Ghave That Bitch an Infinite Combo [Primer]

Commander / EDH BGW (Abzan, Junk) Combo Competitive Infinite Combo Multiplayer Primer

Abzkaban

Land (33)

Removal (4)

Undying (3)

Tutors (16)

Combo Abusers (7)

Draw (5)

Mana Source (4)

Persist (3)

Combo Protection (2)

Commander (1)

Ramp (13)

Counter Source (6)

Sac Outlets (5)

Recursion Piece (3)

Maybeboard

Considering (2)

The #1 Highest Ranked Ghave, Guru of Spores Deck on TappedOut!

The #1 Highest Ranked Abzan Deck on TappedOut!

The #26 Highest Ranked EDH Deck on TappedOut!

A Ghave, Guru of Spores Primer

"I gave that bitch an infinite combo. Bitches love infinite combos.”

About the Deck

Disclaimer: This deck was not built with cEDH in mind. It has been built with a certain high-power philosophy behind it with the primer serving as a "catch all" where anyone wanting to play Ghave can find what they're looking for. If you are only interested in competitive, check out the "Optimizing for cEDH" tab of the primer where I have built a prototype list with no restrictions.

Deck History

This deck was one of the first ideas I had for commander when I was first getting into the format. While tying to decide who would be a fun commander to play, I thought about the kinds of things I already liked to play in my kitchen table decks. One of my favorites was a fungus deck that I had started building from the structure deck in Time Spiral.

I really liked fungus as a tribe, and when I discovered Ghave, Guru of Spores, I knew I found my commander. Originally he was the helm of a fungus tribal deck that abused spore counters, saprolings, and +1/+1 counters. Over time I discovered the crazy things you can do with Ghave, and so I gradually started adding combos. At first I started with an infinite mana combo using Doubling Season and Earthcraft because I didn’t like running out of mana before I got to do the things I wanted to do. Eventually it developed into the crazy combo machine it is now. I may one day go back and rebuild Ghave Fungus Tribal, but for now this is where he stays.

The goal of this deck is to get an infinite combo be it mana, tokens, death triggers, or what have you. From there we can control the board state or go into one of our win cons. Some of the combos are a win con by themselves. Various combo pieces play the same role as several other cards and can therefore be substituted in various combinations of which there are a LOT. Keep in mind the ones that are interchangeable. I'll go into detail with them later in this guide.

Why Ghave

Ghave, Guru of Spores is my favorite card in all of Magic. As a player I have found that Abzan fits me perfectly as a color combination. Counters, tokens, mana ramp, and sacrificing creatures are just my style, and all of them can be found in these colors. Abzan represents life, death, and growth in a continuous balanced cycle. And that’s what this deck is all about: continuous cycles. Because I don’t like limitations.

Ghave is the combo king because so many cards fit his engine. Within this deck are a few combos that are independent of the commander, and one could argue that they would be a better fit in a reanimator deck. While this is true, they make great backup combos here if we don’t have access to Ghave, and Ghave is necessary for the many other combos we hope to achieve. His ability is cheap and fluid, turning counters into creatures and vice-versa. He has just the tools we need for an effective combo deck. If we lose a combo piece to removal, we have another that can take its place beside our combo king.

Because Ghave combos with anything that sneezes in his direction, the main idea surrounding this deck is combo synergy. By which I mean a card that fits into multiple combos is better suited for the deck than one that fits into just one. There should be plenty of flexibility and modality in how the deck plays with many different paths to combo lines.

But That's not an Infinite Combo

Combo vs Synergy

In my experience, there is not only a misconception about the difference between combo and synergy but also some dissent in the magic community about what makes card interactions a combo and then even further discourse over whether a combo is infinite. One problem at a time. Let’s first look at the difference between combo and synergy. I’ll be operating with the following definitions:

Combo -“A combo refers to cards that interact with each other in a way that’s significantly stronger than the sum of its parts.”

Synergy -“Synergy refers to cards that work well together and enhance the value of each other.”

Both of these definitions were taken from Philosophy of Combo, and there is a distinct difference between the two.

The article uses Pestermite and Splinter Twin for an example of a combo. Each by itself does not impact the board very much, but together they create infinite creatures. The interaction between the two cards is much more significant than either of them could be alone.

Synergy on the other hand does not have the same explosive power as a combo. Tribal decks will have a lot of synergy because many tribal cards increase the value of the other cards in the deck, but the effect is usually incremental.

Infinite Mandatory vs Infinite Non-Mandatory

This leaves us with the ambiguity of what makes a combo infinite. Some would argue that a combo is not infinite unless it continues indefinitely unless interrupted by another action that changes the board state. Otherwise it is just a recurring action that the player can repeat an arbitrary number of times. Others think that because an action is repeatable, it can be repeated to infinity and thus makes it an infinite combo. The distinction between the two actually lies in the Comprehensive Rules.

421. Handling “Infinite” Loops

421.1. Occasionally the game can get into a state in which a set of actions could be repeated forever. The “infinity rule” governs how to break such loops.

421.2. If the loop contains one or more optional actions and one player controls them all, that player chooses a number. The loop is treated as repeating that many times or until the other player intervenes, whichever comes first.

421.3. If the loop contains at least one optional action controlled by each player and actions by both players are required to continue the loop, the active player chooses a number. The nonactive player then has two choices. He or she can choose a lower number, in which case the loop continues that number of times plus whatever fraction is necessary for the active player to “have the last word.” Or he or she can agree to the number the active player chose, in which case the loop continues that number of times plus whatever fraction is necessary for the nonactive player to “have the last word.” (Note that either fraction may be zero.)

Example: One player controls a creature with the ability “: [This creature] gains flying.” Another player controls a permanent with the ability “: Target creature loses flying.” The “infinity rule” ensures that regardless of which player initiated the gain/lose flying ability, the nonactive player will always have the final choice and therefore be able to determine whether the creature has flying. (Note that this assumes that the first player attempted to give the creature flying at least once.)

421.4. If the loop contains only mandatory actions, the game ends in a draw. (See rule 102.6.)

421.5. If the loop contains at least one optional action controlled by each player and these actions don’t depend on one another, the active player chooses a number. The nonactive player can either agree to that number or choose a higher number. Note that this rule applies even if the actions could exist in separate loops rather than in a single loop.

Those who argue that an infinite combo is only infinite if the combo continues on its own because of mandatory actions are technically correct. Mandatory actions will continue regardless of any players unless acted upon by a player changing the game state.

Exquisite Blood + Sanguine Bond is an example of an infinite combo as stated in rule 421.4. Upon gaining life each card will trigger off the other one until each opponent's life is reduced to 0 which ends the game and therefore the combo. This particular combo normally ends in a win for the person playing it because all their opponents' life reduces to 0. A situation in which this would result in a draw is if someone had a Platinum Angel on the field. Because that player cannot lose the game, the combo continues to trigger indefinitely. Unless interrupted the game is a draw.

An example of a loop indicated in rule 421.2 would be Devoted Druid + Vizier of Remedies. While technically not infinite, it allows the player to repeat the actions Ad Nauseam. These types of combos are generally referred to as "infinite combos" because they can basically be chosen to continue to infinity. However based on the rules what actually happens is the player chooses a number. The combo performs the actions that number of times or until it is interrupted by another player.

Conclusion

So technically...no, most of the combos in this deck aren't "infinite." They employ loops like the Devoted Druid + Vizier of Remedies combo. But the deck wouldn't sound nearly as cool if it was named "Ghave That Bitch a Repeatable Action an Arbitrarily Large Number of Times."

Deck Breakdown

How the Deck Plays

Step 1: Play a combo

Step 2: Do something with the combo

Step 3: ???

Step 4: Profit

How to play the combos and what to do with them are explained in detail below.

Combo Explanations

Ghave's Combo Engine

Ghave functions with two other combo pieces in mind. In order to create an endless chain of resources to abuse his ability, he needs a mana source and a source of counters. As long as we have these two functional pieces we have a self-sustaining combo.

Our mana sources are:

Our sources of counters are:

Below I'll explain how each of these interact with other cards in the deck to go infinite. It is worth noting that there are many substitute possibilities to achieve our combos, so I'll only be explaining how some of them work. When we substitute a card in, the combo works pretty much the same way.

Earthcraft

While our Altars give us mana directly when we sacrifice a creature, Earthcraft is dependent on having basic lands in play which is why it important to fetch a basic if you plan on using it. The infinite mana we receive is color dependent on what we have in play. If we only have a Forest to work with, then we only get unlimited mana. We get the most value out of an infinite mana combo when we have all our basic colors out, so keep that in mind. However if all you need the mana for is to make tokens, then it doesn't matter what color you have available.

Doubling Season + Earthcraft + Ghave, Guru of Spores

Let's assume we have these three cards out plus a Forest. If we played Ghave after Doubling Season then he would have 10 +1/+1 counters on him, but it really doesn't matter. We'll assume he has 5. Here's how to play this combo:

Tap for . Remove a +1/+1 counter from Ghave leaving him with 4. Doubling Season puts two saproling tokens into play.
Use Earthcraft to tap a saproling to untap the forest. Tap the forest again and remove another +1/+1 counter from Ghave, leaving him with 3. We get another two saprolings for a total of 3 untapped saps and 1 tapped sap.
Tap another sap (2 untapped, 2 tapped) and then sacrifice one of the tapped saprolings (2 untapped, 1 tapped) to put two +1/+1 counters on Ghave thanks to Doubling Season. We're now back to the number of counters we started with but have gained some saprolings we can tap for mana.
Repeat steps 1-3 and we'll gain more saprolings each time so we can then say we have as many saprolings as we could ever want and therefore have enough to tap for as much mana as we want. Then we can start sacrificing our many tokens to increase Ghave's +1/+1 counters making him /. Since we have infinite tapped and untapped saprolings and infinity +1/+1 counters on Ghave, we can start putting +1/+1 counters on our tokens and any other creatures we might have and make our whole board infinitely strong.

Cathars' Crusade + Earthcraft + Ghave, Guru of Spores

This combo works with any card that adds +1/+1 counters when a creature enters play and will give us infinite creatures, but all but the last one will be tapped when we first make them. Do something with them if you don't want to be the target of everything in the next round before you can untap them all and use them.

We'll assume we have the combo pieces plus a basic land in play:

Tap the land and remove a +1/+1 counter from Ghave to create a saproling. When the token comes into play, Ghave and the saproling each get a +1/+1 counter thanks to Cathars' Crusade. This replaces the one we removed to make the token.
Use Earthcraft to tap the token to untap the land so we can activate Ghave again. Remove a +1/+1 counter from our new saproling and make a token.
Rinse and repeat for as many tokens as you desire. If we continue to remove a counter from the newest saproling, Ghave and his fungal army will become /.

Ashnod's Altar

Ashnod's Altar combos more than any other card in this list, and for good reason. It acts as a sac outlet that also fuels our Ghave engine. Be aware that any infinite mana combo involving Ashnod's Altar will be colorless mana, and while good for keeping our loop going, it doesn't help us play anything from our hand.

Ashnod's Altar + Doubling Season + Ghave, Guru of Spores

Tap a land for mana and use that mana to remove a counter from Ghave, making two tokens thanks to Doubling Season.
Sacrifice a token to Ashnod's Altar, floating .
Use to remove another counter from Ghave, making two more tokens for a total of three.
Use our last floating to sacrifice a token and give Ghave two +1/+1 counters.
Every time we remove a counter, we get two tokens, and every time we sacrifice a saproling to Ghave, we get two counters. Ashnod's Altar provides the mana needed to keep this engine going, netting us infinite tokens, counters, and colorless mana.

Ashnod's Altar + Champion of Lambholt + Ghave, Guru of Spores

Tap a land for mana and remove a +1/+1 counter from Ghave to make a token which puts a +1/+1 counter on Champion of Lambholt.
Sacrifice the token to Ashnod's Altar to float .
Use to remove the +1/+1 counter from Champion of Lambholt and create another token which puts a counter back on our champion.
Each time we do this, we are left with floating. Repeat this as many times as we want for as much colorless mana as we desire.

Phyrexian Altar

Phyrexian Altar works in almost any of the same combos as Ashnod's Altar, the difference being that we get one mana of any color rather than . This can be an advantage or disadvantage to our combos depending on which one we are playing. Sometimes we want the extra mana from Ashnod to produce tokens, and sometimes we will actually net mana without pouring it into Ghave. In this case Phyrexian Altar is actually more useful because we get all the colors we'd ever need.

Undying

Undying creatures are conditional sources of counters for Ghave, the condition being having an available sacrifice outlet. We have three Undying creatures in the deck outside of Mikaeus, the Unhallowed paired with non-human creatures. These are:

The Undying ability has excellent synergy with Ghave since we can remove the +1/+1 counter from our undying creature and sacrifice it all over again. We can abuse in different ways depending on our sac outlet. For instance here is what would happen if we used Phyrexian Altar.

Ghave, Guru of Spores + Phyrexian Altar + Young Wolf

Sacrifice Young Wolf to Phyrexian Altar to produce one mana of the color of your choice. Young Wolf returns with a +1/+1 counter.
Use our floating mana to remove the +1/+1 counter from Young Wolf and make a token.
Repeat steps 1 and 2. Because Young Wolf no longer has a counter on him when he's sacrificed, his undying ability triggers. We can do this over and over again so that we have infinite tokens. Now that we have infinite tokens, we can sacrifice them to the altar for infinite colored mana as well.

Persist

Persist is another ability that allows us to consistently return our sac fodder from the grave. As long as we have an active ability that puts +1/+1 counters on them, our persist creatures will no longer have their -1/-1 counters and will continue to come back. With this in mind not all of our counter sources work with persist creatures. Here are the ones that do:

In addition to a counter source, we also need a free sac outlet:

And finally these are the persist creatures we have to work with:

It is worth noting that Ghave is not required to pull off these combos. This means we have 5 x 6 x 3 = 90 different paths we can take to go infinite without the commander from the persist strategy alone!

Ashnod's Altar + Cathars' Crusade + Kitchen Finks This combo works with any persist creature and will activate the persist creatures's ability infinite times.

Sacrifice Kitchen Finks to Ashnod's Altar.
Kitchen Finks comes back to the field with a -1/-1 counter on it.
When Kitchen Finks enters the battlefield, Cathars' Crusade puts a +1/+1 counter on it which negates the -1/-1 counter and removes them both.
We can now sacrifice our persist creature continuously, netting us infinite mana.

Mikaeus, the Unhallowed has amazing synergy in Ghave Combo. Not only does he give non-humans undying so we can bring them back when we normally couldn't, but he right out combos with persist creatures because he gives them undying in addition to persist. We get to pick which order undying and persist triggers, so once the first one resolves the other ability fizzles. Here’s how it goes infinite:

Creature dies and persist triggers. It enters the battlefield with a -1/-1 counter.
Creature dies again. This time undying triggers since it has no +1/+1 counter on it. It enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter.
Creature dies again and persist triggers since it had no -1/-1 counters.

The abilities take turns triggering to continuously bring back our creature.

Recursion

One of the most resilient combos in the deck is our infinite recursion combo.

Karmic Guide + Reveillark + a sac outlet. Saffi Eriksdotter can replace either Karmic Guide or Reveillark and achieve the same result.

Sacrifice Karmic Guide first. This is important.
Sacrifice Reveillark. When it leaves the battlefield, it will return Karmic Guide plus any other creature power 2 or less.
When Karmic Guide returns to the battlefield, it brings back Reveillark.

This combo allows us to have access to almost anything in our graveyard and reap the benefit of our sac outlet infinite times. If we utilize all three pieces, Saffi Eriksdotter will bring back Reveillark who brings back Saffi Eriksdotter and Karmic Guide who brings back anyone we want from the graveyard regardless of power. It also allows for infinite ETB and death triggers.

Combos by Outcome

Infinite Mana and Tokens

The following combos will net us infinte mana, infinite tokens, and make all our creatures /

Ghave, Guru of Spores + Earthcraft + Doubling Season

Replace Doubling Season with:

Illusionist's Bracers

Replace Earthcraft with Ashnod's Altar:

Ghave, Guru of Spores + Ashnod's Altar + Doubling Season

Replace Doubling Season with

If using an undying creature, replace Ashnod's Altar with

Phyrexian Altar

Ghave, Guru of Spores + Devoted Druid + Doubling Season + Good-Fortune Unicorn

Replace Good-Fortune Unicorn with

Replace Doubling Season with

Illusionist's Bracers

Infinite Mana

Infinite Colored Mana

Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Devoted Druid + Earthcraft

Cathars' Crusade + Phyrexian Altar + persist creature

Replace Cathars' Crusade with

Infinite Mana

Cathars' Crusade + Ashnod's Altar + persist creature

Replace Cathars' Crusade with

Recursion Combo Mana

The following combos utilize our infinite recursion combo using an Altar as a sac outlet

Karmic Guide + Reveillark + Ashnod's Altar

Replace Reveillark with

Saffi Eriksdotter

Replace Karmic Guide with

Saffi Eriksdotter

For colored mana, replace Ashnod's Altar with

Phyrexian Altar

Any of these combos will net us infinite colorless mana with Ashnod's Altar and infinite colored mana with Phyrexian Altar. With the latter we can cast Ghave, Guru of Spores immediately and start making tokens. If we use the former, we will need to have handy to cast him.

Infinite Tokens

The following combos net us infinite tokens

Ghave, Guru of Spores + Earthcraft + Cathars' Crusade

Replace Cathars' Crusade with

Bloodspore Thrinax with at least one +1/+1 counter
Good-Fortune Unicorn
Renata, Called to the Hunt
an undying creature

The following combos are unique in that they produce untapped tokens

Ghave, Guru of Spores + Devoted Druid + Cathars' Crusade
Ghave, Guru of Spores + Cryptolith Rite + Strangleroot Geist + another sac outlet (no longer in the deck, but still an optional interaction)

Infinite Death Triggers

Exchange Phyrexian Altar for any infinite mana Ghave combos containing Ashnod's Altar for infinite death triggers. These combos don't net us mana or tokens but allow us to abuse "whenever a creature dies" cards. The exceptions are combos that include persist creatures because they don't require us to use the mana floated with Phyrexian Altar to keep the combo going.

These combos would then look like this:

Ghave, Guru of Spores + Phyrexian Altar + Cathars' Crusade

Replace Cathars' Crusade with

The following combos involve any persist creature with any sac outlet

persist creature + sac outlet + Cathars' Crusade

Replace Cathars' Crusade with

The following combo will trigger a non-human creature's ability infinite times

Ghave, Guru of Spores + Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Ashnod's Altar + non human creature.

Replace Ashnod's Altar with

Phyrexian Altar

Our infinite recursion combo will also give us infinite death triggers

Karmic Guide + Reveillark + sac outlet

Replace Reveillark with

Saffi Eriksdotter

Replace Karmic Guide with

Saffi Eriksdotter

We can take advantage of the above combos depending on which persist creature and which sac outlet we choose to use as well as which "whenever dies" card we may have active. I'll go into detail with these in "Combo Abusers"

The following combos utilize Yawgmoth, Thran Physician as a sac outlet who only goes infinite if we can offset his life cost

Yawgmoth, Thran Physician + Kitchen Finks + Good-Fortune Unicorn

Replace Good-Fortune Unicorn with

The above combos will allow us to draw our deck as well as rid the board of our opponents' creatures.

Yawgmoth, Thran Physician + Blood Artist + Puppeteer Clique + Good-Fortune Unicorn

Replace Good-Fortune Unicorn with

Replace Puppeteer Clique with

Woodfall Primus

Yawgmoth, Thran Physician + Blood Artist + Young Wolf + Butcher Ghoul

Replace Young Wolf OR Butcher Ghoul with

Geralf's Messenger

The above combos require Blood Artist to offset Yawgmoth's cost of life. If our opponents have less life than we have cards in our library, we just win. Otherwise we reap the same benefits as the Yawgmoth + Finks combos and will need to replace Yawgmoth with another sac outlet to win without decking ourselves. However in my experience, blowing up everyone's lands with Woodfall Primus usually ends the game right there.

Infinite Damage

The following combos will result in infinite damage, winning the game on the spot.

Ghave's Messenger

Ghave, Guru of Spores + Ashnod's Altar + Geralf's Messenger

Replace Ashnod's Altar with

Phyrexian Altar

Unhallowed Ballista

Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Walking Ballista + Ashnod's Altar

Replace Ashnod's Altar with

Add Blasting Station to any infinite tokens combo or use it as the sac outlet in any infinite death triggers combo.

Add Walking Ballista to any infinite mana combo.

Combo Abusers

Included in this list are cards that take advantage of our many combos. We reap different benefits depending on which combo we have going.

Infinite Mana Combo

Dump all our mana into Walking Ballista for infinite damage.

Infinite Tokens Combo

The following cards can take advantage of having infinite tokens available

Mentor of the Meek/Skullclamp/Generous Patron = infinite draw if the token combo also yields infinite mana
Aura Shards = remove all artifacts and enchantments from boards that are not ours.

Infinite Death Triggers Combo

We can do different things depending on what persist creature and which sacrifice outlet we choose to use

Persist:

Kitchen Finks = Infinite Life
Puppeteer Clique = Steal all creatures from all graveyards
Woodfall Primus = Destroy all noncreature permanents

Sac Outlet:

Viscera Seer = Filter the library
Ashnod's Altar = Infinite colorless mana
Phyrexian Altar = Infinite colored mana
Carrion Feeder = / Carrion Feeder
Blasting Station = Infinite Damage
Altar of Dementia = Mill all opponents

Passive Effects

We can also utilize our passive effects no matter which persist creature and sac outlet we choose.

Grave Pact = Everyone but us sacrifices everything
Blood Artist/Corpse Knight = Infinite life drain

ETB Effects

Using our infinite recursion combo, we can abuse any enter the battlefield (or leave the battlefield) effects. With this we can use:

Eternal Witness = return all cards in the graveyard to our hand
Knight of Autumn = Destroy all artifacts and enchantments and/or gain infinite life

You can also get creative with this one and use other ETB effects you have at your disposal.

Win Cons

Making all these combos is fun, and we can certainly change the boardstate to our advantage, but the eventual goal is to win. Here are the win cons available to us.

Blasting Station with infinite tokens or death triggers
Walking Ballista with infinite mana
Blood Artist with infinite death triggers. This includes infinite tokens with Ghave.
Corpse Knight with infinite ETB triggers. This extends past the need for a sac outlet and works with combos that turn mana into tokens.
Altar of Dementia with any infinite sac loop. Just not when there's a Laboratory Maniac in play.
Any infinite damage combo previously listed
Swing with infinity / creatures

The Incredible Hulk

These are the most common ways we'll win a game, however we have a trump card lying in wait. It is our fastest route to victory but also great for when you're in a pinch. All we need to do is cheat out Protean Hulk who can fetch us a game winning combo if we sacrifice him. Pattern of Rebirth and Natural Order are our most efficient methods of bringing out the Hulk. Here's how this one works:

Sacrifice Protean Hulk. Grab Karmic Guide and Viscera Seer (or any other 1-drop you like if you used Seer to sac Hulk in the first place). Karmic Guide brings back Protean Hulk.
Sac Hulk to Seer and grab Saffi Eriksdotter, Blood Artist/Corpse Knight, and Grand Abolisher.
Sac Saffi Eriksdotter with her ability, targeting Karmic Guide. Sac Karmic to Seer who then comes back thanks to Saffi and brings back Hulk.
Sac Hulk again and grab Reveillark who is needed to keep a recursion combo going to bring back Protean Hulk continuously. With an infinite recursion combo on the field (Karmic Guide + Saffi Eriksdotter + Reveillark +Viscera Seer) along with Blood Artist/Corpse Knight, we win on the spot. However if you don't feel like going straight for the win, you can use this combo to tutor any creatures you want from the deck thanks to Hulk.