MTG: Hill Giant (1997)
Simpler Time
The Portal set was a very bare-bones, introductory set of Magic cards featuring basic fantasy creatures and a simpler to understand set of cards than usual. It was the same set that spawned my oft-reprinted, “Giant Spider,” but it also had this old-school, non-specific Hill Giant.
The portrayal is likewise non-specific, whereas in more modern illustration he’d have a lot of detail in how he was clothed, perhaps tattoos or other tribal differentiators, not here, and not in 1997. It’s quite a contrast to today, and that goes as well for the environment, which was very naturalistic. In fact, it’s a place you could go to if you wanted.
