Two-Headed Giant

Reference

How Two-Headed Giant works

Two teams of two. Each team shares one life total and takes one turn together. That's the whole format — and it's enough to change what half the cards in Magic are worth.

The rules every variant shares

One life total
Teammates share a single life total. Damage to either player comes off the same pool, and lifegain feeds it back. A team loses when that total hits 0.
One turn
Teammates take their turns simultaneously as a team turn: one untap, one upkeep, one draw step each, one combat phase. Either player may cast spells whenever the team has priority.
The starting team doesn't draw
The team that goes first skips their first draw step — both players skip it, not just one.
Two opponents, one target
'Each opponent' resolves against both members of the opposing team, but their life is one pool — so the printed number effectively doubles. This is the single biggest reason card values shift in 2HG.
Range of influence is the team
You may target your teammate's permanents and your teammate themselves. Protection, untapping, and 'target player draws' effects can all be pointed at your partner.
Poison is 15
A team loses at 15 poison counters rather than the usual 10, so infect and toxic clocks are slower than their raw numbers suggest.

The format you build for

2HG Commander is the variant you build a deck for at home, and the one the deck builder is built around.

2HG Commander

Monthly WPN event

Each player brings their own legal 100-card Commander deck. The team shares 60 life. Teammates may run the same cards — the singleton rule applies to each deck, not to the team.

Shared starting life
60
Deck size
100 cards each
Copies per deck
1 (singleton)
Copies across the team
No team limit
Commander damage
21 from one commander
Poison counters to lose
15
  • Each player's deck is an ordinary, individually legal Commander deck: 100 cards, singleton, colour identity enforced per deck.
  • The team shares one 60-life total instead of the usual 40 per player.
  • A player still loses to 21 combat damage from a single commander.
  • A team loses at 15 poison counters, not 10.
  • There is no unified deck rule. Both teammates may play the same card.

Limited variants

The most-played 2HG by a wide margin. There's nothing to build in advance, so the builder doesn't cover these — but the card ratings still apply once your pool is open.

2HG Sealed

The prerelease format. A team opens a shared pool and builds two decks from it together, collaborating so the decks cover different roles.

  • Each deck is at least 40 cards, built from one shared pool.
  • From the Reality Fracture prerelease, a team receives one Prerelease Pack plus two Play Boosters.
  • The team shares one 30-life total.
  • Cards left over from the pool are shared — a card can only be in one deck at a time.

2HG Draft

Less common than sealed, but run at some stores. Teams draft and then build two decks from the combined pool.

  • Each deck is at least 40 cards, built from the team's combined drafted pool.
  • The team shares one 30-life total.

The one rule people get wrong

2HG Commander has no unified deck rule. Wizards' event rules say you may bring any legal Commander deck, so you and your teammate can both run Sol Ring — the singleton rule applies to each deck, not to the team. The four-copies-across-both-decks rule people remember is from a different format entirely, and doesn't apply to anything you'll play at a Commander Night.

Sources

Rules summarised from Wizards of the Coast's published format and event rules. Where a store runs house rules, theirs win.