Giant

Giant
Creature Type
(Subtype for creature/kindred cards)
Statistics	205 cards 19% 7.3% 9.3% 40% 11.7% 1.5% 3.9% 0.5% 1% 2.9% 0.5% 2% 0.5% 9 Giant creation cards 11.1% 11.1% 11.1% 33.3% 11.1% 11.1% 11.1% as of Dominaria United
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type:"Giant"

Giants are massive creatures resembling gigantic Humans. Most are known for being dimwitted and violent. Giants are associated with all colors of mana, but are most strongly aligned with red. They are not to be confused with creatures from other races that by magical or artificial circumstances have grown to giant sizes. Cards with the creature type Giant first appeared in Alpha: Hill Giant, Stone Giant and Two-Headed Giant of Foriys .

Storyline

Dominaria

During the Ice Age, some Giants of the Jötun tribe aided the Kjeldorans in the fight against the Order of Stromgald.

Eldraine

On Eldraine, giants usually reside in the wilds and keep their distance from the humans of the Realm. However, some giants choose to align themselves with the court of Garenbrig, and Garenbrig's king, Yorvo, is himself a giant. The giants of Eldraine come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Smaller giants stand around 10 feet tall. These giants often have skin made of bronze and use their immense strength to bully small folk. Larger giants can stand 15 feet tall. These giants have a skin of stone, often covered with naturally growing moss. These giants tend to be kinder to small folk, using their strength to help those in need.

Kaladesh

The giants of Kaladesh are nomadic, following the currents of Aether in extensive peregrinations. Twice a year, this brings them close to the city of Ghirapur. The arrival of the giants is celebrated in the migration festival, where teams try to decorate the wandering giants. Giants eat whatever they happen across in the course of their migrations, which includes many other creatures drawn to the aether flow. They are beings of pure aggressive instinct but without a hint of malice. In all likelihood, giants aren't intelligent enough to wish harm on anyone or anything. Still, the combination of their regular migrations and their sheer destructive power makes these creatures a menace.

Kaldheim

The frost and fire giants of Surtland are locked in constant conflict. The frost giants would prefer to be left alone, but they also claim the best, safest territories in the realm—and hoard treasures and arcane secrets for themselves in their mountain palaces. The angry, impulsive fire giants gather in bands to attack the largely solitary frost giants. Frost giants retaliate with blasts of runic ice magic that can scatter or incapacitate a whole fire giant clan. On very rare occasions, if Surtland is threatened by invaders or a rampaging Cosmos Monster, frost, and fire giants are able to put aside their differences and join together to defend their realm.

A possible third, extinct civilization of giants is believed to have once inhabited the realm of Gnottvold, leaving crumbling monolithic structures dotting the realm's otherwise pristine wilderness. Their precise relation to the realm's trolls, if any, is unremarked upon.

Frost Giants

Frost giants are intelligent and secretive, using runic magic to divine the secrets of the Cosmos and jealously guarding them against the curiosity of outsiders. The frost giants claim the high mountain peaks and glacier fields of Surtland where they build ice palaces and spend eons in solitude. Their impregnable mountaintop fortresses afford them clear views of the lights of the Cosmos and their mystical secrets. They rarely leave Surtland and have no interest in raiding, but they have a special relationship with the similar-minded Omenseekers of Bretagard, who sail to Surtland occasionally to trade information with friendly frost giants. Frost giant wizards called Vela Mages dwell primarily in the well-protected Vela Heights. In addition to manipulating cold and ice with their magic, Vela Mages are seers who work constantly to divine the secrets of the realms. They can use illusion magic to trick unwelcome intruders into their private sanctums, but most of them consider this a lesser form of magic that is not worthy of serious practice unless absolutely necessary.

Fire Giants

Fire giants, by contrast, are brutal and impulsive, sharing their kin's physical strength and resilience but lacking any of the frost giants' knowledge and resources. Fire giants dwell in the lower elevations of Surtland where snowfields are divided by deep lava fissures. They live together in families and clans, building crude wooden structures from the realm's massive trees. Some also make their lairs in extensive cavern networks and lava tubes that run beneath the lowlands. Fire giants are reckless, jealous, and competitive—like colossal children who are jealous of their kindred's secret knowledge but unable to grasp it for themselves. They're smaller than frost giants, but they're still giants and are incredibly tough, strong, and resilient. Countless sagas speak at length about how hard it is to kill a fire giant, and those heroes who succeed at this monumental task are enshrined in legend. Whenever a Doomskar brings Surtland into contact with another realm, fire giants are eager to launch raids. They love hand-to-hand combat, but they're not above throwing boulders at their enemies, and their wizards have power over fire and lava.

Lorwyn-Shadowmoor

Lorwyn

Giants on Lorwyn are associated with white and red mana. Red giants are short-tempered, territorial, and passionate, while their white counterparts are zealous and stubborn. They are reclusive and lonely, largely due to their need for vast amounts of food, water, and land. Giants will often come to blows when sharing territory, always to the death and often leaving a trail of destruction in their wake — even levelling entire villages during a brawl.

Giants are known to take rich and long sleeps, but they can also enter a trance-like hibernation called the Name Sleep during which they have epic dreams. A giant's first Name Sleep usually occurs at the end of adolescence, but they can also be triggered by a life-changing event or trauma, or by the onset of old age. Young giants derive their surnames from these sleeps, and they may give the dreamer a new purpose in life. A giant's first name is generally two to three syllables and serves as a familiar form of address for friends. All others refer to giants only by their surname, and two giants that share a surname invariably fight for it.

Giants are a race of hermits, arbiters, explorers, and oracles (some are prone to have prophetic visions of the future). Their long life spans give them a particular perception of time, and wisdom that other races respect.

Some Lorwyn giants huddle in mountain caves, often above the cloudline; you can spot a giant's lair by the enormous, rugged dolmen stones built up around the entrance. Others range over Lorwyn with long, loping steps. You can tell a giant's travel route by the man-sized, earth-compressed footprints and lack of vegetation. The death of a giant can be a major event for a region because their lairs are often storehouses of interesting and rare things. Great caravans of treasure seekers and merchants, particularly elves who seek hidden beauty, seek to explore and loot their treasures.

Shadowmoor

In the Shadowmoor aspect of the plane, however, giants are more brutish and associated with red and green mana. During their long sleep periods plants and moss grow over them, and they never bother to remove them.

Giants are viewed by other races as a problem, because they seldom stop in their path, even if a village is on their way.

Mirrodin

The rarely-seen Mirran giants, distinguishable by their dramatic, minotaurlike horns have a greater lung capacity relative to their weight than all other Mirran humanoids.

Ravnica

See also: Titans of Ravnica.

The giants of Ravnica are aligned to four guilds. The Golgari are known to reanimate their corpses as servants for their own.

Those giants employed by the Boros legion originate in the Skorskal clan, which has an ancient feud with the Gruul. The Boros mainly use the giants sworn to them for guard duty of their most important strongholds, including Sunhome. They can go for eight hours without blinking.

The giants in service to the Rakdos often act as bouncers and enforcers, although some become part of their performances, holding mobile platforms and acting as pillars.

Giants among the Orzhov usually patrol marketplaces, reminding the debtors of the Church to pay their bills in a timely manner.

The giants among the Gruul Clans are known as sunder shamans and channel their rage to enhance their own attacks. Like the rest of the Gruul, they hate the urban development that encroaches on the wilds where they once lived - not least because they have so much difficulty fitting inside the small structures. They delight in destroying such edifices, and in the heat of their rage, they walk through buildings, trample people underfoot, and generally cause as much chaos as possible.

Theros

Theran giants come in all five colors of mana. They are emanations of the land itself and rarely concern themselves with the affairs of humans.

During the Age of Trax, giants on Theros had kingdoms of their own. They had an apparently rocky relationship with the plane's archons: Agnomakhos used the war against the giants as a pretense for his evil actions, while the Hundred-Handed Ones were the results of archons using magic to twist giants into forms that would make them more monuments.

Titans

In Theros' ancient past extremely powerful elder giants known as titans ruled the plane. The gods of Theros battled them and sealed them away in the Underworld, where they remained until they broke free.

Zendikar

The giants of Zendikar live seclusive lives away from the other civilized races. They are organized into three great tribes: The Boulderfoot Tribe lives in Akoum, taking barely notice of smaller humanoids. The Shatterskull tribe dwells in the Skyfang mountains of Murasa, exhorting travelers through the mountains by living as brigands. The Turntimber Tribe lives on the continent of Ondu, practicing druidism and hunting baloth and similar large game. Outcasts of the Turntimbers flee to the Makindi Trenches, stalking travelers for food.

On Zendikar, a docile species of Giants called Hurda are used as pack animals. Hurdas walk on their strongly developed forearms, while their tiny, vestigial legs dangle beneath them. Thick tails keep them balanced.

Notable giants

Arcavios

• Osgir

Dominaria

• Axelrod Gunnarson, an ancient giant famous for his long arms.
• Bartel Runeaxe
• Liko, a Two-Headed Giant of Foriys summoned to White Ridge by Towser and befriended by Gull and Greensleeves.
• Jareth, Leonine Titan, a giant feline and a Pit Fighter.
• Naru
• The Lady of the Mountain

Echoir

• The Titan Collector

Eldraine

• King Yorvo

Ir

• Ruhan, an independent member of the Fomori giants.

Ixalan

• Dargo

Kaldheim

• Aegar

Kylem

• Gorm the Great, battle partner of Virtus the Veiled

Lorwyn

• Brion Stoutarm, an impetuous giant, Kiel's brother.
• Galanda Feudkiller, foremost among giant arbiters. She holds court in an enormous bowl-shaped amphitheater in Lorwyn's mountains (Ancient Amphitheater, Feudkiller's Verdict).
• Kiel, Brion's brother, with a prophetic talent.
• Rosheen Meanderer, a giant sage and oracle.

Ravnica

• Chief Bilagru Bil, chief enforcer for the Church Militant of the Orzhov Syndicate.
• Narbulg Nine Fingers, leader of the Gruul Scab Clan (Ground Assault, Pit Fight).

Theros

• Kalemne, an unusual giant who serves the god Iroas.
• Thryx, the Sudden Storm, elemental giant.

The Titans:

• Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger, titan possessed by a never-ending hunger. Confined to The Underworld.
• Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath, the most solitary of the titans. Feels most at home on the ocean floor. Confined to the Underworld.
• Phlage, Titan of Burning Wind, an all-consuming whirlwind of fire.
• Skotha, Titan of Eternal Dark, the utter darkness of the starless night.

Unknown

• Oloro
• Vogar, Necropolis Tyrant

Non-canon

• Oyaminartok, Polar Werebear
• Storvald, Frost Giant Jarl
• Zalto, Fire Giant Duke

Tribal type

Lorwyn block featured four tribal Giant cards, which could be fetched by Giant Harbinger:

• Crush Underfoot
• Favor of the Mighty
• Feudkiller's Verdict
• Giant's Ire

Tokens

Tokens marked with are created by Acorn cards.

Token Name	Color	Type Line	P/T	Text Box	Source	Printings
Giant	Red	Creature — Giant	4/4		Pact of the Titan
	Green	Creature — Giant	7/7		Giant Opportunity
Giant Warrior	White	Creature — Giant Warrior	5/5		Feudkiller's Verdict
	Red/​Green	Creature — Giant Warrior	4/4	Haste	Giantbaiting
Giant Wizard	Blue	Creature — Giant Wizard	4/4		Giant's Amulet
Giant Bird	Red	Creature — Giant Bird	4/4		Chicken Egg
Zombie Giant	Black	Creature — Zombie Giant	5/5		Quest for the Gravelord
Warchief Giant	Red	Creature — Giant Warrior	5/3		Warchief Giant
Giant Teddy Bear	Pink	Creature — Giant Teddy Bear	5/5		Water Gun Balloon Game

Trivia

• In the Grand Creature Type Update the subtype Titan (Mountain Titan) was incorporated into the Giant type.
  • M11 introduced a cycle of Mythic Titans: Each of these mythic rare Giants are 6/6, cost MM, have a color themed ability (Vigilance, firebreathing etc.) and have a powerful ability that is triggered by them entering the battlefield or attacking — Sun Titan, Frost Titan, Grave Titan, Inferno Titan and Primeval Titan.
  • On Theros, the gods once waged war against the titans, their predecessors. Victorious, the gods sealed the titans in the Underworld. If they would ever be freed, they would inflict unspeakable horrors on Theros (The Binding of the Titans). The printed titans have the creature types Elder Giant and the "titan trigger" from M11.
  • The Titans of Ravnica are gigantic stone statues that can be animated by the Boros Legion to defend the city.
• The subtype Cyclops was obsoleted in Sixth Edition and replaced with Giant. However, this was reversed in the Grand Creature Type Update.
• Sunrise Sovereign is a Giant Lord.
• Giant Creatures that are non-Giants, like Giant Spider, are another staple of the game.
  • When Giant is used as an adjective, cards don't have the Giant type. The creature type Giant means you are of the race Giant, not that you are large.
    • This rule is somewhat muddled by Minsc, Beloved Ranger which pumps creatures while adding the Giant type.
• The size and strength of Giants are provided by Giant Growth, Giant Strength, and Belt of Giant Strength.
• Opal Titan can become a 4/4 white Giant creature with protection from certain colors.
• Foriysian Totem can become a 4/4 red Giant artifact creature with trample.