Oloro, ageless ascetic
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on June 1, 2014, 8:43 p.m. by abenz419
What is the best kind of deck to build around Oloro, Ageless Ascetic ? I recently picked up the C13 Esper deck and it feels like it's half built for Sidri and half built for Oloro ao it doesn't quite flow together. But because of this is hard to really get a feel for what is best with Oloro. IMO, he seems like a pretty vague Commander. As if you could build almost anything around him because his abilities don't really require any special build around to function, but I seem to come across only control list. Is this because it's esper or is this because that's what Oloro is good at? I mean it makes sense, lifegain and card draw.... but are there other options??
Ok that's kinda of what I thought, but like I said,it does make sense for esper control to have a commander that provides life gain and card advantage. I'm not really sure what I want to do with the deck yet, but I was thinking I might be able to do some sort of commander version of Esper Humans, or maybe look towards some sort of humans and vampires or angels and demons type and thing. Guess it'll depend on what I can find to take advantage of all the life gain and stuff like that and then I can work from there.
June 1, 2014 8:52 p.m.
To be honest, if you do really focus on the life gain then you'll end up with the same cards that everyone uses like Sanguine Bond , Exquisite Blood , and Felidar Sovereign . Whilst viable, it is very dull.
You could just play a creature based midrange with a lifegain subtheme in order to fuel crazy amounts of card draw.
June 1, 2014 8:55 p.m.
Oloro is best run in a sanguimancy build. He doesn't simply gain life for the sake of reaching a greater life total. No, Oloro likes to use lifegain as a means to pay life for strong effects, grind the board down, and generate card advantage.
June 1, 2014 9:53 p.m.
You can go lifegain, and play cards like Felidar Sovereign , Exquisite Blood , Sanguine Bond and Test of Endurance , but to be honest I think that route is kind of boring. I personally use him in a superfriends build with primarily control elements and a handful of planeswalkers. Oloro's lifegain provides a nice boost and some extra breathing room for control strategies.
June 1, 2014 10:05 p.m.
What I had in mind was kind of like what HeadChime was talking about. A creature based midrange deck and what I meant by take advantage of the life gain is what TheDevicer was talking about, using the life to pay for bigger more powerful effects. I don't want to just do the same old thing, which is why I was wondering if Oloro was often used in other builds or mainly just the control shells. I was just throwing ideas out earlier like esper humans or angels and demons because those are decks that've been done plenty of times in other formats so I thought there would be lots of options to figure something out. I like how the deck already has Sydri, Galvanic Genius as a secondary commander though. So I was also thinking maybe i could load up on artifacts and artifact creatures like Filigree Angel , Myr Battlesphere , Sharuum the Hegemon , Sphinx of the Steel Wind , Tidehollow Strix , and Tower Gargoyle which are already in there and then find some other stuff to incorporate. I think going that route though, I'd probably just be better off using Sydri as my commander, so maybe that'd be for another deck. What other kinds of ideas do you guys have??
HeadChime says... #2
Oloro seems to have an ability that pushes you towards an attrition style of play where you slowly grind everyone down. This might be why control is popular. However, in reality his ability is useful for midrange and other archetypes too.
June 1, 2014 8:47 p.m.