Things are about to get Giant in Standard as Kaldeim is quickly approaching, and with it comes some exciting new tribal decks. Giants have been getting support since as far back as Throne of Eldraine and we're now seeing this tribe come together into an actualized deck. Giants can be built in many ways with Grixis adding Black for cards such as Mire Triton and Tymaret Calls the Dead to fuel our graveyard, while also allowing us to play with Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger which also happens to be a giant. Jeskai builds leans more on the control side of things and you gain Yorion, Sky Nomad to blink sagas for tons of value. Today we'll be focusing on a simple Izzet list to save you some precious rare wild cards on Arena, but we still manage to take advantage of all the strengths Giants have as a tribe.
Payoffs
Quakebringer is the main reason for us to focus on getting cards in the graveyard. Dealing two free damage every turn with Quakebringer from our graveyard is very powerful and we have ways to make it better. Calamity Bearer is essentially a turbocharged Torbran, Thane of Red Fell as we double the damage we deal with our giant sources. This means Quakebringer now deals four damage every upkeep and we deal double damage inside of combat. Aegar, the Freezing Flame takes full advantage of this extra damage as whenever a creature or Planeswalker an opponent controls is dealt access damage, we get to draw a card if a Giant, Wizard, or spell we control dealt that damage. So this means if our opponent is chump blocking then we draw cards, if our Scorching Dragonfire deals three damage to a 2/2 like Robber of the Rich then we draw a card. This core of Aegar, the Freezing Flame, and Calamity Bearer allows the deck to deal tons of damage and draws us cards for doing so. Card Selection
To set up our draws and ensure we get Quakebringer in the graveyard we have Strategic Planning. If you're familiar with Arclight Phoenix decks or God-Pharaoh's Gift decks then you know the power of Strategic Planning for getting cards in the graveyard. Glimpse the Cosmos is a very powerful cantrip and has repeatability with the Flashback-like ability if you control a Giant. Having access to a repeatable cantrip gives the deck the ability to keep up with control decks in the late game. Invasion of the Giants is a nice little Giant card that sets up our draw with scry two on the first lore counter, then we can send two damage to either the opponent's face or a planeswalker they control, and lastly, we get a discount on mana for the next Giant we cast after the third lore counter.
Removal
This deck is well suited to take up the control role with tons of card selection like we just discussed, but we're also loaded with removal. Stomp and Scorching Dragonfire will make it difficult for the opponent to deploy cheap creatures. For decks that go wide enough to make spot removal bad, we have a pair of Shatterskull Smashing to spread out damage, and we have Battle of Frost and Fire to deal four damage to non-Giant creatures. Battle of Frost and Fire is at worst a Storm's Wrath but misses out on killing opposing Bonecrusher Giants. At its best, we have a one-sided board wipe that can even make Planeswalkers such as Vivien, Monsters' Advocate look silly. We're also trying out a pair of Squash as dealing six damage for two mana if we control a Giant seems very good at killing Lovestruck Beast or Planeswalkers with high loyalty. Rest of the Curve
To fill out the deck we have a spicy copy of Giant's Amulet the can make a 4/4 Giant token and can be moved around to give our biggest threat Hexproof which should help against control decks. Tectonic Giant is one of the most overlooked cards from Theros Beyond Death and happens to be a Giant. Tectonic Giant does it all from dealing damage to the face that we can double up with Calamity Bearer, to giving us card advantage with a Light Up the Stage effect. These abilities add up quickly as we get the choice of these every time we attack or Tectonic Giant becomes the target of a spell an opponent controls. Sideboard
Our main deck is naturally very good against creature-based decks with tons of removal and we have the drawing power to help us keep up with the control decks. After sideboarding, we aim to better ourselves against control with a lot of the slots dedicated to that. Shark Typhoon is one of the best control decks in Standard so we gave ourselves access to a couple of copies in the sideboard. Since our removal spells are pretty bad against control we take all of them out in exchange for Negate and Mystical Dispute. The Royal Scions helps us move forward with our game plan when some of our threats become a bit stagnant. Shredded Sails is our silver bullet against artifact spells and Soul-Guide Lantern is the same against graveyard decks. Lastly, we have a single Redcap Melee for the Mono-Red match up.
Kaldheim is brining with it opportunity for new tribes in Standard from Angels, Elves, Gods, and Giants. I hope that you enjoyed this Izzet Giant list and stay tuned for more deck techs featuring Kaldheim cards. If you're looking for video deck techs then subscribe to our YouTube channel for that kind of content. If you want to see this deck and other decks we put together in action then follow us on Twitch where we stream Arena every Monday night. Join our Discord if you're looking for somewhere to talk all things Magic, I'd love to chat with you! Thanks so much for reading and for joining the Fellowship!
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