MTG Salvation

Help me build an awesome Ghave token / +1/+1 counter deck!

All suggestions will be considered, I'm looking to make a fun, competitive token / +1/+1 counter deck

===COMBOS======================================================================
INFINITE:

Earthcraft + Ghave + Doubling Season
Ghave + Doubling Season + Ashnod's Altar
Either combo abuses ETB and ETG triggers. Go ahead and Essence Warden for health or have Grave Pact out to destroy everyone else's creatures.

Melira, Sylvok Outcast/Juniper Order Ranger + any persist creature + sac outlet = brokenness
-- if your sac outlet is Ashnod's Altar you have infinite colorless mana
-- if your sac outlet is Ghave, Guru of Spores you have "1: put a counter on target creature"
---- add in Earthcraft for infinite counters and tokens
Saffi Eriksdotter + Karmic Guide + sac outlet = infinite ETB and ETG
Saffi Eriksdotter + Reveillark + sac outlet = infinite ETB and ETG, rev can grab spare lowbies in your GY
-- for either if your outlet is Ashnod's Altar you have infinite colorless mana
-- add Eternal Witness to the Reveillark combo and you can reuse your entire graveyard
-- with both Reveillark and Karmic Guide you res all creatures in your GY
---- or abuse ETB/ETG triggers: like make an army of 3/3 tokens with Wurmcoil Engine or exile all your opponents permanents with Archon of Justice
Cauldron of Souls + Dross Scorpion + earthcraft + ghave = infinite persist recursion
-- abuse any ETB / ETG trigger from any creature you have... Primetime grabs all your lands, wurmcoil and grave titan make tokens, etc.
----thanks to u-579 for the suggestion!
Nim Deathmantle + stuff = recursion of any creature
-- goes infinite with Avenger of Zendikar/Hornet Queen + (Earthcraft+sac)/Ashnod's Altar
-- and with recursive creatures + Ashnod's Altar
-- and Grave Titan + Ashnod's Altar
-- plus plenty of other ways...

FINITE SYNERGIES:

Sun Titan + Eternal Witness + sac outlet = grab cards from GY
Sun Titan + Doomed Necromancer = recursion at its finest.
-- best with Lightning Greaves in play
Buried Alive + Genesis = recursion every turn
-- you can also run Glory for alpha strikes / removal protection
-- best part is you can grab both off of one buried alive
Primeval Titan + landfallers = ridiculousness

===CURRENT=LIST==================================================================


current proxies: gaea's cradle, wasteland, academy rector, windswept heath, tooth and nail
need to find room for: crucible of worlds, phyrexian arena

I would add all of these in:

• Necromancer's Covenant
  
• Mirari's Wake
  
• Cultivate
  
• Kodama's Reach
  
• Skyshroud Claim
  
• Black MArket !!!
  
• Enlightened Tutor
  
• Demonic Tutor
  
• Vampiric Tutor
  
• Diabolic Tutor
  
• Kamahl, Fist of Krosa

Ramp is important for Ghave and Tutor gets your Doubling Season, Grave Pact, and stuff.

Updated using your suggestions, thank you

I don't have room for everything I want to add, so suggestions on "what to cut to make room for what" is much appreciated. Also, I'm unsure as to how many nonbasics I need to run for a stable mana base. Currently, I'm trying to weed out ETBT lands in favor of ones that come in usable. Exception being for the Rav block dual color lands.

Though I love Grim Poppet, it has issues with Doubling Season.
Anyway around this? I'd need to make him +3/+3 as he comes into play... shoot.

Wow, I can't believe I didn't think of that. It outright breaks Ghave if it sticks, lol.

Where's Woodfall Primus? That card is downright stupid with Ghave, especially if you're going with the combo route.

Is Thornbite Staff good for you? It looks expensive for what it does. I'm only running one piece of equipment specifically for Ghave, and it's Blade of the Bloodchief.

why do you need throne of geth?
if you want it just to poliferate maybe Plaguemaw Beast is a better option as it will activate gravepact and such
if you want a sacrific outlet maybe Culling Dais for card draw

Is Squirrel Nest need?
there must be better token generators
for example Rhys the Redeemed

with all the enchantments you have maybe Greater Auramancy along with the sterling grove you already have in

Centaur Glade is Mobilization for 3/3 beasts.

Eternal Witness gets back anything that was destroyed.
Auramancer gets back any of your enchantments.
Karmic Guide gets back any of your creatures.
Reveillark returns two of;

• Fertilid
  
• Hornet Queen
  
• Juniper Order Ranger
  
• Knight of the Reliquary
  
• Triskelion
  
• Twilight Drover

AND Ghave itself.

Reveillark also returns any of the first 3 who each then return something else and all are sacrifice fodder for Ghave should you have a Doubling Season out.

Most of all, you need to run removal.

Thanks for the suggestions! They are appreciated and I'm currently trying to find places for some of your ideas-- there are very good ones

Throne of Geth is in there because its "2: proliferate" and I can get it back with Glissa + Grave Pact pretty easily. I'm unsure if it'll pay off in the long run, I'll have to do more testing.

Have you considered Minions' Murmurs? I'm not sure how good that is, but I've always wanted to use it in something. With the lifegain from your various wardens, this shouldn't kill you instantly if you have a ton of tokens out.

Minions' Murmurs might mill him plus Collective Unconscious does the same thing without the life loss

have you considered Mycoloth btw

Not sure about Minions' Murmors, we'll see how my draw is.

What do you guys think about Buried Alive?
It grabs Genesis and 2 reanimation targets right off the bat.

Quote from Schtauffen

Not sure about Minions' Murmors, we'll see how my draw is.

What do you guys think about Buried Alive?
It grabs Genesis and 2 reanimation targets right off the bat.

hmm could work but then you would want to consider other creatures which apply effects from the graveyard if you include buried alive

Well what I'm thinking is you can grab Genesis then one of: Doomed Necromancer, Sun Titan, Karmic Guide and then 1 other person. If you already have a lot of stuff in your graveyard I'd grab Genesis, Sun Titan and the Necromancer. With a Lightning Greaves out you are crazy set up:

2G: Genesis returns necromancer to your hand.
2B: play necromancer
0: equip greaves
B, sac necro: return titan, who returns necro
0: equip greaves to necro
B, sac necro: return another creature to play
0: equip greaves to titan, swing returning necro
0: equip greaves to necro
B, sac necro: return another creature to play

Not bad for 4BBBBG

shame you don't have access to red as anger would fit right in to that combo

something to consider for a future BRG deck

Yeah if I ever get around to my Kaalia deck it'll have Buried Alive for Anger lol.

Just want to point out that neither of your combos produces infinite mana.

Earthcraft;
Spend :1mana:, Ghave loses a +1/+1 counter and you gain 2 saprolings.
Tap both saprolings, gain :2mana:. Sacrifice 1 to Ghave for +2 counters.
Net: +1 mana, +1 token, +1 counter.
Repeat to your hearts content.

With that 2 mana gained, you need to use one to sacrifice a saproling to Ghave, Then you have to use the other to remove another +1/+1 counter. So although you will gain infinite tokens and +1/+1 counters with doubling season in play, you don't make infinite mana.

The same is true of Ashnod's Altar except that you don't get infinite tokens either because you have to sacrifice both. One to make the 2 mana and the other to make the +1/+1 counters.

Both combos are still worth it, and would make infinite mana if you had all 3 cards in play. Just wanted to clarify.

With Doubling Season, Ghave, Earthcraft
Once you have "infinite" tokens and counters you can:
For Doubling Season, Ashnod's Altar, and Ghave:
They don't work how I first implied they did in my OP, but they both do produce infinite tokens, mana, and counters in the end. They both are, in essence, dual combos each. You complete 1 combo and repeat it for a set amount of times, then you do the second combo for a set number of times. But you only need Ghave, Doubling Season, and one of Earthcraft or Ashnod's Altar.

Skullclamp maybe? Always seems good with tokens.

Wow, I'm not really sure how Skullclamp didn't find its way on the list.

Thanks for the reminder

Is there a spot for Karador, Ghost Chieftain ya think?

I'm having trouble with what to cut for new goodies I wanna add, any suggestions?

Maybe I just need to test more...

Thinking about adding Living Death which is especially awesome with Dredging.

Looking for critiques or ideas!

If you are using cauldron of souls, you might want to throw in dross scorpion. I took both cards out of my list to focuss more on the ghave based combos, but that kind of interaction is was inspired me to play the deck so even though it didn't work for me maybe it will work for someone. It also combos with triskelion and cauldron for inf damage, give skelion persist then remove to counter to hit an oponent then use the last to kill triskelion it comes back with 2 counters and you can untap the cauldron with the scorpion then remove one counter to damage whatever and use the last to kill the skelion again, rinse repeat Also you might want to look at blasting station instead of thornbite staff.

I like Blasting Station, but I'm not sure about Dross Scorpion. Just seems like the cauldron and trisk have to be out for it to be of any use.