Rules glossary
↑ Section 810. Two-Headed Giant Variant
810.9 Damage, loss of life, and gaining life happen to each player individually. The result is applied to the team’s shared life total. Example: In a Two-Headed Giant game, a player casts Flame Rift, which reads, “Flame Rift deals 4 damage to each player.” Each team is dealt a total of 8 damage.
- 810.9a If a cost or effect needs to know the value of an individual player’s life total, that cost or effect uses the team’s life total instead. Example: In a Two-Headed Giant game, a player on a team that has 17 life is targeted by Beacon of Immortality, which reads, in part, “Double target player’s life total.” That player gains 17 life, so the team winds up at 34 life. Example: In a Two-Headed Giant game, a player controls Test of Endurance, an enchantment that reads, “At the beginning of your upkeep, if you have 50 or more life, you win the game.” At the beginning of that player’s upkeep, the player’s team wins the game if their team’s life total is 50 or more. Example: In a Two-Headed Giant game, a player on a team that has 11 life controls Lurking Evil, an enchantment that reads, “Pay half your life, rounded up: Lurking Evil becomes a 4/4 Horror creature with flying.” To activate the ability, that player must pay 6 life. The team winds up at 5 life.
- 810.9b If a cost or effect allows both members of a team to pay life simultaneously, the total amount of life they pay may not exceed their team’s life total. (Players can always pay 0 life.)
- 810.9c If an effect sets a single player’s life total to a specific number, the player gains or loses the necessary amount of life to end up with the new total. The team’s life total is adjusted by the amount of life that player gained or lost. Example: In a Two-Headed Giant game, a player on a team that has 25 life is targeted by an ability that reads, “Target player’s life total becomes 10.” That player’s life total is considered to be 25, so that player loses 15 life. The team winds up at 10 life.
- 810.9d If an effect would set the life total of each player on a team to a number, that team chooses one of its members. On that team, only that player is affected. Example: In a Two-Headed Giant game, one team has 7 life and the other team has 13 life. A player casts Repay in Kind, which reads, “Each player’s life total becomes the lowest life total among all players.” Each team chooses one of its members to be affected. The result is that the chosen player on the team that has 13 life loses 6 life, so that team’s life total winds up at 7.
- 810.9e A player can’t exchange life totals with their teammate. If an effect would cause that to occur, the exchange won’t happen.
- 810.9f If an effect instructs a player to redistribute any number of players’ life totals, that player may not affect more than one member of each team this way.
- 810.9g If an effect says that a player can’t gain life, no player on that player’s team can gain life.
- 810.9h If an effect says that a player can’t lose life, no player on that player’s team can lose life or pay any amount of life other than 0.