I have played Ghave since he was released and he is one of my favorite and most powerful commander decks. The reason for this is all of the redundancy you can build into the deck. I used to run grave pact and aura shards but I have since gotten rid of almost everything that isn't part of a combo or a way to tutor for a piece of a combo. This forces my opponent(s) to have answers for multiple cards and they generally spend more time trying to stop me than building their own board state.
T1. Land -> utopia Mycon
T2. Land -> sol ring -> Ashnods Altar
T3. Land -> Academy Rector
T4. Sac rector to make 2 mana with altar, get doubling season with rector death trigger. Remove 3 counters from mycon to make 2 saprolings. Cast scatter the seeds using the 2 floating mana, tapping Mycon and the other 2 saprolings to get 6 tokens instead of 3. Sac 3 tokens to mycon for GWB and another to ashnods for 2 colorless to cast Ghave. He comes in with 10 counters. Sac the one of the two remaining saprolings for 2 colorless and you can go infinite with Ghave. Toss in any of your win-cons (or a draw engine like carnage altar, fungal plots or Psychotrope Thallid to draw into a win-con) and you've killed everyone on turn 4.
Granted this is magical Christmas land as you need the perfect hand and draw but I have done it a few times. And when you toss in Vampiric Tutor, Demonic Tutor, Worldly Tutor, Enlightened Tutor, Idyllic Tutor, Eladamri's Call and Diabolic Intent you can often assemble this on turn 5 or 6 which is still generally good enough to get there. And if they disrupt your combo you still have a ton of redundant pieces to fill in the gaps.
Unfortunately, like almost all commanders, to be as competitive as Ghave can be you will have to splurge for a few cards but he can still be a super fun commander to build around and play with even without cards like Academy Rector. Hope this gives you some ideas but it looks like you are off to a great start anyways.
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A must run for you is Doubling Season. It is a little pricey but Ghave, guru of spores, ashnod's altar and doubling season = infinite mana and infinite infinitely large tokens with just three cards. Having zulaport cutthroat, slimefoot, the stowaway, blood artist, Walking Ballista or blasting station in play means you don't even have to attack. Utopia Mycon is a must have and if you can swing it i would recommend phyrexian altar as well. I have tried Altar of Dementia and Altar of the Brood but my play group runs a lot of eldrazi so milling them out isn't a viable strategy for me. It might be for you depending on your play groups use of Eldrazi.
To increase redundancy I would run Cathars' crusade, Parallel Lives, Hardened Scales, Primal Vigor Anointed procession, Bloodspore Thrinax, Corpsejack menace, Juniper Order Ranger, Winding Constrictor, Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest and Crystalline Crawler.
I know it's probably a stretch as it's not a budget card by any means but Academy rector lets you combo off on turn 4 if you have utopia mycon, sol ring, ashnod's altar and academy rector in play with Scatter The Seeds in hand.
T1. Land -> utopia Mycon
T2. Land -> sol ring -> Ashnods Altar
T3. Land -> Academy Rector
T4. Sac rector to make 2 mana with altar, get doubling season with rector death trigger. Remove 3 counters from mycon to make 2 saprolings. Cast scatter the seeds using the 2 floating mana, tapping Mycon and the other 2 saprolings to get 6 tokens instead of 3. Sac 3 tokens to mycon for GWB and another to ashnods for 2 colorless to cast Ghave. He comes in with 10 counters. Sac the one of the two remaining saprolings for 2 colorless and you can go infinite with Ghave. Toss in any of your win-cons (or a draw engine like carnage altar, fungal plots or Psychotrope Thallid to draw into a win-con) and you've killed everyone on turn 4.
Granted this is magical Christmas land as you need the perfect hand and draw but I have done it a few times. And when you toss in Vampiric Tutor, Demonic Tutor, Worldly Tutor, Enlightened Tutor, Idyllic Tutor, Eladamri's Call and Diabolic Intent you can often assemble this on turn 5 or 6 which is still generally good enough to get there. And if they disrupt your combo you still have a ton of redundant pieces to fill in the gaps.
I do run some disruption my self like vindicate, Anguished Unmaking, Utter End and Maelstrom Pulse. Hour of Reckoning is also a great sweeper in a token based deck.
I also recommend Forgotten Ancient, Twilight Drover, Reyhan, Last of the Abzan, Vigor and Woodfall Primus.
Unfortunately, like almost all commanders, to be as competitive as Ghave can be you will have to splurge for a few cards but he can still be a super fun commander to build around and play with even without cards like Academy Rector. Hope this gives you some ideas but it looks like you are off to a great start anyways.