Ghave: Baby Makin' and Alimony (Commander / EDH MTG Deck)

Ghave: Baby Makin' and Alimony

Commander / EDH BGW (Abzan, Junk) Combo Competitive Multiplayer

PookandPie

Land (33)

Artifact (6)

Creature (31)

Instant (8)

Commander (1)

Enchantment (12)

Sorcery (9)

Sideboard

Creature (7)

If there's one thing Ghave, Guru of Spores is good at, it's making babies. This is combo Ghave, not fair or token-grinding Ghave, and your goal is to go off as quickly as possible through a variety of interchangeable combo pieces.

So, how exactly does this deck work? Well, your goal is to ramp, play combo pieces, and win. Sounds easy, you just have to know which cards to tutor for and which combo line to devote yourself to as you play, which may take some experience with the deck because there are so many. The good news is that this deck operates on a formula.

Ghave's Formula to Maximum Child Support

Ghave needs a mana source, a source of counters, and himself (a payload), generally speaking. This means that Cathars' Crusade goes infinite with Ashnod's Altar and Ghave, Guru of Spores , giving you as many tokens as you want with power and toughness as high as you want, plus infinite colorless mana to use, to boot. Similarly, Ghave, Guru of Spores , Doubling Season , and Phyrexian Altar will generate as many tokens as you want, just not the P/T boost or the infinite colorless mana. So, listing out the combo pieces by function, we have:

Mana Sources (3):

Sources of Counters (8):

Conditional Sources of Counters (3):

The above sources of counters only function with a sacrifice outlet.

For the most part, if the combine one of the mana sources with one of the counters sources, then add Ghave, you should be able to produce, at least, infinite creatures. The exception is with Phyrexian Altar , which outside of combos involving Undying creatures may only produce infinite death triggers- for example, Ivy Lane Denizen and Phyrexian Altar with Ghave produce no net gain of tokens without a fourth card being involved, so keep the costs of continuing the combo in mind when navigating through to your desired combo line.

Similarly to the above, there's also combos involving Persist creatures that may not even have to include Ghave at all, and they can take his place in the combo more often than not. It's important to know for these combos that the -1/-1 counters from Persist and any +1/+1 counters cancel each other out as a state-based action, meaning that a creature could be sacrificed indefinitely to gain its effects as often as you like, should you have the other two cards. Kitchen Finks and Woodfall Primus are the only ones in this list, but Puppeteer Clique would work as well with any counters source that isn't Ivy Lane Denizen (and coincidentally produces infinite colored mana with Phyrexian Altar if a creature is in an opponent's graveyard). These combo lines are a bit more narrow, because they only really work with Ashnod's Altar or Phyrexian Altar , but can function with Earthcraft if you have a sac outlet on board. For example: Kitchen Finks + Ivy Lane Denizen + Phyrexian Altar gives you infinite mana and infinite life. Because you have infinite mana, you can cast Ghave and produce infinite tokens. Kitchen Finks + Earthcraft + Carrion Feeder + Ivy Lane Denizen would also produce infinite life and infinite mana by tapping and sacrificing the Finks (though not of any color; getting all 3 basics into play at once is hard), and an infinitely huge Carrion Feeder, which means you could possibly play Ghave and produce infinite tokens if you have to cast him leftover, as well. These combos are extremely flexible- and note that the aforementioned combo doesn't even need Earthcraft, as Finks + Sac Outlet + Free Counter Source produces infinite life without any more cards, plus you get the effect of the sac outlet so you could scry to a necessary card, or deal damage to win in the case of Blasting Station .

So, the purpose of the above was to drill into you that a lot of these cards are interchangeable, and knowing which you need and when is important to succeed with the deck (or you can just pull Protean Hulk and win that way if navigating the combo lines is too difficult, lol). Ghave + a Source of Counters + a Mana Source is how this deck will achieve a significant portion of its victories. There are literally hundreds of combos this deck could pull off- listing each and every single 4-5 card board state would take entirely too much time, and with experience you'll be able to work out when you're infinite whether you have Ghave, Guru of Spores + Ashnod's Altar + Geralf's Messenger or if your board state consists of Strangleroot Geist , Cryptolith Rite , Blasting Station , Ghave, Guru of Spores .

To extrapolate Ghave's formula to its basest: Ghave, plus any of the three mana sources, plus the eight counters sources results in an infinite combo (for either tokens, mana, or any combination thereof). In just those alone, we have 24 different combinations. The Undying creatures and the sac outlet mana sources make up 6 more, for a total of 30.

Including Persist creatures, of which there are two in Kitchen Finks and Woodfall Primus , you have 5 sources of +1/+1 counters that reset them, and five sac outlets that do not require mana.

Counters Sources for Persist (5):

Free Sac Outlets:

This gives us an additional 50 combos that could be assembled in a game. That brings the total of combos up to 80 in the deck from these alone, each resulting in infinite life or noncreature permanent destruction, plus possible infinite +1/+1 counters, damage, mana, and more.

These are just the 3 card combos, too. When you get into the moving 4-5 card combos you may just naturally assemble during a game, like Ghave + Phyrexian Altar + Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Reclamation Sage to produce infinite tokens and artifact/enchantment destruction. If you just need the enchantment/artifact destruction, then Karmic Guide + Reveillark + Phyrexian Altar + Reclamation Sage can do all of that for you. Karmic Guide, Reveillark, and Saffi Eriksdotter are also, to varying degrees, interchangeable, and can profitably swap in and out 2 power or less creatures for infinite ETBs, dies triggers, and sac outlet effects. This means that these recursive creatures, plus any free sac outlet, plus a 2 power or less creature also goes infinite. So if you combine Reveillark with any of these later cards, you get an infinite:

Recursive Creatures Alongside Reveillark:

Free Sac Outlets:

You'll obtain infinite death triggers at minimum, plus scry, +1/+1 counters on Carrion Feeder, infinite mana, or infinite damage from the sac outlets alone in 10 different combinations. In the event of Blasting Station or the Altars, for the most part you won't need a fourth card, and in Viscera Seer's case, you can scry directly to your fourth card. To spice it up, though, this recursive combo lets you utilize the following:

2 Power or Less Payloads:

This gives us roughly 50 additional unique combinations, producing infinite recursion, life loss and life gain, tutors, or artifact/enchantment destruction. Sakura-Tribe Elder can ramp you a few as well, though that's more being cheeky than anything else.

Now, we can take into account that Ghave, Guru of Spores + Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Ashnod's/Phyrexian Altar + any non-human is functionally similar to the above combo with Reveillark + Another recursive creature (this means you lose Zulaport Cutthroat and Eternal Witness for this combo line, but gain Walking Ballista , Kitchen Finks , Woodfall Primus , Karmic Guide , and Reveillark who can in turn bring back Eternal Witness just in case). This adds another 16 combinations, and can even work with Earthcraft instead if you have another sac outlet for a ridiculous Rube-Goldberg Machine of effects.

Overall, there's about 150 different combo lines you can approach this deck from, and navigating all of those with your tutors and properly responding to disruption is key. Once you have a grasp on what cards work with what, knowing when you can go off is relatively easy, which is why all of the above is worked out for you. However, if you're still having issues, I do have a quick-and-dirty combo list of about 50 or so combos I've used to end out a game of Magic.

Combo List

1) Ghave, Guru of Spores + Ashnod's Altar + Juniper Order Ranger = infinite mana, infinite tokens, all creatures are infinite/infinite.

2) Ghave, Guru of Spores + Ashnod's Altar + Cathars' Crusade = infinite mana, infinite tokens, all creatures are infinite/infinite.

3) Ghave, Guru of Spores + Ashnod's Altar / Phyrexian Altar + any creature with Undying = infinite mana, infinite tokens, all your creatures are infinite/infinite.

4) Ghave, Guru of Spores + Ashnod's Altar + Doubling Season = infinite mana, infinite tokens, all your creatures are infinite/infinite.

5) Ghave, Guru of Spores + Phyrexian Altar + Doubling Season / Illusionist's Bracers = Infinite tokens and +1/+1 counters (Ghave at 5/5, 1 token on board- sac the token to Altar to remove a counter from Ghave to make 2 tokens. Sac 1 token for mana, the other to put 2 +1/+1 counters on Ghave. Remove 1 counter from Ghave to make 2 more tokens, and Ghave will now be a 5/5 with 2 tokens on board. Next loop he will be a 6/6 with 2 tokens on board. You begin by making Ghave as large as you want, and because Ghave can have as many counters as you wish you then begin to make as many tokens as you want, which means you can place counters on as many permanents as you want).

6) Ghave, Guru of Spores + Ashnod's Altar + Illusionist's Bracers = Infinite tokens and +1/+1 counters.

7) Ghave, Guru of Spores + Earthcraft + Doubling Season = infinite colored mana, infinite tokens, all creatures can become infinite/infinite.

8) Ghave, Guru of Spores + Earthcraft + Cathars' Crusade = infinite tokens, all your creatures are infinite/infinite.

9) Ghave, Guru of Spores + Earthcraft + Bloodspore Thrinax with at least 1 counter = Infinite tokens.

10) Ghave, Guru of Spores + Earthcraft + any creature with Undying = infinite tokens, all creatures can become infinite/infinite (except the undying creature).

11) Ghave, Guru of Spores + Earthcraft + Juniper Order Ranger = infinite tokens.

12) Ghave, Guru of Spores + Earthcraft + Illusionist's Bracers = infinite tokens and +1/+1 counters.

13) Ghave, Guru of Spores + Earthcraft + Any Undying creature + Blasting Station = Infinite damage and tokens.

14) Ghave, Guru of Spores + Ashnod's Altar + Geralf's Messenger = Infinite life loss, tokens.

15) Ghave, Guru of Spores + Champion of Lambholt + Ashnod's/Phyrexian Altar = Infinite mana and tokens, or infinite dies triggers (if Phyrexian Altar).

16) Ghave, Guru of Spores + Bloodspore Thrinax with at least 1 counter + Ashnod's/Phyrexian Altar = Infinite mana and tokens, or infinite dies triggers (if Phyrexian Altar).

17) Ghave, Guru of Spores + Cathars' Crusade + Ashnod's/Phyrexian Altar = Infinite mana and tokens, or infinite dies triggers (if Phyrexian Altar).

18) Ghave, Guru of Spores + Champion of Lambholt + Earthcraft = Infinite tokens.

19) Ghave, Guru of Spores + Ivy Lane Denizen + Earthcraft = Infinite tokens.

20) Ghave, Guru of Spores + Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Earthcraft = All the tokens.

21) Ghave, Guru of Spores + Any undying creature (or anything if Mikaeus is out) + Phyrexian Altar / Ashnod's Altar = Do the undying creature's ability to infinity and beyond (win if Geralf's Messenger) and pay all the alimony (inf. tokens). If Mikaeus is out, you can produce infinite mana, death triggers, infinite +1/+1 counters with Champion of Lambholt, Juniper Order Ranger, etc..

22) Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Walking Ballista + Any mana-less sac outlet = Ermahgerd Damage.

23) Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Any persist creature + Ashnod's Altar or Phyrexian Altar = Infinite mana. In the case of Phrexian Altar, you get to cast Ghave and produce infinite tokens on the spot, while Ashnod's Altar requires you have a spare floating after laying out the last combo piece.

24) Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Morph 2/2 C + Carrion Feeder = Persist ability + Arbitrarily large Feeder

25) Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + any Persist creature + Blasting Station = Infinite damage.

26) Cathars' Crusade + Morph 2/2 C + Ashnod's Altar or Phyrexian Altar = Infinite mana.

27) Cathars' Crusade + Morph 2/2 C + Carrion Feeder = Arbitrarily large Feeder.

28) Cathars' Crusade + Any Persist creature + Blasting Station = Infinite damage.

Note: Any combo line involving Crusade involves each other creature you control becoming arbitrarily large as a side benefit.

29) Bloodspore Thrinax with at least 1 counter + Morph 2/2 C + Ashnod's Altar or Phyrexian Altar = Infinite mana.

30) Bloodspore Thrinax with at least 1 counter + Morph 2/2 C + Carrion Feeder = Arbitrarily large Feeder.

31) Bloodspore Thrinax with at least 1 counter + Any Persist creature + Blasting Station = Infinite damage.

32) Juniper Order Ranger + Morph 2/2 C + Carrion Feeder = Arbitrarily large Feeder.

33) Juniper Order Ranger + Any Persist creature + Blasting Station = Infinite damage.

Note: Any combo line involving Juniper Order Ranger involves you obtaining an arbitrarily large Ranger as well.

34) Any two of Saffi Eriksdotter / Reveillark / Karmic Guide + Blasting Station = Infinite damage

35) Any two of Reveillark / Saffi Eriksdotter / Karmic Guide + Ashnod's Altar / Phyrexian Altar = Infinite mana. Best used to cast Ghave, make him infinite/infinite, and then remove all of those counters for tokens equal to the higher number you can think of at the time.

36) Any two of Reveillark / Saffi Eriksdotter / Karmic Guide + Viscera Seer = Filter your whole library. Best used on an opponent's end step to filter to Blood Artist or Zulaport Cutthroat .

37) Add Solemn Simulacrum to any of the, "Infinite death triggers" combos above and you may draw cards until you hit a win con.

38) Reveillark + Saffi Eriksdotter / Karmic Guide + Any sac outlet + Recruiter of the Guard = Tutor every creature with power two or less out of your library. If used on your turn, you can fill your hand to 8+ cards (assuming you didn't somehow draw all other 22 creatures with power 2 or less), and then pass the turn, discarding Blood Artist , Zulaport Cutthroat , etc.. The next time in which you receive priority, bring back the new creature and continue your loop until either your opponents lose or they stop you.

39) Any two of Reveillark / Saffi Eriksdotter / Karmic Guide + Carrion Feeder = Arbitrarily large Feeder.

40) Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Reveillark / Karmic Guide + Ghave, Guru of Spores + Ashnod's Altar / Phyrexian Altar = Infinite tokens and recursion.

41) Karmic Guide + Saffi Eriksdotter + Any sacrifice outlet = Infinite death triggers. Sac Saffi targeting Guide, then sac Guide to the sac outlet, Guide comes back in and brings Saffi along for the ride. Viscera Seer as the sac outlet lets you filter your entire library, Ashnod's Altar and Phyrexian Altar make infinite mana (which means you then cast Ghave, Guru of Spores and use your arbitrarily large amounts of mana to sac Guide to Ghave, instead, making his power/toughness the largest number you can think of, then spend even more of your endless mana to remove all of those counters for as many tokens as you want). Blasting Station wins on the spot, etc..

42) Strangleroot Geist + Cryptolith Rite (or Earthcraft ) + Ghave, Guru of Spores + sac outlet (if Cryptolith Rite) = infinite tokens. Currently, Strangleroot is the only one that combos with Rite in this way because it has haste, but the combo produces untapped tokens as opposed to tapped ones like most Undying + Earthcraft combos.

43) Ghave, Guru of Spores + Devoted Druid + Cathars's Crusade = Infinite untapped tokens.

44) Protean Hulk gets sacrificed using any of the ten sacrifice outlets (some may require mana), go grab Karmic Guide and Viscera Seer . Guide ETB brings back Hulk, sac Hulk to Seer, and now you can either: A) Go grab Saffi Eriksdotter , Blood Artist / Zulaport Cutthroat , and Grand Abolisher or something, and loop them. Or, B) Go grab Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Walking Ballista (you can grab them first if you already have a free sac outlet on field). A lets you grab any creature in your library while you loop Guide/Saffi/Reveillark with Zulaport Cutthroat so you can kill people who can't be targeted or damaged, while Mikaeus + Ballista + Viscera Seer just outright wins unless your opponents are hexproofed.

45) Pattern of Rebirth + A creature + Any sac outlet = Go grab Protean Hulk , win the game (get Karmic Guide and Viscera Seer / Carrion Feeder off of Hulk's first trigger).

46) Natural Order + Any green creature + a sac outlet = Go grab Protean Hulk , win the game.

47) Defense of the Heart + An opponent controlling three or more creatures (or Forbidden Orchard ) = Go grab Protean Hulk and a sac outlet, win the game. If you already control a sac outlet (even non-repeatable ones like Phyrexian Tower or Diabolic Intent ), get Grand Abolisher instead so that no one may interrupt your combo once Heart's trigger resolves.

48) Defense of the Heart + Any sac outlet + An opponent controlling three or more creatures (or you have Forbidden Orchard ) = Go grab Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Walking Ballista . Otherwise, grab whatever pieces finish off the combo you were already working towards.

49) Ghave, Guru of Spores + Ivy Lane Denizen + Ashnod's Altar = Infinite tokens.

50) Ivy Lane Denizen + Either creature with Persist + Ashnod's Altar or Phyrexian Altar = Infinite mana (plus the creature's ETB). With infinite mana, you can cast Ghave from the Command Zone and then produce infinite tokens.

51) Ivy Lane Denizen + Either creature with Persist + Blasting Station = Infinite damage (plus the creature's ETB).

52) Ivy Lane Denizen + Either creature with Persist + Viscera Seer = Scry to whatever card you want (plus the creature's ETB). Scrying to Zulaport Cutthroat or Blood Artist is an easy way to end the game.

53) Ivy Lane Denizen + Either creature with Persist + Carrion Feeder = Arbitrarily large Feeder (plus the creature's ETB).

54) Squirrel Nest + Earthcraft = Infinite 1/1 tokens. Just a quick and dirty, to the point token combo.

55) Juniper Order Ranger + Ghave, Guru of Spores + Phyrexian Altar = Infinite death triggers, Ranger gets huge.

56) Bloodspore Thrinax + Ghave, Guru of Spores + Phyrexian Altar = Infinite death triggers.

57) Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Ghave, Guru of Spores + Phyrexian Altar = Infinite death triggers. If you have any fourth non-human card (Reclamation Sage, for example), this produces infinite tokens and infinite death triggers, plus whatever the sacrificed creature's ability is.

58) Ghave, Guru of Spores + Ivy Lane Denizen + Phyrexian Altar = Infinite death triggers.

59) Survival of the Fittest + 2 creature cards in hand enables the set up of any of the above lines. An easy way to go about it is, on an opponent's end step, discard a creature, grab Mikaeus, the Unhallowed. Discard Mikaeus to go get Karmic Guide. Untap, play Karmic Guide, who returns Mikaeus. If you have no sac outlet and are confident your opponents can't stop you, pass the turn and don't play Ballista, otherwise discard your 2nd card for Ballista and play it to win. If no sac outlet, on your next upkeep, Karmic Guide gets sacrificed and then returns due to Undying, so respond to Guide's trigger by discarding your 2nd card for Ballista, then discard Ballista to get Viscera Seer/Carrion Feeder. Guide's ability resolves, returning Ballista on your upkeep (who is a 1/1 with 0 counters thanks to Mikaeus) and then you can play your sac outlet to win. There's a number of ways to assemble various combo pieces using Survival and you should always keep your board state in mind as most of your combos can be assembled in 1-2 turns and then played out via Guide/Reveillark, notwithstanding enchantments are only a Rector away.

60) Ghave, Guru of Spores + Ashnod's Altar / Phyrexian Altar + Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Reclamation Sage = Destroy all the enchantments/artifacts, generate infinite mana (Ashnod's Altar), generate infinite tokens (both), infinite death triggers (both).

61) Ghave, Guru of Spores + Carrion Feeder + Blood Artist / Zulaport Cutthroat + Earthcraft = Infinite life loss. Make a token, tap it to untap a basic, then sacrifice the token to Feeder to put a counter on it and make opponent(s) lose 1 life. Tap the basic to remove the counter to make a token. Repeat.

More to come.

Go out, have fun, and sow your seed.

Temporarily cut: Defense of the Heart,

Suggestions

Updates Add

Major update — July 30, 2021

Edit

Testing out some new cards:

Tayam, Luminous Enigma in the place of Reveillark. Lark was primarily for recursion or for looping combos with sub power 2 creatures in and out of Hulk combos. Reveillark wasn't explicitly needed for Hulk lines, as Karmic Guide + Viscera Seer/Carrion Feeder, then Saffi Eriksdotter + Blood Artist + Grand Abolisher still does the same job since you can use Saffi to return Guide, and Guide to return Saffi. Tayam can return destroyed Altars, Earthcraft, etc., and during Ghave lines can be used to dig directly into things like Corpse Knight to end the game. Similarly, Tayam has some lines that can be used here, as an Undying creature, another creature of any typo, plus Tayam and Ashnod's Altar can go infinite and dig to Blood Artist all the while. Carrion Feeder + Earthcraft + an Undying creature + Tayam also goes infinite, and there are several other lines that can be naturally utilized that overlap with existing Ghave combos, but due to Tayam's ability to recur necessary combo pieces, ability to dig to an immediate win during other Ghave lines, and ability to combo itself, Tayam is taking Reveillark's place at this time. Perhaps if I shell out $70 for an Allosaurus Shepherd then Devoted Druid, it, and Tayam would make a compact infinite line.

Testing Toski, Bearer of Secrets in the place of Yawgmoth. Simply swinging tokens/etc., seems more reliable than expending resources to draw a la Yawgmoth, though Yawgmoth can function as removal against mana dorks and low toughness Commanders.

Squirrel Nest was re-added, Sanctum Weaver is being tested in place of Priest of Titania.

This deck is still straddling the line of "high power," but still aiming to be a fun and combo-filled Ghave with loads of resilience.

More Changes — Aug. 3, 2019

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Card Swap — Jan. 24, 2019

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Another card swap — April 16, 2018

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Solemn Out, Avacyn's Pilgrim In — July 17, 2017

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Protean Hulk is wonderful — June 22, 2017

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Commander Rules Update 4/24 — April 24, 2017

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Card Swap — March 30, 2017

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Quick Change — Aug. 26, 2016

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Card change — March 31, 2016

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Casual

91% Competitive

Top Ranked	Achieved #18 position overall 7 years ago
Date added	9 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	14 - 2 Mythic Rares 57 - 7 Rares 14 - 1 Uncommons 11 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.37
Tokens	Saproling 1/1 G, Spirit 1/1 C, Squirrel 1/1 G
Folders	Owned Commander Decks, EDH, Edh ideas, Cool decks, Liked Decks, ghave, Ghave ideas, Makin, Non-Budget Ideas, Interesting Commander Decks
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