Eternal Bargain Precon: Decklist, Value, and Verdict

Oloro, Ageless Ascetic

At the beginning of your upkeep, you gain 2 life. Whenever you gain life, you may pay {1}. If you do, draw a card and each opponent loses 1 life. At the beginning of your upkeep, if Oloro is in the command zone, you gain 2 life.

Singles value

$89.16

TCGplayer market, 76 cards, basic lands counted at $0

Sealed price

$180.48

TCGplayer price for the box · singles are 0.5× that · MSRP $29.99

New cards

15 / 100

First printings in this deck

Bracket

Core, out of the box

Is Eternal Bargain worth buying?

from Commander 2013 Decks: Product Breakdown and Information by Jeff Dunn

Eternal Bargain is a solid, well, bargain. It includes three of the top 10 most expensive cards in the set but plays an unfocused lifegain strategy that needs some work if you actually want to have fun with it. Sydri, Galvanic Genius and Sharuum the Hegemon are favorite commanders for Esper combo decks, but this precon won’t get you all the way there.

How Eternal Bargain plays

The Esper Eternal Bargain stars Oloro, Ageless Ascetic supported by Sydri, Galvanic Genius and Sharuum the Hegemon returning from Shards of Alara.

This deck is a little more scatter-brained than the other four. Oloro, Ageless Ascetic has an ability that triggers while it’s in the command zone or on the field. This may have been R&D’s biggest mistake in this set. Passively gaining two life each upkeep from turn 1 onwards doesn’t sound like much, but the free lifegain trigger means your Ajani's Pridemate grows every turn and life outlets like Greed and the incredibly strong Toxic Deluge always have resources available.

But with only 10 noncreature artifacts, Sydri, Galvanic Genius and Sharuum the Hegemon are whiffs in this deck’s unaltered form. There are a few powerful artifact creatures with ETB effects like Filigree Angel or Myr Battlesphere, but the deck is clearly meant for a lifegain theme.

WotC teases us with half the required cards for the two classic Esper combos. You have a Sharuum but no Phyrexian Metamorph, a Thopter Foundry with no Sword of the Meek, and no Disciple of the Vault to complete either combo.