Spinning off the popular team Magic: The Gathering Commander Two-Headed Giant format is a Two-Headed Hydra casual game mode that is gaining traction in the Disney Lorcana community following the release of The First Chapter.
Finding cards to build meta decks for direct one-on-one matches is expensive and difficult for most of the Disney Lorcana player base due to a shortage of available products. Despite the shortages, players are making the best out of a bad situation through casual leagues at local game stores. One Disney Lorcana community through content creators The Illumiteers has sparked a popular multiplayer game of Two-Headed Hydra, formerly called Two-Headed Dragon, that’s a spinoff of MTG Two-Headed Giant.
What is Disney Lorcana Two-Headed Hydra?
Much like MTG Two-Headed Giant, the Disney Lorcana version also features teams of two battling against one another. A major difference, though, is that instead of combining life totals, each player must reach 20 Lore to win the match. To play the upcoming casual version of Two-Headed Hydra, The Illumiteers and their community came up with three general rules to follow.
- Each player on a team has to reach 20 Lore in order for the team to win
- Teammates take turns simultaneously
- Individual players can gain more than 20 Lore
Team play in Disney Lorcana changes how multiplayer games can get played, featuring different strategies since the first player about to hit 20 Lore isn’t bombarded with resistance from the other three or more players at the table. Instead, teams work together to ensure both players reach 20 Lore before the other team.
To take advantage of team play strategies, The Illumiteers used Item cards that don’t specify “Your Character.” Shield of Virtue, a popular Ruby Uncommon Item, can “Ready a chosen Character” for a cost. But it doesn’t specify “Your Character,” meaning teams can use Shield of Virtue on their partner’s Characters. The same is true for Eye of the Fates, which can Exert (tap) to grant a chosen Character plus-one Lore for that turn.
Other items that slot into the Disney Lorcana Two-Headed Hydra multiplayer mode are White Rabbit’s Pocket Watch, which can give a chosen Character Rush, Coconut Basket which heals two damage, and Scepter of Arendelle which can give a chosen Character Support for a turn.
Support for your teammate carries over in Characters as well, with cards like Maximus, Palace Horse in Amber, which is able to provide Support to any chosen Character. And Actions work the same way, with the Amber Action Healing Glow removing up to two damage from either your or your teamates Character.
Combining resources reduces the random politics that typically show up in regular multiplayer Disney Lorcana games. It also allows players to tech in cards that typically aren’t played in direct matches while opening new lines of strategic play to keep the games fun and interesting to play. And for seasoned players teaching newcomers to the TCG, Disney Lorcana Two-Headed Hydra is a great way to show and tell how the game is played.
A restock of Disney Lorcana: The First Chapter cards are slated to trickle in during the month of Oct. The release of the second set, Rise of the Floodborn, is scheduled to release through local game stores on Nov. 17.
