(Gyome, Master Chef | Art By Steve Prescott)

Discussion Over Dinner

Gyome, Master Chef is the best black green politics commander, and lifegain/artifact builds have been holding him back. Despite popularity for meme flavor builds, Gyome isn't particularly powerful. There were 13 new legendaries that create Food tokens printed in The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth (LOTR). These new commanders have somewhat diminished the novelty of Food decks and the cards that support them. This further reduces the reason to build Gyome for its unique niche and look for something better instead.

For those on the fence, I want you to give Gyome another look. While most build Gyome to abuse his end step trigger (a trigger now outclassed by Samwise Gamgee), this build focuses on Gyome's activated ability. There's no exaggeration when I say Gyome has the most versatile activated ability in the format.

Let me explain.

The ability is deceptively simple. It reads:

Pay 1, Sacrifice a Food: Target creature gains indestructible until end of turn. Tap it.

This is reminiscent of Regenerate. Likely, this is specifically referencing other Trolls getting Regenerate. Gyome's activated ability is much more open-ended and can benefit you in several ways. You can:

1. Protect your creature from removal
2. Stop an opponent's creature from blocking
3. Prevent your attacking creature from dying in combat
4. Prevent your blocking creature from dying in combat
5. Interfere with a creature's tap ability
6. Prevent an opponent's creature from attacking
7. Safely trigger effects like Inspired

Most decks use this ability to protect their own game plan. This build uses it as political leverage, effectively doubling its use cases/value. Of course, Commander is a game of value. There's nothing better than being able to leverage player actions for a few carefully placed ability words.

Threat of Snacktivation

Say Opponent One is ready to attack with something scary. Let's say Blightsteel Colossus in this case. As a Gyome player, it takes three words to launch your game plan.

"Before you declare attackers..."

You have to act now because after someone declares attackers, Gyome can't prevent the swing. You need to make it very clear to your opponent you can activate Gyome to stop Blightsteel from coming your way.

But you don't want to have to do that, and neither does Opponent One. They'll want to get a swing in, or at least keep a scary blocker. As the Gyome player and experienced politician, you have a solution that works for both of you.

You and Opponent One agree they should swing Blightsteel Colossus at Opponent Two.

If all goes well, Opponent Two dies to Blightsteel.

Without Opponent One knowing it, you've effectively goaded their Blightsteel for free. Not one mana nor one card spent. Who says politics and dinner don't mix?

Talking is a Free Action

As the Gyome player, you're playing a fifth dimensional value game. You should be looking for opportunities to change the tide of battle. Your turn will be spent playing a few value pieces then ending by leaving mana open and a few Food tokens laying around. You then start making plays during your opponent's turns:

• Offer to save your opponent's commander from a board wipe.
• Offer to take out a blocker for an opponent.
• Offer to change the outcome of a combat step gone sour.

Of course, there's no free lunch, but there is still plenty you could ask for to keep an opponent's game plan on track:

• Ask for "immunity", where the opponent promises not to attack you or harm your board.
• Ask them to deal with a problem permanent.
• Ask them to take a hit from one of your creatures like Savvy Hunter.

If you have Food and mana leftover, you can turn that into card advantage with one of several engines in the deck. Of course, you can also "eat" the tokens as a treat.

Kitchen Staff

The most unique part of the deck is its suite of political cards. These cards are traditionally used on your own creatures, but Tainted Strike and Berserk are just as lethal to opposing creatures.

Rhonas the Indomitable can attack and block with your commander out. Deathtouch and indestructible make for an excellent deterrent. Rhonas can pump and grant trample to an opponent's creature if they promise to swing it elsewhere (perhaps for a turn of immunity if it's not too much trouble).

The tutors in this deck can grab one of your viable toolbox answers. But you can also use them on your opponents. Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire can Vampiric Tutor for your opponent. This is a big deal. You aren't going give someone one of the most powerful effects in the game for nothing. Ask for several turns of immunity, a permanent answer to another player, or a way to keep your opponent from winning next turn. Other tutors should be used in the same way.

Vhati il-Dal does a halfway decent impression of Gyome. You can make deals with his activated ability in the same way as Gyome allowing more political actions a turn cycle. There is value in not needing mana or Food lying around for use. Maze of Ith can be used the similarly.

Did You Bring Enough Value to Share with Everybody?

Gyome has the most pronounced leverage over huge, singular beaters. However, there are several other strategies you can't easily manipulate. Some of the deck is built to punish other strategies that Gyome can't take political control over. This is why the deck features several punishing pieces. You could add hard Stax pieces and Hate Bears. I've opted for pieces that don't stop your opponents, but punish them. Besides, Stax and Hate Bears draw too much ire. The best part of the punishing pieces in this deck is that they're much harder to remove because of Gyome.

Against go-wide strategies there are a few good options. Kaervek, the Spiteful can wipe a board of tokens or buy enough time to stop the token player. With enough mana, Thrashing Wumpus becomes a one-sided board wipe alongside Gyome's activated ability.

Spellslinger decks have to really think about their game plan with Wandering Archaic or Rug of Smothering on the battlefield.

Other artifact token decks could stand to drop a peg. Manglehorn slows Treasure decks down. Disciple of the Vault does a good job lowering life totals to where even Gyome himself could finish off an opponent.

Heartwood Storyteller is an incredible source of card advantage. Because this deck is creature-focused, your opponents won't benefit as much as you will. Your opponents are disincentivized to attack you since you're keeping their hand full. Also, non-creature strategies will be forced to fight upward through full hands from each player. Giving your opponents card advantage is all upside for this deck.

This deck packs little punch in terms of raw game pieces. Tuned decks will be able to overwhelm you with value. However, this is a hidden strength of this deck. You will seldom be perceived as a "real" threat. I recommend keeping anything that could draw attention in hand unless you're winning with it or can fully redirect the table's attention.

By the time it's you and your last opponent, you've had plenty of time to amass resources. Thus, there are a few finishers that will get the job done. Amassed Food tokens can also be used to keep your opponent from ever getting to attack or block in a meaningful way.

Conclusion

The best political commander from Strixhaven isn't Breena or Shadrix Silverquill. It's Gyome, Master Chef.

This is the kind of deck you want to talk to your playgroup about first. The key weakness to this deck (as with most politics) is betrayal. If an opponent doesn't hold their end of the bargain, you're toast. You can retaliate to show you can't be taken advantage of before things get too hairy. Also, you can try to get your other opponents to attack the one who betrayed you. But if the whole group doesn't care to play politics, it's done. Your opponents will walk into your kitchen, eat, then leave without paying.

If your playgroup is game, people generally enjoy playing against this deck. It gives more resources to the table. You get to make schemes and feel clever, but so do your opponents. It makes for sociable, memorable games.

Lastly, the flavor of the deck is arguably best in a political deck. Offering life-saving sustenance to doomed creatures or distracting a creature with a cauldron of soup is such a flavor win. The ceaseless silliness of game mechanic "flavor" and the flavor of Food is a true joy. It's not an obvious direction to build at first glance. The politics theme doesn't even show up on Gyome's EDHREC page, nor do many of the cards in this deck. I think players are missing out on a genuinely unique way to play. If you wanted to build a value Food deck, I suggest you look to one of the 13 new Food-centric commanders you could build with and around. If you want to try a taste of politics right now, give Gyome a chance.

Jonathan Meyersberg

Jonathan has been a Magic fan for an eternity in internet years. IRL, since 2016. Jonathan is a professional overthinker and an advocate for diversity. You can find him scrawling gibberish into loose papers, supporting local art, or trying out new recipes.