Oloro, Ageless AsceticOloro, Ageless Ascetic | Art by: Eric Deschamps

Hello everyone. I’m Levi from the Thought Vessel, and this is Hidden Gems, the series on EDHREC that looks at commanders all across the format to find those special cards that are flying under the radar.

For a card to be eligible as a hidden gem, it must be in fifteen percent of decks or less for a particular commander.

As we are in Precon Month here on EDHREC, it seemed appropriate to choose a commander from a precon all the way back from Commander 2013.

This legendary creature used to be an absolute boogeyman in every pod that it showed up in and was a pioneer for one of the most polarizing mechanics to date.

The commander I am referring to is Oloro, Ageless AsceticOloro, Ageless Ascetic. Before we get into our list, let's first take a look at Oloro to see what this creature and deck does so we know what kind of cards we are looking for.

The Commander

Oloro, Ageless AsceticOloro, Ageless Ascetic is a 4/5 Giant Soldier for . At the beginning of our upkeep, we gain two life. If Oloro is in the command zone, we still gain two life.

Regardless of whether we decide to cast it or not, we are getting value from the very start of the game like an emblem.

This concept would eventually become the mechanic eminence, which allows for an effect or ability to be used both from the battlefield as well as the command zone.

We actually see eminence on the top two commanders in the entire format, for now, in The Ur-DragonThe Ur-Dragon and Edgar MarkovEdgar Markov. Having an ability that we have access to immediately that really can’t be interacted with by our opponents is incredibly strong.

If we decide to actually make Oloro get out of his chair, he can also serve as an excellent card advantage engine. Every time we gain life, we can pay one mana to draw a card and have each opponent lose one life.

Pairing this effect with a card like Queza, Augur of AgoniesQueza, Augur of Agonies can be a nice 1-2 punch to refill our hand and take a chunk of life from the board.

Generally speaking Oloro is either built as a Combo deck, a lifegain deck, or a hybrid of the two. The Combo decks are typically using the extra lifegain and colors as a buffer to absorb hits while they look to get one of the several combos available in the Esper color combination going.

The Lifegain deck typically leans into more synergies since we have loaded up the deck with lifegain payoffs since we’re guaranteed to have at least one triggering event per turn.

When we look at the amount of decks for each tag, Lifegain is far and away the most popular archetype to build Oloro around, so that is what this list will focus on today. Before we get into our list, we do have an honorable mention.

Honorable Mention. Celestine, the Living SaintCelestine, the Living Saint (11%)

Celestine, the Living SaintCelestine, the Living Saint is a 3/4 Human Warrior with flying and lifelink. At the beginning of our end step, we can return a creature from our graveyard to the battlefield that has a mana value equal to or less than the life we gained this turn.

With Oloro’s trigger alone, we can get a two mana creature every turn. With Oloro and a Celestine attack, we can get up to a five mana creature.

While Oloro isn’t an explicit creature deck, there are a lot of creatures with fantastic lifegain payoffs that we tend to include. Being able to get some of them back as they get removed to keep the engines running really helps our long game as we keep building.

The reason this is an honorable mention instead of on the list is that it comes from the Warhammer Commander decks, which are hard to find and can fetch a high price.

As of writing this article, Celestine is nearly a $40 card, so I felt it was better suited as an honorable mention here. Now, onto the actual list!

Ten Hidden Gems for Oloro, Ageless Ascetic

10. Sorin of House MarkovSorin of House Markov (9.3%)

Starting us off is Sorin of House MarkovSorin of House Markov. On the early turns, we can get Sorin into play to use its extort keyword to pay one mana to steal one life from each opponent.

Since Oloro is already gaining us two life, we only need to gain one life to flip over onto the planeswalker side.

Once it is flipped, we can still use extort, but we can also make Food tokens, throw out damage equal to our life gained for the turn, which can be a very large number, and if we can protect Sorin, we might even be able to use the -6 ability to steal a creature from an opponent.

With a deck that can be focused on the long game, it’s nice to mix in a few cards that can have an early game impact to set us up well for the rest of the game.

9. Revival // RevengeRevival // Revenge (8.9%)

If there is one thing I like in cards for my Commander decks above everything else, it's versatility. Early in the game, we can cast Revival to get a creature mana value three or less from our grave back into play.

On a later turn, we can cast Revenge to double our life total and cut an opponent’s life total in half. I’m not as big of a fan of a card like Beacon of ImmortalityBeacon of Immortality, as it isn’t particularly helpful in the early game and it doesn’t have any other effects. Revival // Revenge can help us in a multitude of ways.

8. Paradox HazeParadox Haze (8.5%)

At its baseline, this is a card that gives us an extra upkeep, so Oloro will gain us four life per turn. It definitely has a higher ceiling depending on what else is included in the ninety-nine of our list.

Cards like Archangel of Thune and Venser’s Journal getting an extra trigger can really take off over multiple turns.

7. Excalibur IIExcalibur II (7.7%)

Between lifelinking creatures and evasive ones with flying, there are ways to really take advantage of raw power that Excalibur IIExcalibur II can provide.

Every time we gain life, which will probably be several times per turn with Oloro, Excalibur II gets a charge counter, and the equipped creature gets +1/+1 for each of them. This can easily be +10-20 power on an attacker.

If we give this Equipment to a creature with lifeline, we can really push our life total towards triple digits. We could even explore the option of casting Oloro and trying for a commander damage knockout if we need to. For a one mana Equipment card, it is definitely worth a spot in our deck. 

6. Decorum DissertationDecorum Dissertation (7.6%)

As the saying goes, sometimes you have to spend money to make money. For five mana, we can draw two cards and lose two life.

If that was all the card did, then it wouldn't be playable, as that is a terrible rate. Luckily, this card has a new keyword, paradigm.

Paradigm is a keyword that states that after we first resolve this spell, we may cast a copy of this spell from exile for free on our first main phase every turn for the rest of the game. Since we are already gaining two life per turn, the loss of life isn’t a huge setback.

The main benefit is having a draw engine drawing an extra two cards per turn that is far more difficult to interact with than a permanent on the field like Rhystic StudyRhystic Study. With all the extra card advantage, we can make that life loss back and then come.

5. Revenge of RavensRevenge of Ravens (7.1%)

A big issue with Oloro is that a lot of players tend to attack whichever player has the most life without looking at the full board state.

Since this is a lifegain deck, that player is probably going to be you a lot of the time. We need to add a few cards to our deck to either recoup the life loss or hurt the attacker. Revenge of RavensRevenge of Ravens can help us with both.

Every time a creature attacks us or a planeswalker we control, that creature’s controller loses one life, and we gain one life.

This can trigger a lot of our permanents and is a major issue for go-wide decks that want to attack with several creatures at once. This should prevent a few attacks here and there to let us build up our life total more easily.

4. Sheltered by GhostsSheltered by Ghosts (0.6%)

Sheltered by GhostsSheltered by Ghosts isn’t a card that I would use in higher brackets, but I do like this card for brackets three and below.

To start, we can temporarily exile a nonland permanent for as long as Sheltered by Ghosts is in play. If we target someone’s commander with this, they are likely going to elect to put it back in their command zone instead.

Once it’s in play, a creature we control gets +1/+0, ward 2, and lifelink. This can help protect one of our value pieces while giving us another way to gain life.

These are the kind of cards that can help round out our deck by combining cards from the removal category with game plan cards.

3. Leech CollectorLeech Collector (0.52%)

This is not a flashy card, but it does give us a play early in the game as well as a method of ticking down our opponents’ life totals.

Every time we gain life for the first time each turn, Leech CollectorLeech Collector becomes prepared. Once prepared, we can cast the second spell on the card, Blood Letting, for one black mana to have each opponent lose two life.

Since we’re guaranteed to gain life every turn, we can simply save one mana on our turn to chip the table for two life if we don’t have anything better to do. It’s a nice budget card for both mana and price to include in the deck.

2. Abigale, Eloquent First-YearAbigale, Eloquent First-Year (0.23%)

I absolutely love this card. Most decks that I play Abigale in simply want to use this as a removal piece, blanking out a creature with powerful abilities, but giving it flying and lifelink.

We can absolutely use it in Oloro this way as well, but there are other options available to us. We have cards in our deck like Ajani's PridemateAjani's Pridemate, a 2/2 Cat Soldier of that gets a +1/+1 counter every time we gain life.

At some point, there can be diminishing returns on this as it can get arbitrarily big without having evasion or trample.

At this point, Abigale can come in to wipe out the ability to get any more counters, but it would then have flying and lifelink to gain us life and hopefully connect for combat damage through the air.

1. Irma, Part-Time MutantIrma, Part-Time Mutant (0.04%)

Finally, we have Irma, Part-Time MutantIrma, Part-Time Mutant. Irma is a card that I have been thrilled with ever since its release in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Commander precon.

Every turn during our combat step, Irma gains a +1/+1 counter and can become a copy of another creature we control, except Irma retains the name Irma, Part-Time MutantIrma, Part-Time Mutant and gains this ability. We can constantly rotate between our value pieces.

We can start out making Irma a copy of Ajani's PridemateAjani's Pridemate to build up +1/+1 counters and then turn into something like Drogskol ReaverDrogskol Reaver to capitalize on the size.

We could copy our commander if we put it into play or something like Crested SunmareCrested Sunmare to lock up an indestructible board of Horses.

The only limit on Irma is our imagination, and it deserves a lot more play in Oloro and Commander as a whole.

Wrapping Up

Oloro is such a neat commander, from its pioneering mechanics to its endurance to stay in the format over ten years after its release.

While these are some fantastic hidden gems, this is by no means a complete list. The lifegain mine is a deep one, and there is plenty more to explore.

If you have an Oloro deck that uses a hidden gem, let us know in the comments below. We’re here for good vibes and great cards. Until next time, Happy brewing!