Playing Pauper: Midnight Gond Combo

Playing Pauper is back! Last week, we had an Instant Deck Tech for Midnight Gond Combo, a Pauper deck that's looking to go infinite in a bunch of different ways. Today, we're going to jump into a Pauper league and see if it's actually possible to win with the crazy concoction. While the most common combo of the deck is pretty straightforward—putting a Presence of Gond on a Midnight Guard to make infinite tokens—we can also go infinite with Sprout Swarm and, with a bit of luck, gain infinite life with Soul Warden or Soul's Attendant, and maybe even deal infinite damage with Thermo-Alchemist. How many of these combos can we pull off? Can the deck actually compete? Let's get to the video and find out; then, we'll talk more about the deck!

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Playing Pauper: Midnight Gond Combo

Discussion

• Apparently, Midnight Gond Combo is a lot less janky than it looks on paper! We finished our league with a 4-1 record and just barely missed going 5-0 after losing a tough three-game fifth match against Inside Out Combo, where we probably could have sideboarded better. 
• While we did win some games by going infinite with Midnight Guard and Presence of Gond, I vastly underrated the backup way for the deck to go infinite during our Instant Deck Tech. If we can get any four of Midnight Guard, Nettle Sentinel, and Thermo-Alchemist on the battlefield along with a Sprout Swarm in hand, we also have the ability to make infinite 1/1 tokens by tapping all of our creatures to convoke and buy back Sprout Swarm, which then untaps all of our creatures, allowing us to tap them all (and the 1/1 token) to do it again and again and again. If we have five "untap" creatures, we can generate infinite damage with Thermo-Alchemist as well by pinging our opponent for one between the untaps. 
• Going infinite is great, but perhaps the most impressive part of the deck was its ability to grind out wins without going infinite. Even if we are only making several tokens each turn, when you combine the endless blockers with random lifegain and damage, we can beat a lot of opponents playing fairly. 
• The mana base was surprisingly good for a three-color Pauper deck. Even though our mana is challenging, we rarely had difficultly casting our spells on time. 
• Prismatic Strands is pretty awesome. Not only can it protect our combo creatures from damage-based burn spells but it also works like a Fog against decks like Elves to buy us an additional turn to find the pieces we need to go infinite.
• As far as changes I'd make to the deck, Mathonical is one of the best Pauper deck builders out there, and after cruising through the league, I'm more than happy to leave the deck as is. 
• So, should you play Midnight Gond Combo in Pauper? Surprisingly, I think the answer is yes. Heading into the our matches, I figured the deck would do cool things once in a while but would be more like an Against the Odds deck than a real, competitive option. After playing with the deck, I feel like it can actually compete with many of the best decks in the Pauper format. If you're a fan of infinite combos and looking for some new spice for Pauper, give Midnight Gond Combo a shot!

Conclusion

Anyway, that's all for today. As always, leave your thoughts, ideas, opinions, and suggestions in the comments, and you can reach me on Twitter @SaffronOlive or at SaffronOlive@MTGGoldfish.com.