EDH Deck Time: Norse Giants

So, what I attempted to do here is to make a deck based on my understanding of the mythological Norse giants.

Of course, I checked nothing. I’ve read the sagas back in the day and the Neil Gaiman version of them more recently, so I remember some things. In my mind, the Norse used giants just whenever they needed someone to face the Aesir. They weren’t very well defined, but instead had whatever characteristics that were needed for that specific story. There were frost giants and rock giants, but Loki is also of giant ancestry, as is his wife, but they aren’t gigantic by any means. While Surtr is sometimes known as a giant, he actually isn’t. I still put [scryfall]Inferno Giant[/scryfall] in the deck. The giants also had all sorts of weird magical artifacts, such as a drinking vessel, which was linked to the bottom of the ocean, so when Thor was trying to drink it empty on a bet, he couldn’t do it. That I can’t quite get into the deck…

I’m actually trying to balance several things. The deck is going to be somewhat casual, as you can’t make a competitive one with this concept. However, I don’t want to go overboard with the casualness. I don’t just want to play [scryfall]Hill Giant[/scryfall]s just because they happen to have a specific typeline. This means that I do want interaction, I do want a curve of some sort and I do want plays in the early game (which isn’t actually that very well supported by the theme, as obviously most giants are expensive). I also have some thematic cards, that aren’t really very good in the format, but work within the themes of frost and rock. Also, I have a couple of shapeshifters just to get the creature count to something meaningful. Finally, I’m trying to keep this

My commander is [scryfall]Aegar, the Freezing Flame[/scryfall] just because there aren’t others, but he does work with the frost theme.

Starting with the creatures.

That’s… everywhere. Next, we need to do some damage so that we can draw our cards with Aegar.

Next, some card advantage and selection. I like to keep these cheap, so that I can smooth out my early turns, if needed, but in this case we are more free to do so, because hopefully Aegar will draw us a bunch of cards.

Some ramp:

Finally round this out with some interaction:

There’s room for 40 lands, so you should make that count. Don’t forget that [scryfall]Berg Strider[/scryfall] requires Snow.

WIthout the lands, this is less than 40 euros. My first instinct was to use [scryfall]Cyclonic Rift[/scryfall] and [scryfall]Cryptic Command[/scryfall], but they would be easily the most expensive cards in the deck. Of course, after adding lands, the deck will cost a lot more, but I would say in general, that you shouldn’t count your lands in the cost of your deck, as you will have a good selection of lands eventually anyhow.

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