Unusual Tribes 10: Giants

Intro   

  

Welcome to the 10^th Unusual Tribes article. It’s hard to believe that I have been analysing Magic the Gathering’s presentation of niche Creature types for 10 weeks now, but here we are. Next week look out for something a little bit different, but still Magic the Gathering related.

As you may have guessed from the title, Giants will be the subjects of this week’s piece. Giants are both more populous (with 166 cards printed) and a little bit more popular than the tribes usually examined in these articles. Nevertheless, as this is the 10^th article it seemed appropriate to explore a tribe that has a lot of members, whilst still being less supported collectively than the likes or Goblins or Elves. Giants even received a tribal preconstructed Commander deck with 2015’s Wade Into Battle although, unfortunately, many do not consider this precon to be paticularly good. It is constructed in the Boros colour pair, which is infamously problematic in Commander due to its limited access to ramp and card draw spells. Furthermore Kalemne, Disciple of Iroas, the deck’s leader, is generally considered to be one of the weaker Commanders introduced that year.

There are giants of all five colours, although they are most commonly printed in Red. 88 of the games 166 giants having red somewhere in their colour identity. This is followed by white, which features 44 Giants. As they are a common feature in many different types of fantasy stories, Giants are a near universal presence across the planes of the multiverse. From Diregraf Colossus on Innistrad, to Hammer Dropper on Ravnica.

The Titans

By far the most famous Giants in Magic the Gathering are the Titan cycle. First printed in Core Set 2011 and then reprinted next year in Core Set 2012, the Titan cycle contains several extremely powerful cards… As well as Frost Titan. Each of the Titans costs 6 mana and has an impactful enter the battlefield effect, which is repeated whenever it attacks.

Grave Titan is, arguably, the most powerful member of the cycle. A 6/6 who brings out two 2/2 Zombie tokens when it enters play for only 6 mana offers incredible value. That Grave Titan generates another two Zombies every time it attacks only serves to make it even more absurdly strong. Grave Titan also has Deathtouch. This isn’t terribly useful on a 6/6 creature but is still a nice bonus.

Primeval Titan, if not quite as powerful as Grave Titan, is arguably the member of the cycle who has most impacted the game. Primeval Titan has Trample and puts two tapped lands from your library into play when it enters the battlefield or attacks. This ramping effect makes it the centre piece of so called ‘Amulet Titan’ decks in Modern. ‘Amulet Titan’ is a complex combo decks that relies on rushing Primeval Titan out quickly, and then making use of Amulet of Vigour to untap lands. These untapped lands are then used both to generate mana and to buff Primeval Titan to insane levels of power, such as by granting it Double Strike through the effect of Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion. Outside of Modern, Primeval Titan was once a massive presence in Commander. Due to the length of Commander games, and the variety of powerful lands available in the format, being able to place multiple lands down every turn often quickly spirals out of control. This resulted in the card being banned in the format.

Sun Titan and Inferno Titan are both reasonably strong cards.  Sun Titan fetches permeants which cost 3 or less mana from the graveyard, whilst Inferno Titan deals 3 damage divided across any number of targets. Though too expensive, and not quite impactful enough, for use in Modern, these two Titans see frequent play in Commander.

Frost Titan, as mocked above, has been the member of cycle which has made the least impact on any format.  The card can usually be purchased for pocket change in contrast to Grave Titan which will typically set you back $10.00 or more.  Though not a bad card by any means, Frost Titan simply doesn’t impact the board anywhere near as heavily as his counterparts in other colours. Tapping an opponent’s creature for a prolonged period is certainly useful. Though this effect is nowhere near as useful as destroying them (as Inferno Titan does) or generating 4/4 worth of stats spread out over two bodies (as Grave Titan does).

Other Giants

Stone Giant is one of the first Giants brought into the game. Introduced in Alpha, alongside Hill Giant and Two-Headed Giant of Foryis, Stone Giant sets himself apart from his two contemporaries by having a very evocative effect. Stone Giant can be tapped down to grant Flying to a creature you control with toughness less than Stone Giant’s until the end of turn. That creature is then destroyed at the beginning of the end step. This ability demonstrates Stone Giant flinging a smaller creature through the air towards the foe. Stone Giant shows that, as far back as the game’s beginning, Magic the Gathering has always been home to creative ways of conveying concepts.

As Giants were one of the featured tribes of Lorwyn Block, a small number of Giant ‘tribal’ cards exist, that is to say non creature cards with the Giant subtype. Crush Underfoot, Favour of the Mighty, Feudkiller’s Verdict and Giant’s Ire are a selection of Instants, Enchantments and Sorceries which bear the Giant subtype.  Crush Underfoot and Giant’s Ire both reward you for having a Giant in play. Favour of the Mighty grants the creature with the highest converted mana cost protection from all colours, implicitly rewarding you for playing Giants due to their high mana costs. Finally, Feudkiller’s Verdict encourages you to become a Giant yourself, granting you ten life and placing a 5/5 Giant Token into play if you then have more life than an opponent. The flavour text of Feudkiller’s Verdict states that ‘There are all kinds of strengths, but if you have strength of soul, the others will follow.’ The life gain the card provides demonstrates the caster acquiring this ‘strength of the soul’ and the Giant token created demonstrates how this inner strength lends itself to other forms of power.

‘Tribal' cards were a short-lived addition to the game, that was never seen again after Rise of the Eldrazi in 2010. They were seen as adding too much unnecessary complexity. Whether this is a shame or a relief largely depends on who you’re asking. The short-lived nature of this card type means that Giants join a small selection of other creature types in also describing Instants, Sorceries and Enchantments.

Boldwyr Intimidator is one of the game's most famous giants. A 5/5 Giant Warrior, Boldwyr Intimidator bears the ability 'Cowards can't block Warriors' and, for a small payment in mana, can turn targeted creatures into either Cowards or Warriors. This ability shows Boldwyr Intimidator living up to his name, he is intimidating his foes and cowing them into submission. Boldwyr Intimidator's fearsome nature is further evidenced by the card's flavour text 'Now everyone knows what you are' showing how he has proven the cowardice of his foes to the world.

Two Giants from Theros block pay homage to characters from Greek mythology. Bearer of the Heavens references the Titan Atlas, a being condemned to carry the sky upon his back for all eternity. The name and art of Bearer of the Heavens make clear its duty to separate the sky from the earth, as does its effect. In the event that Bearer of the Heavens dies, all permeants on the battlefield are destroyed at the beginning of the next end step, demonstrating the sky crashing into the earth. Furthermore, the card’s flavour text ‘To hold the heavens from the earth is no curse, but a titanic responsibility’ surely uses the word ‘titanic’ to demonstrate how Atlas, the card’s inspiration, was a Titan.

The card Titan of Eternal Fire is a clear demonstration of the myth of Prometheus. In Greek mythology Prometheus stole the secrets of creating fire from the Gods and granted it to mankind. Titan of Eternal Fire grants all of its controller’s Human creatures the ability to tap themselves and pay 1 red mana to deal 1 damage to any target. A non-subtle, yet still neat, reference to him granting mankind the ability to use fire.  Prometheus’ punishment, being strapped to a mountain and having his liver constantly pecked out by gulls, is also referenced in Theros through the card Chained to the Rocks.

In the event that we ever go to Kaldheim (a plane inspired by Norse Mythology seen only in Planechase and a handful of Core Set cards such as Dwarven Priest) Giants will almost certainly be a large theme of any set based there. As the Giants or Norse mythology are the ancient rivals of the Nordic pantheon’s gods, some Legendary Giants are practically guaranteed.

Gigantic Synergies

Giants have a lord in the form of Sunrise Sovereign. Sunrise Sovereign grants other Giants +2/+2 and Trample. Unfortunately the Sovereign also bears the weighty drawback of costing six mana, making it significantly more expensive than most other lords. Furthermore, although the bonuses the Sovereign  provides are significant, unlike Gargos, Vicious Watcher, he does nothing to reduce the mana cost of other members of the tribe. This is significant as many Giants, due to their colossal size, have a fittingly large mana cost. Only a small number of them cost less than 3 mana. Although Stinkdrinker Daredevil exists, who reduces the mana cost of all Giants by 2, the fact that these effects are not merged on a single card hurts the viability of the tribe. These factors render building effective Giant tribal decks difficult outside of EDH.

Lorwyn also provided support to Giant decks in the form of Giant Harbinger. Each of the major tribes of Lorwyn received a harbinger card which allowed  its controller to place a card of the corresponding creature type on top of their library. Unfortunately Giant Harbinger is, arguably, the worst card of the cycle. He costs, a staggering, 5 mana which is egregiously expensive. This is especially notable when the card is compared to Treefolk Harbinger and Flamekin Harbinger who provide the same effect, for Treefolk and Elementals respectively, whilst only costing a single point of mana.

To end this, currently quite gloomy, segment on a positive note it’s worth saying that Giants do possess one thing which few other tribes do. Realm-Cloaked Giant’s adventure ability destroys all non-giant creatures in play. This is a tremendously useful board wipe effect as, in Giant tribal decks, it leaves your board completely intact whilst, likely, completely eradicating all of your opponents’ creatures.

Arbitrary Grades

Flavour: B

The primary thing to note about Giants is that… well that they are giant. Wizards of the Coast demonstrate this by printing Giants as expensive creatures with large stat blocks. Of course, if this was all, Giants would not be earning a B here.  Giants’ colossal size is also demonstrated through several other, creative, means. Whether it’s through cards such as Stone Giant or Brion Stourarm demonstrating their vastness through throwing smaller creatures or Realm-Cloaked Giant being literally so massive that the entire battlefield sits upon his back and can be cast off. Magic the Gathering also effectively demonstrates the diversity of Giants, as creatures present in all manner of popular media. Whether they are the Fee-fi-fo-fum foes of Fairytales, as demonstrated by cards such as Beanstalk Giant and Blind-Spot Giant, or hulking monstrosities from Gothic Horror stories such as Skaab Goliath .

Viability: C+

Though hardly unsupported (especially when compared to some of the earlier tribes analysed in this series such as Vedalken and Skeletons) Giants are not a top tier tribe. Collectively the creatures of the tribe cost too much mana to see play outside of EDH and, even in Commander, they are scattered across the colour pie.

Morophon, the Boundless makes an excellent Commander for Giant tribal decks. Morophon allows players to gather together Giants of every colour and provides the cost reduction, which they so desperately need. 

Due to their size, many giants can also be utilised in conjunction with cards which care about having high power such as Colossal Majesty, Crater’s Claws and Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner. There are many individually strong giants, such as the Titan cycle listed above, so they make worthy additions to many decks and building a deck incorporating them is certainly a possibility.  The future also looks bright for Giants. New members of the tribe are introduced in almost every set and they are likely to play an important role in Kaldheim, in the likely event that we eventually venture to that corner of the multiverse.

Best and Worst Cards:

Unsurprisingly perhaps, due to the entire section dedicated to how powerful they are above, most of the members of the Titan cycle are eligible to be considered the best cards of the tribe. Grave Titan and Primeval Titan edge out the others and a fair case could be made to declare either the most powerful Giant.  Grave Titan due to the huge amounts of power it brings to the board and Primeval Titan due to its crazy combo potential.

Looking past the Titan cycle, however, there are a selection of other Giants worthy of giving an honourable mention to. Diegraf Colossus is an essential component of most Zombie tribal decks and, just like Grave Titan, is capable of flooding the board with 2/2 Zombie tokens. Nylea’s Colossus can accomplish some truly crazy things. Its ability to double creatures’ power multiple times per turn is exceedingly powerful, at least in Commander where expensive creatures are at their most viable. Though perhaps, all things considered, Nylea’s Colossus is one of the more fun members of the tribe, rather than one of the more competitively viable.

There are two cards worth mentioning as potential candidates for the worst member of the tribe. Hired Giant allows your opponents to fetch a land card from their library and put it onto the battlefield as it enters play. This is a disastrous downside; especially as non-basic lands can be retrieved enabling combos and other nastiness. The card also only possesses average stats for its cost, at least by today’s standards, being a 4/4 for 4 mana.

Karplusan Giant as a 3/3 for 7 mana is massively overcosted. Although the card can gain +1/+1 through tapping snow-covered lands you need to tap down 4 such lands each turn merely to break even and give the cards stats equal to its converted mana cost.  Even then, the card has no keyword abilities, such as Trample, making it not worth the investment.