draw mechanism as Haliya, but without the life-gain. Makes one wonder why this card is currently more valuable than Haliya.
  • The One Ring: ever increasing numbers of cards for an ever-increasing amount of life. Bit of a gamble to use, but most card-draw in the deck uses this exchange mechanism.
  • Vampiric Tutor: excellent tutor; the only downside being that it doesn’t end up in one’s hand directly, which means there are more ways for opponents to mess with it. Still, at only a single , it’s a good deal.

Forty life is a nice start, but one can do better:

  • Archangel of Thune: an army with this lady leading the field is going to be strengthened very quickly. If not through her life-gain abilities, then definitely through those of a few others.
  • Beacon of Immortality: doubling one’s life in an instant, with the prospect of doing it again later.
  • Bloodthirsty Conqueror/Exquisite Blood: that’s a nasty wound you have there. Let’s taste that blood and feel the life-force flow!
  • Cleric Class: more life, more strength and toughness whenever one gains life AND the possibility of recurring something from the grave. That’s excellent versatility.
  • Heliod, Sun-Crowned: this deity empowers a follower with the power to grant life by distributing pain.
  • Indulging Patrician: gaining three life a turn is easy when Oloro is part of one’s gameplan. It means only 1 additional life is necessary before this card distributes three damage to all opponents.
  • Serra Ascendant: one of the most potent turn-1 creatures that can possibly be summoned in commander (it’s a miracle this card is still legal in the format).
  • Shabraz, the Skyshark: drawing cards will result in a very powerful flier and a lot of additional life.
  • Soul's Attendant/Soul Warden: these go off whenever someone brings creatures onto the battlefield. Very effective against/with token-armies.
  • Sunscorch Regent: most opponents will cast at least one spell during their turns. Provided none of said spells are trying to remove this wonderful dragon, this means it will grow an average +3/+3 per turn cycle within a 4-player pod. Quite powerful.

The pain one can distribute by one’s actions:

  • Aetherflux Reservoir: casting spells … obviously that earns one some life! And once enough has been gained, … zapping time!
  • Bloodchief Ascension: together with Mindcrank, this creates one hell of an infinite combo. Drain life, mill stuff, drain more life, etc.
  • Cliffhaven Vampire: drain and excellent combatant thrown into one.
  • Enduring Tenacity: unless this draining beauty is exiled, it will need to be destroyed twice before opponents can truly get rid of it.
  • Kambal, Consul of Allocation: instants, enchantments, sorceries, artifacts … this guy taxes them all, and does so harshly!
  • Marauding Blight-Priest: a little more drain.
  • Queza, Augur of Agonies: since this deck provides plenty of draw opportunity, why not drain based on that as well?
  • Sanguine Bond: in a way this card accelerates the advantage life-gain provides even more by simultaneously disadvantaging an opponent.
  • Sheoldred, the Apocalypse: the ultimate drain based on draw and a terrifying creature in combat as well. All that for just CMC4 is completely unreal.
  • Starscape Cleric: let’s make the drain more serious by copying its enabler.
  • Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose: he’s a drain enabler and life-gain enabler in one. Sure, that last bit costs a significant amount of mana but dayum … it’s an excellent mid-/end-game card for this reason.
  • Vizkopa Guildmage: more expensive to use than Vito, unless one already has other life-gain/drain sources available (which is usually the case anyway).

Some utility items one ought not forget to mention:

  • Authority of the Consuls: fantastic bit of kit to gain life and slow down opponents significantly. Creatures with haste are essentially neutralized entirely when they appear.
  • Cyclonic Rift: perhaps the best bounce spell ever created, and if cast during the mid-/end-game stage it will basically determine a game’s outcome.
  • Elenda's Hierophant: depending on how many counters she has, will generate a ton of tokens when someone is foolish enough to off her.
  • Grand Abolisher: a courageous priest is all that stands between opponents messing up one’s turns.
  • Heliod's Intervention: an excellent mass-artifact/enchantment removal spell that should be in almost any EDH-deck featuring white.
  • Karlov of the Ghost Council: life-gain becomes counter-powered exiling fuel!
  • Mana Drain: it’s not just been countered, it’s been drained.
  • Mindcrank: forced milling is nasty to begin with. Now add many different sources pinging opponents time and time again and it becomes a real liability.
  • Path to Exile/Swords to Plowshares: cheap exiling spells.
  • Teferi's Protection: that’s a fine move you made there. Too bad it won’t affect this deck in any significant way.
  • Toxic Deluge: using life to whither creatures is very useful and difficult to stop.
  • Walking Ballista: with several ways in this deck to add +1/+1 counters to it by gaining life, this suddenly becomes an excellent repeatable removal tool.

Appreciate the time you took to read this primer. Hopefully it was entertaining and useful to you. If so, feel free to leave a +1 and/or feedback of any kind in the comments below. Thanks again!

Suggestions

Updates Add

Massive rework — March 7, 2026
Edit

Basically revisited this entire deck after having it sit on the shelf for three years. It now features more lifegain, more ways to benefit off of lifegain, more combos and a bit less inhibition.

Finally! — Feb. 1, 2019
Edit
The upgrades are here! — May 21, 2017
Edit

Comments View Archive

Attention! Complete Comment Tutorial! This annoying message will go away once you do!

Become a supporter of TappedOut and hide ads for only $3/month!

Important! Formatting tips — Comment Tutorial — markdown syntax

Please login to comment

Revision 1 See all

(3 weeks ago)

+1 Adarkar Wastes main
-1 Ajani's Pridemate main
-1 Alhammarret's Archive main
+1 Ancient Tomb main
+1 Arcane Signet main
-1 Athreos, God of Passage main
-1 Azorius Guildgate main
+1 Beacon of Immortality main
+1 Black Market Connections main
-1 Blade of Selves main
+1 Bloodchief Ascension main
-1 Bloodgift Demon main
-1 Bloodstained Mire main
+1 Bloodthirsty Conqueror main
+1 Bolas's Citadel main
-1 Boon Reflection main
-1 Burnished Hart main
+1 Caves of Koilos main
-1 Chromatic Lantern main
+1 Cleric Class main
and 108 other change(s)