How to build Grizzlegom, Hurloon Hero

Rulebreaker hands you every land in Magic. This build gives most of them back, because a red green land carrying three printed types is worth more to Grizzlegom than an off color land carrying one.

Nothing in the trigger asks him to connect

Whenever Grizzlegom attacks is the entire condition. The ability goes on the stack as attackers are declared and it resolves before blockers are declared, so all five modes have paid out before anybody chooses a block. The Soldiers are on the battlefield, the cards are in hand, three life totals have moved and the counters are already on him.

That last one is the part worth reading twice. They are +1/+1 counters rather than a bonus until end of turn, so a Grizzlegom who attacked into three untapped blockers and got chump blocked by a 1/1 still keeps every counter he earned. He is permanently bigger for having attacked into a board that was never going to let him through.

So most of what a seven mana attacker usually wants is wrong here. Trample converts nothing, because there is no second payload waiting behind the blockers. Evasion is worth less than it looks for the same reason. What he needs instead is to attack on the turn he lands, survive to the next one and attack again, which is why this list runs Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, Rhythm of the Wild and Fires of Yavimaya and no combat tricks at all. Heroic Intervention, Tyvar's Stand and Snakeskin Veil are here to answer a removal spell, not a blocker.

It also sets the price of an extra combat. A second combat phase is a second full payout of all five modes, which makes Moraug, Fury of Akoum worth six mana in a deck that puts two and three lands onto the battlefield a turn, and Aggravated Assault worth its slot at four. Wulfgar of Icewind Dale is the cheapest version of the idea. His second ability makes an attack trigger of a permanent you control trigger one additional time, so Grizzlegom attacks once and pays twice. Strionic Resonator and Lithoform Engine buy the same copy on the turn you need it.

The money in this deck is the mana base, and there is no version where it is not

Be clear about the cost before reading the list. The core build prices at a floor of $776 and the lands are most of that. It is not a sign the build has drifted. It is the direct consequence of what this commander asks for, which is lands carrying as many printed basic types as you can assemble, and those lands are Triomes, shocklands and two legendary lands that hand a type to everything. None of that is cheap.

The relationship is also close to linear, which is unusual. Most commanders reach a point where a better mana base stops improving the deck and starts being a flex. Grizzlegom does not have one. Every land you upgrade from one printed type to three makes his trigger permanently bigger, so the mana base here is not the support for the payoff. It is the payoff.

What that does not mean is that expensive and good are the same thing, and this list is a useful demonstration of the difference. Of the thirty-nine lands, thirty carry a printed basic type. If all of them were on the battlefield at once, one attack would read five Soldiers, draw six, drain seven, put nineteen counters on him and gain twenty life. The nine carrying nothing are worth checking one at a time, because most of them are not really blank. Five are fetchlands, which become a typed dual a moment later. Thespian's Stage copies a Triome and is three types. Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth carry no type of their own and give one to all thirty-nine.

The genuinely blank lands are the ones a more expensive deck reaches for, and that is the part to sit with before spending.

Rulebreaker would let you play Islands, and this list plays none

Rulebreaker is the reason to look at this card twice. A deck with Grizzlegom as its commander can have any land cards, so the color identity rule that governs the other ninety-nine does not reach the mana base. The obvious use is to jam five basics and a pile of off color duals and have all five modes switched on from turn one.

The build below declines, because the obvious version pays for its trigger with its mana. A Plains in a red green deck is a land doing nothing on the turn you need for Overlord of the Hauntwoods, and the commander costs seven.

There is a rule that gets both, and it is the whole mana base: every land has to carry a Mountain or a Forest. That constraint turns out to enforce itself. A land with the Mountain subtype has the intrinsic ability to tap for red and a land with the Forest subtype taps for green, so a land that satisfies the rule cannot be an off color land. It can only be a red or green land that happens to be carrying something extra.

What it is carrying is the deck. Ziatora's Proving Ground is a Swamp, a Mountain and a Forest at once, so it taps for red and green and is simultaneously a point of drain, a counter and a life. Jetmir's Garden brings a Soldier along. Ketria Triome brings a card. Steam Vents, Blood Crypt, Sacred Foundry, Temple Garden, Overgrown Tomb and Breeding Pool each bring one off color type on a land that can enter untapped. Fifteen lands in this list carry a Plains, Island or Swamp type without one of them being an off color land.

Six cards decide whether the trigger is five modes or two

Fifteen off color types across thirty-nine slots is a floor, not a plan. The ceiling is six cards, which is why nearly a tenth of the deck is spent looking for them.

Prismatic Omen at and Dryad of the Ilysian Grove at both read that lands you control are every basic land type. With either one on the battlefield, thirty-nine lands is thirty-nine Soldiers, thirty-nine cards drawn, thirty-nine drain, thirty-nine counters and thirty-nine life off a single attack. Nothing else needs to come close.

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth are the half measures and they are still excellent, because each is a whole extra mode applied to every land at once. Yavimaya has a second job as well. Once every land is a Forest, Nature's Lore, Three Visits, Skyshroud Claim and Wood Elves stop being ramp and become land tutors that can fetch anything in the deck. Farseek does the same under Urborg.

Overlord of the Hauntwoods is the one that repeats. It makes a land token that is every basic land type when it enters and again each time it attacks, so it is a fresh all-types permanent on every swing, arriving alongside the attack that counts it.

Ashaya, Soul of the Wild is the strangest card here and the one worth building toward. On its own it makes your nontoken creatures into Forest lands, which is a handful of extra life. Put it beside Prismatic Omen and the creatures are lands, so Omen applies to them too, and every nontoken creature you control is counting as all five types. Six creatures on the battlefield is thirty extra units of trigger that nobody at the table saw coming.

Energybending is the cheap one. Two generic mana at instant speed gives every land you control all five types until end of turn, and it replaces itself, which makes it the card that converts a merely large attack into a lethal one.

Ten cards in the list go looking for those six. Crop Rotation, Expedition Map, Sylvan Scrying, Elvish Reclaimer, Realms Uncharted and Tempt with Discovery fetch the lands. Gamble, Worldly Tutor, Green Sun's Zenith and Winding Way fetch the spells. Dryad of the Ilysian Grove being an enchantment creature rather than an enchantment is quietly load bearing, because it is what puts the best card in the deck inside range of green's creature tutors.

Twenty-four green sources is exactly enough, and the off color types are the bill

The question a mana base built this way has to answer is whether it still casts the deck. Twenty-four green sources against a wanted twenty-four is a pass with nothing spare, and twenty-one red against a wanted twenty-four is three short. Both numbers are what the fifteen off color types cost, and they belong in the open rather than in a footnote.

Red reads worse and matters less. The earliest red card in the list is Gamble at one mana and everything else red is a turn three or later play, so the shortfall lands where you can usually afford it. Green is carrying the deck and it is carried in turn by one decision: every Triome here has a Forest on it. Savai Triome and Raugrin Triome would have brought the same three printed types as the two that replaced them, and they are out for the single reason that neither makes green. That swap was worth five sources.

The core list

Ninety-nine cards and the commander, at a bracket 3 floor. Hover any card name to see the card.

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The budget list hits harder than the core list does

This is where the deck says something surprising about itself, and it is worth reading the cheap rung even if you are not building it.

The budget rung drops from a floor of $776 to a floor of $317 and cuts every Game Changer, which makes it an honest bracket 2 deck. It gets there by cutting the five fetchlands, the seven shocklands, Sylvan Library, Crucible of Worlds, Exploration and Aggravated Assault, and replacing most of that with typed duals costing around a quarter each. Geothermal Bog, Coastal Peak, Tangled Islet and Haunted Mire are commons, and they carry exactly the printed types the shocklands were carrying.

Count the result. The budget list has thirty-six lands carrying a basic type against the core list's thirty, and twenty-two carrying an off color type against fifteen. With everything on the battlefield its attack reads six Soldiers, draw seven, drain nine, twenty-two counters and twenty-two life, which is a bigger trigger than the recommended build makes, for well under half the money. Its colored sources come out ahead too, at twenty-six green and twenty-four red.

What it gives up is speed rather than function. Shocklands and fetchlands buy the right color untapped on turn two and the commons replacing them arrive tapped, which in a deck casting a seven drop is a real cost and a survivable one. That is the honest reason the expensive list is the recommended one, and it is a narrower reason than it usually is.

The bracket 4 rung moves the other way on both counts. It costs a floor of $1,661 and its trigger is the smallest of the three, with twenty-eight lands carrying a type instead of thirty, because Ancient Tomb, Strip Mine and Cavern of Souls carry no basic type at all. What the money buys is not a bigger attack but a repeatable one. Aggravated Assault is already in the core list, and adding Bear Umbra, Sword of Feast and Famine or Nature's Will means your lands untap in combat and pay for the next combat, which is as many Grizzlegom triggers as you care to take. Mana Vault, Ancient Tomb and Survival of the Fittest take the Game Changer count from three to six, and that is what sets the floor at 4.

FAQ

What is Rulebreaker on Grizzlegom, Hurloon Hero?

Rulebreaker is a keyword that changes a deckbuilding rule rather than anything on the battlefield. On Grizzlegom it reads that a deck with this commander can have any land cards, which lifts the color identity restriction from the mana base and from the mana base only. Every other card in the ninety-nine still has to be red, green or colorless. You may play Islands, Plains, Swamps and any off-color dual you like, and this build mostly chooses not to.

When is Grizzlegom, Hurloon Hero legal in Commander?

From 9 November 2026, the day Mystery Booster Commander Edition is released. He reads as not legal right now because the set has not shipped, which is a different thing from a card that has been banned. The flag belongs to a single card and not to a whole product, so Chaos Warp, reprinted in that same set and played in this build, already passes a check the commander fails.

Why does a Grizzlegom deck cost so much?

Because the mana base is the payoff rather than the support. Grizzlegom pays you once for every printed basic land type you control, so a land carrying three types is worth three times a basic, and the lands that carry several types are Triomes, shocklands and the two legendary lands that grant a type to everything. There is no point where a better mana base stops improving this deck. The budget list on this page shows how far common typed duals get you instead, which is further than you would expect.

Does Grizzlegom have to deal combat damage for his ability to work?

No. The ability triggers on attacking, so it goes on the stack when attackers are declared and resolves before blockers are even declared. The Soldiers, the cards, the life loss, the counters and the life gain have all happened before anyone chooses a block. He can be chump blocked, or blocked and killed, and you still keep everything the trigger gave you, including the +1/+1 counters, which stay on him permanently.

Do Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth work with Grizzlegom?

Yes, and they are among the best cards you can play with him. Urborg makes each land a Swamp in addition to its other types and Yavimaya makes each land a Forest, so either one switches on a whole extra mode across every land you control at once. Yavimaya has a second use here too. Once every land is a Forest, cards that search for a Forest card, such as Nature's Lore and Skyshroud Claim, can fetch any land in your deck.

What is the best way to make lands count as other basic land types?

Prismatic Omen and Dryad of the Ilysian Grove are the two best, because both say lands you control are every basic land type, which turns on all five of Grizzlegom's modes at once. Urborg and Yavimaya each add one type to everything. Overlord of the Hauntwoods makes a land token that is every basic type when it enters and again whenever it attacks, and Energybending gives all your lands every type until end of turn for two mana at instant speed.