Ghave: Abuse the Power

Commander / EDH BGW (Abzan, Junk) Combo Competitive Counters Infinite Combo

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Creature (27)

• 1x Auriok Champion
• 1x Avacyn's Pilgrim
• 1x Azusa, Lost but Seeking
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Champion of Lambholt
• 1x Devoted Druid
• 1x Geralf's Messenger
• 1x Ivy Lane Denizen
• 1x Kitchen Finks
• 1x Melira, Sylvok Outcast
• 1x Mentor of the Meek
• 1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• 1x Puppeteer Clique
• 1x Reclamation Sage
• 1x Requiem Angel
• 1x Reyhan, Last of the Abzan
• 1x Sadistic Hypnotist
• 1x Slimefoot, the Stowaway
• 1x Spike Weaver
• 1x Triskelion
• 1x Twilight Drover
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Walking Ballista
• 1x Yavimaya Elder
• 1x Young Wolf
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat

Instant (7)

• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 1x Aura Mutation
• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Krosan Grip
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Tragic Slip
• 1x Utter End

Land (34)

• 1x Canopy Vista
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x Command Tower
• 7x Forest
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Grand Coliseum
• 1x Grasslands
• 1x Guildmages' Forum
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 6x Plains
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Sandsteppe Citadel
• 1x Sungrass Prairie
• 5x Swamp
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Temple of Silence
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Westvale Abbey  ^Flip
• 1x Windswept Heath

Sorcery (10)

• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Farseek
• 1x Harvest Season
• 1x Hour of Revelation
• 1x Kodama's Reach
• 1x Merciless Eviction
• 1x Primal Growth
• 1x Skyshroud Claim
• 1x Sylvan Scrying
• 1x Tooth and Nail

Commander (1)

Enchantment (14)

• 1x Anointed Procession *f-pre*
• 1x Aura Shards
• 1x Burgeoning
• 1x Cathars' Crusade
• 1x Cryptolith Rite
• 1x Dictate of Erebos
• 1x Doubling Season
• 1x Evolutionary Leap
• 1x Fecundity
• 1x Greater Good
• 1x Growing Rites of Itlimoc  ^Flip
• 1x Hardened Scales
• 1x Mirari's Wake
• 1x Sylvan Library

Artifact (7)

• 1x Altar of the Brood
• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots

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Abuse the Power: A Ghave, Guru of Spores Primer

The point of this deck is to grow from what was a fair, but powerful token deck into a hideous, power abusing machine. Research and manipulation is still well underway, but here's what I have so far.

Introduction

I'm finally doing it, a primer! Woohoo! Anywho, the deck has gotten to what I think is a fairly competitive level, and can usually win by turn 5 as of writing (11/18). There are a large amount of combos, most most revolve around Ghave, Guru of Spores , Ashnod's Altar and Doubling Season . These are the mainstays of any Ghave deck, and this deck is no different in that regard.

The Basics

Below are the parts of the deck that are similar to most Magic decks, and how I particularly went about accomplishing these tasks with this deck.

Lands

Lands are the bread of any Magic deck, especially in EDH. My mana base mostly started as all basics and tap lands. Today, it stands pretty well with all 3 in color shocks, a few tap-lands, and a few utility lands such as Reliquary Tower and Westvale Abbey  . In constructing your own Ghave deck, start out with basics if you have to, but try to grab tap lands like the Guildgates, and the Tarkir tap-land if nothing else, helps with consistency.

Ramp

You have to get your bread in order to toast it, and so this deck is filled with ramp, particularly fetch spells such as Skyshround Claim, Farseek , Sylvan Scrying , and late game my favorite, Harvest Season which can take advantage of our crazy amount of token production.

Draw

If lands are the bread of a Magic deck, then drawing is the butter. And this deck draws a lot of cards. If you can, the first land upgrade you should do is get a Reliquary Tower . Seriously, you'll make the blue player at the table drool. Ghave is a combo machine, and we need to get to our combos. Since tutors are expensive, we get around by drawing an insane amount of cards, ensuring we get to our combo pieces at or above tempo. The main draw spells in this deck are the almighty Skullclamp along with Greater Good and Krav, the Unredeemed who makes a great beater as well.

Removal

Sometimes you get a stray hair on your delicious toast. blegh Well, in Magic our pesky opponents bring out stuff that might interrupt our plans like Linvala, Keeper of Silence or Ward of Bones , or other such nasty effects. Well, we have plenty of removal in the form of instants and sorceries, but also enchantments such as Aura Shards , Attrition , and Dictate of Erebos . We also have a couple field wipes just in case things get out of hand.

The Juicy Bits

Ghave is all about infinite combos, I mean, look at him, he's just lurking in the dark waiting to spring out and end you in the blink of an eye! Below are the various categories of combos we can expect to find in the deck.

Persist Combos

Persist allows for a creature to die and return with a -1/-1 counter on it if there was not one previously. Undying does the opposite, and with Ghave we can also remove counters. With Ashnod's Altar and ghave we can sacrifice these creatures for mana, have them return, then use 1 of the 2 mana we get to take the counter off, and then rinse and repeat, thus creating infinite mana and infinite ETBs. The persist/undying creatures in this deck are Young Wolf Geralf's Messenger , Puppeteer Clique , and Kitchen Finks .

Infinite Tokens/Counters

Doubling Season Ashnod's Altar and ghave. Double the counters and double the tokens means you can create a loop that also produces infinite ETBs. This also works with Juniper Order Ranger , Sigil Captain , and Cathars' Crusade . All or any of those cards along with ghave and Ashnod's Altar will allow you to loop continuously for even more ETBs. (Starting to see a theme yet?)

Finishers

All these infinite ETBs are great, but we don't want to really make infinite creatures and hope our opponents just bring Damnation upon us. With cards such as Blood Artist , Zulaport Cutthroat , and Pious Evangel / Wayward Disciple we can drain them of life instantly, no matter how much life they have! Take that oloro. We also have other options, such as Aura Shards and Dictate of Erebos , wiping pretty much every non-land permanent they control. Pretty cool right?? Wait, there's more! My favorite finisher is one I hardly ever see in ghave despite how insanely powerful it is at mana!. I present Altar of the Brood . The name is almost as sinister as the card, which with our infinite ETBs mills out every opponent, simultaneously.

Conclusion

Well, this primer is short by a lot of standards, but I hope to edit it and flush it out / polish it more over time. Of course, I'm always willing to take suggestions on cards as well as questions about how any of the combos work.

Thanks for stopping by, and please upvote!

Date added	7 years
Last updated	5 years
Exclude colors	UR
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	2 - 0 Mythic Rares 49 - 0 Rares 20 - 0 Uncommons 11 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.02
Tokens	Beast 3/3 G, Human Cleric 1/1 BW, Saproling 1/1 G, Spirit 1/1 W
Folders	Cool shit, Lists from others