If you like commanding an army of wild and powerful animals, going wild and shredding your opponents to pieces with your bear hands then Bear Tribal is the right deck for you. Let’s see how we can turn our bears into an intimidating fighting force.
I love tribal decks because they combine synergy, flavor and of course power. On top of that you can find many unique cards that support a tribe and can be great budget options as those cards work only on a specific tribal deck and are bad to unplayable to any other deck. That’s why I will try building and presenting a series of decks for all those who share the love for tribal decks.
Bears are one of the oldest tribes in magic but they are not considered a strong one, as most of the bears are vanilla creatures which generally aren’t very good since they miss any synergy. When Modern Horizons was released, the bears found a Queen and a purpose. Ayula, Queen Among Bears is an amazing synergetic tribal commander made to take advantage of the low mana cost of bears (due to being mostly vanilla creatures) to empower them and unleash their brute force through fighting mechanic.
With Ayula, Queen Among Bears, when a bear enters the battlefield, it can either buff any target bear with 2 +1/+1 counters, or fight target creature you don’t control so all bears can be considered as target removal options. In a way Ayula fills in the gap of the missing synergy between the tribe and turns the weakness of the tribe into strength. Most of the bears have no abilities so they actually have low mana cost for their stats and with Ayula we can take advantage of this to have constantly cheap permanent buffs and target removal as all bears of our deck can now work together to fight and eliminate every threat.
Synergy Diagram
I always like to make a simple synergy diagram in order to deeply comprehend the potential and the strategy areas that are supported by the commander when I choose top-down building.
Let’s analyze the main goals of the deck.
- Add the best bears. Ayula, Queen Among Bears cares about bear EtB (Enter the Battlefield) triggers so the obvious choice is to fill our deck with enough bears to make the most of our commander abilities. More bears equal more +1/+1 counters and more fighting. Combining Ayula’s abilities, we can buff enough our bears and turn the fighting in our favor.
- Add bear tribal support. Our priority is to pick cards that create bears so that we can multiply bear EtB triggers.
- Add cards that care both about +1/+1 counters and fighting.
- Add +1/+1 counter support cards or cards that care about +1/+1 counters.
- Add fighting support cards or cards that care about fighting.
For 3, 4 and 5 the ideal would be those cards to be bears but since there are not many bears with abilities we can pick some more generic cards for those strategies.
For the sake of flavor some of the choices are not optimal, but are (usually budget friendly) alternatives that fit greatly the Bear Tribal theme.
The Deck
Bear Tribal
Comparative Analysis
Let’s see how the deck compares to the general ratios of my deckbuilding guide.
34 Lands
13 Ramp: Rampant Growth , Arcane Signet , Sol Ring , Cultivate , Rhonas’s Monument , Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma , Werebear , Rishkar, Peema Renegade , Nature’s Lore , Patchwork Banner, Titania’s Command, Lumra, Bellow of the Woods, Evercoat Ursine
7 Target Removal: Khalni Ambush , Masked Vandal , Rampaging Yao Guai , Ayula, Queen Among Bears , Foe-Razer Regent , Savage Swipe , Flaxen Intruder
2 Board Wipes: Whirlwind , Fade from History
1 Graveyard Recursion: Ruxa, Patient Professor
1 Graveyard Hate: Titania’s Command
3 Tutors: Owlbear Cub (too situational), Hibernation’s End , Vivien, Champion of the Wilds
2 Protection: Swiftfoot Boots , Silkguard
11,5 Card Draw: Slippery Karst (1/2), Owlbear (1/2), Striped Bears (1/2), Symmetry Matrix , Harmonize , Realmwalker (kinda), Lifecrafter’s Bestiary , Owlbear Shepherd , Inspiring Call , Return of the Wildspeaker, Shamanic Revelation , Colossal Majesty , Vivien’s Grizzly (kinda)
2 Finishers/ Surprise /Alternate win conditions: Return of the Wildspeaker , Overrun
As we see form the comparative analysis, the rates per category are good. The only score below the optimal low average is in graveyard recursion, but the only card in this category Ruxa, Patient Professor compensates for it with supreme graveyard recursion as it can be repeatable. Realmwalker and Vivien’s Grizzly are not exactly card draw but extreme card filtering is a kind of card draw anyway.
Deck Highlights, synergy and flavor options:
Ramp
Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma is one of the best bears as it can work both as ramp for our big creatures but also as a mini finisher by buffing our bears with power 4 or greater with +1/+1 and giving them trample. One of the best picks for Bear Tribal.
Werebear is the only mana generating bear and works great in our Bear Tribal build as it triggers Ayula’s abilities and works as a mana dork. Its threshold ability is nothing special but just a plus.
Rishkar, Peema Renegade is one of the few cards in our deck that is not a bear for a good reason: he can turn all of our bears into mana producers, as putting counters on them is very easy with Ayula on board. Needless to say so much ramp can be powerful. A great utility card for our Bear Tribal.
Titania’s Command is a powerful and flexible spell as it can work as ramp, grave hate, bear token generation (and creature removal with Ayula, Queen Among Bears) and even buff our creatures with 2 +1/+1 counters. A great utility card for Bear Tribal.
Lumra, Bellow of the Woods is a Legendary Bear with power and toughness eual to the number of lands we control. With Vigilance and Reach it is a great target for placing +1/+1 counters with Ayula, Queen Among Bears and its last ability, can even help us with ramp and have great synergy with Ayula’s Influence as we can firstly discard all the lands from our hand to create an army of bears, only to return them with Lumra, Bellow of the Woods and get great profit! Although I guess it is designed for Lands matter and Land recursion builds, it fits greatly in our Bear Tribal!
Evercoat Ursine is a high mana cost Bear with a great ability that can help us cast spells for free with a limit. With Hidaway 3, hidaway 3 on ETB it exiles 2 cards and we can play them later for free when it is dealing combat damage to a player. With Trample and Ayula, Queen Among Bears that is not hard to achieve and on top of that it may become a potential finisher. Of course it gets even better when its ETB is doubled by Panharmonicon. Great pick for our Bear Tribal build!
Patchwork Banner is one of the best cards for Tribal builds as it combines ramp and tribal support. Being both a mana rock and a Tribal Anthem gives us amazing value for its mana cost. Of course it is a top pick for our Bear Tribal!
Target Removal
If Foe-Razer Regent were a bear it would be the best card in the deck. Nevertheless, it combines perfectly fighting and +1/+1 counters strategies, offering great synergy among them, as with each fighting it places two +1/+1 counters on our creature that fights (at the beginning of the next end step). Morever it acts as a target removal on its own as it fights on EtB. A must-have for our Bear Tribal build.
Savage Swipe can work well as a cheap removal in this deck, since many of our bears (and bear tokens) are 2/2’s. It is at sorcery speed but it fits the fighting theme and the flavor of Bear Tribal.
Flaxen Intruder // Welcome Home is a flexible card that works as a bear token generator (and creature removal with Ayula, Queen Among Bears) and as artifact and enchantment removal.
Ayula, Queen Among Bears is our commander and works as a repeatable target removal engine. All our bears (on EtB) are ready to fight for the Queen!
Rampaging Yao Guai is a great addition to our deck since it is a flexible artifact/enchantment removal option that synergizes with +1/+1 counter strategy (it enters with X +1/+1 counters) and has Vigilance and Trample. On ETB we may destroy any number of artifacts and/or enchantments with total mana value X or less, so it may become an artifact/enchantment wipe if we have enough mana to dump (in that case it also fills the role of a big drop and becomes a real threat). A top pick for Bear Tribal.
Board Wipes
Fade from History is a great artifact and enchantment mass removal and the negative fact that it creates bear tokens for all can even be negated by the fact that with Ayula our tokens can be buffed and fight (and eliminate) some of the opponent ones. Great Bear Tribal flavor too.
Graveyard Recursion
Ruxa, Patient Professor is one of the best cards for our Bear Tribal build. She offers repeatable grave recursion, since most of the bears have no abilities and on top of that she buffs creatures with no abilities and grants them unblockable. Amazing value!
Tutors
Although Owlbear Cub is too situational (as it needs 8 or more lands to be controlled by an opponent to activate it ability), in the late game it is an amazing repeatable tutor/ramp spell. Moreover, it is a bear so even without activating its ability it is not bad for Bear Tribal.
Our bears have cheap mana cost so Hibernation’s End can be quickly an amazing repeatable tutor in our Bear Tribal. The flavor is most fitting too.
Vivien, Champion of the Wilds is our only planeswalker. Flash on creatures alone has amazing synergy on Bear Tribal since we can cast every bear as instant removal with Ayula, Queen Among Bears’s fighting or buff. Vigilance and reach are always good but the tutor ability is always more powerful.
Protection
With Ayula, Queen Among Bears, it is very easy to put counters on our bears, so Silkguard can be a great mass protection spell that on the same time buffs some of our creatures with a +1/+1 counter at instant speed.
Card Draw
Most of the bears have the required symmetry of power and toughness so Symmetry Matrix works wonders in Bear Tribal.
It’s not hard at all to reach 8 power in Bear Tribal with Ayula, Queen Among Bears but the flavor here is so fitting that alone makes me want to include the card. Maybe I like Owlbears too much, but Owlbear Shepherd is not a bad card at all anyway.
Vivien’s Grizzly is quite expensive for what is does, but alone the fact that it is a bear makes it playable, so the card filtering that often becomes an expensive draw is still a great advantage for the deck. Fits well with our Bear Tribal with Vivien, Champion of the Wilds on it, combining flavor and utility.
Owlbear and Striped Bears are bears with card draw. Although the draw is minimal, combined with the bear synergy they are a must-have for Bear Tribal.
Realmwalker is great in any kind of tribal decks and of course in Bear Tribal it can shine even more because of Ayula’s abilities, the creature-heavy theme and the low mana cost of the bears.
Other synergy pieces
Great Bears
You can cast Mother Bear early on game as a typical 2/2 bear, but also you can exile it later to create two 2/2 bear tokens. Top card for Bear Tribal and top flavor.
Ashcoat Bear has Flash which can be deadly in Bear Tribal with Ayula, Queen Among Bears on board as we can buff at instant speed with two +1/+1 counters any bear (even itself) for 2 mana or use the fighting ability if we already have a big bear on board to eliminate a creature.
When Ulvenwald Bear enters the battlefield, it puts two +1/+1 counters on target creature if a creature died this turn, which can easily happen with the fighting strategy of our Bear Tribal build.
Druid’s Familiar can buff another bear and combined with the fighting strategy of our Bear Tribal to create a nice opportunity for favorable fighting. It is also buffed by the Soulbond so it gets even better.
Have I ever mentioned that I love Baldur’s Gate? I remember freeing Wilson, Refined Grizzly from Jolstead and welcoming him in my party as a companion, so of course I will welcome him again to join my deck this time in another universe. Of course he is an absolute beast. A legendary bear that can’t be countered, with vigilance, reach, trample and ward for just 2 . What more can you ask? It can be a perfect target for Ayula, Queen Among Bears’s counters and a top pick for Bear Tribal.
Bears can swim well too! River Bear and Pale Bears have Islandwalk which is very useful on blue deck encounters.
Surrak and Goreclaw is a great addition to our deck since it gives our creatures Trample, and synergizes both with Bear Tribal strategy (it is a bear itself) and +1/+1 counter strategy (it provides every nontoken creature with a +1/+1 counter on EtB and haste until end of turn).
Copper Host Crusher is a big crusher and the big bear that was missing from Bear Tribal. With Trample and Hexproof, it can be a great target for the abilities of Ayula, Queen Among Bears.
Drover Grizzly is a Bear Mount that whenever it attacks while saddled, it gives creatures we control Trample until end of turn. With Saddle 1, any Bear can become a rider. Bears riding Bears is something new for Bear Tribal. Sounds fun and mass Trample is always very helpful in creature-heavy decks.
Ursine Monstrosity is an attack machine with a great potential in our Bear Tribal. The drawback is that it attacks at random opponent, but it has Trample, it gets indestructible and can easily grow into a big threat until end of turn as long as we have enough card types in our graveyard. In addition, it even helps filling our graveyard, by letting us mill a card at the beggining of combat, so it even synergizes with itself.
Other
Caller of the Claw has Flash so he can be used on a board wipe to rebuild us an army of 2/2 bears. With Ayula, Queen Among Bears, EtB triggers can make those tokens buffed or finish off with fighting any creature left on the enemy side. He can be a game changer card in our Bear Tribal.
Changeling Titan counts as a bear, has great stats for its mana cost and synergizes great with Ayula, Queen Among Bears as the body is great for fighting and on top of that Champion a Creature mechanic causes another EtB trigger when it leaves the battlefield.
Grizzly Fate is a great spell for creating bear tokens. With Threshold and a Flashback cost it can be amazing in our Bear Tribal. Combine it with Ayula, Queen Among Bears and let your army do the fighting.
With Ayula’s Influence we can discard a land at instant speed to create a 2/2 bear token. It has great synergy with Ayula, Queen Among Bears and our Bear Tribal build. It is actually made for her and influenced by her abilities.
Bearscape and Words of Wilding are great bear token generators for our Bear Tribal. More EtB triggers are great food for the bear Queen.
Panharmonicon is an all star in decks with EtB strategies and that includes our Bear Tribal. With Ayula, Queen Among Bears we get double triggers which mean more counters and more fights! Insane value engine!
Branching Evolution is now a super budget option thanks to its latest reprints, but remains a very powerful card for +1/+1 counter builds. Of course it works wonders in our Bear Tribal as Ayula, Queen Among Bears can easily put counters on our Bears. It gets crazy if we also add Panharmonicon.
Oran-Rief, the Vastwood is a great utility land for our Bear Tribal deck. Fits both the EtB theme and the +1/+1 counters strategy.
Land and bear token generator? Argoth, Sanctum of Nature is a perfect fit for our Bear Tribal!
Let’s see some more statistics about our deck. Some important info to care about is the mana curve and the card type distribution, as it can help us understand better our deck and may indicate where there is space for improving it.
Mana Curve
The mana curve shows that there are many more 3 mana drops than usual which is normal since the deck rely heavily on bears (and most of them are at 2,3 and 4 mana) rather than big threats. Flaxen Intruder’s sorcery adventure is a potential second 7 drop which helps the curve. One more thing we can notice is that there are not enough 1 drops and that happens because there are no bears at 1 mana. If in the future any bears are printed at 1 mana cost they would be a great upgrade for Bear Tribal.
Card Type Distribution
The Bear Tribal Card Type Distribution shows the dominant tribal creature-heavy theme, with sorceries, artifacts and enchantements to follow due to utility support, while instants are rare. Vivien is the only planeswalker but supports much the creature-heavy theme.
Of course statistics and comparative analysis are great tools but they don’t always tell the whole truth, since many factors like synergy and combo pieces are hard to be measured numerically. For example in this deck, the target removal potential is much greater than the measured one, as every bear EtB trigger works as either a permanent buff or as a fighting trigger.
Update v1 (March of the Machine)
Update v2 (Fallout)
Update v3 (Outlaws of Thunder Junction)
Update v4 (Bloomburrow)
Update v5 (Duskmourn)
Great news! Now you can buy the best custom Bear tokens made by Mystic Tokens to accompany your Bear Tribal deck! Buy now on Cardmarket at a special price!
If you liked the deck, don’t forget to revisit the article after every major new release as I will try to keep my decks updated and examine any potential upgrades. If you want to keep being updated, you can follow mtgbudgetcommander.com on social media (facebook, twitter, instagram, pinterest, linkedin, reddit, tumblr, medium).
If you like my tribal series, you can check my other tribal decks.