Oloro, Ageless Ascetic costs {3}{W}{U}{B} and is a 4/5 Legendary Giant Soldier. At the beginning of your upkeep you gain 2 life, whenever you gain life you may pay {1} to draw a card and make each opponent lose 1 life, and it gains you 2 life at your upkeep even from the command zone. Every point of life you gain is a card and a drain.
The precon already has the lifegain engines and drain payoffs, including Sanguine Bond, Well of Lost Dreams, Toxic Deluge, Ajani's Pridemate and Pristine Talisman. Each swap below pairs a cut with an add, and every card is scored with the same numbers the Oracle uses to build decks: synergy and inclusion from the Oloro decks, plus lift, which shows how much more often a card turns up in Oloro decks than in decks that could play it.
Looking for the unmodified list first? Read the Eternal Bargain precon guide.
What is holding the deck back
Not enough lifegain payoffs
Marauding Blight-Priest, Witch of the Moors, Queza, Augur of Agonies, Drogskol Reaver, Exemplar of Light and Rhox Faithmender all trigger on life gain or double it. They are among the top-scoring cards the precon leaves out.
Curses and sorceries outside the lists
Act of Authority, Cradle of Vitality, Curse of Inertia, Curse of Shallow Graves, Curse of the Forsaken, Brilliant Plan, Deep Analysis, Famine and Order of Succession are not cards Oloro decks usually play.
Too few ways to double life gain
Rhox Faithmender and Cleric Class both increase every life gain, which turns Oloro's 2 life per upkeep into more cards and more drain.
The 10 swaps
Each pair shows the numbers for the card coming out and the card going in. Click a card image to zoom.

Act of Authority is a three-mana enchantment that exiles an artifact or enchantment and passes between players. It is not a card Oloro decks usually play.
Marauding Blight-Priest is a 3/2 Vampire Cleric for {2}{B}. Whenever you gain life, each opponent loses 1 life. A three-drop that drains on every point of life gain, and the cheap payoff the precon is missing.

Cradle of Vitality is a four-mana enchantment that puts +1/+1 counters on a creature when you gain life. It is not a card Oloro decks usually play.
Witch of the Moors is a 4/4 Human Warlock for {3}{B}{B} with deathtouch. At the beginning of your end step, if you gained life this turn, each opponent sacrifices a creature of their choice and you return up to one creature card from your graveyard to your hand. A five-drop that kills a creature every turn Oloro triggers.

Curse of Inertia is a three-mana Aura Curse that taps or untaps a permanent when the enchanted player is attacked. It is not a card Oloro decks usually play.
Queza, Augur of Agonies is a 3/4 Legendary Octopus Advisor for {1}{W}{U}{B}. Whenever you draw a card, target opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life. A four-drop in exactly Oloro's colours that drains on every card Oloro draws and gains life for Oloro.

Curse of Shallow Graves is a three-mana Aura Curse that gives attackers Zombies. It is not a card Oloro decks usually play.
Drogskol Reaver is a 3/5 Spirit for {5}{W}{U} with flying, double strike and lifelink. Whenever you gain life, you draw a card. A seven-drop that gains life and draws from its own lifelink.

Curse of the Forsaken is a three-mana Aura Curse that gains life when a creature attacks the enchanted player. It is not a card Oloro decks usually play.
Exemplar of Light is a 3/3 Angel for {2}{W}{W} with flying. Whenever you gain life it gets a +1/+1 counter, and whenever you put counters on it you draw a card, once each turn. A four-drop flyer that draws a card each turn you gain life.

Brilliant Plan is a five-mana sorcery that draws three cards. It is not a card Oloro decks usually play.
Rhox Faithmender is a 1/5 Rhino Monk for {3}{W} with lifelink. If you would gain life, you gain twice that much life instead. A four-drop that doubles Oloro's 2 life per upkeep and all your lifelink.

Deep Analysis is a four-mana sorcery that draws two with a flashback that costs life. It is not a card Oloro decks usually play.
Cosmos Elixir costs {4}. At the beginning of your end step, you draw a card if your life total is greater than your starting life total, otherwise you gain 2 life. A four-mana artifact that gains life, then draws every turn.

Famine is a five-mana sorcery that deals 3 damage to each creature and each player. It is not a card Oloro decks usually play.
Fumigate costs {3}{W}{W}. It destroys all creatures and you gain 1 life for each creature destroyed this way. A five-mana sweeper that gains life, so it triggers Oloro and the drain creatures.

Order of Succession is a four-mana sorcery that rotates creatures between players. It is not a card Oloro decks usually play.
Cleric Class is a Class enchantment for {W}. If you would gain life, you gain that much life plus 1 instead, at level 2 whenever you gain life you put a +1/+1 counter on a creature you control, and at level 3 you return a creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield and gain life equal to its toughness. A one-mana enchantment that adds to every point of life gain.

Swiftfoot Boots is a two-mana Equipment that gives hexproof and haste. It scores below zero in the data.
Phyrexian Arena costs {1}{B}{B}. At the beginning of your upkeep, you draw a card and lose 1 life. A three-mana enchantment that draws extra, and Oloro's lifegain covers the life loss.
The full swap list
Cut
- Act of Authority
- Cradle of Vitality
- Curse of Inertia
- Curse of Shallow Graves
- Curse of the Forsaken
- Brilliant Plan
- Deep Analysis
- Famine
- Order of Succession
- Swiftfoot Boots
Add
- Marauding Blight-Priest
- Witch of the Moors
- Queza, Augur of Agonies
- Drogskol Reaver
- Exemplar of Light
- Rhox Faithmender
- Cosmos Elixir
- Fumigate
- Cleric Class
- Phyrexian Arena
What to keep
These cards are doing the deck's heavy lifting. Do not cut them.
- Sanguine Bond$5.61
Played in 66% of Oloro decks. Turns every life gain into life loss for an opponent. - Well of Lost Dreams$1.56
Played in 47% of Oloro decks. Draws cards equal to the life you gain, up to the mana you pay. - Toxic Deluge$5.14
Played in 44% of Oloro decks. A flexible sweeper you can size with your life total. - Ajani's Pridemate$0.17
Played in 30% of Oloro decks. Grows whenever you gain life. - Pristine Talisman$0.29
Played in 29% of Oloro decks. A rock that gains 1 life each time it taps.
If you want to spend more
These are strong but sit outside a budget upgrade. Prices are the cheapest paper printing.
- Alhammarret's Archive$10.31
A five-mana artifact that doubles your life gain and your extra card draw. It costs more than a budget upgrade should. - Test of Endurance$5.27
A four-mana enchantment that wins the game if you have 50 or more life at your upkeep. It costs more than a budget upgrade should.
Eternal Bargain already has the lifegain engines, the drain payoffs and Oloro's upkeep trigger. The upgrade is cheap lifegain payoffs and drain creatures, in place of curses and sorceries that Oloro decks leave out. These ten swaps cost about $11 in total.
Want a full 100-card list built around Oloro, Ageless Ascetic from today's data?
Build with The Oracle →Frequently asked questions
What are the best upgrades for the Eternal Bargain precon?
Using data from 22,934 Oloro decks, the highest-scoring additions are Rhox Faithmender (for Brilliant Plan), Phyrexian Arena (for Swiftfoot Boots) and Marauding Blight-Priest (for Act of Authority). The full list has 10 swaps, each scored with synergy, inclusion and lift.
How much does it cost to upgrade Eternal Bargain?
All 10 swaps cost about $10.79 at the cheapest paper printings (TCGplayer market prices via Scryfall, 2026-10-28). If you want to spend more, the guide also covers Alhammarret's Archive ($10.31) and Test of Endurance ($5.27).
What should I cut from Eternal Bargain?
The weakest cards for this commander are Swiftfoot Boots, Act of Authority and Cradle of Vitality. The guide explains the reason for every cut, and swaps each one for a card that scores higher.
Which cards should I keep in Eternal Bargain?
Keep Sanguine Bond, Well of Lost Dreams, Toxic Deluge, Ajani's Pridemate and Pristine Talisman. These are the cards doing the deck's heavy lifting.
What does Oloro do?
Oloro, Ageless Ascetic costs {3}{W}{U}{B} and is a 4/5 Legendary Giant Soldier. At the beginning of your upkeep you gain 2 life, whenever you gain life you may pay {1} to draw a card and make each opponent lose 1 life, and it gains you 2 life at your upkeep even from the command zone. Every point of life you gain is a card and a drain.
More Commander 2013 upgrade guides
How the numbers work
Inclusion is the share of Oloro, Ageless Ascetic decks (22,934 of them when this was written, 2026-10-28) that play the card. Synergy is how much more often they play it than other decks in the same colours. Oracle score is synergy × 0.6 plus inclusion × 0.4, the same blend The Oracle uses to rank cards for a deck. Lift compares how often the card appears in these decks with how often it could, capped at 8× here; it is shown for context and does not change the score.
Two cautions. Players who run the precon unmodified count as Oloro decks, which flatters every card the precon contains. Lift is high for many lifegain cards because few decks play them outside a lifegain deck, so use lift to compare cards, not to judge one in isolation. A card the commander's decks do not usually play counts as 0 in the average score. Prices are the cheapest non-foil paper printing on TCGplayer (via Scryfall), in USD, and move daily.









