Surrak and Goreclaw
GLegendary Creature — Human Bear

Surrak and Goreclaw

Mana value6EDHREC#1,593

The Commander

Trample

Other creatures you control have trample.

Whenever another nontoken creature you control enters, put a +1/+1 counter on it. It gains haste until end of turn.

Guide

Gameplan

Ramp aggressively into big green creatures, then dump your hand of nontoken beaters that all enter with a +1/+1 counter, trample, and haste so they swing the turn they land. You snowball board presence faster than opponents can stabilize and overwhelm them with hasty, trampling threats.

Strengths

  • Mono-green ramp gives consistent fast mana and explosive turns
  • Every nontoken creature is a hasty surprise attacker, dodging sorcery-speed removal windows
  • Trample everywhere means chump blocking barely slows you down
  • Counters make creatures resilient to small toughness sweepers and improve combat math

Weaknesses

  • Mono-color means no interaction outside green—weak to control and combo
  • Board wipes hit your go-wide strategy hard and you lack recovery instants
  • No card advantage engine baked in; can run out of gas
  • Token strategies and X/X tokens don't benefit from the counter ability

Key Cards

  • Craterhoof BehemothEnters with haste and a counter, instantly converting your trampling board into lethal damage.
  • Vorinclex, Voice of HungerDoubles your mana and taxes opponents, snowballing Surrak and Goreclaw's expensive payoffs.
  • CultivateCheap, reliable ramp and fixing to hit your six-drop commander and big threats ahead of schedule.
  • Garruk, Primal HunterRefills your hand based on your biggest creature, solving green's card-advantage problem.
  • Selvala, Heart of the WildsPours out enormous mana from your large creatures to chain threats in a single turn.

Upgrade Path

Add fast mana and doublers (Mana Crypt, Sol Ring, Vorinclex, Nyxbloom Ancient) to deploy your commander and threats turns ahead. Lean into card advantage (Beast Whisperer, Guardian Project, Garruk's Uprising) so you never run dry, and include protection like Heroic Intervention and Allosaurus Shepherd against wipes. Cap it with multiple overrun effects (Triumph of the Hordes, Pathbreaker Ibex) for redundant kills.

Core Cards

The most-played cards for this commander, built from aggregated deck data (the Mythic Graph). Build public decks to seed it.

Win Conditions

  • Craterhoof Behemoth or Overrun-style finishers with universal trample for one-shot kills
  • Commander damage from a buffed, trampling Surrak and Goreclaw
  • Grinding opponents down with a wide board of hasty, counter-pumped attackers

Archetypes

  • Big Green StompyThe ability hands every fatty haste and a counter, turning ramp into immediate pressure.
  • Ramp/BeatdownMono-green acceleration funnels into expensive trampling threats that close fast.
  • Combo (Mana doublers + Selvala)Cheap creatures plus untappers and mana doublers can chain into a Craterhoof finish.

Combos

Combos via Commander Spellbook.

Related Commanders

Same color identity (G), by popularity.

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