Hey guys, I've seen a lot of threads on Ghave and the amount of infinite combo's he's good for, so I decided to build a functional EDH deck using a mixture of combos.
My question to everyone is, what should I stick in to make the deck more bullet proof? It's well rounded for the most part, but some aspects of magic still lock me down (board wipes, control, counters, etc.)
As mod's will soon tell you, this belongs in the Multiplayer decklist subforum. Once your post has been moved, I'll be happy to comment on the deck! I played Ghave for a long time.
Just from a quick glance of your list you really really need to add Mycoloth and spike weaver to your list. Mycoloth will greatly increase your token generation so you can abuse Ghave even more. Spike weaver helps against aggro decks. I would also add Attrition to your deck for some more hate. Fertilid is a neat card also with Ghave. Ive been running Ghave for about a year now and have had a few varients with him. My deck really abuses tokens and +1/+1 counters and ive found thats one of the best routes to take with him.
If you want to play Ghave fast and consistant I would suggest checking out the Primer for him. I built it to try and stay away from blue for a change and been having a blast with the list. very fast very reslilant to counter spells.
I think the only thing I changed is I added an Autumn's Veil
Citanul Hierophants would probably help you produce more mana longterm than Druid's Repository, and Sakura-Tribe Elder is just so good, notwithstanding hilarious with graveyard recursion to just empty your deck of basic lands in the late game (so he's never a dead topdeck with Mikaeus around because he becomes 1: Fetch a basic land, tapped and get a 1/1 green saproling), which can help draw into even more gas during removal-heavy games. I'd run Sakura-Tribe Elder over Seek the Horizon, if possible.
Vhati-il Dal doesn't seem to mesh with the rest of the deck well; Spike Weaver does a much, much, much better job at keeping you from being killed by most aggro decks. In fact, I could only think Vhati-il Dal is more useful if your opponent is playing Xenagos, God of Revels.dec.
Ghostway seems much better than Cloudshift as, aside from a few creatures, you don't really build up a whole lot incrementally that you couldn't get back almost immediately, and the ability to dodge sweepers for 3 mana seems a lot nicer (especially given Ghostway dodges Hallowed Burial, Terminus and the like that even indestructible can't avoid). At least look into Rootborn Defenses over Cloudshift, I guess.
Creatures with Persist or Undying are also Ghave's best friend and should be a part of his entourage. Kitchen Finks is a good, standalone creature that your Commander gives ridiculous value to, while Geralf's Messenger can form a pretty decent win condition and can aid you in killing at least one player much of the time (he's good on his own, but imagine it with a Blood Artist in play and a sac outlet. It's flat out disgusting).
Lastly, Shred Memory makes a fantastic budget tutor for your deck: Your most powerful card when combined with others is Earthcraft, and Shred Memory lets you grab it for only 3 mana. Graveyard exile when you need it but can also tutor? That's extremely useful. It also lets you tutor up Darksteel Mutation or Blood Artist, just in case you need to stop a nasty creature or flat-out kill somebody. And it's less than 5 mana.
Thanks for all of the feedback, I've been trying to make this deck really focused on certain things mainly counters, tokens, infinite combos, and removal. I really like the idea of recursion, and draw though I'll look into that a lot.
Just tonight I threw in some more stuff and got rid of a lot of pot holes to the deck, so here's my updated deck list-
Basically I took out things that I put in because they helped the overall game, but in the end hurt the deck because they lack synergy such as Garruk, Primal Hunter.
I took out Trostani, Selesnya's voice because I already have a soul warden which is just as good because her populate is a bit too expensive for this deck.
Then I got rid of Crime // Punishment because it's too pricey and the fact that the card doesn't read "X or less" for punishment makes it not worth much to me.
Next to go was Druid's Repository because I hardly ever swing with this deck. Honestly, I only swing beginning game because it's all I can do.
The hardest one to let go was Nim Deathmantle because of it's synergy. I still decided to toss it because Glissa, the traitor is better for recursion and the combo's with deathmantle eat up too much mana. Seek the Horizon is too expensive and too useless, plain and simple.
I also noticed that when playing, I pretty much ignored what Opal Palace does because when I cast Ghave, I tend to have other spells to follow up and that one misc mana can hurt. Plus, Vivid Marsh is pretty awesome.
Also I dropped Druidic Satchel because it's nice, but slow. Very slow. If I'm spending 2 mana to search for answers every odd turn, that's a problem in my opinion, so I dropped it to make room for a little more synergy.
Can't remember what else I dropped, but it all had a good reason. (So I hope...)
Also in response to Primer's decklist. I like his tactics, but prefer to play Ghave a with a little bit more variety. I also don't see how Earthcraft is relevant when he only has 10 basic lands in the entire deck. But other than that it looks badass, I especially love the Geralf's Messenger combo. That with Ashnod's Altar and a Soul Ring is a beautiful and easy turn 4 victory compared to my other turn 4 victory that requires 8 cards to be perfect.
My question to everyone is, what should I stick in to make the deck more bullet proof? It's well rounded for the most part, but some aspects of magic still lock me down (board wipes, control, counters, etc.)
1 Ghave, Guru of Spores
Creature
1 Blood Artist
1 Utopia Mycon
1 Sigil Captain
1 Juniper Order Ranger
1 Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter
1 Mortician Beetle
1 Vhati il-Dal
1 Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
1 Avenger of Zendikar
1 Falkenrath Noble
1 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
1 Triskelion
1 Champion of Lambholt
1 Soul Warden
1 Butcher of Malakir
1 Nantuko Husk
1 Viscera Seer
1 Grave Titan
1 Silent Sentinel
Enchantment
1 Earthcraft
1 Aura Shards
1 Martyr's Bond
1 Doubling Season
1 Cathars' Crusade
1 Darksteel Mutation
1 Gift of Immortality
1 Privileged Position
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Parallel Lives
1 Druids' Repository
1 Blade of the Bloodchief
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Ashnod's Altar
1 Nim Deathmantle
1 Sol Ring
1 Armillary Sphere
1 Amulet of Vigor
1 Druidic Satchel
1 Skullclamp
Sorcery
1 Diabolic Revelation
1 Increasing Ambition
1 Skyshroud Claim
1 Crime // Punishment
1 Cultivate
1 Dread Return
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Praetor's Counsel
1 Plea for Guidance
1 Seek the Horizon
Instant
1 Putrefy
1 Beast Within
1 Fated Return
1 Ray of Revelation
1 Naturalize
1 Murder
1 Cloudshift
1 Fog
1 Mortify
8 Forest
11 Swamp
9 Plains
1 Command Tower
1 Khalni Garden
1 Selesnya Sanctuary
1 Rupture Spire
1 Sunpetal Grove
1 Mosswort Bridge
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree
1 Temple of the False God
1 Vivid Grove
1 Homeward Path
1 Opal Palace
Planeswalker
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
cEDH: [G(U/R) Animar] - [(U/B)(G/W) Redless Wheels] - [(G/U)(W/B) Redless Pod] - [(B/G)W Ghave Metapod]
I think the only thing I changed is I added an Autumn's Veil
URThe Joy of Painting with Nin, the Pain Artist!UR
Vhati-il Dal doesn't seem to mesh with the rest of the deck well; Spike Weaver does a much, much, much better job at keeping you from being killed by most aggro decks. In fact, I could only think Vhati-il Dal is more useful if your opponent is playing Xenagos, God of Revels.dec.
Ghostway seems much better than Cloudshift as, aside from a few creatures, you don't really build up a whole lot incrementally that you couldn't get back almost immediately, and the ability to dodge sweepers for 3 mana seems a lot nicer (especially given Ghostway dodges Hallowed Burial, Terminus and the like that even indestructible can't avoid). At least look into Rootborn Defenses over Cloudshift, I guess.
Creatures with Persist or Undying are also Ghave's best friend and should be a part of his entourage. Kitchen Finks is a good, standalone creature that your Commander gives ridiculous value to, while Geralf's Messenger can form a pretty decent win condition and can aid you in killing at least one player much of the time (he's good on his own, but imagine it with a Blood Artist in play and a sac outlet. It's flat out disgusting).
Lastly, Shred Memory makes a fantastic budget tutor for your deck: Your most powerful card when combined with others is Earthcraft, and Shred Memory lets you grab it for only 3 mana. Graveyard exile when you need it but can also tutor? That's extremely useful. It also lets you tutor up Darksteel Mutation or Blood Artist, just in case you need to stop a nasty creature or flat-out kill somebody. And it's less than 5 mana.
Sig and Avatar drawn by me.
Just tonight I threw in some more stuff and got rid of a lot of pot holes to the deck, so here's my updated deck list-
1 Ghave, Guru of Spores
Artifacts
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Ashnod's Altar
1 Sol Ring
1 Armillary Sphere
1 Amulet of Vigor
1 Blade of the Bloodchief
1 Skullclamp
Creatures
1 Triskelion
1 Silent Sentinel
1 Rune-Scarred Demon
1 Avenger of Zendikar
1 Utopia Mycon
1 Corpsejack Menace
1 Grave Titan
1 Soul Warden
1 Juniper Order Ranger
1 Mortician Beetle
1 Sigil Captain
1 Crypt Ghast
1 Blood Artist
1 Falkenrath Noble
1 Butcher of Malakir
1 Viscera Seer
1 Nantuko Husk
1 Vhati il-Dal
1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
1 Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter
1 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
1 Glissa, the Traitor
1 Earthcraft
1 Aura Shards
1 Martyr's Bond
1 Doubling Season
1 Cathars' Crusade
1 Privileged Position
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Parallel Lives
1 Into the Wilds
1 Darksteel Mutation
1 Gift of Immortality
Instants
1 Putrefy
1 Beast Within
1 Fated Return
1 Ray of Revelation
1 Naturalize
1 Murder
1 Cloudshift
1 Fog
1 Mortify
1 Hero's Downfall
Lands
7 Forest
8 Plains
13 Swamp
1 Command Tower
1 Khalni Garden
1 Selesnya Sanctuary
1 Rupture Spire
1 Sunpetal Grove
1 Mosswort Bridge
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree
1 Temple of the False God
1 Vivid Grove
1 Homeward Path
1 Vivid Marsh
1 Diabolic Revelation
1 Increasing Ambition
1 Skyshroud Claim
1 Cultivate
1 Dread Return
1 Praetor's Counsel
1 Plea for Guidance
1 Appetite for Brains
1 Kodama's Reach
Basically I took out things that I put in because they helped the overall game, but in the end hurt the deck because they lack synergy such as Garruk, Primal Hunter.
I took out Trostani, Selesnya's voice because I already have a soul warden which is just as good because her populate is a bit too expensive for this deck.
Then I got rid of Crime // Punishment because it's too pricey and the fact that the card doesn't read "X or less" for punishment makes it not worth much to me.
Next to go was Druid's Repository because I hardly ever swing with this deck. Honestly, I only swing beginning game because it's all I can do.
The hardest one to let go was Nim Deathmantle because of it's synergy. I still decided to toss it because Glissa, the traitor is better for recursion and the combo's with deathmantle eat up too much mana.
Seek the Horizon is too expensive and too useless, plain and simple.
I also noticed that when playing, I pretty much ignored what Opal Palace does because when I cast Ghave, I tend to have other spells to follow up and that one misc mana can hurt. Plus, Vivid Marsh is pretty awesome.
Also I dropped Druidic Satchel because it's nice, but slow. Very slow. If I'm spending 2 mana to search for answers every odd turn, that's a problem in my opinion, so I dropped it to make room for a little more synergy.
Can't remember what else I dropped, but it all had a good reason. (So I hope...)
Also in response to Primer's decklist. I like his tactics, but prefer to play Ghave a with a little bit more variety. I also don't see how Earthcraft is relevant when he only has 10 basic lands in the entire deck. But other than that it looks badass, I especially love the Geralf's Messenger combo. That with Ashnod's Altar and a Soul Ring is a beautiful and easy turn 4 victory compared to my other turn 4 victory that requires 8 cards to be perfect.