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.
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 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.
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.
Now, I have no clue whether the lone guy on Ascendancy Storm ever beat any of the other 3-1's with hate, but if s/he did...
I fear this will become the typical post-KTK Daily. RG Tron, Living End, Ad Nauseam, and BGx Midrange will pop their heads in more often than this, but I suspect Bogles/Merfolk/GW Hatebears will fall off the map and all the anti-Ascendancy hate will remain and not entirely work.
(Oh yeah, there's also a Burn deck with 4 Treasure Cruise. The Draw 3 in Aggro Decks days begin.)
I suspect the MTGO Modern meta will warp around Ascendancy Storm, possibly to the point that Ascendancy Storm hoses non-Burn aggro harder than Thopter-Sword ever could.
I'm not so sure it will but only time will tell. How many results do we have now I know that there where a couple top 8s in the first few days after release, but I haven't heard too much more after that. Is anyone collecting the results in a concise manner?
One thing I just noticed that's kind of cute is that you can win after Melira Pod's infinite life combo if you pack a Wheel of Sun and Moon in your SB (which is relevant anyways).
Basically, just start comboing off, and at the end wish for the Wheel when you're low enough on cards, and cycle through 2 draw effects.
How does the WoSaM anti-infinite work if I assume they have 10,000,000 life and the combo intact? Do I enchant myself and hope they don't gain another 10,000,000 life in response to my kill spell/combat swing, or do I enchant them?
I would imagine that you enchant yourself with WoSaM and point your grapeshot, or whatever your win condition of choice is, at the combo to break it up, then generate enough storm/mana with your last cantrips and then point the kill spell at their face.
It looks like Glittering wish is already on its way back down. It has lost almost $7 off the low price and $3 off of its mid, with plenty available at ~$13 on TCGplayer.
What do you think it will end up at in the near term?
I would be willing to hazard a guess that its absence is due combination of its price tag and that it was generally the deck of people who didn't play the format a whole lot, despite being as contradictory as that seems.
Well, I think they both are the fourth card in all of their combos (I can't think of anything where that is not the case). Altar of the Brood has the advantage of being cheaper and not targeting, but Altar of Dementia is a sac outlet so I has a couple other interactions. So about even I think? I haven't really ever used Altar of Dementia, so I can't really say to much other than they have a slightly different set of things that they can interact with.
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.
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.
I'm not so sure it will but only time will tell. How many results do we have now I know that there where a couple top 8s in the first few days after release, but I haven't heard too much more after that. Is anyone collecting the results in a concise manner?
(this also counts as my hey I forgot to sign up before now if it matters...)
I would imagine that you enchant yourself with WoSaM and point your grapeshot, or whatever your win condition of choice is, at the combo to break it up, then generate enough storm/mana with your last cantrips and then point the kill spell at their face.
What do you think it will end up at in the near term?