In true Two-Headed Giant fashion, here comes the second head…err, rules tip…as the week draws to a close. Teammates don’t only share life totals in this format, they also share steps and phases. Ordinarily this doesn’t matter much; during your shared main phase, you and your teammate can play spells and abilities in any order, for example. Where it does matter is when a spell or ability specifically references the existence of a step or phase. For example, Angelic Accord triggers “At the beginning of each end step.” Each end step means one end step per team, so just like in normal two-player Magic, it’ll have two chances to trigger after each time you untap: at the end of your team’s own turn, and at the end of the opposing team’s turn.

Compare to Luminarch Ascension, another enchantment that can create Angel tokens, which says “each opponent’s end step.” While the opposing team is one team, they’re still two separate opponents, so the same instance of entering the end step will cause Luminarch Ascension to trigger twice — once for each opponent. This means that unlike regular two-player Magic, you only have to last two turns without being damaged before you can start making Angels!

Today’s Rules Tip written by Jen Wong