Midnight (in the) Guard’n of Gond and Evil

Pauper Budget Elves Pauper RGW (Naya) Tap/Untap

Balaam__

Creature (20)

• 4x Arbor Elf
• 4x Llanowar Elves
• 4x Midnight Guard
• 4x Priest of Titania
• 4x Skyshroud Elf

Instant (4)

• 4x Fog

Land (17)

• 2x Blossoming Sands
• 11x Forest
• 4x Wind-Scarred Crag

Sorcery (7)

• 4x Fireball
• 3x Revive

Enchantment (8)

• 4x Presence of Gond
• 4x Utopia Sprawl

Artifact (4)

• 4x Lotus Petal

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Sideboard

Instant (8)

• 4x Evolution Charm
• 4x Nature's Claim

Enchantment (4)

• 4x Lignify

Sorcery (3)

• 3x Adventure Awaits

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Maybeboard

Instant (5)

• 1x First Day of Class
• 4x Undergrowth

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Impact Tremors

Artifact (4)

• 4x Ashnod's Altar

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Note: A couple cards are somewhat pricey (by usual Pauper standards), but the expense can be slightly mitigated by either selecting a particular version of a card or else substitution. Lotus Petal can be switched for 4 more lands, and Priest of Titania can be exchanged for Ashnod's Altar (a less expensive, though still slightly pricey card). It creates some drag in the streamlined efficiency of the deck, but it’s still playable.

The Mana Base

Owing to the fact we have burgeoning extra-landular mana generation, the land types and counts are super simple.

•The Forest, home to our elvish population, represents the bulk of the mana base.

•Wind-Scarred Crag adds that sprinkle of both and that we’ll need later on.

•Blossoming Sands, like the aforementioned card, adds that dash of garnished with a bonus point of life.

Post Land Mana Sources

•Lotus Petal is a fire and forget it method at conjuring mana out of thin air.

•Utopia Sprawl is a perfect fit. A versatile card that will help ramp early if you label it , or perhaps enable the finishing blow to be cast if or is a more appropriate choice.

•Arbor Elf, Llanowar Elves, Priest of Titania and Skyshroud Elf are friends to handicapped individuals everywhere. When ramp is required, look no further. I find it fascinating how Wizards managed to find subtly unique yet markedly different approaches to reach the same end result of mana generation. Arbor Elf will let you tap the same Forest twice; Llanowar Elves masquerades as a Forest itself; Priest of Titania symbolizes the strong bonds between and its iconic creature type; Skyshroud Elf transmutes a mana of one type into either or .

“I’ve always been a stall man.”

(Kramer does double take)

•Fog is perfect in the early turns to buy time and preserve our boardstate while we work on setting up the combo engine.

So about that deck title

The namesake combo is well known, but bear in mind the individual cards it’s comprised of both came out during my two decade hiatus from this wonderful game. When I stumbled upon it it was very much new to me. Let’s recap how it works and what we’re going to do with it.

•Midnight Guard is a stereotypical white human soldier creature, a 2/3 for . He’d be blah if it weren’t for a particular characteristic—whenever a creature enters the battlefield, he untaps. If only there were a way to make that profitable; some way to have that action actually do something...

•Enter Presence of Gond. This enchantment will grant our soldier the ability to sire offspring by tapping (dat booty). And since a newborn 1/1 creature entered the battlefield, Midnight Guard now untaps. This is the core combo and can be repeated indefinitely.

Midnight Confessions

The deck boasts two main ways to close out the game. The first is through overwhelming the opponent by creating an impossibly large horde of 1/1 tokens, courtesy of Midnight Guard + Presence of Gond .

The second path to victory involves two more combo pieces.

•Priest of Titania is now suddenly relevant again. Use her ability to turn each of those 1/1 elf tokens into a ridiculous amount of .

•Take that Olympic sized pool of mana you’ve just created and dump it into Fireball to incinerate the opponent on the spot.

TL;DR

•Ramp early into casting Midnight Guard + Presence of Gond and generate a plethora of 1/1 elf tokens

•Overwhelm the opponent with said tokens, or use Priest of Titania to turn them all into , channeling it into Fireball for the win

The Sideboard

•Nature's Claim for artifact/enchantment removal. The incidental life gain is irrelevant once we bring our combo online. Alternatively, destroy one of our own enchantments in an emergency to gain 4 life.

•Lignify as faux creature removal.

•Evolution Charm as a sort of ‘toolbox for the moment’.

•Adventure Awaits for draw power.

”But he said: “Do not be afraid, for there are more who are with us than those who are with them.””

Top Ranked	Achieved #21 position overall 3 years ago Achieved #6 position in Pauper 3 years ago Achieved #1 position in Pauper Pauper 3 years ago Achieved #1 position in Pauper Tap/Untap 3 years ago
Date added	3 years
Last updated	2 years
Key combos	Midnight Guard + Presence of Gond
Legality	This deck is Pauper legal.
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	1.53
Tokens	Elf Warrior 1/1 G
Folders	Pauper, Interesting Decks, Pauper Decks, funny decks, .Pauper