Remember that pre-2020-rotation Bant Gyruda deck that briefly broke MTGA for a couple days? Gyruda faded into relative obscurity after the much-needed nerf to the Companion mechanic, while Lurrus- and to a lesser extent, Jegantha and Obosh- stole the spotlight. I have always had a soft spot for Gyruda, however, and I really wanted to unleash his full potential while avoiding the orthodox approach of running tons of creatures (I'm looking at you, Thassa). At the same time, I wanted to try utilizing some of the less popular yet extremely interesting uncommon cards from Core Set 2021. Experimental Overload and Kinetic Augur both have even mana values, and they both benefit from self-mill. Thus, Gyruda began his career in mad science.
The deck is straightforward in its game plan. Our goal in the early turns is simply to keep our opponent's field as clear as possible while also filling the grave with Instants and Sorceries to solidify devastating Experimental Overload plays later on. We do this with the numerous 2-mana removal spells and aggressively cheap counter spells at the deck's disposal. Once we get to turn 4, then we're usually good to go. By turn 6, Gyruda is live, and victory becomes all but guaranteed. (NOTE: I was previously running some copies of Akoum Warrior
as secondary Gyruda targets and backup lands, but I recently cut them in favor of more removal. Tests are still ongoing.)
The release of Strixhaven improved this deck's speed and consistency greatly with the (for this deck) hugely vital Expressive Iteration. Assuming that we have not yet played our land for the turn (meaning that we need to cast it after Turn 2), and that we don't get unlucky, we will usually be using Expressive Iteration as a 2-mana Divination. We add the best of the three cards to our hand, bottom the least important one, and exile a land (which we can then play as our land for the turn). I wanted to mention this because this kind of tailored card drawing power was not available to this deck previously, and its win rate has skyrocketed since Strixhaven, albeit not quite to the level that I was hoping for.
I would really appreciate feedback and suggestions for this deck, since it is not without its share of tribulations. Cheap creatures which can buff themselves (or others) out of danger from Scorching Dragonfire and early-game Blitz of the Thunder-Raptor are a serious issue: I have lost more games to Selfless Savior followed up with Luminarch Aspirant than I would care to admit. Decks that thrive off of removal-heavy plays are even more difficult to deal with. Mono-Black Pests has proven to be tough to deal with, thanks in large part to Bastion of Remembrance. This deck simply does not have a way to deal with that card, especially early on. Those are just some examples of the poor matchups that this deck struggles with. That said, this deck is a ton of fun to pilot, and often does quite well. Spending 4 mana on an Experimental Overload to get (typically) a 9/9 Weird and recycle a Blitz- or Frantic Inventory, if you need the draws- always feels so good.
What do you all think? Please let me know!
