Have you added Song of the Dryads to your list? It's one of the best commander neuter cards in my opinion now that the tuck rules have been changed. It also gets around things like Animar's protection.
I personally haven't added it to my list, but I will add it to the discussed cards when I update the whole first posts, which should be happening soon. Though there is a certain skullbriar deck in my group that wouldn't be undeserving of having me add it.
I personally haven't added it to my list, but I will add it to the discussed cards when I update the whole first posts, which should be happening soon. Though there is a certain skullbriar deck in my group that wouldn't be undeserving of having me add it.
Yeeesh, yeah it certainly would. I also am currently running Lignify in mine as an answer to Animar (Granted it's a soft one since he keeps the counters).
Just a heads up, I'm slowly putting together a primer for Ghave, while I do have an infinite list I'd like to do control/tribal aspects of Ghave (Less competitive due to my new/current meta). I learned a lot from your decklist/primer (Previously ran a token swarm/good stuff/PW deck thing as my first EDH/first Ghave deck in a boardwipe/blue heavy meta. Needless to say I didn't do so well. Your list started me down the path of the dark side and I haven't looked back. Thank you for that.
I'll try not to overlap as much as possible.
Hopefully there won't be any animosity.
Cheers, Sincerely MTWEmperor
I personally haven't added it to my list, but I will add it to the discussed cards when I update the whole first posts, which should be happening soon. Though there is a certain skullbriar deck in my group that wouldn't be undeserving of having me add it.
Yeeesh, yeah it certainly would. I also am currently running Lignify in mine as an answer to Animar (Granted it's a soft one since he keeps the counters).
Just a heads up, I'm slowly putting together a primer for Ghave, while I do have an infinite list I'd like to do control/tribal aspects of Ghave (Less competitive due to my new/current meta). I learned a lot from your decklist/primer (Previously ran a token swarm/good stuff/PW deck thing as my first EDH/first Ghave deck in a boardwipe/blue heavy meta. Needless to say I didn't do so well. Your list started me down the path of the dark side and I haven't looked back. Thank you for that.
I'll try not to overlap as much as possible.
Hopefully there won't be any animosity.
Cheers, Sincerely MTWEmperor
Oh, sounds good. I don't have any plans to incorporate tribal stuff into my primer so that is definitely an unexplored space. I'm going to be adding more discussion of board control elements almost to the point of stax cards in my rewrite.
Zulaport Cutthroat from Battle For Zendikar in decks like this and Proosh is better than Blood Artist in most cases. I highly suggest it.
In addition, I notice your primer makes mention of Natural Order but it was cut from the list. Have you tried Pattern of Rebirth? It doesn't have that pesky green restriction like NO does, and is easier to cast. You shouldn't have any issue finding a way to kill the creature you Pattern.
Well, it sure has been a while since I have been around, with there having been more than a year since I last posted here. Over that time I stopped playing commander for a while, but have started picking it back up recently. This deck has drifted in and out of my regularly played decks both as I was winding down my play and since I have started again. Looking at the deck with something of a new set of eyes, the deck doesn't seem to be in as good of a place as it was in the past. It was a little cluttered with cards that probably should have been taken out a while ago, and the change to the mulligan rule seems to have been a little rough on the deck.
Changes:
Well the big one, I was having a lot of problems being as explosive as I was in the past and without that, I found the deck in the bad place of not being fast enough to fight some of the other combo decks and narrow enough that it couldn't keep up with the better decks built to go wide. However, the deck was still rather strong playing as a value deck until I either won or got overwelmed, similar to like how jund plays in modern. So I am currently testing out adding more controlling and stax elments since a lot of Ghave's combos involve manipulating perminantes. The list below is what I have come up with so far.
I'm not sure if I went with the best stax cards to include here. Most of the thing that I went with are artifacts and I don't know if there are any in the colors that I missed that I should have included. Also, I'm not sure how I feel about the tutor situation in this deck. I removed diabolic tutor and idyllic tutor without putting in replacements and kept Dimir Machinations in. I'm not sure if that was the correct/best decision. I am currently running Path to Exile, Swords to Plowshares, Abrupt Decay, Maelstrom Pulse, and Vindicate for my targeted removal and I don't know if I should change that for some of the newer things that have been printed lately.
I like the stax direction for Ghave! I'll be checking back to see how testing goes with this. I'm looking to build a ghave deck next and I have my eyes on a couple of primers. There's another one on this forum by Dies_to_doom_Blade with more of a enchantment lockout / land destruction combo package that looks pretty mean as well with some stax elements to it
Thanks, I obviously won't get a lot of testing done this week but start to get some idea at commander league next week. I definitely looked through Dies_to_Doom_Blade's thread when I was trying to make sure I wasn't missing anything good, and it looked pretty cool, but I'm going to see how much mileage I can get out of the more standard combos and stax together.
I kind of backed into a new Ghave variant. I initially wanted to build a straightforward Abzan lifegain deck, and picked Ghave mostly for colors. However, as one does when running Ghave, I kept finding synergy after synergy, eventually coalescing into Ghave Soul Sisters. This deck aims to gain massive amounts of life and slowly assemble infinite life/infinite tokens/infinite damage combos.
Archangel of Thune+Spike Feeder=Infinite life and counters
Doubler+Spike Feeder+Unspeakable Symbol=Infinite life and counters
Exquisite Blood+Sanguine Bond=Infinite Damage
What this deck lacks in recursion, it makes up for in redundancy. It will often assemble an infinite life combo around turn 4-5, and then turn that into a win the next turn. It also has the added benefit that most of its pieces, aside from the altars, look fairly unassuming.
Have you considered Anguished Unmaking over Utter End? It's 1 less mana and the life loss is typically negligible. I realize the deck plays at instant speed once you've established your board a little but 1 mana can make a difference early on... granted 3 life can make a difference later on.
UWRasputin DreamweaverUW
UWBSen TripletsUWB
Yeeesh, yeah it certainly would. I also am currently running Lignify in mine as an answer to Animar (Granted it's a soft one since he keeps the counters).
Just a heads up, I'm slowly putting together a primer for Ghave, while I do have an infinite list I'd like to do control/tribal aspects of Ghave (Less competitive due to my new/current meta). I learned a lot from your decklist/primer (Previously ran a token swarm/good stuff/PW deck thing as my first EDH/first Ghave deck in a boardwipe/blue heavy meta. Needless to say I didn't do so well. Your list started me down the path of the dark side and I haven't looked back. Thank you for that.
I'll try not to overlap as much as possible.
Hopefully there won't be any animosity.
Cheers, Sincerely MTWEmperor
Oh, sounds good. I don't have any plans to incorporate tribal stuff into my primer so that is definitely an unexplored space. I'm going to be adding more discussion of board control elements almost to the point of stax cards in my rewrite.
UWRasputin DreamweaverUW
UWBSen TripletsUWB
In addition, I notice your primer makes mention of Natural Order but it was cut from the list. Have you tried Pattern of Rebirth? It doesn't have that pesky green restriction like NO does, and is easier to cast. You shouldn't have any issue finding a way to kill the creature you Pattern.
Changes:
Well the big one, I was having a lot of problems being as explosive as I was in the past and without that, I found the deck in the bad place of not being fast enough to fight some of the other combo decks and narrow enough that it couldn't keep up with the better decks built to go wide. However, the deck was still rather strong playing as a value deck until I either won or got overwelmed, similar to like how jund plays in modern. So I am currently testing out adding more controlling and stax elments since a lot of Ghave's combos involve manipulating perminantes. The list below is what I have come up with so far.
1 Ghave, Guru of Spores
Artifacts:
1 Ashnod's Altar
1 Blasting Station
1 Defense Grid
1 Golgari Signet
1 Phyrexian Altar
1 Selesnya Signet
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Skullclamp
1 Sol Ring
1 Talisman of Unity
1 Mana Crypt
1 Smokestack
1 Winter Orb
1 Static Orb
1 Birthing Pod
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Storage Matrix
1 Mana Vault
1 Tangle Wire
Creatures:
1 Academy Rector
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Bloom Tender
1 Eternal Witness
1 Geralf's Messenger
1 Karmic Guide
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Reveillark
1 Grand Abolisher
1 Dosan the Falling Leaf
1 Blood Artist
1 Recruiter of the Guard
1 Hokori, Dust Drinker
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
1 Strangleroot Geist
1 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
1 Aura Shards
1 Earthcraft
1 Grave Pact
1 Sterling Grove
1 Sylvan Library
1 Necropotence
1 Cathars' Crusade
1 Survival of the Fittest
1 Doubling Season
Instants:
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Chord of Calling
1 Eladamri's Call
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Path to Exile
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Worldly Tutor
Lands:
1 Bayou
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Command Tower
1 Fetid Heath
4 Forest
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Godless Shrine
1 High Market
1 Marsh Flats
1 Murmuring Bosk
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Phyrexian Tower
4 Plains
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Savannah
1 Scrubland
1 Strip Mine
3 Swamp
1 Temple Garden
1 Twilight Mire
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Windswept Heath
1 Sandsteppe Citadel
1 Wasteland
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Diabolic Intent
1 Farseek
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Nature's Lore
1 Three Visits
1 Dimir Machinations
1 Vindicate
1 Reanimate
I'm not sure if I went with the best stax cards to include here. Most of the thing that I went with are artifacts and I don't know if there are any in the colors that I missed that I should have included. Also, I'm not sure how I feel about the tutor situation in this deck. I removed diabolic tutor and idyllic tutor without putting in replacements and kept Dimir Machinations in. I'm not sure if that was the correct/best decision. I am currently running Path to Exile, Swords to Plowshares, Abrupt Decay, Maelstrom Pulse, and Vindicate for my targeted removal and I don't know if I should change that for some of the newer things that have been printed lately.
UWRasputin DreamweaverUW
UWBSen TripletsUWB
UWRasputin DreamweaverUW
UWBSen TripletsUWB
Deck by function
Soul Sisters [creatures to life]
1 Soul Warden
1 Soul's Attendant
1 Essence Warden
1 Anointer Priest
1 Suture Priest
Pridemates [life to counters]
1 Ajani's Pridemate
1 Karlov of the Ghost Council
1 Bloodbond Vampire
1 Archangel of Thune
1 Wall of Limbs
Champions[Creatures to counters]
1 Lambholt Champion
1 Sigil Captain
1 Cathars' Crusade
1 Juniper Order Ranger
1 Ivy Lane Denizen
1 Metallic Mimic [Saproling]
Artists[Sac to Life+Damage]
1 Blood Artist
1 Falkenrath Noble
1 Zulaport Cutthroat
Altars[Creatures to mana]
1 Phyrexian Altar
1 Ashnod's Altar
1 Utopia Mycon
1 Earthcraft
Removal
1 Sylvan Reclamation
1 Attrition
1 Aura Shards
1 Merciless Eviction
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Golgari Charm
1 Burgeoning
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Primal Growth
1 Crystalline Crawler
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
Tutor & Draw
1 Skullclamp
1 Worldly Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Diabolic Intent
1 Altar of Bone
1 Smothering Abomination
1 Ranger of Eos
1 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
Doublers
1 Hardened Scales
1 Winding Constrictor
1 Corpsejack Menace
1 Doubling Season
Recursion
1 Eternal Witness
1 Reveillark
1 Victimize
Pacts
1 Grave Pact
1 Dictate of Erebos
Other
1 Sanguine Bond
1 Exquisite Blood
1 Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Spike Feeder
1 Unspeakable Symbol
1 Command Tower
1 Exotic Orchard
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Opal Palace
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Windbrisk Heights
1 Mosswort Bridge
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Marsh Flats
1 Windswept Heath
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Godless Shrine
1 Temple Garden
1 Canopy Vista
1 Scattered Groves
1 Murmuring Bosk
1 Krosan Verge
1 Tainted Wood
1 Tainted Field
1 Secluded Steppe
1 Tranquil Thicket
1 Barren Moor
1 Temple of Silence
1 Khalni Garden
1 Llanowar Reborn
1 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
2 Forests
3 Plains
3 Swamps
1 Temple of the False God
1 Grim Backwoods
Combos
Ghave+Sister+Pridemate+Altar=Infinite life, infinite ETBS and infinite death triggers. The most basic and common combo in the deck.
Ghave+Sister+Pridemate+Altar+Sanguine Bond=Infinite Damage
Ghave+Champion+Altar+Smothering Abomination=Draw your deck
Ghave+Artist+Altar+Pridemate/Champion/Another Artist/Mazirek=Infinite Damage
Archangel of Thune+Spike Feeder=Infinite life and counters
Doubler+Spike Feeder+Unspeakable Symbol=Infinite life and counters
Exquisite Blood+Sanguine Bond=Infinite Damage
What this deck lacks in recursion, it makes up for in redundancy. It will often assemble an infinite life combo around turn 4-5, and then turn that into a win the next turn. It also has the added benefit that most of its pieces, aside from the altars, look fairly unassuming.
WBGGhave Sisters
BUG Sidisi, Brood Tyrant Reanimator
BBBSheoldred, Whispering One Swamps-matter ramp
Standard
UR Drake
Pauper
GW Bogle