Anyone who says this card isn't good clearly has never abused it wit Master Transmuter. That being said, the UWB deck she comes in feels like it's having an identity crisis - trying to be two different things at once.
Posted By:
ThisisSakon
(10/29/2013 9:15:39 PM)
This card is about gaining life, and artifact creatures. Not many cards want to be about "Gaining Life, Artifact Creatures, *and* are Two Colors" except the whole category of cards that in general want to find their way to a deck exactly like Oloro, Ageless Ascetic. Sphinx Sovereign and Magister Sphinx come to mind as caring about Life and being Blue Artifacts.
Still, chances are, you want to be looking for *The* Esper Decks. The Midrange, Aggro, or Control ones. Basically anything but Combo would be my first thought as a Melvin, because I find Lifegain to be a very ancillary ability in Combo plans, but on the other hand, Artifact Creatures + Blue *also* kind of begs to be Combo, not to mention Esper's "clockwork filigree" art style making it seem like the Vorthos thing to do.
I would say that since Artifacts offer just. so. many. Bah-ROH-kahn Combo directions to go in, that even if you end up with some clear combos in y... (see all)
Posted By:
DarthParallax
(10/30/2013 8:39:10 PM)
There's literally just 17 artifacts in Oloro's precon, including her. That sounds like a lot, but still... it's not quite worth it. She'll enter, you gain 12, whoopee, you now have a 4/4 flyer.
That being said, 12 life is decent, and there are a few cards in Oloro's deck that care about the amount of life gained.
Run with Cradle of Vitality... hoo boy. Pay 10, get at least a 16/16 flyer. Or maybe, Sphinx of the Steel Wind.
Posted By:
Mistralis
(10/30/2013 6:38:26 PM)
The one time I've gotten her to work in Oloro's deck, was a couple turns after I'd been taking attacking with Sharuum the Hegemon, Sphinx of the Steel Wind, and Sharding Sphinx
So much lifegain...made only better by having a Sanguine Bond out.
All the same, ThisisSakon is right. Oloro's a walking identity crisis. When he works; he works beautifully. When he doesn't work, it's embarrassing.
Posted By:
Madarakita
(11/3/2013 10:16:27 AM)
Life-gain cards are generally not very good...until they gain too much life or are tacked on to a reasonable other thing. As a creature it's respectable though not good enough, but this thing just gains a silly amount of life every single time.
And as an artifact it's easily brought back too.
The Oloro deck contains almost all of the big rare and mythic artifact fatties of the Esper shard except one...I guess they left it out so you'd know what you needed to finish it properly :)
Posted By:
Shiizu
(11/8/2013 12:28:40 PM)
I understand that Wizards want the decks to be easy to customize, but the majority of the decks have an identity crisis. Oloros's deck doesn't know whether to fully commit to artifacts or not, Marath's deck doesn't know whether to be Beast tribal, ramp or power 5+ matters, and Jeleva's deck runs much more support for Nekusar than Jeleva to the point where she's almost useless in the deck.
In a pure artifact deck this card is amazing, which was well illustrated by the Open the Vaults deck played in standard at the time. But in Oloros's deck her potential is kind of wasted - Celestial Force would probably be better if you're planning on removing the artifacts.
Posted By:
GrimjawxRULES
(11/10/2013 1:25:34 PM)