Commander Deck Tech: Ayula, Queen Among Bears

Green decks usually make the game very fun for those who pilot it. After all, a bunch of creatures attacking or huge creatures also attacking is very satisfying for those who like a more aggressive play style in Magic.

Considering that, today we'll have a Bear typal deck in our deck tech: Ayula, Queen Among Bears!

Ayula, Queen Among Bears is a low-cost commander who is quite simple: She buffs Bears and forces them to fight. In this list, we'll add several Bears and cards that interact with +1/+1 counters to take advantage of Ayula's ability.

Let's build something simple around this very charismatic Bear, with some ramp cards and effects to grow our legion of Bears even more.

As I said before, this deck is quite simple: It is an OG Mono Green deck, which just wants to beat down your opponents. We have a few interactions with +1/+1 counters, ramp cards and buffs to try to finish our opponents.

Accelerators

As this deck only has Green, we will use just a few mana rocks, focusing only on the absolute essentials: Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Emerald Medallion and Rhonas's Monument, to also apply buffs and give evasion to some creature.

As for ramp cards, we have the basic kit - Cultivate, Kodama's Reach, Rampant Growth, Nature's Lore and Entish Restoration, which can search up to 3 lands if we meet its requirement and have a buffed creature in play.

Bears

For creatures, there is no secret: Bears. We have a few of the most basic ones, such as Mother Bear, Ashcoat Bear, Grizzly Bears, Runeclaw Bear, Striped Bears, River Bear, Dragon-Scarred Bear, Bear Cub, Alpine Grizzly, Owlbear, and Balduvian Bears.

And we also have a few others that indeed have an ability, which are Werebear, Wilson, Refined Grizzly, Owlbear Cub, Druid's Familiar, Vivien's Grizzly, Masked Vandal, Realmwalker, Chameleon Colossus, Surrak and Goreclaw and Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma.

I'll highlight these 4 latter Bears: Realmwalker is always welcomed in almost any typal deck with Green. Chameleon Colossus potentially kills an opponent if you have mana enough to activate its ability multiple times.

Finally, we have both versions of the Big Bear of Tarkir: Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma, which provides Trample to buffed Bears, and Surrak and Goreclaw, to buff Bears and allow them to attack on the turn they come into play with Haste.

Bear Tokens and Other Interactions

As Ayula's ability isn't limited by whether a creature is a token or not, we also added Bear token generators: Ayula's Influence, Bearscape, Words of Wilding, Grizzly Fate, Fade from History and Titania's Command, which can be used in other ways depending on how the game is going.

Not necessarily creating Bear tokens, but to boost this deck's mechanics, we added Lifecrafter's Bestiary to draw more cards, Panharmonicon to trigger the commander more times and Bear Umbra - despite being added here just for its name, it is still a great card and works really well.

Finally, we have two creatures that aren't Bears, but are a great help. Rishkar, Peema Renegade, which transforms your creatures with a +1/+1 counter into mana dorks, and Caller of the Claw, to possibly recover your board after getting hit with an eventual global removal.

Buffing Creatures

To interact with Ayula's +1/+1 counters, we added Ozolith, the Shattered Spire, Hardened Scales and Tribute to the World Tree. I'll highlight Tribute to the World Tree, as it can possibly draw cards as well.

Now, to just grow our creatures, we have this vast selection of cards: Glorious Sunrise, Zopandrel, Hunger Dominus and Unnatural Growth, with similar effects, and Sylvan Anthem, Vanquisher's Banner and Return of the Wildspeaker, which can also draw us cards.

Finally, we have Overwhelming Stampede and Triumph of the Hordes, which can serve as possible finishers depending on the game state.

Drawing Cards and Interacting with Opponents

Drawing Cards

As any respectable deck, we need to draw cards somehow if we want to keep our gas. Considering that, we added Rishkar's Expertise, Hunter's Insight, Harmonize, Shamanic Revelation, Guardian Project and Beast Whisperer - which, as this deck is based on creatures, is a great addition to draw cards.

Answers and Removals

Besides Ayula's "fight-based" removal, we also need to use other cards and not depend on our commander 100%. As a result, we chose, to use Kenrith's Transformation, Song of the Dryads and Beast Within.

And to protect our Bears, we use Heroic Intervention and Inspiring Call.

While I was researching cards for Ayula, I found Ruxa, Patient Professor. I didn't think he would fit into this list well because the Bears get abilities throughout the game, so I thought it was more interesting to bring a list completely dedicated to him.

It is a very simple deck; even more simple than this Ayula version.

This commander has been embraced by the Commander community ever since she was released, and is particularly rare to see her being played as she has a lower power level. But that doesn't mean this deck isn't fun, after all, seeing several Bears fighting against your opponents' creatures and then attacking them next is at least funny to witness when you pilot this deck.

Did you like this deck tech? Do you prefer Ruxa over Ayula? Do you prefer another creature type? Comment down below!