The 35 Best Bears in Magic Ranked

Last updated on December 18, 2024

Ayula, Queen Among Bears | Illustration by Jesper Ejsing

Before we get started, everyone please kindly disarm your Bear Traps. Thank you.

They’re remarkably intelligent. They have big appetites. And they use trees to scratch that pesky, itchy spot right… right… there! Bears are tied to many cultures across the globe and across history, from Indigenous traditions to one Theodore Roosevelt and the political cartoon that inspired someone to make a plushie… which somehow leads to Beanie Babies and now I’m sad.

Naturally, bears have been part of our Magic landscape since the beginning, and they’ve lent their name both to subpar curve-fillers and to formidable hatebears. But it’s all about the creature type today, baby! Bear with me as I lay bare all you need to know about bear creature cards!

What are Bears in MTG?

Grizzly Bears | Illustration by D. J. Cleland-Hura

Bears are a creature type in Magic usually found on green creatures. Alpha’s Grizzly Bears was the first card with the creature type, and it also gave us the slang name of “bears” for the low-mana 2/2 creature found in many MTG sets, often a creature with no abilities (vanilla) back when those were more common. “Bear” also lends its name and the 2/2 stats to hate bears (or hatebears), a slang term for creatures with highly disruptive abilities but relatively fragile toughness.

There are 47 bear creature cards as of Duskmourn: House of Horror, if we include cards from MTG Arena‘s Alchemy sets. This ranking is tuned toward a Commander environment.

Unranked: Rampaging Ursaguana

Rampaging Ursaguana is an Alchemy exclusive, and I don’t like anything that asks me (or the Arena client) to track something over the whole game. If your bear lizard mutant leaves the battlefield, it’s treated as a new game object when it comes back, so the counter resets to 0.

Unranked: Oyaminartok, Polar Werebear

Oyaminartok, Polar Werebear is another Alchemy exclusive, and it’s only legal in MTG Arena formats like Historic, Brawl, and Timeless. Honestly, the art just makes me think of a red cola product that shall remain nameless. It gives you Food utility in Simic () colors if you care about color identity, and some of the cards you draft from its spellbook can be cast for or less.

Unranked: Honorary Bears

Cards that can turn into bears are a thing, but my issue is that I’d rather have a mana sink that pumps my existing bears, not one that gives me one (1) temporary bear. Circle of the Moon Druid is probably my pick for the most useful since it only cares about whether it’s your turn, and 2/4 isn’t the worst non-typal blocker to leave behind during your opponents’ turns. Stuffed Bear is at least colorless and cheap to animate, but Ursine Champion costs three Grizzly Bears worth of mana to turn into a bear.

#35. Grizzly Ghoul

I pretty much only want to use Grizzly Ghoul in a deck where I can chain an infinite combo (Ruthless Ripper, for example), cast this zombie bear to gain infinite +1/+1 counters, then fling it at an opponent. It takes a lot to put that together, and I don’t ever expect to pull it off.

#34. Diregraf Scavenger

Diregraf Scavenger has the kind of ability that makes me want to break it, but its mana value feels a little too expensive to even try to get there. The graveyard hate paired with lifegain and life drain feels compelling, but it’s a stretch.

#33. Exuberant Wolfbear

Exuberant Wolfbear screams roars Limited environments to me, sadly. If you’re in Constructed, you’ve got enough human payoffs that you don’t need this bear. And if you’re playing bears…. See the problem?

#32. Ursine Fylgja

Coldsnap’s Ursine Fylgja is one of two total cards to mention healing counters, the other being Ice Age’s Fylgja. It wouldn’t do much aside from soak up damage, but I guess you could slot it into a proliferate deck.

#31. Razorclaw Bear

Sometimes it’s a 3/3; sometimes it’s a 5/5. Razorclaw Bear was only printed as a rare in Portal Second Age, so it commands a higher price than I’m willing to pay these days.

#30. Phantasmal Bear

It’s a mirage! Or perhaps an illusion…. The only mono-blue creature among bears, Phantasmal Bear is only really usable in a Minn, Wily Illusionist deck. And even that’s stretching it.

#29. Pale Bears + River Bear + Spectral Bears

Spectral Bears gives you a 3/3 for your usual 1G, but it doesn’t untap if you attack an opponent with no black nontoken permanents. Thanks, Homelands. Pale Bears and River Bear have islandwalk, which… I mean, landwalk in the current year of our Magic meta? At least they doesn’t punish you if nobody’s playing blue, but you can’t really count on them being more than vanilla 3/3s.

Multiplayer games like Commander are less matchup dependant, and you can get away with any of these in your deck, but probably not all of them.

#28. Professor of Zoomancy

2-for-1 on bodies, but that second body isn’t a bear. Apart from that, Professor of Zoomancy doesn’t offer much. And as with all bears, straying from the 2/2 power and toughness makes it less viable in Duskana or Kudo decks.

#27. The Grizzly Bears Tier

These are both bare and bear necessities. Grizzly Bears and its many clones used to be a waterline, but now we get fewer vanilla 2/2s than ever. Yada, yada, power creep, and darn these clouds to heck.

Some of these are exact clones (Balduvian Bears, Bear Cub, Forest Bear, Runeclaw Bear), while others are close enough, like how you pay 1 more generic mana for 2 more power with Alpine Grizzly or 2 more mana for a Golden Bear. Any bear with no abilities can work in a Jasmine Boreal of the Seven deck, though.

Ashcoat Bear has the flash advantage, but that’s not enough to separate it much from the pack. Sloth? Maul? Sleuth? Nah, that would be a bear detective.

#26. Vivien’s Grizzly

This bear’s role is to filter the top of your deck for answers and tutor them to your hand. Vivien's Grizzly is certainly costed as a common, but you can still make use of it in bear decks, or maybe with Agatha of the Vile Cauldron.

#25. Drover Grizzly

Save a horse; ride a grizzly.

I don’t need to explain why giving your whole slate of attackers trample is very good. It’s an Overrun without the power buff. And all you need to do is just have another creature saddle your Drover Grizzly? Be right back; I’m custom ordering a bear collar that says, “Leroy”.

And I saddled up my bear….

#24. Friendly Teddy

Oh, my heart.

Look. I know that I’m supposed to sacrifice Friendly Teddy for some card draw. I’m supposed to pair it with cards that pay me off for sacrificing artifacts, or for sacrificing creatures. And I’m supposed to use my aristocrats effects. And that I can use this Teddy to give players cards when they don’t want them to fuel forced discard. But gosh if this guy doesn’t light up my mama bear instincts.

#23. Copper Host Crusher

Copper Host Crusher’s mana value and power-toughness combo make it very situational: You’ll want it in some decks and consider it junk for many others. Beyond the obvious bear typal builds, you can give it cascade with Imoti, Celebrant of Bounty, you can use it to keep your ferocious, formidable, and other power-matters abilities online, and you can discard it when you cast your Indominus Rex, Alpha to give it hexproof and trample.

#22. Dragon-Scarred Bear

Speaking of formidable abilities, Dragon-Scarred Bear lets you pay 2 mana to regenerate it if you reach that threshold. Persistent, ain’t it?

#21. Striped Bears

Bear power. Bear toughness. But Striped Bears draws a draw when it enters, which helps to justify its slot in multicolor bear decks.

#20. Druid’s Familiar

Perhaps not the most impactful of the soulbond creatures, Druid's Familiar doubles its own stats and adds bear stats to its paired creature. You’re pretty much only playing this in bear decks, but it’s neat how this can attack as a 7/7 whenever Duskana, the Rage Mother is on the field.

#19. Owlbear

Another bear that draws a card when it enters, Owlbear adds trample and bird typing to the mix. It becomes less useful with Kudo or Duskana, but its type line gives it extra homes in a Birds and Beasts theme (Tawnos, the Toymaker or Radagast, Wizard of Wilds).

#18. Ulvenwald Bear

Ulvenwald Bear can enter with two +1/+1 counters, or you could give it four with the ones from Ayula, Queen Among Bears’ trigger. And if you add a Doubling Season to your deck…. I’m kidding; save those for more powerful decks.

#17. Mother Bear

Costs bear mana to get out, and Mother Bear can cash itself in for two Bear tokens from your graveyard. Five mana for two tokens is mildly overcosted, but one card that provides you three bodies over the course of the game is better than the usual one card, one body ratio.

#16. Doric, Nature’s Warden / Doric, Owlbear Avenger

Secret Lair exclusive. Yay… (Just proxy it. Or wait for a Universes Within printing. But it is affecting my ranking.)

Look, Doric, Nature's Warden is a really good card. Costs 4, but it ramps you when it enters. You can transform it when it attacks, and that also gives your other legendary creatures a small overrun effect. Both sides have vigilance, and Doric, Owlbear Avenger only transforms on your upkeep, so it hangs back as a formidable blocker, too.

#15. Spirit of the Aldergard

I’d recommend running at least a few snow basic lands in your bear deck if you plan on using Spirit of the Aldergard. Otherwise, it’s right at home ramping your snow commanders and acting as a high-powered threat there.

#14. Ursine Monstrosity

The Duskmourn Commander precons gave The Wise Mothman a new mutant to consider. Ursine Monstrosity is kind of chaotic (and in some decks, you want that), but it fits into self-mill by caring about the card types in your graveyard. Solid.

#13. Evercoat Ursine

Haste enablers, Rogue's Passage, double strike. That’s the most aggressive way to get value from your Evercoat Ursine, if you’re only looking to use it once. Any deck that wants to cheat big creatures into play and doesn't care much about typal synergies can give this a look, as can any deck that can reuse its enters ability to get another double helping of cards to hideaway.

#12. Duskana, the Rage Mother

This mama bear gives you a couple of different avenues to build around it as a commander. Its home is the Deadly Disguise precon from the Murders at Karlov Manor lineup, and it fits nicely in support there or as the alternate commander of a morph/manifest/disguise/cloak theme. Turning creatures face up is a special action you can take whenever you have priority, so you can attack with your creatures face down and turn them up after blockers are declared. You can also build Duskana, the Rage Mother as a bear deck or as a 2/2-specific deck, and the Boros () archetype in Duskmourn: House of Horror brought along some support for that.

#11. Kudo, King Among Bears

There’s versatility to a Kudo, King Among Bears build, and I like that. Bear typal, sure. Duskmourn has given us more white cards that play specifically around 2 power. You could always stack your deck with hatebears, and you’re in strong colors for a +1/+1 counters build. Kudo is a cheap Selesnya commander that’s easy to bring back. Heck, you could even use it to make casting some hydras easier, since you don’t have to pump as much into the X cost of hydra creature spells.

#10. Werebear

Okay, no puns. That’s low-hanging fruit, and I believe in maximum effort.

Werebear is a mana dork, and its power/toughness get better when you’ve hit threshold. It’s in the same family of cards as Reclusive Taxidermist, though it only provides green mana. Still useful, and it’ll continue to be as long as green does anything related to self-milling or sacrificing creatures.

#9. Owlbear Cub

The attack trigger of this adorable Owlbear Cub can help you to catch up with someone whose ramp package is working today. Swing into a player with eight or more lands and this bird bear can bring in something strong to attack alongside it. Flavorful in bear decks, but it’s more powerful in aggressive decks that look to cheat out big threats. You could do worse than try to double that with Wulfgar of Icewind Dale, too.

#8. Ruxa, Patient Professor

Ever want a commander of a vanilla creatures theme? Look no further than Ruxa, Patient Professor. You have to be careful how you tune your deck, because using auras, equipment, lords, and other effects that grant abilities cause creatures to lose Ruxa’s +1/+1 buff. Lil more thought and care involved here.

Ruxa, Patient Professor also slots in nicely with a commander like Yargle and Multani, and many tokens don’t have abilities, but Jasmine Boreal of the Seven is its most natural fit.

#7. Wilson, Refined Grizzly + Wilson, Bear Comrade

If they ever do a Critical Role Secret Lair or something, Wilson, Refined Grizzly is going to be the template for how they do Trinket. Unless they make him a token. I’ve included Wilson, Bear Comrade here because it’s the Alchemy equivalent, a similar card that loses the uncounterable text and swaps the background for specialize.

Wilson, Refined Grizzly’s most popular background is Raised by Giants, which, yeah. You build that pairing as a Voltron deck or a bear typal deck, but if you’re doing that, you may as well make a Selesnya () deck with Flaming Fist for some double strike and keep Raised by Giants in the 99. In support, Wilson has multiple keywords to pair with your Concerted Effort effects.

#6. Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius

This Simic card gives you cost reduction on plotting cards and on cards you cast from exile. The plotting won’t matter as much until that specific ability returns, but casting from exile? We’ve got paradox abilities like a The Thirteenth Doctor + Yasmin Khan pairing, adventure commanders like Beluna Grandsquall and Gorion, Wise Mentor, and other commanders from Outlaws of Thunder Junction products like Loot, the Key to Everything, Gonti, Canny Acquisitor, and Kellan, the Kid. Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius will always have work as long as we keep using the exile zone for value, although it does nothing for cascade or discover.

#5. Rampaging Yao Guai

X spells are always interesting to dig into, and the Fallout fan in me loves Rampaging Yao Guai. Even if you cast it for X=0, you’re sweeping away an opponents’ cheerios and artifact/enchantment tokens. Sure, they can respond by using their Treasure to generate mana, but you’re still forcing an opponent to act when they don’t want to. It’s quite at home with other mutants, and +1/+1 counters strategies and proliferate decks can also make use of this bear. Did I mention it has vigilance and trample?

#4. Ayula, Queen Among Bears

Pretty much the undisputed bear typal commander, Ayula, Queen Among Bears takes the Grizzly Bears template and gives it abilities befitting a ruler. Cast bears, then grow a bear or set up a fight. Straightforward and elegant design. Ayula can support your other bear commanders too, but I like the idea of having it in a shapeshifter typal deck.

#3. Lumra, Bellow of the Woods

Lumra, Bellow of the Woods can have a huge impact when it enters the battlefield, provided you’re already stocking your graveyard with lands. Lumra mills you, but your deck can be built around sacrificing those lands if you want. This elemental bear still brings them all back as part of its enters ability.

#2. Surrak and Goreclaw

Surrak and Goreclaw works both with big creatures and big mana commanders, and it spreads around an important keyword for getting aggressive decks over the hump: trample. Any creature you have that comes in afterwards gains a +1/+1 and haste, so it helps to improve commanders that cheat creatures into play but don’t grant haste themselves.

#1. Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma

Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma is a big-power payoff, no question. It gives you some very helpful cost reduction, and it adds a slight overrun effect when it attacks, and you can even use it at the front of a Pauper Commander deck. I like it as a support piece alongside other massive creatures, and it’s got a home in plenty of aggressive mono-green and Gruul () decks (think Zilortha, Strength Incarnate or Nikya of the Old Ways).

Best Bear Payoffs

First among bear payoffs are your Bear token generators. These are, alphabetically:

• Argoth, Sanctum of Nature
• Ayula's Influence
• Bearscape
• Caller of the Claw
• Fade from History
• Flaxen Intruder
• Grizzly Fate
• Kamahl's Summons
• Titania's Command
• Words of Wilding

Halsin, Emerald Archdruid gets an honorary mention as a card that can turn a token you control into a 4/4 bear, although you’d probably use Halsin in a Clue or Food token deck, not a bear deck.

Aside from that, bears benefit from general typal support and payoffs. Since most bears are mono-green, you can also support them with some green devotion cards.

Note: I’ve left aside Unfinity attractions or Water Gun Balloon Game for mildly obvious reasons, as well as Path to the World Tree and Bear's Companion because you can’t play them in a bear typal Commander deck unless you’re running Morophon, the Boundless or something.

What Is a Hate Bear?

A hate bear (or hatebear) is a creature, usually with a very bear-ish 2/2 power and toughness, that has an outsized effect on the board in varying degrees of negativity. For example, Aven Mindcensor limits how much your opponents can search their library, while Thalia, Heretic Cathar turns all their lands into tap lands. Hate bears are generally white creatures, and they’re often found in stax and pillow fort decks.

Decklist: Ayula, Queen Among Bears in Commander

Wilson, Refined Grizzly | Illustration by Ilse Gort

Ayula, Queen Among Bears is my pick for a bear typal deck in Commander. You can run most of the bears that have been printed in this deck alongside Bearscape and other token generators so you can trigger Ayula’s ability as often as possible. The deck runs a standard mono-green package of removal, ramp, combat tricks, and modal spells, and it packs in some generic typal support like Patchwork Banner and Vanquisher's Banner.

Ayula, some bears, and some spells dish out +1/+1 counters, and given that bears tend to be 2/2s, it needs all the anthems and power buffing it can get. Enter Hardened Scales, Oran-Rief, the Vastwood, and Tribute to the World Tree.

This is a grindy deck, but ideally, you’re being an opportunist bear yourself. If things are going well, you’re casting bears regularly to buff up your board and thin out your opponents’. You’re balancing between growing your threats and having them fight in advantageous situations. You’re also holding back your Heroic Intervention to save you from a board wipe, then taking a big swing to take out anyone who’s left vulnerable.

Enter Hibernation

Circle of the Moon Druid | Illustration by Nicholas Elias

With a yawn and a stretch, it’s time to wrap up this bear deep dive. Not the most powerful or well supported of Magic’s creature types, but there’s lots of individual bears that can fit your needs in other deck themes. Besides, as omnivores and scavengers, these silly ol’ bears are highly adaptable. Just remember to be especially mindful of crafty bears looking for lunch in the autumn months…. Ever see what a bear can do to a plastic cooler?

What kind of bear-based decks have you got cooking? Where do you run them in support, and what do you want to see from bears in future Magic sets? Let me know in the comments below or on the Draftsim Discord.

And now, it’s time for me to exit, stage left [pursued by a bear].