“This is a really important turn, so we have to think things through. The game shouldn’t go past the next couple turns anyway. We should have plenty of time”
—One of my 2HG opponents after a 10-minute turn.
We drew the game with her partner drawing the last card in his library.
This is an article about Two-Headed Giant. I know, I know, it’s a casual format outside the competitive sphere but it’s one near and dear to my heart. I like the collaborative nature of game play, I like the clogged board states, and I like the fact that it’s usually correct to draw first. Two-Headed Giant is the bridge between competitive play and EDH, the games are complex, grindy, but a little bit swingy too. This weekend I splashed Seasons Past in my Blue-Red spells deck because card advantage is that important. Collaboration is awesome, solving complex board states is awesome, and big flashy effects are awesome, so Two-Headed Giant is awesome, right?
Up until recently I thought so.
Disclaimer, I’m about to recount some bad beat stories. I imagine that these stories will reveal more about the problems I have with pseudo-competitive Magic than actual problems with the format. I was going to call this article “The Problem with Me” but it turns out that I already wrote that article. So yeah, you’ve been warned.
The last few GPs where I scrubbed out of the main event, I’ve played Two-Headed Giant with Erica on Sunday. It’s become a bit of tradition over the past year and one that I’ve enjoyed until recently. At both DC and NY, we finished out of prize contention due to unintentional draws. Multiple unintentional draws. For those unfamiliar with Two-Headed Giant, you play one game of Magic, and while there are four players with each team starting at 30 life, it’s still one game of Magic. Unlike EDH, the goal is to win the game. There are no points for cool plays, though cool plays are a plus, and there’s no doctrine on the “spirit” of the game. 2HG might attract folks on the casual side but it’s still a sanctioned event generally held at competitive level events. The problem comes with this double consciousness. 2HG is a format that attracts casual players, and people that may not be comfortable playing on their own, but one that asks that they examine complex board states, problem solve with their friends, and complete the game at a reasonable pace.
Erica and I, AKA Team Tunnel Ignus, played against a mother-son duo on Sunday. Mother’s Day. The quote at the beginning of the article comes from this game. Essentially, I had a Manic Scribe, a delirious one at that, who was quickly milling out both opponents. While Team TI was at a low life total, we had stabilized the board after a timely Seasons Past, and were just going through the motions until Manic Scribe did its thing. The opponents’ Skin Invasion forced the Scribe to swing into a bunch of giant creatures, but it didn’t matter, the damage was done, each player had three and four cards in their library respectively. We just had to ride out the game, which we sought to accomplish by playing creatures and passing the turn very quickly. As soon as time was called I knew the game was going to a draw. The son drew his last card on turn three of turns, we had sufficiently gummed up the board but it didn’t matter. The dreaded draw.
The next round we played against an even slower-playing team. They were dominating us with an Archangel Avacyn and had a commanding board presence while Erica and I had a handful of dorky creatures and nearly hellbent hands. Despite having a commanding board presence, more life, and more cards in hand, our opponents deliberated at a glacial pace. Having been sufficiently tilted by the first game, I did my best to be cordial while asking them to play a bit faster. I eventually called a judge who watched the game for a few minutes before also urging them to play faster. At one point, after minutes of tanking, our opponents passed the turn and then remembered they should have an additional clue thanks to Ulvenwald Mysteries. They put two clues into play but missed the third trigger. The judge informed them that they had missed the trigger but the whole process took several minutes. I was super tilted at this point but the misery continued as they convened over every single play despite having on board lethal damage.
The problem of drawn out games and board stalls is not one relegated to SOI Sealed. I remember a particularly brutal game of 2HG at GP DC where our opponents spent 35 minutes deliberating and discussing their plays. Despite receiving several suggestions from a judge to play faster, the game went to turns. We swung for lethal on turn three of turns and our opponent played a Roilmage’s Trick which fogged our attack. We drew despite reasonable efforts on our end to end the game in a timely manner.
The problem in most of these cases is representative of a larger problem in sanctioned Magic regarding the enforcement of slow play. The problem is exacerbated in 2HG because of the pseudo-casual nature of the format where newer players team up to play a cooperate game. I’ve had judges watch multiple games but have never seen any real action taken aside from “I’m going to need you to make a play” after the turn has already stretched to an unreasonable length. I don’t want to be the asshole giving people a bad time when they team up with their friend, or their kid, but I don’t want to draw either. I want to continue playing this format because I like playing with Erica, and I like playing a slower game where card advantage generally outweighs tempo, where the games come down to complex decisions. I don’t want those complex decisions to paralyze the game state to the point where it’s unreasonable to finish a single game though.
Since I don’t see a tenable solution to these problems, I will probably just stop playing 2HG at competitive events.
In terms of Magic, Shawn Massak is a Modern enthusiast, with a penchant for tier two decks, counterspells, and pre Eighth Edition frames. In terms of life, Shawn lives in Brighton, MA where he works as an employment coordinator for people with disabilities, plays guitar in an indie-pop band, and spends his free time reading comics, complaining about pro-wrestling, and wishing his apartment allowed dogs as pets.