Carny Ghave, Lord of Leaches [cEDH/In Progress]

Commander / EDH* BGW (Abzan, Junk)

goldlion

Land (32)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Bayou
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Brushland
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Cabal Stronghold
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Field of Ruin
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 3x Forest
• 1x Gemstone Caverns
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Llanowar Wastes
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 2x Plains
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Savannah
• 1x Scrubland
• 2x Swamp
• 1x Tarnished Citadel
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Foothills

SoulCats (6)

• 1x Ajani's Welcome
• 1x Auriok Champion
• 1x Essence Warden
• 1x Soul Warden
• 1x Soul's Attendant
• 1x Suture Priest

Other (4)

• 1x Drain Life
• 1x Exsanguinate
• 1x Illusionist's Bracers
• 1x Suffer the Past

Mana (22)

• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Avacyn's Pilgrim
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Blightsoil Druid
• 1x Blood Celebrant
• 1x Bloom Tender
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Cabal Stronghold
• 1x Carnival of Souls
• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Crop Rotation
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Devoted Druid
• 1x Elves of Deep Shadow
• 1x Golgari Signet
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Orzhov Signet
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Selesnya Signet
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Fuel (7)

• 1x Ajani's Pridemate
• 1x Blade of the Bloodchief
• 1x Champion of Lambholt
• 1x Karlov of the Ghost Council
• 1x Parallel Lives
• 1x Path of Discovery
• 1x Young Wolf

Protection (5)

• 1x Grand Abolisher
• 1x Heroic Intervention
• 1x Imp's Mischief
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Saffi Eriksdotter

Removal (2)

• 1x Assassin's Trophy
• 1x Path to Exile

Commander (1)

Card Draw (10)

• 1x Ad Nauseam
• 1x Dark Confidant
• 1x Dark Prophecy
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Fecundity
• 1x Night's Whisper
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Shadows of the Past
• 1x Sylvan Library
• 1x Viscera Seer

Tutor (8)

• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Idyllic Tutor
• 1x Insidious Dreams
• 1x Pattern of Rebirth
• 1x Protean Hulk
• 1x Vampiric Tutor
• 1x Worldly Tutor

Recursion (5)

• 1x Argivian Find
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Immortal Servitude
• 1x Phyrexian Reclamation
• 1x Pull from Eternity

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Sideboard

Other (1)

• 1x Forbidden Crypt

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Breaking the Carnival of Souls in Abzan

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This is an attempt to break Carnival of Souls and make a unique, subjectively competitive Ghave and is part of the "Breaking Carnival of Souls" project.

What's going on

This is a more concentrated version of Lord of Leeches [Unique Ghave Build], which is a little more casual for my playgroup, using Ghave's ability to create and sac creatures, Carnival of Souls swamp production, and X-spells. It used to have the full "Thespian" suite (ie. all the Blood Artists and Soul Wardens), but I've decided to avoid altogether Blood Artist & Zulaport Cutthroat stuff, as it'd just be like any other more tuned Ghave decks.

Wincons

The alternatives to blood artist include large for an Exsanguinate type spell, Drain Life, Torment of Hailfire etc. Killing Wave is a more dynamic card than Exsanguinate as you can use it as removal. If you want to make it one step more challenging you could use Bond of Agony as you'd need two Soul Cats out. Crypt Rats is another Janky one that can wipe the board and make it a little more interesting/challenging for you. Shadows of the Past is part of the card advantage package in here, but with infinite it also works as a finisher.

This isn't a 2-3 piece winner. I like that. Ultimately you need: 1. a Soul Cat like Essence Warden, 2. a passive +1/+1 creator like Blade of the Bloodchief or Karlov of the Ghost Council 3. Ghave, Guru of Spores 4. Carnival of Souls 5. X-spell

If you have 1-4 out, or even 2-4, and a Fecundity or Dark Prophecy, you can draw your whole deck looking for the rest. With Insidious Dreams and a card draw combo out, you can speed this up without getting close to milling yourself, while also ditching usable creatures with the discard and making one of those 4 cards an Immortal Servitude.

When tutoring, in most cases you go for the Carnival first.

Final thoughts

This is being honed. It's currently lacking removal. There's a few other things to tweak, but I feel like it's getting pretty quick. Turn 4 is very possible, I managed it with my first trial of it. It could use a couple more recursion spells as well.

Date added	5 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	8 - 0 Mythic Rares 47 - 1 Rares 19 - 0 Uncommons 19 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	1.97
Tokens	Saproling 1/1 G