Magic: The Gathering Comprehensive Rules

opposing team’s life total must be 20 or less for that to happen.

606.9b If an effect would set the life total of each player on a team to a number, the result is the sum of all the numbers.

Example: In a Two-Headed Giant game, a player plays Biorhythm, which reads, “Each player’s life total becomes the number of creatures he or she controls.” If one member of a team controls three creatures and the other member controls four creatures, that team’s life total becomes 7.

606.9c If an effect would set a single player’s life total to a number, that player’s individual life total becomes that number. The team’s life total is adjusted by the amount that player's life total was adjusted.

Example: In a Two-Headed Giant game, a player on a team that has 25 life plays a spell that reads, “Your life total becomes 20.” That player’s life total is considered to be 13 for the purpose of the spell, so it becomes 20 and the team’s life total becomes 32 (25 + (20 – 13)).

606.10. The Two-Headed Giant variant can also be played with equally sized teams of more than two players. Each team’s starting life total is equal to 20 times the number of players on the team. (These variants are unofficially called Three-Headed Giant, Four-Headed Giant, and so on.)

607. Emperor Variant

607.1. The Emperor variant involves two or more teams of three players each.

607.2. Each team sits together on one side of the table. Each team decides the order in which it’s seated. Each team has one emperor, who sits in the middle of the team. The remaining players on the team are generals whose job is to protect the emperor.

607.3. The Emperor variant uses the following default options.

607.3a The range of influence is limited to 2 for emperors and 1 for generals. See rule 601, “Limited Range of Influence Option.”

607.3b Emperor games use the deploy creatures option (see rule 603).

607.3c A player can attack only an opponent seated immediately next to him or her.

Example: At the start of an emperor game, neither emperor can attack any opponents, even though both of the opposing generals are within their spell range.

607.4. Randomly determine which emperor goes first. Turn order goes to players’ left.

607.5. The Emperor variant uses the normal rules for winning and losing the game (see rule 102), with the following addition.

607.5a A team loses the game if its emperor loses.

607.6. The Emperor variant can also be played with any number of equally sized teams. If the teams have more than two players, the range of influence of each player should be adjusted.

607.7 In the Emperor variant, a team’s resources (cards in hand, mana, and so on) are not shared. Teammates may review each other’s hands and discuss strategies at any time. Teammates can’t manipulate each other’s cards or permanents.

608. Grand Melee Variant

608.1. The Grand Melee variant is a modification of the Free-for-All variant. Grand Melee is normally used only in games begun with ten or more players.

608.2. Any multiplayer options used are decided before play begins. The Grand Melee variant uses the following default options.

608.2a Each player has a range of influence of 1 (see rule 601).

608.2b The attack left option is used (see rule 604).

608.2c The attack multiple players and deploy creatures options aren’t used in the Grand Melee variant.

608.3. The players are seated at random.

608.4. The Grand Melee variant allows multiple players to take turns at the same time. Moving turn markers keep track of which players are currently taking turns. Each turn marker represents an active player’s turn.

608.4a There is one turn marker for each full four players in the game.

Example: A Grand Melee game with sixteen players has four turn markers. A game with fifteen players has three turn markers.

608.4b The player who starts the game gets the first turn marker. The player four seats to that player’s left (the fifth player) takes the second turn marker, and so on until all the turn markers have been handed out. Each turn marker is assigned a number in this way. Then all players with turn markers start their turns at the same time.

608.4c When a player ends his or her turn, that player passes the turn marker to the player on his or her left. A player can’t receive a turn marker if any player in the three seats to his or her left has a turn marker. If this is the case, the turn marker waits until the player four seats to his or her left takes the other turn marker.

608.4d If a player leaves the game and that player leaving the game would reduce the number of turn