Ayula, Queen Among Bears (The Right to Bear Arms) (EDH / Commander)

Before I go into my explanation of this deck, let me first mention that this was inspired by Graham Stark's "Bear Force 1" deck he played on Game Knights episode #27, and heavily influenced by EDHrec's "Upping the Average" episode on Ayula, Queen Among Bears.

First there was nothing. Then, there was light. And space and planets and water and BEARS. This deck is all about bears, as you probably would have guessed, and sacrifices many a good green staple for the overarching theme.

• For Lands I used almost entirely Snow-Covered Forests for the synergy with Spirit of the Aldergard and Blizzard Brawl and flavor for Ayula (same set), with the exception of Oran-Rief, the Vastwood, to give our Bears a minor advantage. I opted for 3 CMC ramp spells because 99% of the time, Ayula is going to be our turn two play, so 1 mana spells like Burgeoning, Exploration, and Lay of the Land are solid options before she gets out.
• Panharmonicon is an incredible card in this deck as it allows us to pump AND fight with our bears whenever we play one, or either one twice. There are also a few ETB effects in this deck that synergize, but not a great amount. Cauldron of Souls (Idea from EDHrec's "Upping the Average") is incredible in this deck as it allows us to keep our Bears after a board wipe by giving them persist so they come back with a -1/-1 counter on them. Ayula then triggers, allowing us to place two +1/+1 counters on each Bear which in turn ends in each Bear having not but a single +1/+1 counter on them.
• For removal, I used almost all fight spells as to stay on theme for this deck, excepting Beast Within and Force of Vigor. Each fight spell in the "Removal Category" has a bear in the art, and that was VERY IMPORTANT when I was building this deck. Yeva, Nature's Herald is in the category as it allows us to flash in a bear to trigger Ayula's fight ability in response to anything but Split-Second spells.
• Caller of the Claw is rather difficult to use, and I'll most likely end up changing it eventually, but it does thematically help us survive after a board wipe. Forest Bear is rather expensive but one of the most well known Bears so I sort of HAD to include it. Werebear can survive as a bit of ramp, Vivien's Grizzly can help us sink some extra mana into a productive source, and Toski, BEARer of Secrets helps our otherwise lackluster card draw.
• There are some sketchy cards in "More unBEARable damage, such as Words of Wilding and Kamahl's Summons, but I like them, so they're in. Mirror of the Forebears is a pun and so is Grizzly Fate, so I through them in with the incredible art on Bearscape to finish off the flavor aspect of this deck.

If you have any questions, comments, concerns, let me known : )