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All Hail the Great Bear

Commander / EDH Mono-Green

kbrauner3005

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Creature (30)

Land (38)

Enchantment (7)

Artifact (8)

Instant (10)

Sorcery (6)

Commander (1)

Commander: Ayula, Queen Among Bears

Maybeboard

Creature (7)

Planeswalker (4)

Enchantment (5)

Artifact (8)

Instant (2)

Sorcery (4)

My take at Ayula, Queen Among Bears. Most lists seem very similar and mine probably will to.

I've been playing Ayula since its release (Which been a couple years at this point). Below I have listed some of the experiences and conclusions I've made so far.

I've cut Bearscape, Grizzly Fate, Words of Wilding and Kamahl's Summons. While all the cards mentioned have had some shining moments, I've had to many games where they felt dead. The purpose of all the cards were the same. Make multiple bears with a simple card. I theory it worked but in practice the cards were just to slow. I often needed 5-6 Bears NOW, not over a cause of 2-3 turns.

Play more protection. Ayula is simply to important. I still haven't found the sweet spot or a good solution to this. I've been playing Heroic Intervention since day 1. I later added Blossoming Defense and then Snakeskin Veil when it was released. I've had Veil of Summer in and out again. Its pros is that I can work in multiple different situations and replaces itself. The biggest con, and why I currently dont run it (which may be wrong) is that targeted removal I see the most is Path to Exile and Swords to Plowshare with the occasional Beast Within, Generous Gift and Chaos Warp. Veil of Summer doesnt help with any of these, but Snakeskin Veil and Blossoming Defense does.

Board wipes are still rouch, but due to the format speeding up, people seems to play fewer board wipes. My countermeasure to board wipes has been, and still is, card draw. Simply keep a stacked hand that can repopulate the board after a sweeper. The main issue is still Ayula dying to the sweepers.¨

The meme is fun, but Temur Sabertooth or Cloudstone Curio is the main gameplan. I was a bid slow to realize this. It was not until after I have given up the deck due to lack of power and gameplay decisions that I started to miss plying with bears and had to find a solutions. Instead of relaying on hitting bears on my draws over and over, with these two cards, a single bear in the case of Temur Sabortooth or a couple in case Cloudstone Curio can keep Ayula going. That made the deck a lot more fun to play and a lot more potent. There are still other strong pieces and synergies. Chhameleon Colossus, Vigor and Kindred Summons to name a few.

And finally, bears should only cost 2 mana. There are a few bears with a cmc of 3 and 4 that are still good enough, but the majority isnt. I know the meme is fun, but I've found that only the 2 mana bears (and the 1 mana MVP Universal Automaton) is worth running for Ayula triggers. The expensive bears that I do run are Chameleon Colossus, Pale Bears, River Bear and Ruxa, Patient Professor. Roxa is a bid of a pet cards. It has won me games which I my main reason for sticking with it, but It should probably be cut. The other 3 are incredible against either blue or black decks which is enough. I used to run Vivien's Grizzly, Striped Bears and OwlBears. The card draw seemed nice but they were simply to slow.

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