10.  Runeclaw Bear

• Set: Magic 2010

{Ed: Not invited to the Brown Bear party}

It’s really hard to be printed in every single core set and then suddenly, for almost no reason,  be yanked for something called a “Runeclaw Bear.”  I’ve seen a lot of power creep since the early Alpha days, but being functionally reprinted, as a new bear, in a core set that promised “50% new cards!” was almost too much for this bear to handle.  When he showed up on twitter to rub salt in my wounds I just about lost it.  As M11 nears and the two of us look to be facing extinction, we seem to have become brothers in arms in the fight to keep bears in Magic: The Gathering.

9.  Ashcoat Bear

• Set: Time Spiral

I held a real grudge against Runeclaw Bear for functionally reprinting me, but Ashcoat Bear is where the power creep (within the bear clan) really started.  A Grizzly Bears with flash??  Outrageous!  This dude really knows how to surprise people, and bear lovers everywhere rejoiced that their little bears could now jump onto the battlefield whenever they damn well pleased.  I’ve met Ashcoat Bear a couple times, and after talking to him I understand he paid a steep price for that flash.  Dude won’t be OK in the head for a long time, but gets major props from me for doing what it takes.

8.  Bear Cub

• Set: Portal Second Age

This little dude is a living example that bears are straight BAMF’s right out the womb.  Two power?  Check.  Two toughness?  Check.  This little Bear Cub can throw down with the best of them.  I once heard a story of a Bear Cub fighting off a Abyssal Nightstalker mere seconds after its birth.

7.  Forest Bear

• Set: Portal Three Kingdoms

There’s a lot of bears on this list that can throw down, but Forest Bear is here for one thing:  To party.  I’ve seen this dude drink his weight in liquor, burn down half a city, and punch Kongming right in the face.  Dude is shameless, fearless, and an excellent representation of the bear species.

6.  Spectral Bears

• Set: Homelands

Everyone’s always talking ‘ish on Homelands but here’s the one shining star.  2CC for a 3/3?  Must be Spectral Bears.  He’s saying f*** you in a big way to black decks.  In a way I think all bears aspire to be Spectral Bears once they die... to keep living on and bearing it up.

5.  Golden Bear

• Set: Portal Second Age

OK, Portal Second Age is chock-full of bears.  You couldn’t fit anymore bears into a set without making it the theme.  And Golden Bear?  He’s top of food chain as far as bears are concerned.  He’s the original Vengevine (you know, with out haste and a sweet recursion ability.)  I’ve only met him once, but that dude makes a Wild Nacatl look tame.

4.  Razorclaw Bear

• Set: Portal Second Age

Another straight up bad ass.  You don’t block Razorclaw Bear, you just don’t do it.  It’s like psuedo-evasion on a bear.  Every time you block him, he just gets more pissed.  He’s not rampaging, he’s not bushido-ing, he’s just straight up pissed about being blocked.  I complain a lot about new ‘bears’ coming out in sets but poor Razorclaw got replaced by a tiger in Portal Three Kingdoms.

3.  Werebear

• Set: Odyssey

It's good to be the king

I love Werebear, I’m not afraid to say it.  He likes to play it down as a measly 1/1 but don’t you ever underestimate the Werebear.  Not only does he accelerate, he turns the heat on late game and starts bashing face exactly when you need him to.  Moody though... always moody. Outside of 36bears.dec Werebear has for sure seen the most amount of play from the bear clan.  But if I had crazy, supernatural powers I’d probably get played a lot more too.

2.  Striped Bears

• Set: Weatherlight

Striped Bears was the Spreading Seas of his day.  Cantripping’s a big deal in the world of Magic, and Striped Bears helped green mages every where keep their hand brimming with bears.  It’s been a long, long time since I’ve seen this ol’ bugger, but I bet he’s still doing alright.

1. Grizzly Bears

• Set: Every set of all time (except for all the sets I didn’t make it into, and that one core set that decided not to run me)

Did you really expect anything else?  I’m the bear.  I’m the reason it’s called a bear.  Years and years from now, when you hear anyone, for any reason, call anything a bear... you’ll have me to thank.  Better than a bear, worse than a bear, it all comes back to bears.  I may not be printed as often these days, but I’ll always be around.

norbert88: If I were to write an article of the Top X Magpies of All Time (Ophidian/ Shadowmage/etc), what would be your interest level? (scale 1-10)

Grizzly_Bears: If I were to write an article of the Top X Bears of All Time, what would be your interest level? (scale 1-10) (@norbert88)

Really, is this close? I'm at a 2 out of 2 for excitement about the Bears list and only a 1 out of 3 for the Ophidian list. With that in mind...

The 10 Best 'Bears' In Magic History

Before we begin, we need to define a 'bear'. For this list, a bear is a creature that costs 1C (one colorless mana plus one mana of a specific color) and has base power and toughness of 2/2. With those criteria, I narrowed the field down to 13 bears that saw significant tournament play. With two of them being functionally identical, that leaves me with two honorable mentions:

Fallen Askari

A black bear with a pretty potent ability (flanking) in exchange for a negligible weakness (can't block). Fallen Askari was key in Suicide Black decks as well as the 1997 World Championship deck of Jakub Slemr. Black typically doesn't get creatures this good at this cost, most 2/2s in black are BB or have just drawbacks.

Ironclaw Orcs

Ironclaw Orcs was one of the critical beatdown creatures to the original Sligh decks. Like Fallen Askari, this bear comes with a drawback - he can only block creatures with 1 or less power. Of course, if this guy's blocking, you're doing it wrong. Like in black, 2/2s for 1R are hard to find, and creatures have become so much better since the days of Sligh that a guy like Goblin Raider deservedly gets no press.

10. Stingscourger

• Deck: Legacy Goblins
• Role: Wreck Reanimator

Here's one of the more creative designs from Planar Chaos. In Stingscourger, you get to bounce an opponent's creature and get a bear at the cost of that bear becoming really expensive the following turn. It doesn't matter when you bounce Iona, Shield of Emeria, Blazing Archon, or the big-u Terastodon. Sometimes he even chump blocks an elephant!

9. Riftsweeper

• Deck: Time Spiral Block Tarmogoyf
• Role: Devour Ancestral Vision, Delayed spells and the occasional Shade of Trokair

Riftsweeper's a card that did its job well. Need an Ancestral Vision to not resolve? Feed it to Riftsweeper. Need a Mystical Teachings to go away? Delay it, then feed it to Riftsweeper. Bash for two points a turn? Send in the Riftsweeper. While the Tarmogoyf decks were much better known for their namesake, Riftsweeper provided a ton of utility in a bear-sized package.

8. Wolf-Skull Shaman

• Deck: Lorwyn Block Doran, Lorwyn Block Shaman
• Role: Making more bears wolves

Wolf-Skull Shaman. Man, did I like this card. Here's a bear that makes more troops at the small cost of giving your opponent information. So what if he knows you're about to draw Crib Swap? That just makes your army even more formidable. Wolf-Skull Shaman was the key pin to Shaman decks, both those that looked to abuse Rage Forger and Leaf-Crowned Elder, and those looking to stand with Doran, the Siege Tower. Fun fact - Doran, the Siege Tower completely wrecks Siege of Towers.

7. Bramblewood Paragon

• Deck: Standard Aggro Elves and Warriors
• Role: She is here to *clap* pump you up.

The problem aggressive decks often have is punching through a strong defense. Sometimes your enemy just throws a wall or two in the way, or even worse a pesky little guy like Burrenton Forge-Tender. Bramblewood Paragon pulled double duty for aggressive Warrior-based decks by making subsequent creatures bigger and giving them trample as long as she's around. It's hard to pass up that combo.

6. Kavu Predator

• Deck: Time Sprial Block Predator
• Role: Trampling over opponents for great Justice

Kavu Predator was the namesake card for the Predator deck, which used Grove of the Burnwillows and Justice to turn a 2/2 trampler into a monster that would be impossible to deal with. In a format where Tendrils of Corruption was the favored removal spell, using it against the Predator deck was a big danger - if the Predator got too big, you wouldn't be able to Tendrils it at all, and killing one of the other creatures in the deck, like Tarmogoyf, just made the Predator bigger. As long as there was no Damnation, opposing decks were caught between a rock and a very angry bear.

5. Ronom Unicorn/Kami of Ancient Law

• Deck: Numerous
• Role: Interrupter of combos, destroyer of enchantments

These two guys do the same thing and they do it well. As bears, they bring the beatdown early, then once your opponent has a pesky enchantment (like Heartbeat of Spring, Solitary Confinement or Form of the Dragon), your Unicorn or Spirit selflessly gives its life for the greater good. You can't ask for much more from your half a Seal of Cleansing.

4. Kavu Titan

• Deck: Invasion Block R/G Stompy
• Role: Early beats or late monster. Your call!

This one... you might not get excited about a 2/2 for 2 or a 5/5 trampler for 5 now, but back in the day, having the option of either one on the same card was straight gas. Have a hand with a glut of three and four drops? Kavu Titan starts the curve. More clumped around the low end? Titan gets to top out your curve. You get eight cards worth of curve slots for only four cards in your deck, a major bargain.

3. Ethersworn Canonist

• Deck: Extended Affinity, Standard Reveillark Control
• Role: Making opponent's lives miserable, one spell/turn at a time

Arcane Labratory on wheels. For one less. In the Affinity gameplan, it's a one-sided Arcane Lab as long as you're not playing the mirror. In Standard, the man counters Cascade, turning Bloodbraid Elf into Vulshok Berserker and Enlisted Wurm into a vanilla 5/5. Pretty crafty for a bear, huh?

2. Nest Invader

• Deck: Standard Jund, Naya, Spread 'Em, R/G Monument, etc.
• Role: Acceleration and versatility

I was raving about Nest Invader all weekend at the Cascade Games 2.5K and the last PTQ of the season in Seattle. And for good reason, because Nest Invader does so much. Primarily in decks as ways 5-8 to get a four drop into play on turn 3 (alongside Lotus Cobra), Nest Invader provides extra blockers late, extra fodder for Eldrazi Monuments, and an effective cost of one mana later in the game to give yourself flexibility in casting other spells. Last time we got a one mana 2/2, it was legendary. Or couldn't attack or block alone, but I choose to ignore Jackal Familiar. This guy's all upside.

1. Wild Mongrel

• Deck: Standard U/G Madness, R/G Madness
• Role: Archetype enabler, unkillable hound

How much would you pay for the following creature?

Your choices are G or "Target creature becomes black (so you can't Dark Banishing it!) and gets +1/+1 until end of turn". Oh, and if you pay the second cost, the spell gets flash. Nice mechanic, Wizards, Basking Rootwalla sure is balanced. Add in Roar of the Wurm, Fiery Temper, Circular Logic, Arrogant Wurm and you get the idea. Wild Mongrel made all of these spells cheaper to play, and most of them instant speed. Wild Mongrel was all set to rule the world until people realized how good Psychatog was. Instead, he was merely great.

Now, M11 will have two more really good bears that will challenge for spots on this list, Fauna Shaman and War Priest of Thune. Where they will end up, time will tell. But I can already see Vengevine being discarded with that cute "oh darn" face that Survival of the Fittest players always have.