Ghave the combo guru!
This is still a work in progress.
This version of Ghave is more about the +1/+1 counters than token swarm. Your're more likely to win with a few super massive creatures than hundreds of small ones. That's not to say that it can't token swarm just that a lot of the cards you would expect in such cases aren't in this deck.
A word about the mana-base - On paper I could improve the lands I guess. But, in reality my budget is a little more limited so the mana base is what it is. Which isn't that bad really. KoT has also helped in that regard with Abzan Banner and Sandsteppe Citadel. Other than that all the lands are fairly self explanatory.
Fertilid, Perilous Forays, Realm Seekers, Citanul Hierophants, Mana Reflection, Drum Hunter and Gyre Sage are your main sources of mana ramp. (Excluding the Mycon and Altars).
Mana Reflection and Gyre Sage have particularly good synergy with each other.
Drumhunter, Fecundity,Carnage Altar and Skullmulcher provide draw - this may require some tweaking.
The main focus of the deck is combos - not necessarily infinite combos but cards that work incredibly well together to produce overpowered effects.
So you have several enablers in the deck. The best of these is Doubling Season. But you also have:
Primal Vigor, Parallel Lives, Corpsejack Menace, Cathars' Crusade, Death's Presence, Sigil Captain, Juniper Order Ranger, Ivy Lane Denizen and Illusionist's Bracers.
What these all do is give you something without requiring a mana activation cost.
Then you have the other enablers which are the mana producing sacrifice altars; Phyrexian Altar and Ashnod's Altar and as a bonus there's also Utopia Mycon.
So the No 1 combo is:
Ghave, Guru of Spores + Ashnod's Altar + Doubling Season this produces an infinite amout of mana, tokens and +1/+1 counters.
Ghave, Guru of Spores + Ashnod's Altar + any of the other enablers listed above will also go infinite in different ways. For example:
Ghave, Guru of Spores + Ashnod's Altar + Ivy Lane Denizen is probably the simplest of these.
You start by tapping for 1 to produce a Saproling from a +1/+1 counter on Ghave.
When the Saproling comes into play it triggers the Denizen who then replaces the +1/+1 counter on Ghave.
You can then sacrifice the Saproling to the Altar to produce 2 mana.
You then use 1 mana to produce a Saproling and bank the other 1 mana. Repeat this and you will generate infinite mana.
Because you are generating infinite mana you can at whatever point stop sacrificing saprolings and use some of the mana you have generated to produce saprolings. Remember each time a saproling enters the battlefield you put a +1/+1 counter on Ghave.Eventually, if you played out every turn of this combo you would have infinite creatures and mana.Importantly this also generates infinite creature entering the battlefield and graveyard triggers.Cards like Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat and Grave Pact exist in the deck to take advantage of the graveyard triggers
Other cards with the same kind of benefits are Sigil Captain, Juniper Order Ranger and Lumberknot.
Spike Breeder and Pentavus provide alternative token generation if Ghave, Guru of Spores is not available to you and you can also get them to go infinite but it's harder to do so as you need more mana.
Mycoloth, Forgotten Ancient and Vigor all do great things in the deck but don't go infinite. Mycoloth though can get very silly very quickly especially with Corpsejack Menace or similar in play.
Fertilid + Ob Nixilis, Unshackled can equal and alternative win-con. You only need 4 +1/+1 counters on Fertilid to do 40 damage by forcing your opponent to search for 4 basic lands.
So here are over 40 "3 Card Combos" that I'm aware of, there are probably more and as I find them I'll update the list:
Ghave, Guru of Spores + Ashnod's Altar + Doubling Season = Infinite tokens, Mana & +1/+1 counters.
Ghave, Guru of Spores + Ashnod's Altar + Primal Vigor = Infinite tokens, Mana & +1/+1 counters.
Ghave, Guru of Spores + Ashnod's Altar + Ivy Lane Denizen = Infinite Mana
Ghave, Guru of Spores + Ashnod's Altar + Lumberknot = Infinite Mana.
Ghave, Guru of Spores + Ashnod's Altar + Champion of Lambholt = Infinite Mana
Ghave, Guru of Spores + Ashnod's Altar + Ob Nixilis, Unshackled = Infinite Mana.
Ghave, Guru of Spores + Ashnod's Altar + Cathars' Crusade = Infinite tokens, Mana & +1/+1 counters provided you have another creature in play.
Ghave, Guru of Spores + Ashnod's Altar + Death's Presence = Infinite Mana.
Ghave, Guru of Spores + Ashnod's Altar + Twilight Drover = Infinite Mana.
Ghave, Guru of Spores + Ashnod's Altar + Juniper Order Ranger = Infinite tokens, Mana & +1/+1 counters and a very large ranger.
Ghave, Guru of Spores + Ashnod's Altar + Sigil Captain = Infinite tokens, Mana & +1/+1 counters - Note: This is turned off by Mirari's Wake and you have to produce two saprolings with two +1/+1 counters on them to start with before you start sacrificing saprolings and removing counters.
Ghave, Guru of Spores + Ashnod's Altar + Parallel Lives = Infinite ETB/Graveyard triggers
Ghave, Guru of Spores + Ashnod's Altar + Corpse Jack Menace = Infinite ETB/Graveyard triggers
Earthcraft can be used to generate the extra mana by using a token that is produced to untap a land that can then be tapped to produce more mana to continue the combo.
Ghave, Guru of Spores + Earthcraft + Mirari's Wake = Infinite ETB/Graveyard triggers
Ghave, Guru of Spores + Earthcraft + Mana Reflection = Infinite ETB/Graveyard triggers
Ghave, Guru of Spores + Earthcraft + Illusionist's Bracers = Infinite tokens, Mana & +1/+1 counters.
Ghave, Guru of Spores + Earthcraft + Parallel Lives = Infinite Tokens.
Ghave, Guru of Spores + Earthcraft + Juniper Order Ranger = Infinite tapped tokens and a very large ranger.
Ghave, Guru of Spores + Earthcraft + Sigil Captain = Infinite tapped tokens with a +1/+1 counter on them.
Ghave, Guru of Spores + Earthcraft + Champion of Lambholt = Infinite tapped tokens
Ghave, Guru of Spores + Earthcraft + Ivy Lane Denizen = Infinite tapped tokens
Ghave, Guru of Spores + Earthcraft + Lumberknot = Infinite tapped tokens
Ghave, Guru of Spores + Earthcraft + Cathars' Crusade = Infinite tapped tokens with infinite +1/+1 counters on them.
Phyrexian Altar can be used at a pinch to replace Ashnods altar. However, it only produces a single point of mana so isnt quite so useful but still has a place in the deck.
Ghave, Guru of Spores + Phyrexian Altar + Ivy Lane Denizen = Infinite ETB and Sacrifice/Death effects but nothing else.
Ghave, Guru of Spores + Phyrexian Altar + Champion of Lambholt = Infinite ETB and Sacrifice/Death effects but nothing else.
Ghave, Guru of Spores + Phyrexian Altar + Death's Presence = Infinite ETB and Sacrifice/Death effects but nothing else.
Ghave, Guru of Spores + Phyrexian Altar + Cathars' Crusade Infinite ETB/Graveyard triggersand with at least one more creature in play infinite +1/+1 counters.
Ghave, Guru of Spores + Phyrexian Altar + Ob Nixilis, Unshackled = Infinite ETB/Graveyard triggers
Ghave, Guru of Spores + Phyrexian Altar + Twilight Drover = Infinite ETB/Graveyard triggers
Ghave, Guru of Spores + Phyrexian Altar + Lumberknot = Infinite ETB/Graveyard triggers
Pentavus can replace Ghave, Guru of Spores in all of the above. However, Pentavus doesn't work with Ivy Lane Denizen as it doesn't produce Green creatures. It also doesn't work with Utopia Mycon as that requires a Saproling to sac for mana. See below.
Ghave, Guru of Spores + Utopia Mycon + Ivy Lane Denizen = Infinite ETB/Graveyard triggers
Ghave, Guru of Spores + Utopia Mycon + Death's Presence = Infinite ETB/Graveyard triggers
Ghave, Guru of Spores + Utopia Mycon + Champion of Lambholt = Infinite ETB/Graveyard triggers
Ghave, Guru of Spores + Utopia Mycon + Lumberknot = Infinite ETB/Graveyard triggers
Ghave, Guru of Spores + Utopia Mycon + Cathars' Crusade = Infinite ETB/Graveyard triggers and with at least one more creature in play infinite +1/+1 counters.
Ghave, Guru of Spores + Utopia Mycon + Ob Nixilis, Unshackled = Infinite ETB/Graveyard triggers
Ghave, Guru of Spores + Utopia Mycon + Twilight Drover = Infinite ETB/Graveyard triggers
Ghave, Guru of Spores + Utopia Mycon + Lumberknot = Infinite ETB/Graveyard triggers
Spike Breeder can also be used to replace Ghave but is much more restricted in its use. You need Ashnods Altar as you need two mana to convert a +1/+1 counter into a spike. Then you need a creature that will put a +1/+1 counter back onto the Spike Breeder either when the Spike creature token enters the battlefield or when it dies.
Spike Breeder + Ashnod's Altar + Ivy Lane Denizen = Infinite ETB/Graveyard triggers
Spike Breeder + Ashnod's Altar + Death's Presence = Infinite ETB/Graveyard triggers
Spike Breeder + Ashnod's Altar + Cathars' Crusade = Infinite ETB/Graveyard triggersand with at least one more creature in play infinite +1/+1 counters.
Illusionist's Bracers doubles the abilities of the creature that equips it without doubling the costs and sacrificing a creature or removing a +1/+1 counter is part of the cost. So...
Ghave, Guru of Spores + Ashnod's Altar + Illusionist's Bracers = Infinite tokens, Mana & +1/+1 counters.
Ghave, Guru of Spores + Utopia Mycon + Illusionist's Bracers = Infinite tokens, Mana & +1/+1 counters.
Ghave, Guru of Spores + Phyrexian Altar + Illusionist's Bracers = Infinite tokens, Mana & +1/+1 counters.
Pentavus + Ashnod's Altar + Illusionist's Bracers = Infinite tokens, Mana & +1/+1 counters.
Pentavus + Utopia Mycon + Illusionist's Bracers = Infinite tokens, Mana & +1/+1 counters.
Pentavus + Phyrexian Altar + Illusionist's Bracers = Infinite tokens, Mana & +1/+1 counters.
You can achieve the same effect with Spike Breeder but only if you use a fourth card. There are many other four card combos in the deck that Im not going to list because adding a fourth part to a combo dramatically increases its fragility.
Ant Queen can also be used instead of Ghave in several three card combos.
Ant Queen + Earthcraft + Doubling Season = Infinite Tokens.
Ant Queen + Earthcraft + Parallel Lives = Infinite Tokens.
Ant Queen + Earthcraft + Primal Vigor = Infinite Tokens.
One last comment, Woodfall Primus, this works very well but isnt strictly infinite. Woodfall Primus + Juniper Order Ranger + Ashnod's Altar = Lots of mana, a large ranger and lots of permanent destruction. Note this can't go infinite as the Woodfall Primus does NOT say 'may' "When Woodfall Primus enters the battlefield, destroy target noncreature permanent."So you have to stop when you are in danger of destroying your own permanents.
Woodfall Primus + Sigil Captain + Ashnod's Altar = Lots of mana, a large ranger and lots of permanent destruction. Note this can't go infinite as the Woodfall Primus does NOT say 'may'"When Woodfall Primus enters the battlefield, destroy target noncreature permanent."So you have to stop when you are in danger of destroying your own permanents.
