These notes explain how Kaladesh cards work in 2HG. You can find the regular release notes here. The majority of cards work as you’d expect but there are some quirks in 2HG, often involving the combat phase or life total changes. See the 2HG FAQ if you want to know more about the rules of the format.
If you’re going to play in a 2HG prerelease you should also check out the 2HG Hidden Gems that shows which cards to look out for!
GENERAL
This part covers the basics, “you” and “each”. If you’re already familiar with these you can skip to the card-specific notes.
“YOU”
The golden rule of 2HG is “You” still refers to you alone, not both you and your teammate. Something that pumps creatures you control only refers to your creatures, etc. Look if a card mentions “you” or “you control”.
These are the new mechanics that do not interact with your teammate:
Crew requires you to tap “creatures you control”, so while it would be cool flavor you can’t crew your teammate’s vehicles.
Energy counters belong to a specific player, “you get” them, so energy counters that you get can’t be used by your teammate. You both have your own energy count. (Poison counters were shared between teammates but that was an exception to the rule.)
Create doesn’t mention “you” on the card, but the tokens still enter “under your control” as always unless specifically mentioned otherwise.
“EACH”
Cards that say “each opponent” or “each player” do affect more players than usual.
These two examples have triggers that cause the opposing team to lose 2 life in total. They do not give you 2 life as well. You still gain only 1 life in total.
CARD-SPECIFIC NOTES
Aetherstorm Roc
- With the attack trigger you can target any one creature from the defending players, this is separate from any other choices about “defending player”. For example, you can attack one opponent’s planeswalker but target the other opponent’s creature with this ability.
Cataclysmic Gearhulk
- The team whose turn it is chooses first. In a normal scenario where you cast this on your own turn, you and your teammate first choose the permanents you want to keep, then the opposing team chooses. The opposing team will know your team’s choices.
Combustible Gearhulk
- Even though you target a specific opponent, your opponents are still allowed to discuss the decision together.
- If your opponents can’t reach an agreement for some reason, it’s by default the player in the rightmost seat from their perspective who makes the final decision. This is unaffected by whom you target with the ability.
Consulate Surveillance
- The second ability does very little in 2HG. You have to activate this before the Combat Damage step, but in that step the opposing team can decide which defending player an attacking creature deals its damage to, so they can simply choose your teammate after you’ve activated this.
Dovin Baan
- The emblem looks at each opponent separately, so both players can untap two of their own permanents, it’s not two in total shared between them. Small consolidation for them.
Eager Construct
- All four players may look at the same time, and you can look at each other’s top card as well before choosing what to do with your card. The team whose turn it is decides first. In a normal scenario where you cast this on your own turn, you and your teammate first decide whether to keep your card on top or not. After this your opponents choose.
Empyreal Voyager
- Even though you attack the defending players as a team, you only deal combat damage to one of them of your choice, so you do not get twice the amount of energy.
Ghirapur Orrery
- The second ability triggers for each player separately. If one player has cards in hand, it can still trigger for the other player.
Janjeet Sentry
- You can’t use the untap ability to have a teammate’s creature tap twice for one crew ability. To crew a vehicle you have to tap all creatures at the same time, with no opportunity in between to use spells or abilities.
Trusty Companion
- This can attack along with a creature controlled by your teammate, even if no other creatures you control attack.