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Wizards of the Coast have now finalised team rules, and have sanctioned the Two Headed Giant format. They've also given the format their own twist; to further immerse the players into the concept of being a Two-Headed Giant, players on a team take turns and attack together. I'm not going to cite the entirety of the Comprehensive Rules (check them out yourself if you want all the nitty gritty details), but here are a few of the playing and deck construction rules:-

• Players on a team take turns and phases at the same time.
• Players may share information, such as what is in their hands, with their teammate, and may discuss strategy.
• You may not touch or use any of your team mates permanents; each player retains control of his or her own permanents.
• Teams lose if their team total is 0 or below, or one of the players attempts to draw a card and fails (and I guess if one opponent gets 10 poison counters).
• Each player has their own deck, but deck construction is governed by "Unified Deck Theory" (detailed below)
• A Two Headed Giant match consists of only 1 game. Therefore there are no sideboards.
• The team that goes first skips its first draw phase, therefore neither player draws a card.

There are some other rules, such as mulligans and combat nuances. The rules governing life determining/altering cards are a bit hard to grasp at first (or at least they were for me) but it seems reasonably intuitive. So let's look a bit closer at some of the more juicy subjects.

Players take turns and phases together. This means that all of their permanents untap at the same time at the start of the turn. Then we have the upkeep; while there are two players, there is still only one turn. If one of the players controlled Honden of Nights Reach, it would only trigger once, not twice. Players take their draw phase together, each drawing a card. They play land, they play spells, you get the idea.

The attack phase is the most interesting however. When attacking, the team attacks as one with its creatures; they attack the opposing team, they do not attack a specific player. Then the defending players may block collectively with their creatures. There are a couple of important things to note here. If a creature can not attack one of the defending players, it can not attack the defending team at all. For example, if one player on the defending team controls a Form of The Dragon, only flying creatures could be declared by the attacking team. All of these nuances could lead to some very intricate attack phases, and I'm sure there are some combat related cards out there that shine in this format.

To me, the thing of the utmost importance is the Unified Deck Building Rules. As in a normal game, each player must have a deck of at least 60 cards. Nothing exciting there. However, except for basic lands, there may be no more than 4 cards of the same name per team. The players of the same team can not run identical decks side by side (unless they run a maximum of 2 copies of course). I'm sure there were several reasons for this decision. It does remove the chance for degeneracy; Priest of Titania comes to mind, 8 of those on a team would generate some insane amounts of mana far too quickly. 8 Vedalken Shackles would also be a little more than annoying. But the most important reason in my opinion is that it means you can't just rock up with a deck and play a Two-Headed Giant game. Huh? Doesn't that make it harder to get a game? That's true. But it enforces team deck building. Sure, you could just rock up with two decent Type II decks that have no cards in common, and that might do OK, but I don't think that would be as effective as decks specifically designed to work together. This rule will often force players to diversify their colours; if they both play the same colour, they may have to divide staple cards or spread them over both decks (I'm looking at you Sakura-Tribe Elder).

The other thing to note when deckbuilding is that there is no sideboard. This means that between the two decks, if one of the decks does not have answers to a variety of threats, one of those threats could be game-ending, and thus a match loss. Darksteel Colossus, Platinum Angel, Blinding Angel and Ensnaring Bridge are among cards that could be devastating if you have no way to deal with them. As there is no chance to sideboard, these answers should usually be diverse. This could lead to a lot of counterspells being played in the format, the 'catch-all' answer category.

I see several ways decks could work together;

• Pure Aggro - Both decks going for the throat. Perhaps the current White Weenie and Red could work.
• Aggro and Control - One deck lays down the beats while the other clears threats.
• Combo and Control - One deck is devoted to forcing through a combo, while the control deck protects the combo pieces.
• Dual control - Two heavy control decks, with minimal threats. When the time is right, one deck can drop a threat while the other continues to protect it.
• Dual Combo - Two decks that try to work a combo together. Note that this is different than two combo decks side by side. I see this as generally being mana related such as playing Heartbeat of Spring and Early Harvest on the same turn, or otherwise 'boosting' the other player; targeted card draw could also be useful here.

I'd like to present a few deck ideas for the format; all decks are Standard. I don't have the time, nor the players to be able to test the format to find all its nuances, or to test the implied synergy of these decks; some of them may not pass muster when faced against other decks. They should be taken as food for thought; test and tweak at your discretion.

The theory here is pretty straightforward. The Green deck accelerates out Big Men. The Red deck tries to keep opposing creatures off the board. There is a blue splash for Echoing Truth to get rid of random annoying permanents, and also to cast Tidings to refill the hand with burn. I assume a game in Two-Headed Giant will last more turns, thus the Green deck gets Greater Good so it can make the most of its dying creatures; it has a Stampeding Serow/Eternal Witness combo in as well whether to recur Naturalize or get back a Big Man. Grab the Reins might be slightly anti-tech with Fangren Firstborn (you don't want to give back a bigger creature) but would still be a strong card regardless. I've only included one Captive Flame, it is good if you draw it for your team mates creatures (especially with Greater Good), but you never want to draw two. Eight 'X' spells might be too many, but it gives the deck more versatility in the long game. Relentless Assault should be a game clincher, and especially fun with Fangren Firstborn.

I won't list the decks, because they are both fairly stock standard errr.... Standard decks. One deck plays Tooth and Nail, and the other plays Mono-blue with no or very few threats. The Tooth deck would be slightly adjusted as it should not need as many 'answer' cards; it could play just about every accelerator in Standard to secure the earliest Tooth and Nail possible. The blue deck meanwhile counters anything thrown at the Tooth deck to stop it (such as opponents attempting discard or countering the land search). The Blue deck protects and the Tooth deck serves up the beats; even with 40 life, a Colossus or 2 won't take long to bring down the opponent. And with such a toolbox of creatures, there is always something else you can cough up that will be handy; Platinum Angel, Triskelion and Mephidross Vampire spring to mind.

The idea behind this is 2 control decks. One is mono-blue and nearly all counters. The other deck is White/Black and has huge amounts of creature kill and permanent control. The White/Black deck has a hell of a lot of things going on. It doesn't do a lot in the first few turns, with the intention to take a few beats if necessary before reaching mana to cast Barter In Blood or Wrath of God, up to other creature control elements, Final Judgment, Myojin of Cleansing Fire and Kagemaro, First To Suffer, giving you a total of 14 creature sweepers. It may be too many, but at least 4 are creatures. It has a Sensei's Divining Top/Journeyer's Kite engine, to get your land count up for your big spells while searching out whatever you need. You have Jester's Cap and Mindslaver as control elements. Mindslaver is insane; I have checked the FAQ, and you get to control the opposing teams turn! I'm sure a resolved Mindslaver will be a wrecking ball in this format.

The creatures are mainly utility or generally hard to deal with. The Myojin's are obviously awesome, as either indestructible creatures, or when making their passage into mortality. Your hand should often be full, so Kagemaro should be sufficiently big, and can be used to take down a host of other creatures if necessary. Kokusho needs no introduction, and is especially nice in Two-Headed Giant, as a dead Kokusho makes the opposing team lose 10 and adds 10 to your own life total. No tricks here, that Darksteel Colossus is there to be hardcast; these decks aim to go long and this should not be a problem to cast with Journeyer's Kite. Our final contender is the Bringer of the White Dawn. He's in for utility, getting back those Mindslavers and Jester's Caps for another round.

A couple more of the one of's tie in with the rest of the deck. Sometimes you won't have your removal, and Pulse will shine; once you have sufficient black mana, you should probably be grabbing all your plains with Journeyer's Kite to help fuel this. Beacon of Unrest also ties in with several themes going on here; it can get back Mindslavers and Jester's Cap, or any of your enemies creatures you've killed with your mass removal. The other reason for its inclusion is so you don't deck yourself, which could be a very real possibility if you get into a stalemate position.

I've never played much blue control, so my deck is a little rough. Never the less, it is chock full of counters, 25 to be exact. Blue's plan should be to counter those things that must be countered; creatures can generally resolve as the White/Black player should have removal they can use in due course (and you will know, as you can share information). The Blue player should focus on countering only the 'must counter' items, such as Tooth & Nail, Biorhythm, Jester's Cap, Mindslaver and Cranial Extraction. Mana Leak might warrant inclusion over Oppressive Will, but given the long game that these decks want to play, I didn't think it would be efficient enough. Disrupting Shoal might also have a place in the deck.

Vedalken Shackles serves the usual role. It may force your opponents to commit more creatures to the board, making a Wrath effect all the more sweet, and you can always sacrifice stolen creatures to Miren, the Moaning Well, and then steal another creature. In a pinch, you can steal your teammates Kokusho and sacrifice it. Jushi Apprentice is nice, in that if you can flip him, you can target your teammate with the card draw. In a long game, you can deck your opponent with it. Overwhelming Intellect and Gifts Ungiven round out the card draw. I haven't included anything that makes special use of Gifts Ungiven, but it will often ensure that you get 2 more counters in your hand. Beacon of Tomorrows, as with Beacon of Unrest, is to ensure you don't deck yourself. If you get infinite turns, it shouldn't take long before your teammate can finish off the opponents via a couple of possible methods; smacking them down with creatures recurred through Beacon of Unrest, recurring Kokusho and Kagemaro, or recurring Jester's Cap, then letting your opponents have a turn and deck themselves.

These decks are designed to get an infinite mana combo happening as soon as possible. There are probably better combos to demonstrate this with, but this is an example of what I mean by 'dual combo'. Deck 1 is trying to get the infinite mana combo of Sachi, Orochi Leafcaller, and Freed from the Real, which you then hope to channel through Kumano or Maga for the kill.

The second deck is trying to help the 1st deck, mainly through mana issues, on turn 3 it can cast Early Harvest, hopefully giving the teammate 8 mana to play with (assuming Sakura-Tribe Elder) which should complete the combo. It has Heartbeat of Spring for the same effect, and Ley Druid and Overgrowth are poor cousins (Wild Growth and Fertile Ground, we miss thee). It has some cheap ways to find the cards it wants; so long as they don't kill you. Weird Harvest fills out the deck, letting your teammate search for Sachi and friends if combo pieces are missing, or to get Kumano or Maga once the combo is online.

I whipped those two decks up in 5 minutes, and it does look pretty woeful. I'm sure there are better variants for the same or similar combo, and there are probably just outright better combos anyway. A few cards that might have the calibre for basis of these sort of decks include Early Harvest, Heartbeat of Spring, Freed from the Real, Krark-Clan Ironworks, Sway of the Stars, Beacon of Tomorrows, and Furnace of Rath. The point here is that sometimes beneficial cards can start having an effect on your opponent straight away, such as Heartbeat of Spring, which you might not normally be able to use straight away. I don't know that too many of these combo decks will show up in Standard Two-Headed Giant, given that the black tutors are quite dangerous (Spoils of the Vault, Plunge into Darkness) or expensive (Diabolic Tutor), and the combos may be hard to pull off without tutors. However, a quick glance at Extended post-rotation sees things open up a bit; Intruder Alarm immediately springs to mind, and we also get both Wild Growth and Fertile Ground to help mana accelerate our friends.

Other oddities

Here are a few other cards which might do odd things in Two-Headed Giant, change functionality a little, or might just be otherwise good.

• Hunted Wumpus - This seems like a bad idea. The key here is that it says 'each other player', not opponent. Therefore, if your teammate has a big fatty, he can lay it down. Worth the risk? Probably not, but the opportunity is there.
• Wildfire - If both of you are prepared for it, probably both playing artifact mana, you can make a faster recovery.
• Coretapper and Energy Chamber - Your teammate can play all the charge counter stuff, and you can help with these.
• Copperhoof Vorrac - Potentially bigger now with two opponents. No abilities means it still sucks though.
• Darksteel Reactor - One deck could focus on getting this online, while the other stalls and protects it, and could combo Coretapper and Energy Chamber above.
• Death Cloud - 2 decks prepared for its inevitability should be able to recover much better.
• Door To Nothingness - Some team is bound to try this. Who knows, it might even work. Another place for Early Harvest.
• Endless Whispers - For those people that just want to have a laugh. Perhaps you could work in some kooky combo.
• Fumiko The Lowblood - Fumiko could get really big here.
• Gate To The Aether - If two players can build decks successfully around this and survive until they get an active Gate, this could be a lot of fun. Doubtful that it would be competitive though.
• Grave Pact - With this on the table you can force your opponents to sac their creatures, one each for one of yours. This also says 'each other player' so your teammate should not play with creatures unless they are disposable. Of course, if your teammate just happens to be playing a Spirit Dragon, that's a bonus.
• Grim Reminder - This card gets better in Two-Headed Giant because you've got two opponents who won't be playing the same cards, increasing your chance of successful life loss, particularly if you are playing with staples.
• Hondens - Between you and your team mate, you can get the five hondens out while minimising your risk of colour screw, and adding other control elements. A shame Obliterate rotates out, Wildfire should slide in here with ease.
• Mind's Eye - Double the drawing power!
• Neverending Torment - This and the other Epic spells aren't quite as troublesome if your team mate can keep playing their spells.
• Razormane Masticore - This guy can take out opposing creatures, but effectively skipping your draw phase, well, it sucks. In a team game, you effectively lose half the card draw for the team, making playing this guy less risky, especially in a creature filled environment.
• Reverse The Sands - Life matter cards will be explained below. It works almost the same. The end result is that the best you can do (assuming you are on lower life) is swap your team life total for the opponents team life total.
• Shared Fate - Oh, the torture!
• That Which Was Taken - Protect your team mates permanents.
• Twincast - Generally more useful simply because there are more players spells to copy. It might combo with something your team mate casts, which could give you 8 effective copies of Early Harvest or any other sorcery or instant you want to abuse.
• Uba Mask - Another card that a team can prepare for with tuned decks while (hopefully) wrecking the opposing side. Perhaps for two pure aggro decks.
• Uyo, Silent Prophet - Already a hit in multiplayer, this baby's power is obvious. Early Harvest and Summer Bloom here I come... War Elemental - With another team mate to help with the damage, this guy can get big fast.
• Zur's Weirding - I have no idea whether this card could work effectively in Two-Headed Giant. I'd say be prepared for some long games!
• Biorhythm - This spell could be deadly. One team mate could sweep the board and cast a creature/activate Blinkmoth Nexus etc, and the other cast Biorhythm for the win. Risky, but possible.
• Final Punishment - In a duel, spending 5 mana and casting Final Punishment means you had to attack or do other useful stuff to deal damage to an opponent for Final Punishment to be of any use. In a team game, as well as attacking (and assigning all the damage to one player), your team mate could cast a Fireball to really crank up the life loss.
• Furnace of Rath - As with Final Punishment, once this hits the table, your team mate can use active mana to cast damage dealing spells.
• Millstone and Variants - In a duel, you have 2 options to win; get your opponent to 0 life, or have your opponent draw a card on an empty library. In Two-Headed Giant, each team has double the life, but you only need to empty the library of one opponent for their team to lose. Probably not very competitive, but food for thought.
• Storage Matrix - Another card that could reward smart deck building.
• Underworld Dreams - Now with twice the damage!
• Weird Harvest - Suffers in a duel, in that you spend all your mana on it, then don't have the mana to cast any creatures you just searched for. In Two-Headed Giant, your teammate will likely be able to cast something they just searched for (a Hunted Wumpus here would make for fun games).

And here are some cards that don't work, or don't have the same functionality in Two-Headed Giant: Farsight mask, Sun Droplet, Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker, Ivory Mask... There are several more.

The reason they lose their effectiveness is because they operate on "Whenever you are dealt damage" or similar conditions. In Two-Headed Giant, individual players are still targeted and take damage or gain life individually; the team life total is adjusted accordingly. In combat, each unblocked or trample creature stacks its damage to one particular opponent (which also makes sense for damage triggers like ninjas and Hypnotic Specter). That player then takes the damage, which affects the team life total. If this is the case, no one in their right mind is going to assign the damage to a player who controls a Farsight Mask or Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker. For the same reason, Ageless Entity gets bigger if you follow it up with a Nourish, but not if your teammate casts Sacred Nectar.

Other life matters cards

Nourish will make you gain 6 life, but there are other cards that deal with your life total more intricately, and they change functionality in Two-Headed Giant. Let's quote some sections straight from the Comprehensive Rules:

So what does this mean? If a team is on 40 life, the individual players on that team are considered to have 20 life each (half, rounded up). If the team was on 20, each players life total would be 10. This means you could cast Hidetsugu's Second Rite targeting a player on a team with 20 life to deal that player (and in that case, that team) 10 points of damage, and that (and 19 life) is the only time that spell would have any effect. If you had out a Test of Endurance, it needs to know your life total at the beginning of your upkeep; unless your team is at 99 or higher (half, rounding up makes 50), Test of Endurance isn't going to win it for you.

Similarly, if your team was on 40, your life total would be 20. If you cast Beacon of Immortality, your life total is considered 20, meaning a net gain of 20 life; the teams total would go from 40 to 60. If your teams total is at 20 and you cast Form of the Dragon, at the end of the turn your 10 life (half team total) will go down to 5, meaning a total loss of 5 from the team, leaving the team at 15. Form of the Dragon will naturally calibrate your teams life to 10 (unless you employ life gain, but that will calibrate back down to 10 life).

Conclusion

I've covered a fair bit of information, and threw together a few decks. None of them are tested in the environment they are intended for; in fact I've never played at all in the environment they are intended for. Perhaps they are complete junk. Perhaps they just need a little work. Perhaps there is a card or idea I dismissed which will break the format. Nevertheless, until I am able to test the waters, it is a fun environment to think about, and to ponder whether there will be a solid metagame in the near future. Of course, I've only covered mainly Standard decks here, and that environment will naturally shift when Ravnica arrives. I am less familiar with the older formats (with Extended the only one I see likely to get any Two-Headed support), and Sealed Two-Headed Giant is another beast altogether.

So have fun. Think about the nuances that the format brings. How does each cards value change in Two-Headed Giant? What strategies can be applied to this format? What can I achieve with a team mate that I can't achieve in a duel? I'm sure I haven't covered all the angles; post your comments on the format, or decks you think might emerge. Get your heads together!

Michael Howell
Forum Name : Bacchus

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