This is a casual, non-infinite build of Ghave. It plays pretty much all of the standard combo pieces you'd expect, with two restrictions: there are no free sacrifice outlets, and no cards that produce mana without tapping. As a result, every loop is limited to a finite number of iterations each turn before you run out of mana.
In the comparatively casual metagame I play in, I find taking this approach leads to more interesting, back-and-forth games with more meaningful strategic decisions than if I were simply racing to combo off. Ideally, when you win with this deck, both you and your opponents should feel that it was a victory well-earned.
Of course, different power levels are appropriate for different playgroups. If you'd prefer to go infinite, the cards in the sideboard will give you the tools to do so.
Understanding the Token Economy
Natural Resources
In any industry, production begins with raw materials. For our deck, that means mana, and plenty of it. Ghave excels at giving us ways to spend all of our mana every turn; to take advantage of this, we run 39 lands and devote a full 15 slots to ramp spells.
On the higher end, we have Mirari's Wake to double our mana, and Seedborn Muse to quadruple it, as well as Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun to do the best Gaea's Cradle impression $20 can buy.
The Means of Production
Once we have our mana online, the next step is to use our commander along with one or more of the deck's loop pieces to convert that mana into card advantage. Ghave is notorious for turning almost any card that interacts with +1/+1 counters or creature tokens into an engine, so naturally, we have a large selection to choose from. I've tried to pick the most efficient ones for inclusion in the deck.
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Bloodspore Thrinax, Champion of Lambholt, and Good-Fortune Unicorn create loops that let us make Saprolings at a rate of 1 mana per token. These are the most efficient token-producers in the deck.
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Young Wolf and Geralf's Messenger create a loop that lets us make 2 Saproling tokens for 3 mana, a rate of 1.5 mana per token. In exchange for this small loss of efficiency, their Undying ability gives us increased resilience against removal and board wipes.
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Doubling Season, on its own, lets us spend 3 mana to create 3 tokens, at a rate of 1 mana per token. Its true power, however, lies in the way that it increases the efficiency of our other loops. With Doubling Season and an Undying creature, for example, we can spend 5 mana to make 8 tokens, at an astounding rate of 0.625 mana per token!
These kinds of efficient interactions between loops are what allow the deck to truly snowball out of control. Winning with non-infinite Ghave means walking a careful line between missing out on value by deploying too few loop pieces, and overextending into a board wipe by deploying too many.
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Mentor of the Meek and Smothering Abomination create loops that allow us to draw cards. With Mentor, a complete loop costs 3 mana per card; with Abomination, it costs 2 mana, but we're taxed for 1 creature on each of our turns.
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Reveillark, along with either Saffi Eriksdotter or Karmic Guide, creates a loop that lets us recur creatures with power 2 or less. With all three in play, we can recur any creature as many times as we want.
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Dictate of Erebos and Butcher of Malakir give us repeatable edicts for 2 mana apiece.
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Woodfall Primus gives us repeatable 3-mana Bramblecrushes, and Aura Shards gives us repeatable Disenchants.
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Blood Artist doesn't do much on its own (2 mana to drain 1 life isn't worth it), but it has great synergy with our other loops, and will often get in some incidental damage from our opponents' creatures dying.
Consumption
Once we've set up a loop and churned out a nice batch of Saprolings and/or +1/+1 counters, what do we do with them? Why, turn them into even more resources, of course!
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Fertilid consumes +1/+1 counters and turns them into lands—something we're always happy to have more of.
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Spike Weaver consumes +1/+1 counters and turns them into Fogs. This is a narrow but very powerful effect against aggressive decks, and helps cover our weakness to fliers.
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Skullclamp, Vampiric Rites, and Evolutionary Leap consume creatures and turn them into cards.
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Westvale Abbey
consumes creatures and turns them into an indestructible flier—which is not usually a great trade, but can be a nice response to a board wipe.
Return on Investment
So much for value; how do we actually win?
The obvious way, of course, is through combat, and the obvious way to attack for lethal in a token deck is with Craterhoof Behemoth.
Nevertheless, we're not completely reliant on Craterhoof to close out games. Stacking counters on Champion of Lambholt gives us another way to set up big attacks, and getting Ghave to 21 counters is fairly achievable. We also have Blood Artist and Geralf's Messenger for direct damage, which lets us beat cards like Glacial Chasm and Constant Mists that shut down combat.
Don't get me wrong, though; Craterhoof Behemoth is still plan A. What can I say? The card is nuts.
A Brief Note on Going Infinite
To bring in the combo pieces, cut Genesis, Mirari's Wake, and Merciless Eviction.
Any loop that creates a creature and costs 2 or less mana per creature goes infinite with Ashnod's Altar. All of the Reveillark loops go infinite with Viscera Seer, and make infinite colorless mana with Ashnod's Altar.
To win off of Protean Hulk's trigger: fetch Viscera Seer and Karmic Guide returning Hulk; then fetch Blood Artist and Saffi Eriksdotter, recur Karmic Guide with Saffi, and return Hulk with Karmic Guide; then fetch Reveillark to establish the full recursion loop. Kill with Geralf's Messenger or Blood Artist.
