Hi again, and welcome back to the Rules Tip Blog. Today, we’re going to be talking about Shaman of the Forgotten Ways, and how its second ability works in two-headed giant.

In Dragons of Tarkir, we got Shaman of the Forgotten Ways. One of its abilities reads “Each player’s life total becomes the number of creatures he or she controls.” But how does that ability work in two-headed giant, where we have two players on the same team, but only one life total?

If you’re in a two-headed giant game and some effect tries to set each player’s life total to a number, each team will pick one member of their team, and only that player is affected by the spell or ability. For instance, if Players A and B are on the same team, and Player A has 3 creatures and Player B has 10 creatures, if someone activates the Shaman’s ability, their team will pick either Player A or Player B, and the Shaman’s effect will count their creature to determine their team’s life total. If they pick Player A, then their team’s life total will be set to 3. If they pick Player B, their team’s life total will be set to 10.

In short: if someone activates the Shaman, make sure your team picks the teammate with the most creatures, to ensure that you still have a high life total once the ability resolves.

Today’s Rules Tip written by Nathan Long