Two-Headed Giant

Team Draft with collaborative multiplayer gameplay.

Two Headed Giant can be drafted using Burn Draft, Team Draft, or even Rotisserie styles of drafting — whatever best suits your group. However, after the end of the draft, games are played in a Two-Headed Giant style.

Games are played between two teams of two players. Each team has a single life total, starting at 30 life. Team mates take their turn at the same time, and advance through steps simultaneously, including drawing their card for turn and declaring attackers. Players may block creatures attacking their team mate.

Only life totals are shared. Other resources including mana and cards still belong to individual players. Any card that references ‘you’ or a target player still references an individual player. Cards that reference multiple players or opponents effect each player individually.

A variation on the draft, introduced by Battlebond, is to have each team draft together. With this mode, a team looks at a pack together and takes two cards at a time, typically at a table of 4 teams. Cards are added to a single shared pool that players build two decks from.

Two-Headed Giant is a great for players with less experience and groups with mixed skill levels. Even for experienced players, it can make for a great social game.

The Battlebond variation of drafting has a fairly clear optimal strategy. Since players are likely to be able to play most if not all colors in their shared pool, so in practice players can just draft the ‘best’ cards from each pack rather than trying to draft more focused decks.

Aggro will be naturally weaker in 2HG due to the higher life totals, so if you’re looking to create balanced gameplay, you may consider setting aside your most aggressive cards prior to shuffling your cube.

Additionally, effects that read "each opponent" or "each player" affect each team member separately, and are therefore usually stronger than in 1v1 play.