This guide shows which cards get better in Two-Headed Giant and which get worse. If you’re playing in a 2HG prerelease these are the cards to pay special attention to!

If you want to know more about the rules interactions, check out the 2HG Release Notes.

For the short version you can skip to the TOP 15 list at the end. For an even shorter version:

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GENERAL

(Factors unique to Guilds of Ravnica in bold and italics.)

• Bigger pool power level: With 2 combined pools decks have a much higher card quality than normal sealed decks. You will cut a lot of solid filler cards.
• Splashing: If you make one of the decks 3-color you can theoretically play all the bombs you open. Splashing is easier because you have more fixing in a larger pool and because the first mulligan is free, so you can mulligan a color-screwed hand.
• Synergy: The larger pool also means decks can be more synergy-based. Always check if you have a high number of good build-arounds for one of the archetypes.
• All-in on a type possible: If you have strong cards that highly reward you for playing as many creatures as possible or as many instants/sorceries as possible, it’s easier to go “all-in” on such a theme in 2HG because there’s a second deck to fill the gaps. It’s fine if you have no removal at all if your teammate has a bunch, or if you have no attackers at all if your teammate has those. For example with Guilds of Ravnica, an Izzet deck with mostly spells or a Convoke deck with mostly creatures is doable!
• Single Stategy: Both decks should have the same game plan, offensive or defensive. In other words, both decks should be built to end the game or to stall the game. If one is offensive while the other is defensive, you’ll be suboptimal at all stages of the game. For example if you have one deck full of beaters and one deck full of removal, the second deck should be effective at removing blockers. That way both decks still work towards the same goal, ending the game.
• Play or draw: In 2HG sealed it’s often correct to choose to draw if you’re not hyper aggressive. The two extra cards are a significant difference and it’s easier to stall boards.
• Evasion: With more creatures on both sides board stalls happen very quickly so evasion is king. Flying is especially important both on offense and defense. Menace on the other hand is much worse with twice as many potential blockers.
• Counterspells: Much better in 2HG. With two spell-casting opponents it’s unlikely you’ll keep mana up for nothing, there are more must-answer bombs overall, and the risk of not doing anything for a turn is less problematic if your teammate advances your board.
• Situational Answers: Normally situational cards like plummets and reclamation sages are much better in 2HG but with all the discard in Guilds of Ravnica they are a liability to have stuck in the hand.

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MORE PLAYERS

These cards affect all opponents (or players). With two opponents these abilities are twice as effective!

Each teams gains 8 life! And that on a respectable 3/3 for 3. And it’s a common, so many pools will have multiple. This card will make aggression very difficult and skew 2HG even more towards slower grindy decks that don’t care about giving the opponents 8 life and just want the buffer against aggro.

Burglar Rat

This is great value for a common, forcing 2 discards and being good fodder for the sacrifice subtheme.

Vicious Rumors

I like this one too but not as much as the Rat, as the mill is only helping the Golgari and/or Izzet opponents, and I rather have the body than a minor life swing. Still card advantage for 1 mana.

Disinformation Campaign

So many good discard cards for 2HG this time. Expect a lot of empty-handed players.

Discovery // Dispersal

Dispersal is really good against empty-handed players! It already bounces 2 permanents in 2HG and if your opponents are empty-handed it will outright destroy them.

Electrostatic Field

As mentioned above, a deck filled with only spells and spells-matters cards is doable in 2HG, so this becomes a very dangerous threat in those decks.

Legion Guildmage

Dealing 6 damage is quite the clock for a late-game finisher. Still not as much as Centaur Peacemaker gains though…

Others:

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MORE CREATURES

These cards affect all creatures, or all creatures your opponents control. They scale well in 2HG because two opponents mean twice as many creatures you can destroy or affect.

Ochran Assassin

This can lead to huge blowouts! It should be noted that your teammate’s mentor creatures can mentor this, so that’s a nice Golgari & Boros combo.

Citywide Bust

Because there are 2 opponents and on average there are more bombs in decks than normal sealed and games are grindier, this is much more likely to hit multiple good creatures.

Others:

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HELPING OR HELPED BY TEAMMATE

These are the cards that gain extra flexibility by having another player on your team.

MENTOR

Mentor can put the counter on your teammate’s attacking creatures!

Roc Charger

Flying is even more important in 2HG than in a duel and this being able to give your teammate’s creatures flying is huge.

Passwall Adept

Similarly the ability to break board stalls is important, and making your teammate’s creatures unblockable helps if they have the biggest attackers.

Wojek Bodyguard

It’s much easier to turn this on as it also counts your teammate’s attackers or blockers.

Urban Utopia

You can play this on your teammate’s land to help them fix their mana!

Others:

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LESS SITUATIONAL

These cards require very specific scenarios to be at their best. With twice as many players it’s more likely for those scenarios to occur.

Disdainful Stroke

Counterspells are already better in 2HG and there will be more must-answer bombs from the opponents. The biggest strike against this card this time is all the discard! If you can’t play out your hand because you’re stuck with this on hand which gives your opponent’s discard spell value, that’s not great.

Bounty Agent

With each pool having at least 14 12 rares, it’s much more likely you have a target for this.

(edit: Ravnica seeded prerelease pools have 12 rather than 14 guaranteed rares/mythics, which is still enough to make this significantly better.)

Collar the Culprit

More bombs to answer, and also with two opponents less likely that they’ll both have only small creatures.

Crushing Canopy

This is much more likely to have a good target. Again however with all the discard in the set, this is risky to have stuck in your hand.

Nullhide Ferox

This card however because much better because of all the discard!

Others:

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TOP 15

These are my picks for the cards that have the biggest power increase compared to a normal duel. They’re not the best cards to open overall, bombs are still bombs, good removal is still good removal, etc. These are simply the cards that warrant special attention at a 2HG tournament.

Top 10 commons/uncommons that gain the most:

1. Centaur Peacemaker
2. Burglar Rat
3. Disinformation Campaign
4. Discovery // Dispersal
5. Legion Guildmage
6. Vicious Rumors
7. Electrostatic Field
8. Passwall Adept
9. Collar the Culprit
10. Urban Utopia

The amount of cards that get significantly better is huge this time, sometimes I have to scrape for the last few slots but here I had to leave excellent choices out like Roc Charger.

I expect Centaur Peacemaker to single-handedly make aggro bad and the discard cards to make many players empty-handed. That in turn makes Dispersal insanely good removal!

It also makes expensive cards much worse as you can expect to have less resources to work with overall. Many games will be decided by curving Vicious Rumors into Burglar Rat into Disinformation Campaign. 9-for-3!

Top 5 rares/mythics that gain the most:

1. Nullhide Ferox
2. Citywide Bust
3. Bounty Agent
4. Find // Finality
5. Ritual of Soot

Meanwhile some games will be decided in a turn 1 Vicious Rumors into Nullhide Ferox!

There are a lot of board wipes in this set, especially for medium and smaller creatures, so be aware of those!

Do you agree or disagree with this list? Are you missing a card in this article or comments for a card? How was your experience at the prerelease? Comment below!