Pointed Discussion

Definitely my favourite commander from the set, nice but subtle effects that start from the moment your game begins.
4/5

Oloro is the B/W Lifedrain general I've always wanted.
I guess adding U isn't the worst thing they could do.

Probably the best "Good Stuff" General in these colors,
and Esper has a *lot* of Good Stuff.

Add in Exquisite Blood, and you can drain and draw as much as you can afford each turn.

Hey! You stole my pose!
-vish kal, blood arbiter

....Solitary Confinement.

Yikes, that's a threatening general. Prepare to get picked on, and in that case you might want to try out Wall Of Denial, Guard Gomazoa, Propaganda and other defensive options if you can't use your social skills to stop you getting beaten up for consistently gaining life.

This guy is ridiculous and there's not much you can do to stop him from being ridiculous.

Vish Kal? Is that you?

He's definitely my commander. He pillow forts nicely, after all

He is BA. and you know it

I really like him, but why make him a Soldier rather than a Warrior? Beyond the fact that they're generally more disciplined than the average warrior, I don't see how it fits. Soldiers act as part of an armed force following orders, Oloro here chills alone in the middle of nowhere on his fountain throne contemplating things unfathomable. He's much more the lone-warrior type, or they could have even gone with something like Mystic or Sage to reflect his enlightened nature. He's still totally awesome, regardless of that small gripe. And soldiers are common in his colors, so you could even build a tribal deck with him if you wanted, so there's that.
On another note, I'd really like to know why he's collecting those normal-sized weapons on his arm and chest bands. I'd like to think they're more than just for show, but his backstory(http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/ur/271) wasn't very enlightening on those specifics.

Oloro's Deck probably wants to run between 15-20 Artifacts. Thing is, his abilities are just So Control, they are very much related to "Anything good In a P9 + Necropotence Deck" is good in his deck.

He likes gaining life and drawing cards and to lesser extent countering spells and causing people to sacrifice a few resources at a time, like Smallpox stuff. He's all about the Blue-White-Black GoodStuffs.
Even though he's in the most perfect three colors for Colored Artifacts Ever, and you should consider one or both Tezzerets before you think of touching that Venser (send V. over to Derevi or Roon, they'll love him :) Thing is. You need room for the cards that will *definitely* cost you colored mana to cast.


In White, you really need at least to pack Wrath of God and Hallowed Burial, and those niche creature-answers that are particularly important in Commander. There are only one or two Artifact "Removal" cards I'd strongly consider, and they don't cover as many bases as White mana does.

In Blue, everything you really want to do besides Countering Spells *is* found in Artifacts, since Drawing cards is the thing you *most* want to do, and Howling Mine is actually better than some Blue cards, but Blue probably is one of the colors of a big number of the creatures you want to play. Mystical Tutor, Serendib Efreet and Force of Will are good places to look at for the kind of Blue cards you want. Ironically, his Main Color is the color he least needs Colored Mana symbols to get the important effects out of.

In Black.....hoooboooi. Black is the Color that tempts him the most, because Cabal Ritual, Dark Ritual, Demonic Tutor, and Necropotence all tempt him to go so far over to Black that he looks at Phyrexian Obliterator with a glint of real *it could happen* interest, and mana stones like Charcoal Diamond don't make it any easier.

If I were to build an Oloro Deck, probably I would first approach it like building a {W}/{U} deck, I would begin with Supreme Verdict, Sphinx's Revelation, Oblivion Ring, and Condemn, then I'd look at Really Good Mana Rocks, Howling Mines, and the subtler, more Midrange than Combo artifacts like Unwinding Clock (which is more like Vigilance for small utility effects- Voltaic Key is when you want to start busting stuff for real), then I'd look at Esper and see if any particular Colored Artifact Creatures

2 life per upkeep and he doesn't even need to be in play? Good lord, imagine this guy with Zur's Weirding. Your opponent will never draw a card again! Sure, he can stop you from drawing, too, but who do you think will run out of life first?

Soldier!?!
C'mon, this would have been perfect for a cleric! We need a legendary b/w cleric for tribal!

i once swore i would never like a card that was made exclusively for one format. for me one of the joys of commander/edh was finding cards from any were whether they were good there or not any crating the deck i always wanted to see. i feel when you make a card format specific it cheapens the format and the card.

That being said i absolutely LOVE this card the design is so awesome and it works just like you want it to.

i officially despise my self now....

Guy is good.

@Shadowcaster3975: "***, please"
Keeper of Tresserhorn

Boon Reflection OK gain 4 life per turn nice !

I've had roommates like this. People who do nothing but sit around all day, and yet somehow manage to grow more prosperous at everyone else's expense. I WILL concede that I never suspected any of them could take Arcanis the Omnipotent in a fight.

Very subtle and powerful commander. The deck does seem slow and boring.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet, but Words of Worship's a great manadump.
Upkeep:
1. Gain 2 life
2. tap 1 mana to activate Words of Worship
Draw Step:
3. Gain 5 life
4. Pay 1 mana to activate Words of Worship
5. Pay 1 mana, each opponent losses one life, you gain 1 life
6. Gain 5 life
7. Repeat steps 3-5 until at a comfortable life.

EDIT:
Just got the deck today, if you look at the Oversized version of his card, you see he has a bunch of axes and swords in a machine-gun-ammo like belt around his chest... Just felt like pointing that out.

This guy is amazing. He's never irrelevant, does everything you want as a controlling deck: killing them, gaining life and drawing cards.

I'm going to say something about his deck here too: The artifact theme actually goes really well with him. Many artifacts can gain life and mesh well with the other themes in the deck like goats of all things. The first thing I put in this deck was the trading post. Gaining life, drawing cards, recycling cards and making goats for the springjack pasture. It's like glue.

I really like this card, and want to make a deck around him (a shame they added in U as well, as I'd have changed him in for my B/W EDH deck immediately) but I have to say, from what I've seen so far, he really does promote lazy play. I've never seen him being cast from the general zone thus far, and his lifegain ability from it lengthens the game out quite a lot, making him quite the boring general the times I've versed him so far. That aside, art and abilities, when you play him, make him an awesome lifegain general, and one I will be getting.

I don't get why Oloro's first and third abilities couldn't have been combined to say "At the beginning of your upkeep, if Oloro is in the command zone or on the battlefield, you gain 2 life." Is it some rule about listing abilities in a certain order when they refer to certain zones?

Otherwise, pretty cool commander. Green might feel a little left out of the life gain party but unconventional designs can be good designs.

How does he work with Words of worship?

Ololo, Ageless Spike. Because Wizards decided Test of Endurance, Celestial Convergence and Felidar Sovereign weren't unfair enough.

@Lumppu: You gain life with Oloro -> his ability triggers -> you pay mana -> you are about to draw a card -> Words of Worship's ability triggers -> you pay mana and gain life -> Oloro's ability triggers...
You gain 5 life and everyone else loses 1 life for every time you choose to pay for both Oloro's and Words's abilities until you choose to stop paying when one of them triggers.

Big chair. Chair creep?

As soon as I saw this card I thought of Erebos, God of the Dead. It's indestructible and your devotion to black will likely be less than 5 so it'll be pretty impossible to get rid of. Plus you are ensuring that your opponents life stays down while you slowly whittle it away and you have enough life to pay for that extra card just in case you need it.

Embargo man.

Goes near-infinite with Skirge Familiar and Golgari Brownscale, I believe.

Combos aside, this guy is just a ridiculous EDH general. As others have mentioned, Esper is a really good color combination in EDH, with lots of "good stuff" cards-counterspells, draw cards, the best tutors, artifact and enchantment removal, lots of kill spells, tons of mass removal, and a decent chunk of infinite combos and non-infinite finishers. Esper is definitely a color that can win and control games without ever having to cast a commander-so they give Esper a commander which gives it huge advantage even if it doesn't get cast.

Oloro gives you tons of life over the course of the game, leading to players who care about your life total having a really tough time finishing you off before you get a board wipe/win con. He can do all that without ever having to be cast, letting him dodge Spell Crumple, Hinder, Condemn, etc. (note that those are all in his colors, too). And if you run out of steam, you can cast him as 6 mana is quite reasonable when you drag the games that long, and even just 1 extra card a turn late game is pretty sweet. And its going to be more than one card.

Rain of Gore is the greatest answer possible to a deck with this beast at the head.

Stigma Lasher kills all of his abilities dead.

I'm gonna vote Well of Lost Dreams for best interaction on the grounds that it's as close to a one-card combo as you're ever gonna get.

Does this remind anyone else of Breaking Bad's Season 5 poster?

Little disappointed no one mentioned Sun Droplet. In a five player game a single turn cycle can net you 10 life, 5 life lost by opponents, and five additional cards(6 including your draw step). Not bad for 5 mana.

Oloro is surprisingly strong because esper is a pretty strong 3-color combination that can often win without playing its general. In fact, if you ever actually throw Oloro into the field, either you are doing it wrong or you are totally gassed on cards.

Oloro is best used in a deck that wants to use its life as a resource. Necro is a great example. In EDH, necro is bonkers and should basically go in every black deck, but sometimes necro'ing down can put you within striking range of the other players because they know you're so far ahead on cards and that you can actually die to random creatures swinging at you. Oloro gives you a buffer such that your opponents can't just kill you with a bunch of angry solemn simulacrums; they'll have to kill you with their primary win cons (general damage, infinite combos, etc.). Toxic Deluge is another example. Paying 11 life to kill a blightsteel colossus along with a bunch of other random things is not always great in regular EDH decks where going from 40 to 29 just by one card can be a problem, but in Oloro it's no big deal.

Then in games where maybe you don't drain your own life total to your necro, toxic deluge, etc., you have things like felidar sovereign and test of endurance to just auto win the game, basically being a "delayed" 1-card combo (usually you'll time warp before playing those). And you still have your typical esper infinites like deadeye navigator + palinchron, academy rector + omniscience, power artifact + basalt monolith, etc.

At first glance, 2 life per turn is not a big deal. Lifegain, especially in EDH, is seen as something that's not very significant. But when the life gain is basically free, that's a pretty big upside. I threw together an oloro deck for *** and giggles. I'm actually very surprised with the results. I purposely don't have the insane infinite combos that oloro allows and I actually will win my fair share of games. If I had a cutthroat Oloro build I don't think I could lose unless the whole table gangs up on me.

We all love being able to pay life to draw cards ...

... so imagine the glee when we get to automatically gain life, draw cards and force our opponents to foot the bill.


This is a very Orzhov commander, funnily enough: it taxes your opponents at your behest and just to make doubly sure things to your way he sticks around like a terrified toddler clinging to its mother.

They oughta put a warning label on this guy because if you are using him casually, your opponent(s) will consistently be swinging at you just cuz you will be "that guy" with a higher starting life total. For that very reason, try finding cards that make you pay life so you'll be under the radar.

On principle, I will always gun for the player running Oloro first. He is a commander that rewards the player for doing nothing, while also allowing the player to run colors that specialize in making sure no one else can do anything either. I like to be able to fit in more than one or two games of EDH when I'm hanging out with people, and this guy always assures you're in for a long and tedious uphill battle.