Two-Headed Giant Tournament
Modern forum
Posted on Aug. 21, 2021, 10:32 p.m. by Icbrgr
I have a two part question for the community. (Just for giggles)
A:
- If there was a Two-Headed Giant tournament with the Modern Formats cardpool/banlist what decks do you think would be the best options for you and your partner to pilot?
B:
- Do you think we would see some sort of mimicry of the current Modern Meta; or do you think the nature/rules of Two-Headed Giant the decks would be completely different?
I always assumed teams would be locked in Two-Headed Giant... because you can only have 4x copies of a card between you and your partners decks I think it would be too difficult to find different or random partners at any given time.
Would be cool if your right about those other cards seeing more play.
August 22, 2021 12:11 a.m. Edited.
Icbrgr Yeah, I was in a few casual 2HG tournaments (playing for bragging rights only) that shuffled players every round based on your individual record. It was a lot of fun, but I expect a sanctioned tournament would lock teams. So going back to my thoughts, combo + control, just shutting down the game until combo goes off, would probably make a high-level team.
August 22, 2021 12:15 a.m.
wallisface says... #5
Me and my friends have done a few casual 2hg tourney-styled days using modern decks, and from that brief glimpse, I'd make the following assumptions:
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As was eluded to above, the team will be much stronger if one player is setting about enacting an aggressive plan, with the other player supporting them as much as possible.
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Cards that affect "each opponent" get a LOT more stronger. Suddenly, something like Impact Tremors can make quick work of the opponents life total.
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Some single-target stuff like Hand Disruption also feels a bit weaker, as you're only effectively seeing half of your opponents hand. Direct damage spells like Lightning Bolt also lose a lot of power.
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There is a LOT more potential for various combo builds, as you have twice as many plays happening in a turn for your team, and there are various synergies where you don't need to assemble the whole piece yourself, you can share the load.
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You can also literally split an existing modern deck into its components, and have each player run one half of that contraption. For example, one player could run a bunch of Infect creatures, while the other runs a bunch of Pump Spells - resulting in what is effectively a hyper aggressive version of the existing Infect deck.
I suspect if this became a competitive format, you'd see the following general archtypes for decks:
- Two hyper aggro builds, focused on "each opponent" triggers to speed up the damage output.
- Goodstuff/Tempo paired with Control/Support.
- Combo paired with a deck that accelerates that combo.
- Combo paired with Control/Support.
- Combo/Synergies split across both decks, so they can feed off each-other.
August 22, 2021 12:51 a.m.
Both of you have me fearing the idea of combo decks paired with control/support... sounds gross/glorious depending.
I dont know if I agree about Lightning Bolt... as a traditional burn spell its certainly gets weaker... but as single target removal it is theoretically still good I think because it still deals with a lot of scary things.
August 22, 2021 8:43 a.m.
Then again I may just have a tainted opinion because I just bought into Jeskai Prowess in modern and the idea of bolt not working just hurt my feelings lol
August 22, 2021 8:48 a.m.
TypicalTimmy says... #8
In my experience, Mid-range-control was the best.
One player goes Jund for speed. One goes Simic to ramp out counter spells
August 23, 2021 12:39 a.m.
Did you see any success with two decks having the same gameplan, such as two aggro decks?
legendofa says... #2
My guess is that the meta would develop primarily around a "sword and shield" sort of strategy--one aggro or tempo deck and one control or midrange deck per team. There will be more "double sword" teams than "double shield" teams.
I also think it would fall between Modern and EDH for card choice and playstyle, since the life totals and number of opponents falls between the traditional play styles of these. So decks like mono-red or even Boros burn won't be showing up, but something like Naya burn would take its place, to give it that extra stretch. Flexible cards like Consult the Necrosages might get more play, and Surge cards like Tyrant of Valakut definitely would.
I also think combo decks would show up somewhat less. They would appear alongside control decks if teams were locked, but if teams could be switched around mid-tournament, a combo + aggro team might not be able to protect itself.
August 21, 2021 11:47 p.m.