life drain by Timothy5667

Format: Commander

Commander: Oloro, Ageless Ascetic

Bracket: 3

Deck overview

This is an Esper lifegain-control deck helmed by Oloro, Ageless Ascetic, built around converting every life-gain trigger into card draw and table-wide drain. The engine runs cheap: Oloro's upkeep gives 2 life even from the command zone, his on-board ability turns each gain into a paid cantrip plus 1 damage to each opponent, and the tax/deterrent wall - Ghostly Prison, No Mercy, Kambal, Consul of Allocation, Blind Obedience - buys time to assemble the primary kill: the Exquisite Blood + Sanguine Bond-class infinite loop. Seven drain-on-life-gain permanents (Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose, Bloodthirsty Conqueror, Enduring Tenacity, Marauding Blight-Priest, Cliffhaven Vampire, Starscape Cleric) serve as redundant halves for the singleton Exquisite Blood, while Felidar Sovereign at 40 life and Debt to the Deathless provide slower alternate wins. The deck is a deliberate grinder: it bleeds opponents incrementally, doubles its gains with Alhammarret's Archive and Rhox Faithmender, and closes with a two-card loop found through Grim Tutor, Idyllic Tutor, and Beseech the Queen.

Decklist (100 cards)

  • 1 Aang, Ascendant Airbender
  • 1 Ajani, Strength of the Pride
  • 1 Alhammarret's Archive
  • 1 An Offer You Can't Refuse
  • 1 Anguished Unmaking
  • 1 Arcane Sanctum
  • 1 Arcane Signet
  • 1 Archangel of Thune
  • 1 Astarion, the Decadent
  • 1 Beholder's Death Ray
  • 1 Beholder's Paralyzing Ray
  • 1 Beseech the Queen
  • 1 Black Market
  • 1 Blind Obedience
  • 1 Bloodbender's Rise
  • 1 Bloodthirsty Conqueror
  • 1 Bolas's Citadel
  • 1 Caves of Koilos
  • 1 Cleric Class
  • 1 Cliffhaven Vampire
  • 1 Command Tower
  • 1 Cosmos Elixir
  • 1 Creeping Bloodsucker
  • 1 Crested Sunmare
  • 1 Crypt Ghast
  • 1 Debt to the Deathless
  • 1 Decorum Dissertation
  • 1 Dolmen Gate
  • 1 Drowned Catacomb
  • 1 Elenda's Hierophant
  • 1 Enduring Tenacity
  • 1 Exquisite Blood
  • 1 Felidar Sovereign
  • 1 Fracture
  • 1 Fumigate
  • 1 Ghostly Prison
  • 1 Glacial Fortress
  • 1 Godless Shrine
  • 1 Grand Abolisher
  • 1 Grim Tutor
  • 1 Hall of Heliod's Generosity
  • 1 Idyllic Tutor
  • 1 Indulging Patrician
  • 1 Isolated Chapel
  • 1 Kambal, Consul of Allocation
  • 1 Karlov of the Ghost Council
  • 1 Lightning Greaves
  • 1 Marauding Blight-Priest
  • 1 Marsh Flats
  • 1 Maze of Ith
  • 1 Morphic Pool
  • 1 Mortify
  • 1 Moseo, Vein's New Dean
  • 1 No Mercy
  • 1 Nykthos Paragon
  • 1 Ocelot Pride
  • 1 Oloro, Ageless Ascetic
  • 1 Orzhov Signet
  • 1 Path to Exile
  • 1 Phyrexian Arena
  • 8 Plains
  • 1 Raffine's Tower
  • 1 Reliquary Tower
  • 1 Rhox Faithmender
  • 1 Rogue's Passage
  • 1 Sanguine Bond
  • 1 Sea of Clouds
  • 1 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
  • 1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
  • 1 Smothering Tithe
  • 1 Sol Ring
  • 1 Sorin of House Markov // Sorin, Ravenous Neonate
  • 1 Soul's Attendant
  • 1 Starscape Cleric
  • 1 Suture Priest
  • 8 Swamp
  • 1 Swords to Plowshares
  • 1 The Wind Crystal
  • 1 Toxic Deluge
  • 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
  • 1 Vault of Champions
  • 1 Vault of the Archangel
  • 1 Victimize
  • 1 Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose
  • 1 Wall of Reverence
  • 1 Witch of the Moors