My brother and I have been playing some version of Gruul Bard for about six months now, since shortly before rotation, and we\’re hoping that the two newest additions, Goro-Goro and Kodama, are going to be the missing pieces that finally push it over the top.
I\’m calling this a tribal deck as we\’re obviously capitalizing on the \”legendary\” creature type, but it could also be considered a combo deck. The combo is Bard Class (fully leveled) plus Birgi: once you get it, you can chain legends into more legends almost indefinitely, as each legend you cast lets you see two new cards and each spell you cast gives you a red mana back, meaning most of our spells are free.
Goro-Goro is the perfect game-ender, as after you cast it you can give all your legendaries haste (the activation cost doesn\’t matter, as Birgi will have left one mana floating) and attack all that very same turn before your opponent has a chance to respond. Goro-Goro\’s second ability should come up sometimes too, as all of our legends that we cast with Bard Class will be considered \”modified\” due to the +1/+1 counters. You can also give haste multiple times per turn – once early on to let your legends tap for mana with an Esika in play and allow you to keep chaining, and then again right before combat.
Because they\’re all modified, Kodama gives all our legends trample. This is especially crucial with Targ Nar, who can become an enormous threat by doubling his power and toughness a few times. And paying that mana to double that power and toughness a few times is especially easy with Esika in play (there\’s a really nice interaction between Esika and Augusta as well, as you can tap prior to combat, attack with one creature, and untap everybody to use them all again).
Our ideal opening looks like: turn 2 bard class, turn 3 level it up and play Targ Nar for 0 and a second threat for 1 (Goro-Goro, Magda, Plargg, Tovolar). An Esika on turn 4 helps ensure you have the mana to level up bard class turn 5 and then probably wait (though not always) to go off the following turn.
Our biggest issues are 1. finding (and not losing) Bard Class (there\’s some enchantment hate coming in Kamigawa, so we\’ll see how bad it gets) and 2. surviving long enough (and finding the mana) to level it up. White-based aggro has consistently been our worst matchup, while black control is our best. It\’s possible that bringing Jaspera Sentinel back is going to prove necessary, though my current version (replacing it entirely with a set of 4 Esikas) has felt smoother without it. Sentinel is great turn one but absolutely awful any other time, including while chaining (it\’s not a legendary so it can really hurt your draws). Still, the Sentinel-Magda interaction is great. Maybe it\’s correct to play 3 each of Sentinel and Esika, cutting the Chariot and maybe either a Targ Nar or a Plargg or one of the four-drops. Play around with it! Another card you can play around with is Mirror Box, which removes the Legendary rule, but my instinct says it\’s unnecessary – we don\’t need it to help find the combo and we can win without it once the combo is assembled. You can also try a single copy of Inferno of the Star Mounts (instead of Chariot maybe?), but it\’s expensive and might just be \”win-more\” at best.
Go forth, bards, and inspire!
