It's good to see more and more cards that take
giants seriously. Mythology certainly has the
dumb, rock-throwing hill giants, but it also has
the wise and insightful Prometheus, the brave
yet humble Orion, and the cunning sorcerer
Utgard-Loki. Magic's mythology undoubtedly has a
place reserved for Oloro, who's about as
difficult to deal with as all three of them
combined. You thought it was already easy paying
life for effects when you started on 40? You
thought Phyrexian Arena already gave you an
advantage? Oloro turns so many things like that
on their head, and I don't even know how to
start counting the advantages he provides in
terms of the number of cards. The only downside
is that he's the wrong colors to take advantage
of most of Lorwyn's Giant tribal cards (but
Feudkiller's Verdict feels like you're hacking
the Matrix when he's in play).
Today's card of the day is Oloro, Ageless
Ascetic which is a White, Blue, and Black 4/5
legendary that has you gain two life at the
beginning of your upkeep whether it is in play
or in the command zone and whenever you gain
life you may pay one to draw a card and each
opponent loses one life. This is a solid
commander for an Esper build that gains life
from the beginning of the game and offers easy
repeatable card draw while burning opponents.
There's no real drawback in a Commander deck,
though the mana cost and three colors is less
appealing in Casual or Multiplayer it is still
worthwhile for the card advantage. Overall
this will likely be one of the top choices for
the color combination going forward and the
effects maintain a steady advantage over the
course of a game.
Commander: 4.5
Casual: 3.5
Multiplayer: 4.0
Armuun
Hey everybody, I'm a new reviewer, though not
new to Pojo.
I've been playing magic, Standard, Casual, and
EDH for about 10 years now. Enough about me,
let's talk about today's pick.
Oloro, Ageless Ascetic
As far as Esper colors go, in EDH (Or Commander,
as some of the less hip people know it by)
you're either going to see this, or Sharuum the
Hegemon as its commander (and usually the other
in the deck as they go well together).
It's fairly straightforward, and while Esper has
plenty of draw options, it's always nice to have
more, and as a tack-on to any life gain spell or
ability (including its own) is strictly a boon.
As a general, which Oloro should only be played
as in my opinion, it sets up an infinite combo
with Exquisite Blood and Sanguine Bond. This
might sound expensive, even in EDH, but as
Oloro's ability triggers even in the command
zone, it's actually just a 2 card combo for 10
mana. Pretty sweet.
Even when you're not trying to completely
destroy friendships by turn 7, it's relentless
draw power makes it hard to beat in terms of
efficiency in its colors.
Constructed: 4
Casual: 5
Limited: N/A (Unless you're drafting random
piles, this isn't going to happen)
Multiplayer: 5 (For game breaking combo power)
