Difference between "opponent" and "player" in two-headed giant?
Asked by elvennoble 8 years ago
My friends and I play a lot of edh, but we normally play two-headed giant to make things go faster. But lately, we have been arguing over rules, help and clarification is needed.
I will use examples for easy clarification.
Example teams:"Muldoon" and "He who paints the world red"against"Elvennoble (me)" and "Wilump"
Ex. 1h.w.p.t.w.r. plays Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord and sacs a 2/2 zombie token, does my team lose 2 life total, or do each of us lose 2 life (for a total of 4)?
Ex. 2Muldoon has an eldrazi out and declares he is attacking me with it, do I alone have to pay annihilator cost, do both wilump and I each have to pay the full cost, or can we split it between us?
Ex. 3Blood Clock is out, do both members have to return a permanent, or just one
Ex.4Havoc Festival is out. Is just half of a team's life gone, or does one member loses half, then the other loses half, or do they just die?
sorry for the long question.
If a spell or ability says target opponent it will only effect 1 of the players in a two head giant game. If the word target is not present, the spell or ability will effect each one. If it is a triggered ability, such as #4, then each trigger will happen independently.
During attacks, each creature can be assigned to attack one player or one planeswalker. So in a two headed giant game each creature will attack only attack one of the opponents, so any trigger that effects only the defending is effected by it.
June 28, 2015 6:19 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #3
@pskinn01: Your first statements are generalizations and are not correct. "Target" is not the only way to signify a single player; effects that instruct you to "choose an opponent," for example, affect only one player on the opposing team even though they don't say "target." Further, triggered abilities don't necessarily affect each opponent.
June 28, 2015 6:45 p.m.
elvennoble says... #4
Thanks for all the help everyone, this should clear things up
billpasdmf says... Accepted answer #1
Ex 1: Each opponent means each player on the opposing team in two-headed giant.
Ex 2: This is addressed on Gatherer
6/15/2010 In a Two-Headed Giant game, the controller of an attacking creature with annihilator chooses which of the defending players is affected by the ability. Only that player sacrifices permanents. The choice is made as the ability resolves; once a player is chosen, it's too late for anyone to respond.
Ex 3: Both players on a team are affected.
Ex 4: This is also addressed on Gatherer
10/1/2012 In a Two-Headed Giant game, the last ability triggers for each player. Any life loss is applied to the team's life total. For example, if the team has 30 life, the first ability will cause the player (and thus the team) to lose 15 life and then the second ability will cause the other player (and thus the team) to lose 8 life. The team will end up having 7 life.
The point is that whenever a card says "player" or "opponent" it always refers to just a single player. When there is a team of two players and an spell or ability says it affects "each" player or opponent, it means that they are both affected individually.
The only real difference between "player" and "opponent" is that "player" can apply to you or your teammates, where "opponent" just refers to your opponents.
June 28, 2015 1:57 a.m.