Gyruda, Doom of Depths MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 11 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost6
RarityRare
TypeLegendary Creature — Demon Kraken
Abilities Companion,Mill
Power 6
Toughness 6

Key Takeaways

  1. Gyruda’s milling ability grants card advantage and disrupts opponents, enhancing board presence.
  2. Resource acceleration and potential for instant-speed plays offer tactical flexibility.
  3. Mana cost specifics and companion restrictions may limit Gyruda’s deck integration.

Text of card

Companion — Your starting deck contains only cards with even mana values. (If this card is your chosen companion, you may put it into your hand from outside the game for as a sorcery.) When Gyruda enters the battlefield, each player mills four cards. Put a creature card with an even mana value from among the milled cards onto the battlefield under your control.


Card Pros

When discussing the merits of Gyruda, Doom of Depths in your MTG deck, there are several factors that contribute to its standing as a powerful card choice. Here are some of the pros you should consider.

Card Advantage: Gyruda’s unique ability to mill both you and your opponent’s library can unearth multiple creatures, providing significant card advantage. This not only disrupts your opponent’s strategy but also fills your board with potential threats or beneficial effects from the creatures milled.

Resource Acceleration: As a Companion or a creature in play, Gyruda, Doom of Depths can effectively serve as a resource accelerator. By potentially putting an extra creature on the battlefield, it increases your board presence without spending extra mana, allowing you to allocate resources elsewhere—a substantial advantage in any game.

Instant Speed: While Gyruda itself does not operate at instant speed, the creatures it can potentially bring into play might have flash, allowing you to surprise opponents at critical moments. This synergy can significantly enhance your tactical flexibility during a game.

Integrating Gyruda into your MTG strategy, especially within decks that capitalize on graveyard play or creature-based synergies, can be a game-changer, providing multiple benefits from card advantage to surprising your opponent with instant-speed plays.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: While Gyruda, Doom of Depths offers a potentially game-swinging ability, it requires you to start the game with it as your companion, which means discarding other companion possibilities. This discard choice can constrain deck building and limit strategic diversity.

Specific Mana Cost: Gyruda’s casting cost demands an exact even-colored mana combination (four generic and two hybrid blue/black mana). This specific requirement necessitates a dedicated mana base, thus restricting its insert into a wide array of deck archetypes.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a casting cost of six mana, Gyruda may come into play later than other impactful creatures. Given this high mana investment, players often expect an immediate and significant impact on the game state, which Gyruda may not consistently provide compared to other creatures or spells with a similar cost.


Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Gyruda, Doom of Depths offers a unique role in any deck capable of leveraging both graveyard manipulation and creatures. It thrives in strategies that include reanimation or exploiting end-of-battlefield effects that many creatures present.

Combo Potential: This card’s ability to mill four cards from each player’s library can set up powerful graveyard combos, swiftly pulling giant creatures into play. It pairs exceptionally well with cards that can clone or bounce Gyruda for a recursive engine.

Meta-Relevance: As a card that checks for even-converted mana cost creatures, Gyruda remains relevant in games dominated by higher-cost creatures. Its companion mechanic also ensures that decks can consistently execute their strategies against a wide variety of opponents.


How to beat

Gyruda, Doom of Depths is a formidable force, known for its potential to swing games by milling cards and reanimating nonland permanents from among them. This ability can flip the board state in your opponent’s favor, but there are strategies to counteract Gyruda’s disruptive entry. Graveyard hate cards such as Rest in Peace and Leyline of the Void can negate the milling synergy that Gyruda relies on. Removal spells that exile, like Swords to Plowshares, are effective since they ensure Gyruda doesn’t return from the graveyard. Additionally, playing cards that limit ETB effects, such as Torpor Orb or Hushbringer, can dampen Gyruda’s impact on the game. Counterspells such as Negate are effective as well, preventing Gyruda from ever hitting the board. Stay vigilant and prepare your deck with these countermeasures; having them at the ready will help ensure Gyruda, Doom of Depths doesn’t seal your defeat.


BurnMana Recommendations

Exploring the depths of MTG strategy with Gyruda, Doom of Depths confirms it as more than just a creature card; it’s a key to unlocking powerful plays from your deck’s depths. Knowing when to wield its mill and reanimate abilities can be pivotal in your game plan. It’s crucial to recognize Gyruda’s potential to construct a win or possibly face its limitations within your deck’s framework. If building around this leviathan excites you, dive into our detailed analysis to enhance your deck’s capability and adapt your tactics against a sea of opponents. Continue your MTG journey with us and discover how to make Gyruda a cornerstone of victory.


Cards like Gyruda, Doom of Depths

Gyruda, Doom of Depths serves as a unique engine in Magic: The Gathering’s milieu of creature cards. It draws parallels with cards like Clone, which also copies creatures, yet Gyruda offers its distinctive twist with a mill component and specificity for even-CMC creatures. Conversely, Clone lacks the ability to impact the library and is more a straightforward copycat. Another analogue is Spark Double, which not only clones a creature or planeswalker but also adds a +1/+1 counter or additional loyalty. However, it still doesn’t facilitate the deck-manipulating synergy Gyruda is known for.

Examining Phantasmal Image, we recognize a card that can clone creatures at a lower cost, albeit with the downside that it’s destroyed if targeted. While cost-effective, it doesn’t provide the same level of interaction and potential for significant game swings as Gyruda. The cephalopod horror also bears resemblance to Body Double, a creature that can copy creatures from graveyards. However, Gyruda’s restriction to even-CMC creatures imbues it with a level of strategic deck building that Body Double does not necessitate.

In summary, while there are other creatures in Magic: The Gathering that mimic or even enhance creatures, Gyruda, Doom of Depths stands out through its combination of deck milling and a selective reanimation mechanic, situating it as a powerful focal point in decks built around its unique abilities.

Clone - MTG Card versions
Spark Double - MTG Card versions
Phantasmal Image - MTG Card versions
Body Double - MTG Card versions
Clone - Limited Edition Alpha (LEA)
Spark Double - War of the Spark (WAR)
Phantasmal Image - Magic 2012 (M12)
Body Double - Planar Chaos (PLC)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Gyruda, Doom of Depths MTG card by a specific set like Magic Online Promos and Magic Online Promos, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Gyruda, Doom of Depths and other MTG cards:

Continue exploring other sealed products in Amazon
See Magic products

Printings

The Gyruda, Doom of Depths Magic the Gathering card was released in 4 different sets between 2020-04-24 and 2023-04-21. Illustrated by 3 different artists.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12002-06-24Magic Online PromosPRM 809192015normalblackJesper Ejsing
22002-06-24Magic Online PromosPRM 808592015normalblackTyler Jacobson
32020-04-24Ikoria: Lair of BehemothsIKO 3842015normalborderlessJesper Ejsing
42020-04-24Ikoria: Lair of BehemothsIKO 3512015normalblackTyler Jacobson
52020-04-24Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths PromosPIKO 221s2015normalblackTyler Jacobson
62020-04-24Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths PromosPIKO 221p2015normalblackTyler Jacobson
72020-04-24Ikoria: Lair of BehemothsIKO 2212015normalblackTyler Jacobson
82023-04-21Multiverse LegendsMUL 172z2015normalborderlessSteve Ellis
92023-04-21Multiverse LegendsMUL 422015normalborderlessSteve Ellis
102023-04-21Multiverse LegendsMUL 1072015normalblackTyler Jacobson
112023-04-21Multiverse LegendsMUL 1722015normalborderlessSteve Ellis

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Gyruda, Doom of Depths has restrictions

FormatLegality
HistoricbrawlLegal
HistoricLegal
LegacyLegal
OathbreakerLegal
GladiatorLegal
PioneerLegal
CommanderLegal
ModernLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
ExplorerLegal
PennyLegal
TimelessLegal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Gyruda, Doom of Depths card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

DateText
2020-04-17 A card with mana value 0 has an even mana value.
2020-04-17 Before shuffling your deck to become your library, you may reveal one card from outside the game to be your companion if your starting deck meets the requirements of the companion ability. You can't reveal more than one. It remains revealed outside the game as the game begins.
2020-04-17 If a card in a player's graveyard has in its mana cost, X is considered to be 0.
2020-04-17 If a replacement effect causes a player to exile the top four cards of their library instead of putting them into their graveyard as Gyruda's triggered ability resolves, the creature card you choose may be one of those cards in exile.
2020-04-17 If more than one player wishes to reveal a companion, the starting player does so first, and players proceed in turn order. Once a player has chosen not to reveal a companion, that player can't change their mind.
2020-04-17 If you reveal a companion outside the game, for as long as it remains there, you may pay any time you could cast a sorcery (that is, you have priority during your main phase and the stack is empty). Once you do, you put it into your hand and behaves like any other card you've brought into the game. For example, if it's discard, countered, or destroyed, it's put into your graveyard, remaining in the game. This is a change from previous rules.
2020-04-17 The companion ability has no effect if the card is in your starting deck and creates no restriction on putting a card with a companion ability into your starting deck. For example, Zirda may be in your starting deck even if your other permanent cards don't all have activated abilities.
2020-04-17 The companion's other abilities apply only if the creature is on the battlefield. They have no effect while the companion is outside the game.
2020-04-17 The requirements of the companion ability apply only to your starting deck. They do not apply to your sideboard.
2020-04-17 You may have one companion in the Commander variant. Your deck, including your commander, must meet its companion requirement. Your companion is not one of your one hundred cards.
2020-04-17 Your companion begins the game outside the game. In tournament play, this means your sideboard. In casual play, it's simply a card you own that's not in your starting deck.
2020-06-01 If you reveal a companion outside the game, for as long as it remains there, you may pay any time you could cast a sorcery (that is, you have priority during your main phase and the stack is empty). Once you do, you put it into your hand and behaves like any other card you've brought into the game. For example, if it's discarded, countered, or destroyed, it's put into your graveyard, remaining in the game. This is a change from previous rules.
2020-06-01 Once you put your companion into your hand, it behaves like any other card you’ve brought into the game. For example, if it’s countered or destroyed, it’s put into your graveyard, remaining in the game.
2020-06-01 Paying to put your companion into your hand is a special action. It doesn't use the stack and players can't respond to it. Once you take this action, you may cast that card if it's legal to do so before any other player can take actions.
2020-06-01 Wizards of the Coast has issued functional errata for the Companion mechanic. Instead of casting companions from outside the game: Once per game, any time you could cast a sorcery (during your main phase when the stack is empty), you can pay to put your companion from your sideboard into your hand. This is a special action, not an activated ability. It happens immediately and can’t be responded to. It can’t be countered or stopped by cards like Phyrexian Revoker. For more information please see https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/june-1-2020-banned-and-restricted-announcement

Recent MTG decks

Continue exploring other format decks
More decks