Ghave, Guru of Fairness

Commander / EDH BGW (Abzan, Junk) Combo Counters Infinite Combo Saproling Tokens

mistahboweh

1 Early Ramp (15)

• 1x Arbor Elf
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Channeler Initiate
• 1x Cultivate
• 1x Devoted Druid
• 1x Farseek
• 1x Golgari Signet
• 1x Kodama's Reach
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Nature's Lore
• 1x Orzhov Signet
• 1x Rampant Growth
• 1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1x Selesnya Signet
• 1x Sol Ring

2 Win Conditions (18)

• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Carrion Feeder
• 1x Cathars' Crusade
• 1x Crystalline Crawler
• 1x Doubling Season
• 1x Earthcraft
• 1x Hardened Scales
• 1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• 1x Mirror Entity
• 1x Necrotic Ooze
• 1x Parallel Lives
• 1x Slimefoot, the Stowaway
• 1x Triskelion
• 1x Triumph of the Hordes
• 1x Unruly Mob
• 1x Utopia Mycon
• 1x Winding Constrictor
• 1x Young Wolf

3 Reusable Draw (3)

• 1x Fecundity
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Smothering Abomination

4 Tutors and Reanimation (10)

• 1x Beseech the Queen
• 1x Chord of Calling
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Eladamri's Call
• 1x Eldritch Evolution
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Green Sun's Zenith
• 1x Living Death
• 1x Ranger of Eos
• 1x Reanimate

5 Disruption (10)

• 1x Assassin's Trophy
• 1x Aura Shards
• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Krosan Grip
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Qasali Pridemage
• 1x Rebuff the Wicked
• 1x Scavenging Ooze
• 1x Snuff Out
• 1x Swords to Plowshares

6 Good Cards (6)

• 1x Avenger of Zendikar
• 1x Garruk Wildspeaker
• 1x Growing Rites of Itlimoc  ^Flip
• 1x Mana Reflection
• 1x Protean Hydra
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots

7 Lands (37)

• 1x Blooming Marsh
• 1x Command Tower
• 10x Forest
• 1x Gavony Township
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Khalni Garden
• 1x Mosswort Bridge
• 1x Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 4x Plains
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Sunpetal Grove
• 5x Swamp
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Temple of Malady
• 1x Temple of Silence
• 1x Temple of the False God
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Woodland Cemetery

Commander (1)

---

The title of the deck may seem misleading, but despite all the powerhouse engines and infinite boardstates, the deck is slow to get going and avoids playing a large plethora of rocks or hard-to-obtain cards (which should be fairly obvious what to swap for what if that's your jam), making Ghave a useful deck to have around. It is a strong and resilient combo deck that can come out strong in the aftermath as faster decks fight amongst themselves or end games swiftly against more casual players while giving them plenty of time to play the game and interact with you.

The early ramp is fairly straightforward. Mana is always good in ghave, as are cheap bodies, and you have a few cards which care about additional lands, so all forms of ramp are welcome. Additionally, Channeler Initiate , Devoted Druid and Necrotic Ooze can be used to generate infinite mana of all colors. It's a useful thing to remember if players have done a good job keeping your counter doublers off the table.

The section for win conditions is more complicated... because there's eighteen of them, and most do not look like win conditions. Ghave is a rather freeform combo deck, full of individual synergies which can be mixed and matched. One game you might go off with your commander, Triskelion , Young Wolf and Ashnod's Altar , while the next you're using Utopia Mycon with Doubling Season and Slimefoot, the Stowaway . You can use Triskelion with Mikaeus, the Unhallowed to ping the table to death, or go for a more honest approach with Mirror Entity or Triumph of the Hordes . There are far too many possible combos in the deck to list properly, so I won't even bother trying.

The reusable draw effects are some of the strongest cards in the deck, thanks to their ability to refund you for permanents that were never meant to be permanent. Fecundity in particular is one of those cards that players tend to let slip because it might help them, but we all know how large a mistake that will be.

Tutors and Reanimation are grouped together because Thanks to Eternal Witness , all your creature tutors can effectively pull cards from your graveyard, so that's neat. Ranger of Eos can fetch a lot of powerful pieces from your deck, like say Carrion Feeder or Utopia Mycon . Living Death is the card I had the most trouble of deciding where to put, as it does a little of everything. It disrupts opposing boards, returns cards from your graveyard, and can instantly win you games with the right setup. Remember that Ghave, Guru of Spores can sacrifice himself and anyone else, willingly going to the graveyard before resolving this spell.

Disruption comes in a few flavors. Rebuff the Wicked is used because, due to the nature of Ghave you will often keep mana open. If you leave a single W players will be expecting removal but not countermagic, and unlike other protective instants, Rebuff can keep your key artifacts and enchantments safe too. Snuff Out is useful since your life total probably doesn't matter, making it a good alternative to Slaughter Pact . Just make sure you use your land ramp to get the Swamp in play.

The good cards have powerful interactions to help setup your wins, but aren't actually part of combos in and of themselves. Protean Hydra is the most unique choice, picked for its unique 'counters removed' clause and not damage, which makes it a perfect source of Ghave fuel. Swiftfoot Boots is played over Lightning Greaves because if you give Ghave shroud, he can't add counters to himself. The rest is mid game mana boosting up to Avenger of Zendikar , the instant army that is easily tutored and can help push you toward those glorious Triumph of the Horde wins. Bonus points if you give it undying with Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and use Ghave to blink it in continually. Which I suppose makes it a win condition paired with Earthcraft , but it's not like I can go back and fix that or anything.

Date added	5 years
Last updated	5 years
Exclude colors	UR
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	5 - 0 Mythic Rares 39 - 0 Rares 21 - 0 Uncommons 16 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.75
Tokens	Beast 3/3 G, Plant 0/1 G, Saproling 1/1 G