Commander Showcase 4: Jorn, God of Winter

Welcome back to a special Christmas Commander Showcase! Now, nothing says Christmas more than a snow deck and Jorn really brings the winter theme to another level. A nature loving god of Kaldeim and brother to Alrund, Jorn is known for spending his time in nature, tracking and talking with the animals of the Cosmos.

Jorn, God of Winter is the perfect example of simple yet effective, the design of this card is sleek with a very clear and enjoyable theme. Now I'm not going to sugar-coat it, I barely play the backside of this commander. However, the front side of Jorn is so strong, you’re almost always losing value by playing Kaldring, the Rimestaff. Jorn’s ability not only lets you untap your snow creatures like a pseudo vigilance but ALSO lets you untap your snow lands for virtually double mana per turn! The game plan does fall apart if Jorn is removed, so a bit of protection like Swiftfoot Boots is vital.

The snow theme is extremely inward facing, allowing you to weave a web of synergies and value engines just by playing lands and casting creatures. A great amount of snow cards simply reference snow permanents, not snow creatures, not nonland snow permanents, just snow permanents. This makes cards like Abominable Treefolk huge when they’re counting everything including lands towards their own power and toughness. And with Jorn’s ability in mind, Conifer Wurm becomes an absolute haymaker, activating its ability several times in one turn!

Like any deck theme, it’s nice to be able to stylise your build as much as you like, especially when the style cards have substance too. Kaldheim brought some snowy bangers to accompany Jorn and these spells sure give massive value in an all snow deck. Graven Lore is 5 mana to scry 5 and draw 3, Blood on the Snow is a board wipe that can return a 6 mana creature to the battlefield and Blizzard Brawl is a 1 mana indestructible fight spell.

Jorn’s ability to untap lands during combat can facilitate some huge mana plays, so it’s important for us to try and take full advantage of this. Sticking with the God theme, Kruphix, God of Horizons slots into the deck with ease and allows you to pool any unused mana for explosive turns later on. Mana Reflection turns Jorn’s double mana into quadruple mana and Replicating Ring can result in 9 snow permanents on the board.

Now I know what you’re saying, “All this talk about a snow deck and he hasn’t even mentioned Marit Lage?!”. Well, I would be a fool not to save the best until last! Marit Lage’s Slumber will very easily create the legendary 20/20 on the turn after it’s played and often makes you enemy number 1, but that’s what it’s all about right? It also wouldn’t be right to include this without Dark Depths to do the same job and honourable mention to Thespian’s Stage that can copy Dark Depths and immediately create the flying, indestructible monster.

I built Jorn when it was released with Kaldheim and didn’t expect it to stick around in my collection for this long. But the snow theme has been so much fun to play that I continue to find myself packing the deck for Friday Night Magic, week after week. If you want to check out the full deck list then follow the link below. See you next time!

https://www.moxfield.com/decks/FC6_Hk9IBE-6gvEum5LR-w