The Bears of Littjara MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 3 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost3
RarityRare
TypeEnchantment — Saga

Key Takeaways

  1. Creates 2/2 changeling tokens, fortifying board presence and enabling tribal synergies efficiently.
  2. Streamlines deck functionality by searching for Bear or shapeshifter cards directly from the library.
  3. Exchanges control of tokens for opponent’s creatures, offering strategic board manipulation.

Text of card

(As this Saga enters and after your draw step, add a lore counter. Sacrifice after III.) I — Create a 2/2 blue Shapeshifter creature token with changeling. II — Any number of target Shapeshifter creatures you control have base power and toughness 4/4. III — Choose up to one target creature or planeswalker. Each creature with power 4 or greater you control deals damage equal to its power to that permanent.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: The Bears of Littjara helps you establish a strong board presence by enabling you to create a 2/2 blue Shapeshifter creature token with changeling at the beginning of your upkeep. This ensures a consistent supply of creatures that can adapt to various tribal synergies, effectively increasing your on-field resources every turn without expending additional cards from your hand.

Resource Acceleration: Aside from the token generation, this saga also allows you to search your library for a card named Bear or a shapeshifter card, thereby accelerating your access to key pieces within your deck. This enhances the efficiency at which you can gather your powerful creatures or combo elements, streamlining your game plan significantly.

Instant Speed: Although The Bears of Littjara itself doesn’t operate at instant speed, its third lore counter effect allows you to exchange control of the tokens it has generated for any target creature an opponent controls at sorcery speed. In a strategic sense, this can be planned alongside instant-speed removal or bounce effects in your deck, creating opportunities to dismantle your opponent’s strategy during their turn.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: While The Bears of Littjara offers a multifaceted approach to deck flexibility, a pivotal downside presents itself for players who lack a diverse card pool. The enchantment demands not just precision in timing but also readiness to discard, reducing hand advantage which can be detrimental during the late game or in resource-strapped situations.

Specific Mana Cost: This card comes with a specific cost that requires blue and green mana. For decks that don’t run these colors, the Bears of Littjara is inaccessible. Moreover, this makes the card less versatile across various deck types, pigeonholing its application mostly to Simic or multicolor decks that include blue and green.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Costing three mana with two color specificities, The Bears of Littjara sits at a higher point on the curve than some other options available within the same color identity. This can lead to slower starts and potential tempo loss, especially pertinent in formats where speed and efficiency are paramount. Decks seeking immediate board impact might find the enchantment’s cost restrictive for early game strategy.


Reasons to Include The Bears of Littjara in Your Collection

Versatility: This enchantment offers flexibility across different deck builds, lending a solid base for creature strategies. Not only does it create a token creature, but its second ability furthers board presence by converting other tokens into greater threats.

Combo Potential: With The Bears of Littjara, latent synergies with token and shapeshifter mechanics are unleashed, offering savvy players the chance to craft powerful interactions and game-winning moments.

Meta-Relevance: It can fit seamlessly into existing blue and green decks, providing a persistent advantage against a variety of opponents. As a card capable of quickly escalating the board state, it challenges opponents to find an answer or fall behind.


How to beat

In Magic: The Gathering, facing down The Bears of Littjara can be quite the challenge. This enchantment notably allows the player to create a 2/2 blue Bear creature token with changeling on each of their upkeeps, potentially overwhelming opponents with a steady stream of creatures. To counter this strategy, the key lies in disruption and removal. Cards like Naturalize or Bedevil can directly target and destroy The Bears of Littjara before the bear tokens take over the game.

Another effective approach is to focus on cards that restrict the benefits of token generation. Mass removal spells such as Wrath of God or Doomskar can clear the board of bear tokens, resetting the advantage your opponent is building. In addition, countering the card as it’s cast with spells like Counterspell or Negate ensures that this enchantment never gets the chance to impact the board. Staying one step ahead with these removal and counter strategies is essential to beat The Bears of Littjara in MTG.

Ultimately, while The Bears of Littjara can create a daunting presence on the battlefield, with the right tools and timing, you can maintain control of the game and dismantle your opponent’s bear-infested strategy.


BurnMana Recommendations

Exploring the depths of MTG strategy with cards like The Bears of Littjara can profoundly impact your deck’s performance. Having tackled its strengths and weaknesses, it’s clear this card thrives in certain environments. Capitalizing on its token generation and tribal synergies requires insight and finesse. Whether you’re delving into tribal themes or looking for versatile enchantments to bolster your creature strategies, our discussion highlights the potential of this unique saga. Keen on advancing your gameplay and refining your collection with impactful cards like The Bears of Littjara? Dive deeper with us, and let’s ensure your next match is a strategic triumph.


Cards like The Bears of Littjara

The Bears of Littjara has carved out its niche within the tribal support cards in Magic: The Gathering. It finds company among cards like Icon of Ancestry, which also offers a boost to creatures of a particular type. However, The Bears of Littjara provides a distinct advantage with its ability to create bear tokens, which synergizes perfectly with bear tribal strategies. Unlike Icon of Ancestry, which gives a static power and toughness boost and can fetch creature cards, The Bears of Littjara also introduces an element of control by allowing the exchange of a token for a creature with one of your opponent’s.

Looking at other similar enchantments, we can consider Reflections of Littjara. It also celebrates tribal play by copying a creature of the chosen type whenever one is cast. While The Bears of Littjara adds creatures to the board, Reflections of Littjara doubles the effectiveness of playing creatures of your chosen type. Lastly, there’s Mirror March. Although not tribe-specific, it has a randomized element that can potentially flood the board with token copies of a creature. This can lead to explosive turns but lacks the consistency and targeted tribal support that The Bears of Littjara provides.

Ultimately, The Bears of Littjara holds a unique position in Magic: The Gathering as a consistent and versatile asset for players building bear-themed decks and looking to utilize both tribal buffs and token strategies.

Icon of Ancestry - MTG Card versions
Reflections of Littjara - MTG Card versions
Mirror March - MTG Card versions
Icon of Ancestry - MTG Card versions
Reflections of Littjara - MTG Card versions
Mirror March - MTG Card versions

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Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase The Bears of Littjara MTG card by a specific set like Kaldheim and Kaldheim Promos, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the The Bears of Littjara and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The The Bears of Littjara Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2021-02-05 and 2021-02-06. Illustrated by Randy Gallegos.

#ReleasedNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12021-02-05KaldheimKHM 2052015SagaBlackRandy Gallegos
22021-02-06Kaldheim PromosPKHM 205p2015SagaBlackRandy Gallegos
32021-02-06Kaldheim PromosPKHM 205s2015SagaBlackRandy Gallegos

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where The Bears of Littjara has restrictions

FormatLegality
HistoricLegal
LegacyLegal
OathbreakerLegal
GladiatorLegal
PioneerLegal
CommanderLegal
ModernLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
ExplorerLegal
BrawlLegal
PennyLegal
TimelessLegal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering The Bears of Littjara card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

Date Text
2021-02-05 A chapter ability doesn’t trigger if a lore counter is put on a Saga that already had a number of lore counters greater than or equal to that chapter’s number. For example, the third lore counter put on a Saga causes the chapter III ability to trigger, but chapters I and II won’t trigger again.
2021-02-05 Any effects that modify the Shapeshifter’s power or toughness without setting it to a specific value will apply after its base power and toughness are set, regardless of the order in which those effects were created. The same is true of counters that modify its power and toughness.
2021-02-05 As a Saga enters the battlefield, its controller puts a lore counter on it. As your precombat main phase begins (immediately after your draw step), you put another lore counter on each Saga you control. Putting a lore counter on a Saga in either of these ways doesn’t use the stack.
2021-02-05 Changeling is a characteristic-defining ability. It functions in all zones, not only while a card that has it is on the battlefield.
2021-02-05 Each symbol on the left of a Saga’s text box represents a chapter ability. A chapter ability is a triggered ability that triggers when a lore counter that is put on the Saga causes the number of lore counters on the Saga to become equal to or greater than the ability’s chapter number. Chapter abilities are put onto the stack and may be responded to.
2021-02-05 If an effect causes a creature with changeling to become a new creature type, it will be only that new creature type. It will still have changeling; the effect making it all creature types will simply be overwritten.
2021-02-05 If an effect causes a creature with changeling to lose all abilities, it will remain all creature types, even though it will no longer have changeling. This is because changeling applies before the effect that removes it.
2021-02-05 If multiple chapter abilities trigger at the same time, their controller puts them on the stack in any order. If any of them require targets, those targets are chosen as you put the abilities on the stack, before any of those abilities resolve.
2021-02-05 Once a chapter ability has triggered, the ability on the stack won’t be affected if the Saga gains or loses counters, or if it leaves the battlefield.
2021-02-05 Once the number of lore counters on a Saga is greater than or equal to the greatest number among its chapter abilities, the Saga’s controller sacrifices it as soon as its chapter ability has left the stack, most likely by resolving or being countered. This state-based action doesn’t use the stack.
2021-02-05 Removing lore counters won’t cause a previous chapter ability to trigger. If lore counters are removed from a Saga, the appropriate chapter abilities will trigger again when the Saga receives more lore counters.
2021-02-05 The chapter II ability overwrites any previous effects that set any of the Shapeshifters’ base power and toughness to specific values. Any effects that set a Shapeshifter’s base power and toughness that start to apply after the chapter II ability will override the effect of that ability.
2021-02-05 The effect of the chapter II ability lasts indefinitely. It doesn’t expire at end of turn.
2021-02-05 The subtype Shapeshifter that appears on the type line is mostly there to reinforce the flavor. A creature card with changeling is just as much an Elf, a Dwarf, a Sliver, a Goat, a Coward, and a Zombie as it is a Shapeshifter.

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