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Ghave, Guru of Spores

Legendary Creature — Fungus Shaman

Ghave enters with five +1/+1 counters on it.
{1}, Remove a +1/+1 counter from a creature you control: Create a 1/1 green Saproling creature token.
{1}, Sacrifice a creature: Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature.

CMC
5
Mana cost
{2}{W}{B}{G}
Color identity
BGW
Rarity
mythic
Set
Double Masters 2022
Price
$1.16
EDHREC rank
#9272
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Ghave, Guru of Spores card art
Ghave, Guru of Spores is a five-mana engine that converts mana into tokens and tokens into +1/+1 counters on demand, all on a 0/0 body that enters with five counters and immediately threatens to snowball. Pair it with Doubling Season and the whole operation becomes grotesque — every counter placed is two, every token made is two, and the math spirals out of control within a single turn cycle.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern not legal
pioneer not legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Ghave, Guru of Spores is built for Commander and rarely shows up anywhere else. As a commander it sits at the center of an Abzan shell that can pursue at least three distinct game plans — token swarm, +1/+1 counter synergies, or an infinite-mana combo finish — giving it unusual resilience against hate. In Legacy and Vintage it's technically legal but costs five mana to cast a 0/0, which is a non-starter in formats where the game is often decided by turn two. Oathbreaker is the one other format where it could see play, though the compressed game length slightly diminishes the payoff of its slow-but-compounding activated abilities.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$1.16 cheap tier

At $1.16, Ghave, Guru of Spores is firmly in bulk-rare territory despite being one of the more combo-dense commanders in Abzan. That price is unlikely to climb significantly given multiple printings, but it means there's essentially no barrier to picking one up.

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Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.