The plastic deformation behavior of new Mg-Gd-Y-Zn-Mn magnesium alloys gains great necessity to clarify and understand the mechanism deeply. In the present work,the tensile mechanical property test and visco-plastic self-consistent(VPSC)model are used to investigate the activities of deformation modes of VW84M and VW94M magnesium alloys during the tensile deformation. The results show that the mechanical properties of the above extruded alloys are similar but VW94M has higher strength than VW84M after the same aging process. Compared with the extruded alloys,the as-aged alloys have significantly higher activation of pyramidal slip at the later stage of plastic deformation. In addition,the as-aged VW94M alloy with higher strength has the largest activity of pyramidal slip. In summary,the addition of Gd increases the critical resolved shear stress(CRSS)in each slip system of VW94M,while the increase in the strength and the decrease in the elongation of as-aged alloys are associated with the significant activation of pyramidal slip.