Why You Need Two-Headed Giant in Your Life: Part 1

Deck Challenges Opinion

zandl

23 May 2016

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Why You Need Two-Headed Giant in Your Life

Part 1: Joys & Epiphanies

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Love it or hate it, Two-Headed Giant (2HG) is an essential stepping stone on your journey to become a stronger and more broadly versed Magic player. The lessons to be gleaned from partaking in the variant are manifold and can provide you with the skills to better calculate odds, identify deeper lines of play, and maintain heavier board-states correctly. By contributing your energy and thoughts to 2HG, you’ll gain an appreciation for the potential power of other players as well as the ability to see spell sequences and lines of play that you may not have otherwise detected.

For all it can do for us, though, 2HG is criminally underplayed, typically reserved only for sealed prerelease events four times per year. Though its popularity on these special weekends is undeniable, I’m at a bit of a loss as to why nobody seems to apply the variant to other formats. Could it be that we’re just too unfamiliar with the 2HG-specific rules? Are we intimidated by the fact that, although 2HG exists in established formats, it has its own "sub"-meta to be mastered? Or is it that we simply might not have understood the benefits without playing enough 2HG to see the value therein?

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        Rules - Without them, anarchy.

For those of you who may be blissfully unaware and have been scratching your scalps up to this point, Two-Headed Giant is a variant on the core structure of games in Magic. Traditionally, games are played between two players until one has defeated the other. In 2HG, you pair up with a partner to form a team that takes on another, each player with their own deck. To accommodate for the big change in the game structure and to keep things balanced, 2HG accordingly has its own set of rules. Take care to read these mindfully as the majority of Magic players either don’t fully understand them or aren’t aware of them whatsoever.

Don’t dread this list of rules as most of them are simple and follow common sense.

• Each team begins with a shared life total of 30.
• This is an adjustment to prevent two aggressive decks from taking over before any stabilization can occur. Also, because you share a life total, your team would lose the game if, for example, your teammate is hit by Lightning Bolt while your team is at 3 life. This is because...
• Teammates are bound together in the game.
• (No; not physically, creep.) If one player would lose the game (say, by taking lethal damage or by drawing while there are no cards in his/her library), that player’s team loses instead. Similarly, if someone wins through an effect (i.e. Near-Death Experience or, God forbid, Battle of Wits), that player’s team wins.
• Each player uses only his or her own cards.
• Players’ hands and battlefields are kept separate from their teammates’. For instance, you may not use your teammate’s lands or mana to cast your spells. You can suggest, plead, beg, or offer a myriad of sexual favors to your teammate to cast a certain spell, but he or she is ultimately the one who pulls the trigger. At no time should you grab another player’s cards unless you ask first and are given permission, especially if your teammate is a relative stranger.
• Teammates are allowed to verbally communicate and strategize.
• Hopefully this didn’t surprise anyone. Players are allowed to see all cards their teammates can (hand, scry, etc.). Players can (and should) strategize with one another before making any play, really, and nothing can stop a team from whispering or pointing to cards in a hand, for instance, for the sake of secrecy. If you need proof that mid-game strategizing is essential, consider that watching two random players in Magic Duels try to somehow piece together a win is like a live video tutorial on how to really efficiently lose at Magic.
• Teams share steps, phases, and turns.
• Overall turn structure in 2HG is no different from your typical game of Magic, though you simply share it all with another player. You untap at the same time, draw for your turn together, and declare attackers/blockers simultaneously. Additionally, mulligans must be taken or declined at the same time. You don’t get to see your teammate’s new hand before deciding what you want to do. Each player gets one "free" mulligan back to 7, and the Vancouver Mulligan rule begins after you’ve gone down to 6.
• Both players on a team are still considered individual players.
• Spells that affect "each player/opponent" can have drastically altered implications in 2HG. Crackling Doom, for example, annihilates the strongest creature each opponent controls while dealing a total of 4 damage to the opposing team, as they share the same life total.
• "You" means just you.
• Any time a card specifically says "you," that doesn’t include your teammate. For instance, your Always Watching won’t give your teammate’s creatures anything since your battlefields are technically separate and you don’t control those creatures. On a separate note, look out for cards, like Trumpet Blast, which affect any creatures that are doing a specific action. These spells can affect your teammate’s creatures because they don’t care whose creatures are attacking. However, be aware that certain cards have some odd interactions in 2HG, usually clarified on the 2HG Release Notes for each set. The middle ability on Archangel of Tithes, for example, affects both opponents because technically your team (which includes you) is being attacked. Confused? That’s understandable. When in doubt, call a judge or just Google it.
• Players attack and block as a team.
• Attacking creatures are declared at the same time for both players and the defending team must declare blockers together. Players may block creatures coming from any opponent, and not just the one sitting straight across. Creatures attack the defending team, not individual players. With the example of Bane of Bala Ged, its ability triggers as soon as it’s declared as an attacker. As the ability goes onto the stack, you choose which defending player is the one in question (since a team is made up of two players). The Bane can still be blocked by either opponent, though.
• Aside from basic lands, a team’s decks may not contain more than four of any card between them.
• Let’s say you’re building decks for an upcoming 2HG tournament and discover that Fall of the Titans is broken (because it is), so you decide to jam four in each deck. Fortunately for everyone’s life totals, the original creators of the variant (or, at least, the bro that made this rule) thought of that first and realized everyone would just play the best cards x 8. The "Unified Deck Construction Rule" completely defines 2HG and allows for a huge amount of possible strategic options while encouraging a large diversity of deck types and spells in each game.
• Constructed 2HG is not best-two-of-three at tournaments.
• Because the average 2HG game is longer than your typical 1v1 game, there is just one game per round. This makes for some interesting card choices while building the decks as you won’t have a sideboard to call upon.
• 2HG is not format-specific.
• Perhaps the best of all, you can play 2HG in any format - Standard, Modern, Legacy, EDH, or what have you. Personally, I have quite a penchant for 2HG EDH mostly due to the fact that it lends itself to some of the most complex lines of play you’ll ever find in Magic. If you want a rewarding mental challenge, grab 3 friends (beers optional), shuffle up, and pick your partner. With no official guidelines for 2HG EDH, house rules usually supersede all others. I’d go with 60 life per team, still 21 for a commander-damage death (from any one commander), and 20 Poison Counters for an Infect death. Also, don’t worry about the "shared cards" rule here, but don’t be douchey with your deck choices, either.

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        Knowledge - Power, allegedly.

Years of grinding out games of 2HG with friends and strangers over Magic Duels and in person have given me a number of highly valuable skills which I apply to "1v1 Magic". For starters, 2HG has taught me to:

Slow down and analyze.

This may sound like a given or seem a bit obvious, but it’s a skill that 2HG forces you to strengthen. By the time the fourth turn of a game rolls around, there are already 16 lands in play alongside what is likely a handful of creatures and other permanents. Each player will likely have ~5 cards in his or her hand, meaning a team will essentially have 10 spells to choose from. Constructing a plan to use your own spells with your teammate’s is going to take some time more often than not. When you factor in that your opponents probably both have ways to counter your team’s lines of play, it’s easy to see how difficult it can be to choose the correct one. This constant need to analyze and reanalyze will provide you with patience, a deeper sense of insight, and improved collaboration skills with your teammate. These traits will enhance your abilities to have mental dialogues with yourself during 1v1 Magic, which I believe is one of the keys to unlocking a higher potential for success.

2HG has also taught me to:

Respect other players’ decisions.

Just because one player is technically designated the "Primary Player" and, technically, his or her say goes if you can’t come to a consensus, you must respect your teammate’s thoughts and choices. You are a team, after all. Similar to how hearing someone else’s insights on 2HG deck construction can improve your own skills, you’ll find that listening to your teammate’s observations and potential plans is invaluable. It’s not often (in fact, it only occurs in 2HG) that you get to actually listen to someone else talking you through a game as it’s being played, so be honest, helpful, and attentive. You never know when that kid you begrudgingly agreed to enter a sealed event with out of desperation reveals a fatal flaw in the opponents’ plans. I’ve seen it happen before and I’ve relished in immeasurable smugness after seeing a seasoned, self-proclaimed "pro" get REKT by an eight-year-old kid in an Adventure Time shirt.

One particularly profitable skill you can take away from 2HG is that you will:

Learn to build more effective decks.

Part of the introduction of this article mentioned that you’ll only get the most from 2HG if you put energy and thought into the variant first. When playing constructed 2HG, you should really be building decks just for it. Showing up to a one-off Standard 2HG tournament and trying to smash, say, G/W Tokens and G/R Ramp together may work decently in some matches, but the results will clearly show who brewed just for the occasion. When both your faces are melted off by a Fall of the Titans taking you from 20 to -8 at instant-speed, you’re really going to wish you had thought of that, too.

I get it; learning a new meta-game is difficult, and building decks to fit into that meta is harder still. An established meta is arguably the largest deterrent to players wanting to enter a new format. However, the challenge of building two completely separate decks that must also intertwine strategically is one that I feel a lot of self-proclaimed "brewers" would love to tackle. I, personally, crave the challenge and view it as a creative obstacle to overcome. Additionally, working alongside another player whose money and pride are also at stake is a unique experience. While competitive playgroups tend to work together to offer advice and suggestions to one another (not unlike what we do on TappedOut), they don’t typically aim to make their decks work together. Letting someone in on your deck-building process will provide him or her with an abundance of ideas and insight, both of which will stem new ideas for yourself in return. Give a little, get a little.

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        Deck Construction - Where all the Magic happens.

Successful deck combinations in constructed 2HG all share a few common traits:

• The decks play well together and include a number of cross-deck synergies.
• It would be really embarrassing to sit down and have to Languish away your teammate’s board of Humans on the fourth turn, wouldn’t it? You should choose a strategy and roll with it together.
• The decks don’t share colors, or minimize the colors they do share.
• If your team’s decks share too many colors or too much of one, you’re going to start scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to finding spells to use. This, of course, is beyond the inevitable problem of not being able to share more than four of any card. Your team is going to fight against two separate decks and, thusly, must be able to react to a huge number of threats coming from many different angles without a sideboard. If your team’s decks don’t include White or Green, what are your odds of overcoming something like a hard-hitting enchantment, like Stasis Snare or Retreat to Emeria? I’m not saying Naturalize is an auto-include, but this inherent problem is something you need to keep in mind.
• The decks can "shift" power between the two.
• What I mean by "shifting power" is that each deck should be ready and able to take over if the other is suddenly struck with a case of the "Land Floods" or takes a hit from some well-aimed removal. The best comparison I can make for you is from Pokemon (or any RPG, really), where you want to keep your party trained fairly evenly in case things don’t go according to plan. Sure; your Level 100 Mewtwo is sweet, but that Level 24 Butterfree ain’t got s***, son.

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And on that scholarly note, we’ll pause for the week so you aren’t inundated with new information. Look for Part 2 to be posted next Monday and dive right in with me as we piece together some real-world decks for you to use and claim as your own original ideas when everybody loves them! Armed with the essential knowledge and deck-building skills to construct a pair of decks after Part 2, I’ll have a bit of a challenge for you... and my challenges always have rewards.

Happy tapping, players!
zandl

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