Magic Origins Two-Headed Giant Release Notes

| Toby Hazes

This is a quick reference guide on how certain cards work in Two-Headed Giant (2HG). This mostly concerns interactions about combat and life total changes. Those interactions are explained here so you do not have to look up the specific rules themselves.

These explanations assume you’re already familiar with how these cards work in a normal game. You can find the regular release notes here. Some 2HG interactions are explained in there as well but many aren’t.

If you want to know more about the rules of the format in general rather than specific cards, be sure to check out the 2HG FAQ as well. If you think a card should be on this list, an explanation could be more thorough or something is wrong, please do not hesitate to contact us.

CARD-SPECIFIC NOTES

Alhammarret’s Archive

  • The first ability does not apply to life gained by your teammate. Your life total is shared, but changes to that life total are still treated as happening to players individually.

Archangel of Tithes

  • The middle ability applies to all creatures attacking your team or your planeswalkers. The only attackers it does not apply to are creatures attacking your teammate’s planeswalkers.

Bonded Construct

  • Your teammate’s creatures count for the attack condition.

Dark Dabbling

  • If you target one of your teammate’s creatures and you have spell mastery, then “each other creature you control” will simply refer to each creature you control.

Goblin Piledriver

  • The trigger counts your teammate’s attacking goblins as it does not mention “you control”.

Grasp of the Hieromancer

  • The creature you target with the attack trigger can be from either opponent. Both opponents are seen as a defending player.
  • This choice has no bearing on other choices about ‘defending player’ or who you’re attacking. For example, if you have two of these enchanting the same creature, you can target a creature controlled by a different defending player for each of them.

Graveblade Marauder

  • “That player” in the second ability refers to one player, the opponent you chose to assign this creature’s combat damage to. It does not refer to both opponents in Two-Headed Giant.

Hixus, Prison Warden

  • You can’t ambush your opponents with the second ability in Two-Headed Giant. The attacking team does not choose who an unblocked attacker deals combat damage to until it’s assigned in the Combat Damage Step. At that point Hixus has to already be on the battlefield for its second ability to trigger, but then your opponents can simply choose to assign the combat damage to your teammate.

Kytheon, Hero of Akros

  • The trigger counts your teammate’s attacking creatures as it does not mention “you control”.

Mage-Ring Responder

  • The creature you target with the attack trigger can be from either opponent. Both opponents are seen as a defending player.
  • This choice has no bearing on other choices about ‘defending player’ or who you’re attacking. For example, you can attack one opponent’s planeswalker but target the other opponent’s creature with this ability.

Orbs of Warding

  • The attacking team can simply choose to assign combat damage to your teammate, circumventing the second ability.

Sentinel of the Eternal Watch

  • The second ability triggers twice each combat, once for each opponent.
  • Those triggers are tied to their respective opponents so you can’t tap two creatures of one opponent.

Shadows of the Past

  • With the second ability you simply gain 2 life, not 2 life for each opponent who loses 2 life. If you activate this ability in Two-Headed Giant, your opponents would lose 4 life in total and you would gain 2 life in total.

Sigil of Valor

  • The first ability does not trigger if your teammate is also attacking with creatures.

Thopter Spy Network

  • The second ability triggers once per player you’re dealing combat damage to, so this can trigger twice in Two-Headed Giant.
  • You do not choose which opponent an unblocked attacker deals combat damage to until the damage is assigned in the Combat Damage Step. This means this is undecided yet when the defending team chooses how to block. For example, if you have three attacking artifact creatures and the defending team can block only one of them, you can later assign the combat damage of whichever two are unblocked to one opponent each to get two triggers.