(Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma | Art by Svetlin Velinov)

Bearing a Heavy Load

Hi there! I’m Jeremy Rowe, AKA J Ro, the Unsummoned Skull, a former Judge, Tournament Organizer, and Pro Tour competitor. I’m also currently a teacher, college professor, streamer, community leader, and content creator. In this series, we examine the big EDH questions: What makes a card good? What’s the difference between popularity and synergy? What even is that synergy thing anyways? My intention is to differentiate between high- and low-synergy cards, describe the ways those cards work with the commander, and explain why high synergy is such a good thing. For a deck to be powerful and consistent, each card needs to do a job, and these cards do WORK!

For our third article, we're taking a look at a big ball of fangs and fur, of a creature type that’s near and dear to my heart: Goreclaw, the first green Bear commander.

Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma is a big, beefy, beater of a Bear, with a cost-reduction effect that cares about the size of the creatures we cast. Bears are my favorite animals, since I look like a bear, act like a bear, and sound like a bear. My mom calls me Jer Bear, my dad calls me Mr. Bear, and my sister calls me 'Bear-me' instead of 'Jeremy'.

Despite the creature type, though, Goreclaw is not a great commander for Bears, as most are too small to take advantage of the cost reduction or attack-based power boost. Ayula, Queen Among Bears is better at Bear tribal. Instead, Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma has gained a following as a green stompy commander. Goreclaw is just as aggressive as her name would suggest, and all manner of beatsticks enjoy the benefits of bear-ly costing anything! The cost reduction allows Goreclaw to fill the board, and the attack trigger pumps up those big beasts and gives them trample. 

Thing is, how do you build a balanced shell, capable of interacting meaningfully while applying pressure? To observe the ursine beast in her natural environment, we’ll examine how Goreclaw can do the jobs a deck needs to do, but in her own way, unique from how other green decks function. Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma is a special commander, so let’s find the right tools for these jobs!

Ramp

Most decks need ramp to play high-impact spells at a time when they are still relevant. This is especially true in the era of rapid power creep, and even more pertinent when our commander costs four mana and only reduces the cost of creatures afterward.

For each job, I'd like to highlight a low-synergy-score card, a high-synergy-score card, and an underrated card for this commander, to add more context to the qualitative data and see how each one magnifies the abilities, accentuates the strengths, and mitigates the weaknesses of our commander.

All of these cards ramp by one and provide some additional value. 

Elvish Mystic is a small body and decent blocker that enables Goreclaw to come down faster and create a board ahead of the development of other decks, but does not get the pump without being bigger before combat. On Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma's EDHREC page, you'll see that Elvish Mystic has a low synergy score (1%), but that doesn't mean it's a bad card here. Synergy scores on EDHREC are a form of uniqueness calculation (56% of Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma decks play Elvish Mystic, and 57% of all other mono-green decks also play Elvish Mystic, so the difference = 1%). 

Ilysian Caryatid, by contrast, has a synergy score of 38% on EDHREC, which signals to us that it's a little bit more unique to our fuzzy friend than to other green commanders. The “if you control a creature with power 4 or greater” clause, known in Goreclaw’s homeplane of Tarkir as Ferocious, is a bit more palatable here, since Goreclaw qualifies for this on her own, and she also reduces the cost of those same creatures, giving us even more mana. Our commander wants to go both big and wide, so anything that enables multiple big bodies to beat down bodes well for our Bear buddy!

Rhonas’s Monument is an underrated "mana rock" that provides another great boost. The whole Monument cycle is just fantastic! 65% of Goreclaw decks play it, but I think that's too low. Unlike the mana dorks, Rhonas’s Monument doesn’t provide mana, but it does provide a static discount to all green creature spells (including Goreclaw!), which we're also reducing the cost of through our commander! This doubled reduction should not be overlooked, and can help us develop our board super quickly. The pump and trample effect can even make mana dorks big enough for Goreclaw to boost them!

Spot Removal

In addition to being able to cast spells on-time (or early enough in the game to still be relevant), decks need removal to be able to deal with the threats opposing decks present, as well as to be able to protect their own threats from opposing removal. In Goreclaw’s case, spot removal is what creates the openings needed to keep attacking, as well as to remove problem permanents.

Beast Within is excellent at removing all manner of permanents, the flexibility of which is important to a deck that wins with creatures and wants to be able to swing in profitably. It's got a -1% synergy score on Goreclaw’s EDHREC page because other mono-green decks play it at about the same rate as Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma. Don't let that synergy score fool you; the -1% means it's a staple card, not that it's a bad card. Goreclaw and Co. will trample right over the Beast token.

Thorn Mammoth, meanwhile, has a synergy score of 26% for our mama Bear, showing us that it's used more with Goreclaw than with other green commanders. It destroys creatures and comes with a 6/6 body, synergizing with out commander by being large and in charge, gladly taking the cost reduction and attack pump. It requires five mana, even with the cost reduction, but the size more than makes up for it. The high cost and redundant trample probably keep the numbers a bit lower than they could be. Here, though, we're willing to accept less versatility and a redundant ability so that we can continue attacking, even if our commander isn’t out.

Conclave Naturalists is an underrated option, played in only 23% of Goreclaw decks. Like the others, it answers a permanent, but the permanent needs to be an artifact or enchantment, and we get an offensive benefit on an aggressively-costed creature. While the targeting may be less flexible, the lower mana cost, lack of a downside, and high power and toughness work in its favor. It also has a functionally identical twin known as Indrik Stomphowler, so we could actually run multiple copies of this effect, helping the deck maintain consistency. Aggressive decks need a high volume of bodies, and hiding a body on a removal spell, which can have its cost reduced by the commander, frees up win condition spots!

Mass Removal

Most decks need plans for what to do if things get out of hand, and Goreclaw is no different. However, as a deck that maintains a large board state and is usually the one responsible for things getting out of hand in the first place, we don’t need too many of these effects.

Heroic Intervention is a deceptively powerful card. It doesn’t appear to be a mass removal spell because it doesn’t get rid of anything by itself and usually answers an opponent's spell one-for-one. However, Heroic Intervention is an example of a card that has a lot of “play” to it: its power comes from its instant speed as well as its usability in combat after blocks, in response to board wipes, and in surviving attacks. The removal can be controlled, so the offense can continue, and opponents’ board wipes can affect other players and ignore our board, almost like they paid for us to play a one-sided wipe!

Terastodon, meanwhile, has a synergy score of 32% for our mama Bear. It can destroy multiple permanents and comes with a 9/9 body, which is just excellent, and any tokens we give away can be trampled over with out commander's ability. The tokens don’t have to all go to the same place, and we can even use our own permanents to make a bunch of creatures out of our lands. The high cost and inability to hit creatures probably keep the numbers a bit lower than they could be, but this is a great card to cast, especially at a reduced cost.

Ezuri’s Predation is our underrated mass removal pick. While it isn’t a creature, and doesn’t get the cost reduction from Goreclaw, it is a huge momentum swing. It makes 4/4 bodies equal to the number of creatures our opponents control, each of which fights a creature an opponent controls. This triggers anything that cares about sizeable creatures entering the battlefield, and when the summoning sickness wears off, all those 4/4s we managed to keep will get pumped up by Goreclaw!

Card Draw

Every deck needs card draw, selection, tutoring, or advantage, to help find the pieces it needs to transition between the phases of the game. There are always going to be spells that are better early than late, or better from ahead, or better from behind. Goreclaw is unique in that it often draws cards as its board grows, enabling the deck to chain large creatures with the cost reduction. There are a lot of ways to use these bodies, especially in green, which makes finding the right tool super important. 

Harmonize shows up with a -11% synergy score on Goreclaw's EDHREC page. This is a popular green spell, typically slotted into generic green decks, and an example of a color pie bleed from Planar Chaos. That's actually why it has a negative synergy score: decks with a singular focus, like Goreclaw, can actually find card draw elsewhere. This deck cares about bodies - Primordial Sage will also be four mana in this deck, for example. 27% of Goreclaw players are still running Harmonize, so it deserves a mention, but as a form of card advantage, it doesn't quite hit the mark.

Colossal Majesty doesn’t draw a burst of cards, but it does put us up a card in hand each turn, and for a minimal cost, as most turns should begin with a large creature in play. I think its low cost is what contributes to its high synergy score (35%).

Shamanic Revelation is a massive swing in card advantage, and in Goreclaw, it can also be a huge swing in momentum. It allows us to draw a card for each creature we control, which should be a lot for a deck looking to go big and wide. The Ferocious ability gains four life for each creature that meets Goreclaw’s requirements, and that's a lot of our creatures. In this deck, lifegain can cause a vital swing in our favor, so we can attack more freely without worryign about a lethal crack back attack.

Win Conditions

The last major job that most decks need is a way to actually close out the game. Ramping allows us to play spells out more quickly and reliably, but can be dead draws late game. Removing threats works for a while, but with three opponents, someone’s going to stick something, and games can either stall out or develop into arms races. Card draw helps, but what are you looking to actually draw? The answer is... win conditions! In a deck where the commander makes big bodies cheaper and grants those bodies evasion, presenting additional power, breaking board stalls, and reducing the risk of retribution are key to winning!

Most green combat-oriented decks will use a solid Overrun effect, and Overwhelming Stampede is one of the best. It's particularly potent in a deck that specializes in large creatures, but not much more than any other green deck with creatures. With Stampede, only one creature needs to be big, so, when all of them are big, the returns diminish.

Archetype of Endurance is the master of invalidating spot removal. Granting hexproof to all of our stuff is big game, but stripping opponents of it enables our fight effects, which are highly synergistic with Goreclaw and other high-power creatures. By supporting an entire subset of cards, Archetype opens synergies for spot removal, making deckbuilding much easier!

Siege Behemoth, our last card of note, is a creature that somehow sneaks under the radar, showing up in 19% of Goreclaw decks, but only 3% of other mono-green decks, for a 16% synergy rating. I say “somehow” because nothing else about the Behemoth is subtle. It's a 7/4 creature with hexproof, so it’s difficult to take down, and as long as it's attacking, it gives all attacking creatures Thorn Elemental’s ability to invalidate blockers. Its somewhat low toughness is a bit of a risk, and the lack of haste means the table will see it coming, but Goreclaw was never hiding what it was doing. It’s up to the table to figure out if there’s anything they can do about it. If the deck is built well, the answer will be a resounding “no”.

A High-Powered Bestiary!

Let's round it out with a sample Goreclaw decklist! We're focusing on doing the jobs a deck needs to function in a way that capitalizes on the commander’s unique characteristics.

Hopefully, this guide helps you to evaluate cards and use the data at hand! Results may vary, as playgroups, deck choices, and the luck of the draw can impact how games go.

Which cards overperformed for you? Which cards were overrated? Join me next time as we explore which cards are dead weight, and which cards do WORK!

Jeremy Rowe

Teacher, judge, DM, & Twitch Affiliate. Lover of all things Unsummon. Streams EDH, Oathbreaker, D & D, & Pokemon. Even made it to a Pro Tour!