Prerelease two headed giant strategy?
Limited forum
Posted on April 27, 2014, 12:25 a.m. by Apoptosis
So a buddy and I are going to enter our LGS two headed giant tournament tomorrow night.
Format rules:
1. Teammates each have their own 40 card decks and can build from any of the packs.
2. You share turns (each player draws, each gets a land drop, each goes through phases together, you can use each other's lands but you don't share mana pools).
3. 30 shared life.
Each player gets 1 seeded pack (color), promo card, 4x JOU boosters, 1 BotG booster, and 2x Theros booster.
First question: what colors should we play (and why)? Primer articles for the standard prerelease recommend black as strongest, green & white as solid, blue as better as a supporting color, and red as bad.
Second question: what mechanics should we be thinking about the most? Bestow was great for me in the BotG prerelease.
Third question: what thoughts on general build strategy? Obviously the packs will dictate a lot and removal and bombs will be key, as well as a good curve, but if one of us is say more midrange should the other be midrange too? Or would it be better to diversify?
Right now I'm thinking black for one if us and either green or white for the 2nd seeded.
Any other thoughts/advice/opinions would be welcomed!
Two things to remember are that you get a free mulligan and there is no best 2 out of 3. You only get one game so don't worry about sideboarding.
April 27, 2014 12:53 a.m.
Human_Rogue_21 says... #4
To answer your first question, Black, Blue, and Green are the strongest colours. I have played 2 Journey Into Nyx Pre-Releases so far and those seem best. To answer the second question, Heroic and Constellation are two really fantastic mechanics. Finally, to answer the third question, you both should build Aggro. Aggro decks are the best for JOU/BOG/THS packs.
April 27, 2014 1:01 a.m.
There's already a featured thread called the official pre release discussion -.-
April 27, 2014 8:53 a.m.
To answer the question - if you pull Grey Merchant of Asphodel then play that in a devotion shell. If you don't, then play white. White won all 3 of the pre-release events where I live.
Aggro is doing well, but don't force it if you don't have the cards to support it.
April 27, 2014 8:55 a.m.
@ChiefBell I was thinking about commons that hit both opposing players and Gary is certainly a bomb in that regard. But to go that way would probably require either a dual commitment to black or a black & white seed for the two. Not sure which way to go.
April 27, 2014 10:57 a.m.
I pulled 2 Gray Merchant of Asphodel and a whip in the Journey pre-release. Went 2-2 very easily. I lost the games where I didn't get Gary out!
I think both red and black have the best 'each player' cards.
April 27, 2014 11 a.m.
White is still king of Theros Limited, followed closely by blue. Black is only good if you open up multiple Gray Merchant of Asphodel , Lash of the Whip , etc. etc. which is really hard to do when you get only four packs of Theros between you and your teammate. Red is horrendous and only good if you open up Two-Headed Cerberus with Dragon Mantle and Fanatic of Mogis . It can be a good secondary color to white if you get plenty of burn spells. But really, any heroic-based white deck with lots of bestow guys is going to do really well.
I think the most important thing to remember for 2HG in Theros is how important unconditional removal is. Sip of Hemlock , Reprisal , etc. are all stronger cards than they would be in 1v1. How good your removal is determines what colors you should play. Remember, it's not like 1v1 where you could open up seven rares in three colors...your opponents could open fourteen rares in four colors and still play each and every one because of the shared pools. It's likely you and your teammate will open up a few bombs between you, including the promos in the seeded packs. After two 2HG events, I'm inclined to build decks more around how much removal I get in each color, rather than the power level of creatures.
April 28, 2014 1:54 a.m.
No one seems to pay attention to Grim Guardian at these two-headed giant events. In this format, with this block, it's an amazing killer. In my games almost all of my spells drained 2 life from my opponents, and it synergizes incredibly well with guys like Riptide Chimera and Rise of Eagles . Seriously, this guy was actually more useful to me in this prerelease than Gray Merchant of Asphodel was.
April 28, 2014 4:29 p.m.
Master of the Feast is a horrible in 2HG. Sure, you have a 5/5 flyer, but they are drawing 2 cards (one each) per turn.
Leave the "each opponent" effects to damage, life loss, and mill.
April 28, 2014 4:33 p.m.
We went 3-1, choosing green and black for seed colors (white was not an option the store had run out) we pulled Elspeth, dictate of erebors, 2x scholar of a, 2x hopeful e, deicide, and the new O-ring for my partners b/w deck. I pulled three of the green enchantment 1drop rampant growth, a traveling s, and two other ramp cards. From that I made a ramp rug deck with Thassa, 2x flame wreath phoenix, Thassa's emissary, purphoros' emissary, the hydra baby maker, the green tribute 5 drop that is either a6/6 or destroys a non creature permenant, and the new red chimera that monstrous to deal lots of damage. Add onto that the blue enchant draw two cards and the the 6 blue sorcery that let's you scry 3, the reveal top card and draw cards equal to its CMC and I had a really nasty ramp deck. The one game we lost my partner was stuck on 3plain1swamp from his opener and couldn't draw any lands in 10 turns that would have let him drop dictate of erebors into Elspeth. Thassa was amazing, clearing a path for my fatties to win the three games and I never gassed out. Great night of two headed giant. Pulled a mana confluence from my packs and my partner let me keep the Elspeth, so all on all an awesome night. The one drop green enchantment that let me crack it for G1 to put a basic in place was sick: I one game I went T3 Thassa's emissary to T4 unblockable through Thassa for constant card draw, my partners hopeful ellidon gave big life gain. Flame wreath phoenix did good work too for us, especially with aforementioned hopeful E on it.
Sorry for vagueness and a lack of links to cards, but I'm doing this on my phone.
Apoptosis says... #2
Oops that should have read 3x JOU boosters (stupid fat fingers).
April 27, 2014 12:26 a.m.