Two-Headed Giant Cube Draft: Rules and Procedure

A two headed giant cube draft seats four teams of two around the table, has each team take two cards from every pack, and ends with each pair building two decks from one shared pool. The games are played two against two with a shared 30-life total and simultaneous turns. It is the format that lets a veteran and a newcomer sit on the same side.

This article gives the official draft procedure, the game rules that most often trip people up, and the adjustments a cube needs so that two-player teams produce good games. For the general family of team formats, see cube sealed, rotisserie, and team formats.

How does a Two-Headed Giant draft work?

The procedure below follows the Two-Headed Giant tournament rules as summarized on the MTG Wiki and the Magic Judges 2HG FAQ. The tournament rules recommend six boosters per team; for a cube, use the same count.

Setup

1. Shuffle the cube and deal 24 face-down packs of 15. That is 360 cards.
2. Form four teams of two. Teammates sit next to each other. The pod is made of teams, not individuals.
3. Give each team six packs. Each team opens its first pack together.

A pick

1. The team looks at the pack together. Teammates may talk freely during the draft; the tournament rules allow it.
2. The team takes two cards from the pack. The cards go into a single team pool. They are not assigned to one player.
3. Pass the pack to the next team on the left.
4. Continue until all cards are drafted. A 15-card pack goes 15, 13, 11, 9, 7, 5, 3, 1; the last card goes to whichever team receives it.

Direction

Pack one passes left. Pack two passes right. Pack three passes left. The tournament rules then continue right, left, right for packs four through six.

After the draft

Each team holds about 90 cards. From that pool, each player builds a deck of at least 40 cards with basic lands. No card other than basics can be in both decks. Everything not in either deck is a shared sideboard both players can use between matches.

Recommended build time at tournaments is 40 minutes, which is longer than the usual 25 because two people are building two decks from one pile and negotiating who gets the removal.

What game rules do people get wrong?

Two-Headed Giant has its own rules in the Comprehensive Rules, section 810. The MTG Wiki’s Two-Headed Giant page covers them. The ones that matter at a cube table:

• Shared life total of 30. Damage and life gain happen to the individual player but apply to the team total. A team at 0 or less loses.
• Shared turns. Both teammates take their untap, draw, main phases, and combat at the same time. Each player draws their own card and plays their own land.
• The starting team skips its first draw. Neither player on the team that goes first draws on turn one. The team chosen at random decides play or draw before either player looks at a hand.
• Mulligans. Each player takes a free first mulligan. On the second mulligan you put one card on the bottom, and so on. Teammates decide together.
• Poison is shared. A team with 15 or more poison counters loses.
• Attacking. Since 2018, creatures attack a specific player or planeswalker, not the team. Either defending player may block with their creatures. Damage still comes off the shared total.
• Open hands. Teammates may look at each other’s hands at any time and discuss anything. They may not touch each other’s cards.
• Single game per match. Tournament 2HG matches are one game, not best of three. For a casual night, best of three with the shared sideboard is fine and gives new players a second try.

What has to change in the cube?

A cube built for one-on-one games mostly works in 2HG, but a few categories play very differently. Nothing here requires a second cube; it requires knowing which cards will swing.

Practical adjustments:

• Expect longer games. Thirty life and two boards mean turn eight happens. Decks with reach and card advantage do well. Tell new players to build toward the late game and not to worry about a slow start.
• Removal is more valuable, not less. Two opposing decks means two bombs to answer. Teams should split removal evenly rather than loading it into one deck.
• Pair colors across the team. The simplest build plan is one teammate in the two colors the team drafted deepest and the other in a different pair, so the team is not fighting over the same cards. A team that drafted heavy blue can give one player blue-white and the other blue-red if the pool supports it.
• Watch “target opponent” combat cards. Spells that make one player’s creatures unable to block only stop half the defense.

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How do you pair the teams?

The format exists to put a strong player next to a weak one, so pair them that way. A good approach when running a 2HG night:

1. Ask everyone to rate themselves 1 to 3 on draft experience. Pair 3s with 1s first, then 2s together.
2. Put couples and friends who asked to play together on the same team regardless of rating. The social goal outranks balance.
3. Seat the two strongest teams across the table from each other so they are not passing to each other.

The veteran drafts and the newcomer watches for the first pack. By pack two most newcomers are suggesting picks. That shift, happening in the open, is what the format is for. Our longer treatment of onboarding new players is in learn Magic with a cube.

How long does it take?

Draft: 35 to 45 minutes, slightly faster than individual because four teams pass faster than eight players. The tournament pick timer for 2HG is more generous, 50 seconds for the first pick from a fresh pack against 40 in an individual draft, because two people are deciding and taking two cards.

Build: 40 minutes.

Play: a single 2HG game runs 25 to 40 minutes. Three rounds, one game each, is about two hours. The whole night fits in three and a half hours, which is about what an eight-player individual draft takes.

With six players, run three teams and 12-card packs; the pass direction and two-card picks are unchanged. With four players, two teams can draft 2HG using 12 packs of 15 passed back and forth, taking two cards per pick, and play a single match. It is a fine way to spend a short evening.

FAQ

How many cards do you take per pick in a Two-Headed Giant draft?

Two. The team takes two cards from each pack together and passes the rest. Picks go into one shared team pool.

Can teammates talk during a Two-Headed Giant draft?

Yes. Tournament rules allow teammates to communicate freely during the draft and the game. They may look at each other’s hands but not touch each other’s cards.

Does the first team draw a card on turn one in 2HG?

No. The team that plays first skips the draw step on its first turn, for both players.

How many cards does a Two-Headed Giant cube draft need?

360 for four teams: 24 packs of 15, six per team. Each team ends with about 90 cards and builds two 40-card decks.

Two heads, one table

Two-Headed Giant is the one cube format where the person next to you is on your side. For a group that wants to bring in partners, friends, and first-timers without feeding them to the sharks, nothing else works as well. The game is the reason. The people are the point.

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