Pointed Discussion

Well, I outlined my reasons for disliking this card on the M11 printing. Lazy design, non-vanilla name for a vanilla creature, unnecessary break from tradition etc etc. No need to rehash that here.

Not only that, the flavor text is now 100% stupider.OH WOW HE'S SOOO TOUGH. At least the Grizzlies had humorous flavor... sigh.

I thought of ranting more, but then I remembered that he dies to Chub Toad, which made me grin. Suck on that, Runeclaw.

Based on that new flavour text, it should have Bloodthirst.

Boo! Stop reprinting this garbage and bring back Grizzly Bears. Absolutely absurd "justifications" for replacing it.

If you look at the new Phantasmal Bear, it is the same bear as this one but in illusion form. weird, but at least this card will be referenced in something that is actually decent.

RUNED CLAWS!

Y U NO DO ANYTHING??!

So white gets Armored Warhorse at common, and green, the creature colour, gets this.

I demand an Armored Warbear.

You know Wizards, if you're hesitant to reprint "Grizzly Bears" because it's plural rather than singular, just give us "Grizzly Bear" for {1}{G}, nobody will mind. People will still be able to slap one down on the table, bellowing "I summon a GRRRIIIIZZZZLYYY BEEAAAARR!", rather than having to sheepishly slip this "fantasy-flavor" vanilla into play, likely barely bringing themselves to announce it at all given it's unfitting name and unbearable flavor text. Plus, it'll make for a funny, memorable story down the road when people compare "Grizzly Bear" for {1}{G} with "Grizzly Bears" for {1}{G}. Runeclaw bear, of course, would have no place in that story other than as a footnote.

TLDR: Nobody likes you, Runeclaw Bear. Go away please.

Strictly worse than Grizzly Bears. At least, y'know, tradition-wise.

I still hate this card.....

I feel like printing out the comments Wanderer25 made on this and the M11 version, circulating them as a petition, and mailing them to Renton, WA with about 10,000 signatures. Give us back our Grizzly Bears!

Devil's Advocate time. The flavor text, while stupid on its own, hints at vampirism among bears. And what do we have coming up soon? A set that is going to feature an asston of vampires.

This could possibly be the harbinger of green's signature tribe in Innistrad: vampire bears. Lifelinked, flying, bloodthirsty bears that have capes and sneak into your bedroom at night. That could take some of the sting out of the Runeclaw Affair.

You heard it here first.

Dies to Grizzly Bears.

Please, just give us Ashcoat Bear.

Also, to all those people complaing that they don't print Grizzly Bears anymore: I only hear "A THREAT TO MY NOSTALGIA!"

Dies to Doom Blade.

I like the M10 flavor text better.

I like Grizzly Bears much better.

If the flavor bothers you so much, I have a solution. It's a very simple solution, so hopefully some of you may understand.

Play grizzly bears.

Nobody is forcing you to play this card. In fact, nobody is forcing you to look at it, or even play this game for that matter. You guys are like those people that complain about Hexproof. Every time a new mechanic or card comes out that you disagree with, you cry and moan about it, but then continue to play the game anyways and forget all about it by the time the next set is released. I think the flavor text is stupid, too. But I'm not going to complain about a nearly useless filler common that nobody cared about before it was given a functional reprint. You guys are like bitchy children that are impossible to please.

Get real.

Lol. Nostalgia is a powerful thing as the ninth edition Grizzly Bears has an almost 4-star rating, while this functional reprint has a 1.5. Just pointing that out.

Are there enough 2/2 bears for to populate a deck with? That would be cool.

You could doctor your Coat of Arms to read Coat of Fur.

The best substitute for this card is Garruk's Companion....and yet it still manages to find its way into starter decks.

Runeclaw bear, you are a wannabe. But you'll never be Grizzly Bears.

This would actually be cool, but I think those runed claws should have some special effect... as it goes it's a cool concept, but it's nothing but another Grizzly Bears clone, which is pretty sad.

I use four of these, just to spite everyone whining about a name change.

Runeclaw bear
Grizzly bears
I call that card advantage

I heard that Vancouver is naming their basketball team the Vancouver Runeclaws.

True story.

Life-saver.
I have NEVER regretted throwing down the RCB's.

The flavor text is nice, but BRING BACK GRIZZLY BEARS. End of Discussion.

He's not great, but deserves a higher rating than 1.7. A 2/2 for two, that's an even return for your mana. Yeah, the M10 version has a better flavor text, and I do see disappointment in this guy not having an ability for what would appear to be an enchanted bear, but come on; it's not like we're talking about Ironroot Treefolk here.

2.5 out of 5, to be fair.

While the overall idea of 'updating' some of the beloved Core Set cards of days of yore is something I fully support (Holy Strength and Unholy Strength are sadly really not good enough. It's a shame such great names have to be retired now, but I agree with the decision. Non creature Spells started out too good, and while Mythic creatures have now swung too far themselves, I think common creatures and creature-based spells like auras need to be pushed a bit and that's healthy for the game. I just wish they'd saved the M10 art for the Strengths so they could put them on the new M12 cards. :/)

the REAL problem everyone hates Runeclaw Bears for is this: they are too BLUE. WAY too blue for one of the iconic Green cards of all time. Wizards has shown before that they are plenty capable printing lots of 2/2 creatures that do NOT look stupid. But this? this looks like something out of one of those wierd fantasy places. I don't mean just 'oh, come on....fantasy world excuse, right?'
Nope. not buying that.

'RUNECLAW' Bears? seriously? In Magic, having a natural green wild creature like a bear have magically enchanted claws that are even Blue in color is about as wrong as half the things you see in the wild on Avatar: the Last Airbender. That show is great when it comes to human characters learning elemental bending 'magic' or ripping off Star Wars philosophy or ripping off Captain Planet 'smash all the colors together to do something AWESOME!'. I love that stuff. But seriously? Their zoology is wacked, even for 'but it's FANTASY!'. Really, really, disturbingly wacked. You can find wierder animals on Avatar than in Pokemon -.-

And Runeclaw Bears reminds me of those mutant freak circus sideshow abominations from the stupider parts of fantasy. It's just. not. right. for bears to be THIS 'magical'. Green's ALL TIME ICONIC spell ever is called 'Naturalize'. NOT 'Magicalize'.

While you could argue that Magic: the Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons, and World of Warcraft all seem so VERY MUCH like Lord of the Rings as to be nearly indistinguishable to people who aren't nerds, I would put forth the suggestion that the Color Green in Magic is supposed to be the most Lord-of-the-Ringsy part of the game. I would even say that it would not surprise me if you showed some random person a random Elf Magic card, they could think it was from Lord of the Rings even if you think there's no way they should make that mistake, BUT that same person would intuit that Runeclaw Bears can't POSSIBLY be from Lord of the Rings.

Some people might think my proposed 'Lord of the Rings' test is innappropriate to use for this, that or the other reason. A pretty valid one would be that Wurms, Baloths, Terastodons, Tyrannaxes and all sorts of green beasts would not make the cut.

Extend it just this far: I think that any card in Green in Magic ought to be able to fit into Lord of the Rings or Dungeons & Dragons, but ought to look wierd if you tried to put it in World of Warcraft. Baloths, Hydras, Garruk Wildspeaker, all kinds of stuff that might not quite fit LoTR but feel GREEN would still seem fine for D&D.

I dunno, but there's just something about WoW that's a bit too futuristic, and actually natural stuff like Grizzly Bears just doesn't cut it.....while Lord of the Rings and D&D keep a certain healthy medievalness to them that I think really adds definition to Green.

Runeclaw Bears is too World of Warcrafty for me.

Dear Wizards: Bear lord for M13 please. It is time.

I don't see what all the fuss is about. Grizzly Bears had a good long run. This is a functional reprint, meaning it has replaced our beloved bears. Its the same thing. GET OVER IT! Besides, look at that guy, he looks badass! Expect this fella to be around for the next 7 core sets.

stop being butthurt over a name change, and an art change. -_-;

@ luca_barelli I sooo agree, I'm searching community rating of green in ascending order. It's a 2/2 for 2 what's the problem right?

Bring back the grizzly already!

TimmyForever is the official troll of Gatherer by which all other trolls shall be measured.

Or, Salient, you could call it Coat of Bear Arms.

Back in the day the bear was a staple. But now there is power creep and his only purpose is a draft filler. Everything else is getting pumped up, so the iconic staple should get a pump as well.

There are many {1}{G} 2/2s in magic, with different variations to being strictly better then the vanilla bear. The core set's need to pick one form and fill this slot, or come up with something new.

Giving the vanilla creature slots in core slightly useful activated abilities will help the game and new players. The arugment that they dont want to confuse new players is silly, because after there first day of playing, they already mastered the vanilla bear. Then they will be wishing there bear was as good as it could be.

Which leads me to Goblin Piker. This is so far below the curve its sickening. It stinks up drafts and Goblin players absolutely despise there goblin slots in core wasted on this crap. I get that you dont want to give red a 2/2 vanilla as well (even tho that is well below the curve), but theres so many other things you can do to make up for the lack of toughness. Goblin Shortcutter is a fine example. Anyone who says thats to confusing for a new player needs a reality check. How hard is it to figure out when u drop this guy, you can make one of "the bad guys" not block. I babysat a 8 year old and he understood that concept in the first few games of magic i played with him.

They need to do something about the junk stuff in core. No1 wants to see it, no1 likes it, but yet they print it every set.

Then again maby MTG is not as stupid as they claim to be, and print things like goblin piker so you tear threw more booster packs to get to the good stuff.

I know it's a functional reprint of Grizzly Bears, but now 2/2 for 2 isn't just a green thing. Every color gets their own Grizzly Bear, even Black and Blue. The flavor text is forgettable and hokey, displaying the descent of Magic under Maro. This game has been dumbed down so much it isn't chess anymore, it's checkers.

3/12/2013

Runeclaw Bear rated 1.848 / 5
Grizzly Bears rated 3.738 / 5

Grizzly Bears strictly better.

Still not as good as Bear Cub, whom in 2014 will grow up to be the first bear lord and banish the elves.
Minotaur with beat the goblins.
Thrulls will eat the zombies.
Walls will confine the soldiers.
And the merfolk shall be overrun by beebles?

I must say that runeclaw bear is a missed opportunity in my opinion. With those wicked runes would lifelink or doublestrike have been asking too much? Amirite? And yes wizards we demand a Bearlord!

@Konokono
Bear Cub rated 4.388.
Strictly betterer.

Horrible horrible name. Forced generic-fantasy dreck with no sense of the magic or depth which originally attracted me to the game.

What they have to understand is that in order for your soaring mystical dragons to have meaning, you sometimes have to have magic that just summons bears. Grizzly Bears was significant to me the first time I read it because it told me that I could play wizard who, very easily, could summon real, honest bears and send them at my foes!

Turning them into magick 'runeclaw' bears doesn't make them feel cooler. It makes it feel like the game is trying for this forced sense of ZOMG MAGIC in every single card, which makes the setting as a whole feel thinner -- more gaudy, less real and concrete.

Keep printing these. Make bear tribal a thing