Carny Ghave's Carousel of Souls [Creature Storm]

Commander / EDH* BGW (Abzan, Junk)

goldlion

Land (33)

• 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 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Tutor (6)

• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Dimir Machinations
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Idyllic Tutor
• 1x Vampiric Tutor
• 1x Worldly Tutor

Carnival Carousel (3)

• 1x Aluren
• 1x Athreos, God of Passage
• 1x Carnival of Souls

Protection (3)

• 1x Imp's Mischief
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Saffi Eriksdotter

Mana (17)

• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Avacyn's Pilgrim
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Blightsoil Druid
• 1x Blood Celebrant
• 1x Bloom Tender
• 1x Carnival of Souls
• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Crop Rotation
• 1x Elves of Deep Shadow
• 1x Golgari Signet
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Saruli Caretaker
• 1x Selesnya Signet
• 1x Sol Ring

Card Advantage (8)

• 1x Ad Nauseam
• 1x Dark Prophecy
• 1x Grim Haruspex
• 1x Midnight Reaper
• 1x Night's Whisper
• 1x Shadows of the Past
• 1x Smothering Abomination
• 1x Viscera Seer

Recursion (6)

• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Monk Idealist
• 1x No Rest for the Wicked
• 1x Rally the Ancestors
• 1x Regrowth
• 1x Riftsweeper

Finisher (5)

• 1x Bitter Ordeal
• 1x Champion of Lambholt
• 1x Crypt Rats
• 1x Flesh Allergy
• 1x Mogis's Marauder

Haste (3)

• 1x Concordant Crossroads
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Mogis's Marauder

Commander (1)

Other (11)

• 1x Aviary Mechanic
• 1x Cadaver Imp
• 1x Caller of the Claw
• 1x Containment Priest
• 1x Faith Healer
• 1x Gravecrawler
• 1x Odunos River Trawler
• 1x Temporal Extortion
• 1x Teysa Karlov *f-pre*
• 1x Torgaar, Famine Incarnate
• 1x Tree of Perdition

Removal (7)

• 1x Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim
• 1x Dictate of Erebos
• 1x Dismember
• 1x Field of Ruin
• 1x Karlov of the Ghost Council
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Torment of Hailfire

Thespians (6)

• 1x Children of Korlis
• 1x Deathgreeter
• 1x Dross Harvester
• 1x Essence Warden
• 1x Soul Warden
• 1x Soul's Attendant

Fuel (3)

• 1x Blade of the Bloodchief
• 1x Champion of Lambholt
• 1x Karlov of the Ghost Council

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Sideboard

Other (27)

• 1x Ashen-Skin Zubera
• 1x Auramancer
• 1x Azusa, Lost but Seeking
• 1x Benevolent Bodyguard
• 1x Blood Pet
• 1x Carrier Thrall
• 1x Caustic Caterpillar
• 1x Cryptolith Rite
• 1x Death Denied
• 1x Earthcraft
• 1x Field of Souls
• 1x Filigree Familiar
• 1x Gleancrawler
• 1x Guardian Project
• 1x Hangarback Walker
• 1x Mana Tithe
• 1x Moment's Peace
• 1x Palladium Myr
• 1x Proclamation of Rebirth
• 1x Recycle
• 1x Replenish
• 1x Restoration Specialist
• 1x Rout
• 1x Sadistic Glee
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Stonecloaker
• 1x Stoneforge Mystic

Card Advantage (3)

• 1x Mirri's Guile
• 1x Path of Discovery
• 1x Priest of Forgotten Gods

Mana (2)

• 1x Path of Discovery
• 1x Priest of Forgotten Gods

Tutor (2)

• 1x Eldritch Evolution
• 1x Shred Memory

Fuel (1)

• 1x Path of Discovery

Thespians (3)

• 1x Death Cultist
• 1x Kitchen Finks
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat

Recursion (2)

• 1x Phyrexian Reclamation
• 1x Reclaim

Finisher (1)

• 1x Aetherflux Reservoir

Removal (1)

• 1x Return to Dust

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Maybeboard

Other (29)

• 1x Alloy Myr
• 1x Arashin Cleric
• 1x Augur of Skulls
• 1x Auratog
• 2x Aven Mindcensor
• 1x Azorius Arrester
• 1x Basal Thrull
• 1x Batwing Brume
• 1x Beast Whisperer
• 1x Black Cat
• 1x Blood Operative
• 1x Blood Vassal
• 1x Bog Initiate
• 1x Brindle Boar
• 1x Brindle Shoat
• 1x Cartographer
• 1x Emrakul's Evangel
• 1x Final Payment
• 1x Garza's Assassin
• 1x Krav, the Unredeemed
• 1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• 1x Morality Shift
• 1x Oketra's Monument
• 1x Phyrexian Dreadnought
• 1x Sanguine Sacrament
• 1x Sylvan Ranger
• 1x Utter End
• 1x Yawgmoth's Will

Removal (9)

• 1x Assassin's Trophy
• 1x Attrition
• 1x Big Game Hunter
• 1x Glare of Subdual
• 1x Orc Sureshot
• 1x Scavenging Ooze
• 1x Slaughter
• 1x Suffer the Past
• 1x Teysa, Orzhov Scion

Fuel (6)

• 1x Ajani's Pridemate
• 1x Butcher Ghoul
• 1x Geralf's Messenger
• 1x Mortician Beetle
• 1x Nether Traitor
• 1x Young Wolf

Card Advantage (5)

• 1x Dark Confidant
• 1x Minions' Murmurs
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Spellbook
• 1x Sylvan Library

Recursion (3)

• 1x Argivian Find
• 1x Immortal Servitude
• 1x Pull from Eternity

Thespian (2)

• 1x Augur il-Vec
• 1x Aven Riftwatcher

Carnival Carousel (1)

• 1x Enduring Renewal

Finisher (8)

• 1x Blasting Station
• 1x Exquisite Blood
• 1x Exsanguinate
• 1x Geralf's Messenger
• 1x Nether Traitor
• 1x Sanguine Bond
• 1x Suffer the Past
• 1x Vizkopa Guildmage

Mana (7)

• 1x Culling the Weak
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Devoted Druid
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Orzhov Signet
• 1x Songs of the Damned
• 1x Upwelling

Tutor (5)

• 1x Eladamri's Call
• 1x Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero
• 1x Open the Armory
• 1x Pattern of Rebirth
• 1x Steelshaper's Gift

Protection (2)

• 1x Eight-and-a-Half-Tails
• 1x Grand Abolisher

Thespians (2)

• 1x Ajani's Welcome
• 1x Geralf's Messenger

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Carny Ghave's Carousel of Souls

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Note: The write-up needs an update as I've changed this deck around. Mostly applicable though :).

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Flavour Fun

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Background and breaking Carnival of Souls

I originally built my mid-level Ghave version, "Lord of Leaches" deck to play with the 1 life gain/1 life loss strategy and abuse Carnival of Souls . Ghave was perfect for this as he can keep turn +1/+1 counters in saprolings, which then can trigger a from Carnival and +1/+1 counters (on Ivy Lane Denizen type cards), to be turned into creatures again. Essence Warden cards (soulcats) keep your life stabalized and combine this with Phyrexian Altar and Blood Artist s and you're off to the races.

I was very aware of all the power cards I could use, "typicals" such as the altars, Cathars' Crusade things, etc. but it wasn't appropriate for my meta and I wanted to build something a little more unique, with some character and flavour... However I started making a side list for the more competitive version as I still wanted to explore that. That list has become what you see here, and I feel it has a lot of potential.

Shortly after posting the Lord of Leaches deck, it was shared by Hamroids in forum thread made by Mj3913 who was calling out to the community for ways to break Carnival of Souls . I soon joined the discussion with these two as well as Joe_Ken_, ClockworkSwordfish, Cloudius, bushido_man96, SMASHER101 and seshiro_of_the_orochi.

Some fantastic ideas were thrown around, some of which I incorporated into here, most notably Aluren offered up by bushido_man96. I already new I was going to add Athreos, God of Passage and immediately saw some incredible potential between the two. This combo has become the second greatest focal point in the deck, after Carnival of Souls .

So, this is the the attempt at an Abzan

I believe this can be a very competitive build as it has a low average cmc, easy-to-grab-and-cast combo pieces that could burn through my deck, and many different options for winning all at once.

So, let's see what we can do with it!

The Carousel

Aluren and Athreos, God of Passage are The Carousel, our favourite ride at the carnival and our primary combo. The idea is that our 3 and less cost creatures will be going around and around on the carousel, battlefield to graveyard to hand to battlefield. With Carnival of Souls (the original inspiration) we are producing a large amount of for our finishers.

We've got some recursion in here to help if The Carousel is off to a slow start, and some ways to take our an opponents life total down low enough for them to allow Athreos to send creatures back to our hand.

Carousel Tricks

• Eternal Witness running through The Carousel with Temporal Extortion !!! All the creatures dying to altars and coming back to etb Carnival of Souls will be producing enough symbol:s to keep playing it for extra turns... Which, by that point, we may not really need. However, it's a great early card that takes someone's life total down or gets us the extra turn to get things rolling. I think this one's a keeper.

• Dark Prophecy , Smothering Abomination or Midnight Reaper and all the low cmc creatures in here running through the the carousel (of creatures dying and being brought back) spin round'n'round as we fill the battlefield and produce for a finisher. If we can't get the carousel spinning, Ghave can still get our little carnies working for us to get that mana produced. Reprocess for a one off card draw that'll cycle creatures through the Aluren / Athreos, God of Passage carousel. I've included

• Faith Healer , not just to sac any part of the Carnival Carousel that has an exile attempt made on it, but also to sac Dark Prophecy if I have everything I need and don't want to draw myself to death.

• Path of Discovery with the card draw triggers could ramp big while getting the land out of the way so you can draw the creatures. I took it out however cause of its cmc, and someone had to go.

• Infinite mana, not just with Carnival of Souls , but with any mana dork and a haste enabler.

• Cadavar Imp is a little all-star in here. Once the Carousel starts spinning, he gets you all the creatures from the yard to then free-cast.

• Aetherflux Reservoir ... Read it's print slow keeping in mind that Aluren allows us to cast those creatures brought back by Athreos, God of Passage . It's one of the ultimate storm cards and gives us life + another win-con.

• Children of Korlis would be an incredible lifegain trigger when the carousel is running with carnival out.

• Bitter Ordeal ... ummmmm... Potentially a mill or at least remove all the power cards from your opponents decks.

• This is more of a Aluren trick, but you can play Necrologia at the end of your turn and cast all the creature spells you draw before you have to discard.

• Ashen-Skin Zubera could cause opponents to discard their hands

• Insert your tricks here _, knowing that the wording of Aluren means we can trigger "whenever you cast a creature spell". Too bad Beast Whisperer wasn't 3 cost... Might still be a worthy include.

Assembling the Carousel and keeping it running

If you have either Aluren or Athreos in your hand, you just need to search for the other, play Aluren, then you can begin the combo (Athreos will be free). With Aluren out and other specific combo pieces on the board, Weird Harvest could be cast pulling as many 3 and under cmc as we can pay for (see Carnival of Souls ) into our hand so we can then dump them on the field. By this point, opponents grabbing creatures as well wont matter. It's too late for them now.

The key for making it work is one of your opponents must be at a very low life total, so cards like Drain Life , Wall of Limbs , Tree of Perdition , Torgaar, Famine Incarnate , etc. can all help with that.

Pull from Eternity & Riftsweeper to get Athreos back.

Netherborn Phalanx can either be used to punish other token decks or search for Athreos

Pattern of Rebirth is great in Ghave as a (affordable) tutor, as is Diabolical Intent.

Idyllic Tutor can get us Aluren

The Carnival Carnival of Souls is a card that is terrible in most situations, but so powerful in the right ones. I've not seen much done with it but after seeing it when I already had a vampiric style ghave build in motion, I fell in love. Ghave, Guru of Spores uses 1 mana to turn a counter into a saproling creauture. With something like Ivy Lane Denizen out, every saproling creates a counter to fuel another saproling - all you need is another to do it again. Enter Carnival of Souls .

To make Carnival of Souls workable, we need a suite of creature etb lifegain cards. I'd say we want 3-4 in here minimum? Soulcats such as Auriok Champion , Soul Warden , Essence Warden , Soul's Attendant . Ajani's Welcome works as well, but I think creature synergy is key here. The focus should probably be on gaining 1 life when ANY creature enters the battlefield with the reasoning being that other peoples creatures etbing trigger Carnival and token decks are a thing. This doesn't necessarily rule out Suture Priest , but he should probably be a bonus add.

Carnival of Souls and the many creature etb's we can make happen here mean we could have loads of swamp mana at our disposal. Which brings us to our Wincons.

Idyllic Tutor can get us the carnival.

Black Market can be an alternate to Carnival of Souls as it's the next best thing, creating to be used at the start of the next turn.

Slaughter becomes an infinite creature removal if we have two Thespians in effect - it's a 4 cost instant with 4 life buyback.

Attrition allows the carousel entry to pay for a sac/removal

Thespians

This is the list of SoulCats and Blood Artists that keep us alive while the Carousel is spinning and the Carnival is in full effect:

Categories

While most of the categories are probably self explanatory, here's a little break down where it might not be so obvious.

Fuel

This is dedicated to the cards the fuel Ghave, Guru of Spores , providing him counters or creatures through passive abilities. Blade of the Bloodchief gives counters whenever a creature dies while Champion of Lambholt provides counters when one ETBs. I included Ajani's pridemate as there aren't many other creatures 3cmc or under who provide these passive counters. I'd love a couple more in here, but the best are 5cmc.

Thespians

This category is dedicated to those who either will give life to me through ETBs (enters and exits), or take life from the opponents. I got the name from the "SoulCats" ( Soul Warden , Soul's Attendant , Essence Warden ) and the "BloodArtists" ( Blood Artist , Zulaport Cutthroat ) as they are both artsy-fartsy. I've included Death Greeter, Kitchen Finks and Geralf's Messenger .

Card Advantage

These includes cards that allow me to scry, such as Viscera Seer and Path of Discovery .

Finishers

These include cards that could take out one opponent, or all. Carnival of Souls and the many creature etb's we can make happen here mean we could have loads of swamp mana at our disposal.

The options are: Exsanguinate , Life Drain, Debt to the Deathless , Bond of Agony , Torment of Hailfire , Killing Wave . Blood Artist abilities and Aetherflux Resevoir could also work. Crypt Rats is another swamp option and might be usable as we'll likely have more life than our opponents. Worst case, it'll boardwipe them but not us if we have the Carousel combo out (Athreos is indestructible).

The Sanguine Bond and Exquisite Blood cards can work well in conjunction with nearly all of the deck. I think if we were take one out, I'd likely leave Exquisite Blood to interact with Vizkopa Guildmage

Fun optional game enders include Kitchen Finks and Geralf's Messenger when supported by the abilities of Ghave, Guru of Spores .

Other Cards and Ideas

Fueling Ghave

Ghave can be fueled by Ajani's Pridemate , Ivy Lane Denizen , Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest Wall of Limbs , Karlov of the Ghost Council , Blade of the Bloodchief , Sadistic Glee . It's easy to go infinite with him and Ashnod's Altar . Phyrexian Altar isn't usually as good as it just produces 1 coloured mana, however with Carnival of Souls out, we're effectively producing 2, which means infinite mana of any colour we choose. Utopia Myco and Ghave's saprolings can act as another Phyrexian Altar , but probably aren't strong enough in here as we will mainly be looking at getting The Carousel running.

Open the Armory can find the Blade of the blood chief and Sadistic Glee and the protection auras/equipment. Steelshaper's Gift can help get the equipment and Idyllic Tutor could get the aura plus other enchantments.

Thoughts and Ideas

• Definitely worth running the Urborg/Cabal combos, I'd say. I included Crop Rotation , Expedition Map , Reap and Sow (which also removes troublesome lands)

• Nether Traitor strikes me as something that might be really fun with Carnival of Souls . I think these two cards might be made for each other.

• We definitely need enchantment recursion, so thank the magic gods we have white in this deck. Argivian Find is in here. What else could we use?

• Both Oketra's Monument and Bontu's Monument might be worth it as they'd do some heavy work with the carousel combo out as, while the creatures are free with Aluren , they are still "cast". Rhonas's Monument with the carousel combo going would allow us to trample someone to death... Not sure if these fit the competitive criteria though and by the time they are doing work, they are probably just "win-more".

• My meta allows for one banned card... in here, it would DEFINITELY be Channel . However, I probably wont be playing this in my current meta and you guys probably wouldn't be allowed to use it, soo...

• Both Orc Sureshot and Death Match could do some serious removal work. Dictate of Erebos could help out here as well.

• With the accessibility of both Blade of the Bloodchief and Sadistic Glee , we can get into some tricks with both Hangarback Walker or Walking Ballista . They could synergize with Athreos as free play/dies at instant speed with Aluren , or just free plays and immediate dies to trigger Athreos and Carnival of Souls in a cycle (if someone is low enough life). Or, in conjunction with Carnival of Souls and an altar, we might be able to do some interesting things, especially if we include some Juniper Order Ranger or Cathars' Crusade type effects.

• With some big cycles going on the carousel, maybe Torgaar, Famine Incarnate could be helpful for getting someone into range of allowing Athreos' triggers put the creatures in your hand. You can sac creatures to play him cheap multiple times to bring each opponent down to 20, and if Carnival of Souls is out but no life gain, he can keep bringing you back UP to 20... Tree of Perdition can also bring somebody in range of being ok with the Athreos trigger.

• We probably want a Spellbook or something to double up with Reliquary Tower to make sure we can keep all the cards we will be drawing.

• Shared Trauma could be a way to assemble some combo pieces while setting players back... But we need the right cards in our hand and on the battlefield already. Tricky.

• Sanguine Sacrament & Suffer the Past both can keep you from killing yourself through continual Carnival of Souls triggers. Perhaps Sanguine Sacrament could be a way to not mill yourself, dependent on Phyrexian Altar to make , just keep casting it to gain life in response to having to draw a card... far fetched?

• Faith Healer keeps you from drawing yourself to death to fecundity and Dark Prophecy

• Insidious Dreams let's you get the key cards on top of your library at instant speed before draw triggers, and ditch creatures to your graveyard that you can recur if you make one of the tutored cards one of the mass recursions.

Date added	5 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	8 - 0 Mythic Rares 52 - 16 Rares 19 - 9 Uncommons 20 - 14 Commons
Cards	106
Avg. CMC	2.29
Tokens	Bear 2/2 G, Eldrazi Scion 1/1 C, Morph 2/2 C, Saproling 1/1 G, Spirit 1/1 W, Thopter 1/1 C