MTG: A Grizzly Fate – Top Five Bear Commanders
You won’t want to hibernate on these five MTG Bear Commanders. Otherwise, you’ll be left out cold for the winter.
Welcome Planeswalkers and Praetors to our ongoing series about the best casual experience in Magic: Commander.
Bears are a hilarious creature type in MTG and have become synonymous with 2/2 creatures. However, Bears are still a powerful type in their own right and can do a surprising amount of damage with the right Commander. While there aren’t many Commanders out there for these fuzzy assault vehicles, there are a few standouts that will take your Bear army from a breeze to a storm.
For the uninitiated, Commander is a semi-casual format for Magic: the Gathering. You use a deck of 100 cards led by a legendary creature, your Commander.
Aside from basic lands, you are only allowed one copy of each card in the deck. Moreover, you can only include cards in your Commander’s “color identity” or artifacts. Each color and color combo has a unique playstyle and a wealth of mighty generals to lead your deck to victory. EDHRec.com is an excellent source for Commander info and can give you ideas on how to build your next Commander deck or tune an existing one.
Ayula, Queen Among Bears
The very best of the Bears, Ayula, is the Queen for a reason. She can buff your Bears and then turn them into Bear Missiles to launch at your opponent’s creatures. While there aren’t a TON of Bears around, there are a lot of Shapeshifters and type changers that can make you a full Commander deck of furry weapons of mass destruction. Get some trample on the field and watch the fur fly.
Duskana, the Rage Mother
This is one of my favorite Commanders from MKM, and there’s an obvious reason why. Turning all your 2/2 Bears into 5/5 wrecking balls is a huge power boost. Plus, in Naya, you have access to some deadly buffs and powerups like Akroma’s Will, Aggravated Assault, and Mayael’s Aria. Unleash your army of giant Bears, and then keep making them bigger.
Wilson, Refined Grizzly
Wilson is an incredible Commander piece, mostly because of his versatility. A 2/2 with vigilance, trample, reach, ward, AND immunity to counters is insane. However, you can also give him extra abilities with Background enchantments. A few personal favorites are Raised by Giants to make him a 10/10 or Folk Hero to give you a card advantage and access to White. Whatever you choose, however, you’ll have the most refined Commander ready to do your enemies a good wallop.
Surrak and Goreclaw
Bears really like being turned into missiles I guess, because here’s another Commander that does it. Surrak and Goreclaw give all your creatures trample, and whenever another nontoken creature hits the battlefield, it gets bigger and gets haste. Adding in something that doubles counters will make this deadly duo go off in a huge way. Your opponent won’t know what hit them until the Bear Train has already passed.
Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma
Without Surrak, Goreclaw cares less about your little guys and more about your big guys hitting harder. He makes all your high-power creatures easier to cast and tosses out boosts and tramples to them when he attacks. If the other Commanders are at the head of a Bear Train, Goreclaw is leading a Bear railgun.
What do you think of these Commanders?
