Two-Headed Giant Magic Format
Variant of Magic the Gathering Card Game by Wizards of the Coast
A variant that allows cooperative play for the popular Magic the Gathering card game.
Two-headed Giant is a team variant of the popular Magic the Gathering collectible card game by Wizards of the Coast. In Two-Headed Giant, a team of two people face off against another team of two people in an attempt to bring their opponents down to zero life or in extreme cases to run their opponents out of cards.
The normal rules for playing Magic the Gathering apply and most players will use either Type 1 or Type 1.5 constructed tournament format rules to play a two-headed giant game, but the differences between two-headed giant and the single play should be understood.
How Two-Head Giant Differs from a Normal Magic Game
Each team starts out with thirty life. At the beginning of the game and each player on the team draws seven cards. Players may take a free mulligan but if one player on a team takes the mulligan, his or her team mate must do so as well regardless of the composition of their hand. The player with the bad hand may not look at hand of the other team member before making this decision.
Mana cannot be shared between players on a team and each player retains control of their own artifacts, enchantments, and non-creature permanents. All phases in the Magic Two-head Giant format except the combat phase are unchanged. The combat phase of two-headed giant has special rules. If a player controls a creature that possess a landwalk ability of a type of land put in play by either player on the opposing team, the attacking creature with landwalk may not be blocked. When the defending team assigns blockers, the teammate of the defending player can use his creatures to block the attack..
Two-Head Giant's Combat Phase
Once blockers have been dealt and combat damage assigned, the attacking team gets to decide which player on the opposing team gets dealt the damage. In the Two-Head Giant Magic format spells like Circles of Protection and certain creature abilities can make which defending player who receives the damage important. If a card s doubles a player's life total, such as Beacon of Immortality, the life total of the team should be divided by 2, rounded down, the resulting number should be doubled and added to the team's life total. Cards such as stream of life or healing salve which simply add to life totals function normally.
Team mates may consult on strategy before playing cards and discuss the best cards to play during a Two-Headed Giant Magic game. While single player dueling as it is called by Wizards of the Coast will remain the most popular Magic the Gathering format, two-headed giant gives players the opportunity to vary the game and give players the chance to discover new strategies.
