Recent Changes: Banned list heavily revised. See below.

These rules are current as of September 15, 2006.

This format was created during the Summer of 2001 to give the staff and dealers at Costa Mesa Women's Club events something to do during a particularly slow time, and was formalized by Dan Gray as a fun tournament format.

If you have any questions or comment about the format, please feel free to email Dan Gray at dmgray@aztlan-promotions.com with them.

Format Rules:

1. Deck Size: Every deck must contain no fewer than 100 cards and no more than 125 cards.

2. Eligible Sets: Magic cards printed in any Wizards of the Coast-issued black- or white-bordered paper set (including all three Portals and both Starters) are allowed in this format, as are the following promotional cards: Arena, Giant Badger, Nalathni Dragon, Sewers of Estark, Windseeker Centaur.

Cards from the Collector's Edition, International Edition, 1996 Pro Tour New York set, World Championship Decks (any year), or any other gold-bordered set, as well as artist's proofs ("whitebacks") are considered to be real cards, and may be used as such. Note: Silver-bordered cards (i.e., Unglued and Unhinged except for their basic land cards) are not legal.

3. Card Limits: Type DanGray is a "one of a kind" or "Highlander" format. No deck may contain more than one (1) copy of any card, by name, with one exception-- each deck may contain up to three of each basic land (Swamp, Island, Forest, Mountain, Plains) card. Note: For purposes of the "three basic land rule," snow-covered lands from the Ice Age and Cold Snap expansions are considered to have the same name as their non-snow-covered basic counterpart.

Every deck must also conform to the following minimum requirements:

i. It must contain at least seven monocolored cards in each of the five colors. (A monocolored card is defined as one that has only one color of mana in its play cost. Ignore additional costs such as kickers for counting purposes, however multicolored, or gold, cards do not count towards this limit in any way, nor do the "split" cards or cards with hybrid mana costs.)
ii. It must contain at least five artifacts that do not produce mana. If an artifact both produces mana and has another ability, it counts as a mana-producing artifact (for example: Mind Stone).
iii. It must contain at least seven multicolored (or gold) cards. "Split" cards (e.g., Fire/Ice) and hybrid cards (e.g., Shadow of Doubt) count towards this limit.

4. Banned Lists: From time to time, the Game Balance Committee may find it necessary to ban a particular card or cards in order to maintain the fun spirit of Type DanGray.

Banned List: (as of September 15, 2006)

All Suns' Dawn (Fifth Dawn)
Amulet of Quoz (Ice Age)
Ancestral Recall (Alpha, Beta, Unlimited)
Avalanche Riders (Urza's Legacy)
Back to Basics (Urza's Saga)
Balance (Alpha, Beta, Unlimited, Revised)
Black Lotus (Alpha, Beta, Unlimited)
Black Vise (Alpha, Beta, Unlimited, Revised)
Blood Moon (The Dark, Chronices, Eighth, Ninth)
Bronze Tablet (Antiquities)
Channel (Alpha, Beta, Unlimited, Revised, Fourth)
Contract from Below (Alpha, Beta, Unlimited, Revised)
Darkpact (Alpha, Beta, Unlimited, Revised)
Demonic Attorney (Alpha, Beta, Unlimited, Revised)
Demonic Tutor (Alpha, Beta, Unlimited, Revised)
Destructive Flow (Planeshift)
Doomsday (Weatherlight, Sixth)
Dream Halls (Stronghold)
Dust Bowl (Mercadian Masques)
Dwarven Blast Miner (Onslaught)
Dwarven Miner (Mirage)
Earthcraft (Tempest)
Enlightened Tutor (Mirage, Sixth)
Eternal Witness (Fifth Dawn)
Fastbond (Alpha, Beta, Unlimited, Revised)
Future Sight (Onslaught)
Gifts Ungiven (Champions of Kamigawa)
Grim Tutor (Starter)
Head Games (Onslaught)
Holistic Wisdom (Onslaught)
Imperial Seal (Portal: Three Kingdoms)
Insidious Dreams (Torment)
Intuition (Tempest)
Jeweled Bird (Arabian Nights)
Library of Alexandria (Arabian Nights)
Magus of the Jar (Time Spiral)
Mana Crypt (promo)
Mana Vault (Alpha, Beta, Unlimited, Revised)
Memory Jar (Urza's Legacy)
Mind Twist (Alpha, Beta, Unlimited, Revised, Fourth)
Mox Emerald (Alpha, Beta, Unlimited)
Mox Jet (Alpha, Beta, Unlimited)
Mox Pearl (Alpha, Beta, Unlimited)
Mox Ruby (Alpha, Beta, Unlimited)
Mox Sapphire (Alpha, Beta, Unlimited)
Mystical Tutor (Mirage, Sixth)
Necropotence (Ice Age, Fifth)
Parallel Thoughts (Scourge)
Price of Progress (Exodus)
Primal Order (Homelands, Fifth)
Rebirth (Legends)
Recurring Nightmare (Exodus)
Replenish (Urza's Destiny)
Ruination (Stronghold)
Scroll Rack (Tempest)
Skullclamp (Darksteel)
Strip Mine (Antiquities, Fourth)
Sundering Titan (Darksteel)
Survival of the Fittest (Exodus)
Tempest Efreet (Legends)
Time Spiral (Urza's Saga)
Time Walk (Alpha, Beta, Unlimited)
Timetwister (Alpha, Beta, Unlimited)
Timmerian Fiends (Homelands)
Tinker (Urza's Legacy)
Tolarian Academy (Urza's Saga)
Trench Wurm (Invasion)
Tunnel Vision (Ravnica)
Vampiric Tutor (Visions, Sixth)
Wasteland (Tempest)
Wheel of Fate (Time Spiral)
Wheel of Fortune (Alpha, Beta, Unlimited, Revised)
Wild Research (Apocalypse)
Windfall (Urza's Saga)
Worldgorger Dragon (Judgment)
Yawgmoth's Bargain (Urza's Destiny)
Yawgmoth's Will (Urza's Saga)

In addition, the following cards are banned for two-headed giant play:

Beacon of Immortality (Fifth Dawn)
Biorhythm (Onslaught)
Door to Nothingness (Fifth Dawn)
Guiltfeeder (Onslaught)
Karakas (Legends)
Maze of Ith (The Dark)
Mind's Eye (Mirrodin)
Multani, Maro-Sorcerer (Urza's Legacy)
Nostalgic Dreams (Torment)
Regrowth (Alpha, Beta, Unlimited, Revised)
Stroke of Genius (Urza's Saga)
Sylvan Library (Legends, Fourth)
Zuran Orb (Ice Age)

The following cards are banned in any timed tournament play:

Burning Wish (Judgment)
Celestial Convergence (Prophecy)
Cunning Wish (Judgment)
Divine Intervention (Legends)
Death Wish (Judgment)
Golden Wish (Judgment)
Living Wish (Judgment)
Research//Development (Dissension)
Ring of Ma'ruf (Arabian Nights)
Shaharazad (Arabian Nights)

Summary of Most Recent Banned List Changes:

1. Banned list once again separated into "normal" and "two-headed giant" lists.
2. Creation of a special banned list for timed tournament play.
3. The following cards are unbanned in all formats: Arcanis the Omnipotent; Bribery; Capsize; Constant Mists; Corpse Dance; Demonic Consultation; Disturbed Burial; Fact or Fiction; Forbid; Genesis; Gigapedge; Grim Monolith; Lotus Petal; Mind Over Matter; Mindblaze; Mirrari's Wake; Mox Diamond; Pulse of the Forge; Recollect; Shattering Pulse; Sol Ring; Tormod's Crypt; Verdant Touch; Volrath's Stronghold; Whispers of the Muse; Worthy Cause
4. The following cards are now banned in all formats: Black Vise; Destructive Flow; Doomsday; Gifts Ungiven; Grim Tutor; Intuition; Parallel Thoughts; Ruination; Skullclamp; Trench Wurm; Worldgorger Dragon
5. All the cards on the current two-headed giant banned list are once again legal in normal two-player play.
6. The five Judgment Wishes are once again legal outside timed tournament play.

5. Special Errata for All Situations:

a. Chaos Orb and Falling Star both have the "California Errata" to avoid the problems inherent in attempting to throw a card in a confined play space. This errata is in effect in both tournament and fun situations:

Chaos Orb
2
Artifact
    1,T, Sacrifice Chaos Orb: Destroy target permanent.
    1,T, Sacrifice Chaos Orb: Flip a coin. If you win the flip, destroy two target artifacts, enchantments, or creatures.

Falling Star
2R
Sorcery
    Tap target creature. Falling Star deals 3 damage to another target creature. Flip a coin. If you win the flip, tap a third target creature and Falling Star deals 3 damage to it.

b. All creatures that have the keyword ability Horsemanship have the keyword ability Flying instead.

6. Proxy Rules:

Because of the difficulty in obtaining certain cards, Type DanGray allows limited proxying in two categories:

a. Dual Lands

Each player may proxy any of the ten cards usually referred to as "dual lands." They are: Badlands, Bayou, Plateau, Savannah, Scrubland, Taiga, Tropical Island, Tundra, Volcanic Island, and Underground Sea.

b. Five Other Cards

Each player may proxy up to five other cards. These cards may be anything legal except a Dual Land, a banned card, or a basic land.

How to make proxies: Proxies may be created in by writing the card's name and play cost on the front of a basic land card in permanent magic marker.

7. Sleeves

All players shall use opaque-backed card sleeves, due to the prevelance of Alpha cards and cards with non-standard backs.

8. New Sets

Newly released Magic sets shall be available for use in Type DanGray on the day of the set's prerelease tournament (these are typically the last Saturday of every January, April, and September).

9. Free Mulligan

In two-headed giant play, players may take as many "free" mulligans (redrawing 7 cards) as is necessary to ensure a decent amount of land and/or a fun or competitive game. This mulligan shall not be used in an attempt to draw combos or to play in an abusive way.

10. Rule Changes

Rule changes will be posted to this website whenever the Game Balance Committee agrees on them. The membership of the Game Balance Comittee is:

Dan Gray
James Takenaga
Ray Powers
Kelly Powers
John Kim
Rebecca Dodd
David Bernath
Ann Bernath

11. Costa Mesa-Style Two-Headed Giant Rules

a. A player and his or her partner shall sit diagonally across from one another so that players alternate turns in the following rotation: Team 1, Player A; Team 2, Player 2; Team 1, Player B; Team 2, Player B.

b. Each team begins the game with a life total of 40.

c. Separation of players: Each player is a separate player, even players on the same team. Therefore, if an effect affects "each player" it affects each team member separately (examples: Syphon Mind, Syphon Soul, Mikokoro, Urza's Guilt).

d. Life total changes: If an effect deals damage or causes loss of life to more than one player (examples: Earthquake, Urza's Guilt), treat each team member as a separate player, even if they share the same life total. For example, if an effect deals 1 damage to each player, it would cause each team's life total to be reduced by 2. This is true for all situations except:

• If an effect sets a life total to a specific value (example: Sway of the Stars), it sets the entire team's life total to that value. Example: Team A is at 26 life. Team B casts Sway of the Stars. Team A is now at 7 life.
• If an effect multiplies a team's life total by a specific value (such as doubling or halving), it affects each player as normal, but the changes to the life total occur in turn order to avoid unusual "instant kill" situations. For example, Pox states that each player loses 1/3 of their life, rounded down. If Team A is at 27 life when Pox resolves, they are now at 12 life (Player 1 loses 1/3 of 27, so life total is now 18. Player 2 then loses 1/3 of 18, so life total is now 12), not 9.

d. Permanents: Each player controls his or her own permanents. A player's partner cannot make any decisions about his or her partner's permanents that the controller of a permanent would normally be entitled to make. The partner can't sacrifice them, tap them, play their abilities, attack with them, or block with them.

e. Mana Pools: Each player has his or her own mana pool. Partners cannot share mana and cannot play mana abilities or spells to put mana into a partner's pool unless that mana ability or spell normally allows mana to be placed into another player's pool (e.g., Spectral Searchlight).

f. Separation of zones: Each partner on a team has his or her own set of zones for the game (hand, library, graveyard, in play, removed from game, etc.). Players cannot share the contents of any hidden zone/object (hand, library, removed from game face down, morphed creatures) with their partner unless effects would normally allow those zones to be revealed (i.e., an opponent's Telepathy, revealing cards from a library, etc.).

g. Discussion and Table Talk: Players cannot discuss any knowledge of hidden information (including the contents of the player's own hand) with his or her partner, except in general terms (for example, you could say to your partner, "It would be good if that Dimir Cutpurse died." You can't say, "Do you have Terminate or Diabolic Edict in your hand?"). Partners may discuss openly any strategy or tactics involving information in public zones (such as attacking/blocking strategy, what to target with a spell being played, etc.).

h. Attacking and blocking: Each player attacks and blocks alone. When a player declares his or her attack, in addition to deciding which creatures are attacking, the player must assign each attacking creature to attack a single opponent. A player can only block creatures assigned to attack him or her (that is, players can't block for their partner).

i. Winning and Losing: If either team's life total is 0 or less during a state-based effects check, the opposing team wins. If an effect causes a player to win the game (e.g., Test of Endurance, Epic Struggle, etc.), that entire team wins the game. If a rule (other than life total) or effect causes a player to lose the game, only that player loses (examples: poison counters, running out of cards in the library, a Lich leaving play). The losing player's partner may continue playing alone with the same life total as before the losing player lost.

j. Special Two-Headed Giant Errata (rules text errata only):

1. Test of Endurance: Replace "50" with "100."
2. Transcendence: Replace "20" with "40."
3. Avatar of Hope: Replace "3" with "6."
4. Blessed Wind: Replace "20" with "40."

 

Back to the main page