Total deck price: $91.28 — 100 cards, commander included. This week’s Budget Brew is Budget Commander: a full Esper (White/Blue/Black) lifegain-and-drain build around Oloro, Ageless Ascetic that costs less than a single booster box.
Why This Deck: The Value Pitch
Oloro, Ageless Ascetic gains you 2 life every single upkeep just for having him in the command zone, and that steady lifegain turns on a whole shell of cheap Esper drain and card-advantage payoffs — Sanguine Bond, Vizkopa Guildmage, Zulaport Cutthroat, and Marauding Blight-Priest all convert your life total into direct opponent damage. Layer in a light pillowfort package (Ghostly Prison, Propaganda, Sphere of Safety) and you get a deck that is almost impossible to attack profitably while it slowly bleeds the whole table dry.
For $91.28 all-in — commander included — you get a complete 100-card deck that survives longer than decks costing ten times as much, because the best lifegain and drain pieces have never been chase rares. They’re commons and uncommons printed across decades of sets, and this list hunts down the cheapest legal printing of every single one.
Full Decklist (by Type) — Total: $91.28
Commander: Oloro, Ageless Ascetic — $17.68
Creatures (28) — $33.38
| Card | Qty | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Soul Warden | 1 | $3.48 |
| Vizkopa Guildmage | 1 | $0.37 |
| Suture Priest | 1 | $1.46 |
| Ajani’s Pridemate | 1 | $0.17 |
| Heliod’s Pilgrim | 1 | $0.18 |
| Marauding Blight-Priest | 1 | $0.16 |
| Blood Artist | 1 | $2.77 |
| Zulaport Cutthroat | 1 | $1.17 |
| Gray Merchant of Asphodel | 1 | $0.63 |
| Pontiff of Blight | 1 | $0.31 |
| Syndic of Tithes | 1 | $0.12 |
| Basilica Screecher | 1 | $0.23 |
| Windborn Muse | 1 | $0.51 |
| Rhox Faithmender | 1 | $2.15 |
| Divinity of Pride | 1 | $1.59 |
| Baneslayer Angel | 1 | $2.96 |
| Felidar Sovereign | 1 | $3.73 |
| Nighthawk Scavenger | 1 | $0.38 |
| Cliffhaven Vampire | 1 | $0.50 |
| Epicure of Blood | 1 | $0.08 |
| Twilight Prophet | 1 | $2.08 |
| Elenda, the Dusk Rose | 1 | $6.63 |
| Angel of Vitality | 1 | $0.23 |
| Vault Skirge | 1 | $0.31 |
| Spike Weaver | 1 | $0.67 |
| Queza, Augur of Agonies | 1 | $0.24 |
| Pious Evangel | 1 | $0.11 |
| Scorned Villager | 1 | $0.16 |
Instants (9) — $7.26
| Card | Qty | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Swords to Plowshares | 1 | $1.20 |
| Path to Exile | 1 | $1.03 |
| Counterspell | 1 | $2.11 |
| Negate | 1 | $0.15 |
| Essence Scatter | 1 | $0.06 |
| Anguished Unmaking | 1 | $1.88 |
| Utter End | 1 | $0.19 |
| Mystic Confluence | 1 | $0.45 |
| Fact or Fiction | 1 | $0.19 |
Sorceries (8) — $2.31
| Card | Qty | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Vindicate | 1 | $0.31 |
| Fumigate | 1 | $0.17 |
| Day of Judgment | 1 | $0.43 |
| Night’s Whisper | 1 | $0.26 |
| Sign in Blood | 1 | $0.27 |
| Exsanguinate | 1 | $0.37 |
| Debt to the Deathless | 1 | $0.38 |
| Vampiric Rites | 1 | $0.12 |
Artifacts (9) — $5.40
| Card | Qty | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Sol Ring | 1 | $1.35 |
| Arcane Signet | 1 | $0.34 |
| Azorius Signet | 1 | $0.26 |
| Dimir Signet | 1 | $0.33 |
| Orzhov Signet | 1 | $0.33 |
| Fellwar Stone | 1 | $0.88 |
| Commander’s Sphere | 1 | $0.21 |
| Well of Lost Dreams | 1 | $1.50 |
| Mind Stone | 1 | $0.20 |
Enchantments (6) — $17.49
| Card | Qty | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Ghostly Prison | 1 | $5.83 |
| Propaganda | 1 | $2.18 |
| Sphere of Safety | 1 | $3.32 |
| Sanguine Bond | 1 | $5.36 |
| Dawn of Hope | 1 | $0.30 |
| Mesa Enchantress | 1 | $0.50 |
Nonbasic Lands (10) — $7.76
| Card | Qty | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Command Tower | 1 | $0.15 |
| Arcane Sanctum | 1 | $0.26 |
| Azorius Guildgate | 1 | $0.08 |
| Dimir Guildgate | 1 | $0.13 |
| Orzhov Guildgate | 1 | $0.10 |
| Tainted Field | 1 | $0.33 |
| Tainted Isle | 1 | $1.85 |
| Reliquary Tower | 1 | $3.26 |
| Myriad Landscape | 1 | $0.21 |
| Bojuka Bog | 1 | $1.39 |
Basic Lands (3) — $0.00
10 Plains, 9 Island, 10 Swamp
GRAND TOTAL (100 cards, commander included): $91.28
Platform Import Format (Paste-Ready)
1 Oloro, Ageless Ascetic 1 Soul Warden 1 Vizkopa Guildmage 1 Suture Priest 1 Ajani's Pridemate 1 Heliod's Pilgrim 1 Marauding Blight-Priest 1 Blood Artist 1 Zulaport Cutthroat 1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel 1 Pontiff of Blight 1 Syndic of Tithes 1 Basilica Screecher 1 Windborn Muse 1 Rhox Faithmender 1 Divinity of Pride 1 Baneslayer Angel 1 Felidar Sovereign 1 Nighthawk Scavenger 1 Cliffhaven Vampire 1 Epicure of Blood 1 Twilight Prophet 1 Elenda, the Dusk Rose 1 Angel of Vitality 1 Vault Skirge 1 Spike Weaver 1 Queza, Augur of Agonies 1 Pious Evangel 1 Scorned Villager 1 Swords to Plowshares 1 Path to Exile 1 Counterspell 1 Negate 1 Essence Scatter 1 Anguished Unmaking 1 Utter End 1 Mystic Confluence 1 Fact or Fiction 1 Vindicate 1 Fumigate 1 Day of Judgment 1 Night's Whisper 1 Sign in Blood 1 Exsanguinate 1 Debt to the Deathless 1 Vampiric Rites 1 Sol Ring 1 Arcane Signet 1 Azorius Signet 1 Dimir Signet 1 Orzhov Signet 1 Fellwar Stone 1 Commander's Sphere 1 Well of Lost Dreams 1 Mind Stone 1 Ghostly Prison 1 Propaganda 1 Sphere of Safety 1 Sanguine Bond 1 Dawn of Hope 1 Mesa Enchantress 1 Command Tower 1 Arcane Sanctum 1 Azorius Guildgate 1 Dimir Guildgate 1 Orzhov Guildgate 1 Tainted Field 1 Tainted Isle 1 Reliquary Tower 1 Myriad Landscape 1 Bojuka Bog 10 Plains 9 Island 10 Swamp
Strategy Guide
Early Game (turns 1–3): Ramp with Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, and the Esper signets. Deploy cheap lifegain triggers — Soul Warden, Vizkopa Guildmage, Ajani’s Pridemate — so the moment Oloro lands, every upkeep is already doing work.
Mid Game (turns 4–7): Land Oloro and stack your drain payoffs: Sanguine Bond, Zulaport Cutthroat, Marauding Blight-Priest, and Vizkopa Guildmage all turn your free upkeep lifegain into direct opponent damage. Deploy Ghostly Prison and Propaganda to make attacking you a losing proposition.
Late Game (turns 8+): Refill your hand with Night’s Whisper and Sign in Blood. Close games with Exsanguinate or Debt to the Deathless once your mana is online, or just keep gaining life behind Sphere of Safety until the table runs out of ways to interact with you.
Win Conditions & Combos
- Drain engine: Sanguine Bond and Marauding Blight-Priest both turn Oloro’s free 2-life upkeep trigger into 2 damage to an opponent every turn, no extra cards required.
- Vizkopa Guildmage: a repeatable mana sink that drains life directly whenever you have spare mana late in the game.
- Exsanguinate / Debt to the Deathless: mana-scaling X-spell finishers that close out a grindy late game in one shot once you’re ramped.
- Gray Merchant of Asphodel: a classic devotion-to-black drain finisher that swings for huge chunks of life once your black permanents stack up.
Upgrade Path (Add As Budget Allows)
No premium sideboard here — just the next five cards worth saving up for when you’re ready to push past $91.28:
- Smothering Tithe (~$15–20) — turns every opponent’s draw step into a mana and a drawn card for you.
- Toxic Deluge (~$10) — a flexible, tunable board wipe that kills exactly what you need and nothing more.
- Vampiric Tutor (~$25–30) — find Oloro’s best payoff or a board wipe exactly when the game needs it.
- Alhammarret’s Archive (~$15–20) — doubles both the life you gain and the cards you draw, supercharging the whole shell.
- Heliod, Sun-Crowned (~$15–20) — doubles your lifegain triggers and turns excess life into +1/+1 counters.
That’s this week’s Budget Brew — a new Budget Brew lands every Wednesday at manariotgames.com. Follow Mana Riot Games so you don’t miss next week’s build.