The first rule of Fight Club is...bears? Bears.
This is an attempt to make a pseudo-competitive deck using a terrible tribe.
Thanks to my forbears:
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JonuahL (A.K.A. EldrDrunknHighlandr), for the glorious Ayula Bearstorm where this deck draws most of its inspiration
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Tomer, for the Budget Commander article on Ayula and for Budget Commander in general
The Gameplan
This is an aggressive, combat-focused deck with a combo finish.
Early game, I'm usually trying to set up a draw engine (in the form of Beast Whisperer, Lifecrafter's Bestiary, Guardian Project or the like) and use Ayula, Queen Among Bears and my assortment of bears to clear opponents' mana dorks and attack whichever player represents the earliest threat.
Mid-game I'm focused on using my bears-turned-cantrips to draw a bunch of cards and either draw or tutor into:
Late game, assuming we ever get there, I'm trying to line up my janky combos and go for the win. There are a couple ways to generate infinite mana or creature casts in this deck, and those can in turn create infinitely large creatures, infinite ETB triggers for Ayula, etc. Generally speaking, all combo lines rely on having enough mana from creatures to cast Great Oak Guardian and a way to bounce it back to hand, using its untap effect to re-up on mana and repeat the loop.
Loops
Great Oak Guardian the engine behind most of the combos in this deck. I'll start by going over the most straightforward case, then talk a little bit about alternative lines.
The Sabertooth Loop
Prerequisites:
Steps:
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Tap all mana-generating creatures, 8/9 mana floating
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Cast Great Oak Guardian for 6 mana, 2/3 mana floating
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Great Oak Guardian's ETB trigger untaps all creatures you control
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Activate Temur Sabertooth's ability for 2 mana to return Great Oak Guardian to your hand, 0/1 mana floating
You're back where you started with Great Oak Guardian in hand, and if you started with creatures that tap for 9 you've got 1 mana left over. Repeat this loop as many times as necessary to make all of your creatures arbitrarily large, and (if you can tap for 9) generate unbounded mana. This can all happen at instant speed if necessary, thanks to Great Oak Guardian having flash. Also worth noting that the pieces of this combo are all creatures, so they can all be tutored for with spells like Green Sun's Zenith.
Absurdly large creatures can usually attack for the win the same turn, but what happens if your opponent(s) has blockers available? How can we get the cost of this loop down a bit?
The Sabertooth/Monument Loop
Prerequisites:
Steps:
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Tap all mana-generating creatures, 7/8 mana floating
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Cast Great Oak Guardian for 5 mana (thanks to Rhonas's Monument), 2/3 mana floating
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Rhonas's Monument triggers, giving one of your creatures +2/+2 and trample
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Great Oak Guardian's ETB trigger untaps all creatures you control
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Activate Temur Sabertooth's ability for 2 mana to return Great Oak Guardian to your hand, 0/1 mana floating
This loop has two primary advantages to the first one: it requires less mana to start, and; it gives a creature trample every loop. Repeat as many times as is needed to make all your creatures big and tramply, then attack for the win. If your loop is mana positive, you've got access to unbounded mana once again.
Sadly, Rhonas's Monument is an artifact and we can't tutor for that in this deck, so this loop hopes that we've drawn into it somewhere along the way. How can we get the cost down, grant trample, and still keep all our combo pieces tutor-able?
The Sabertooth/Goreclaw Loop
Prerequisites:
Steps:
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Tap all mana-generating creatures, 6/7 mana floating
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Cast Great Oak Guardian for 4 mana (thanks to Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma), 2/3 mana floating
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Great Oak Guardian's ETB trigger untaps all creatures you control
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Activate Temur Sabertooth's ability for 2 mana to return Great Oak Guardian to your hand, 0/1 mana floating
As with the Sabertooth/Monument loop, we've got arbitrarily large creatures, unbounded mana (if we started with 7), and Goreclaw can give our creatures trample if it can attack this turn. Note that Finale of Devastation can grant haste if you cast if for X=10+, which would allow Goreclaw to attack the same turn it comes into play.
The question remains, what happens if Temur Sabertooth got killed because your opponents recognize it for the combo-enabling cat bastard it is?
The Curio Loop
Cloudstone Curio can enable a lot of the same loops that Temur Sabertooth does. It's an artifact and can't be tutored as a result, but if you draw into it you should start looking to build the conditions necessary for Curio Loops.
Prerequisites:
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Creatures that tap for 8 or 9 mana
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Cloudstone Curio on the battlefield
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An nonartifact creature that you aren't tapping for mana (we'll use Grizzly Bears for these examples)
Steps:
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Tap all mana generating creatures, 8/9 mana floating
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Cast Great Oak Guardian for 6 mana, 2/3 mana floating
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Cloudstone Curio triggers, returning Grizzly Bears to your hand
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Cast Grizzly Bears for 2 mana, 0/1 mana floating
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Cloudstone Curio triggers, returning Great Oak Guardian to your hand
Just like the Sabertooth loops, you can repeat this as many times as is necessary to make your creatures arbitrarily large and potentially generate unbounded mana. Also, just like the Sabertooth loops, you can use modifiers to bring the cost down and grant trample to your creatures when they swing for the win.
The Curio/Monument Loop
Prerequisites:
Steps:
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Tap all mana generating creatures, 6/7 mana floating
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Cast Great Oak Guardian for 5 mana (thanks to Rhonas's Monument), 1/2 mana floating
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Rhonas's Monument triggers, giving one of your creatures +2/+2 and trample
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Cloudstone Curio triggers, returning Grizzly Bears to your hand
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Cast Grizzly Bears for 1 mana (thanks to Rhonas's Monument), 0/1 mana floating
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Rhonas's Monument triggers, giving one of your creatures +2/+2 and trample
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Cloudstone Curio triggers, returning Great Oak Guardian to your hand
The cost reduction granted by Rhonas's Monument is particularly helpful with this loop, since we get that discount casting both Great Oak Guardian and Grizzly Bears.
The Curio/Goreclaw Loop
Prerequisites:
Steps:
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Tap all mana generating creatures, 6/7 mana floating
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Cast Great Oak Guardian for 4 mana (thanks to Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma, 2/3 mana floating
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Cloudstone Curio triggers, returning Grizzly Bears to your hand
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Cast Grizzly Bears for 2 mana, 0/1 mana floating
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Cloudstone Curio triggers, returning Great Oak Guardian to your hand
Just like the Sabertooth/Goreclaw loop, this will make all of your creatures arbitrarily large, and if Goreclaw can attack it can give them trample for the big swing.
Additional Considerations
When using Curio loops, keep in mind that if the nonartifact creature we are using is a bear (like the Grizzly Bears in our examples above), each loop could generate an Ayula trigger as well. If your lpop is mana positive and Ayula isn't in play, start the loop, generate enough mana to cast Ayula, then continue the loop and enjoy your arbitrarily large number of Ayula triggers.
Aluren Loops
TBD