Welcome to Draw 3 Cards

Question

1

How exactly does this effect behave?

Can the other head attack with his creatures?
Can you just pass priority all the time and thus neutralize the other head?
Any other difference you can think between controlling a player's turn in a single match and a two-headed one?

[[Sorin Markov]]

flag	asked Dec 16 at 23:32 ripper234♦♦ 5,885●7●25

Avish · Accepted Answer · 2009-12-17 11:02:54Z UTC

3

Hmm. the Magic Rules team chose the easy way out on this one:

In a Two-Headed Giant game, Sorin's third ability causes you to control the affected player's team's turn. (from the Zendikar FAQ)

So you control both players' choices, which means you can do practically anything you could do had this been a one-on-one game.

answered Dec 17 at 11:02

Avish♦♦
3,003●2●11

Wow, this is ... not fair. Why would it be this way? Perhaps the turn itself is shared, so one head's turn is also the other head's turn. – ripper234♦ Dec 17 at 15:45

1

It's perfectly fair. If two people can't bring down Sorin within 3 turns, that's their punishment. – Calvin♦ Dec 17 at 22:15

And yes, ripper's speculation is right: the turn is itself shared. You control the whole turn. It's like it said "Steal target player's car", and you target me to steal my car, which happens to be jointly owned by my wife. You got the car from both of us even though the card only says you can steal one player's car. (Also, remind me not to play Magic with people who play cards that let you steal cars.) – Alextfish Jun 22 at 9:50

Not to be TOO much of a stickler, but, your opponent only has 2 of their turns (3 of your turns) to deal with Sorin. – Vespers Jun 27 at 6:03

eswald · Answer 2 · 2010-06-26 23:45:59Z UTC

According to the Comprehensive Rules:

711.1. Two cards ([[[Mindslaver]]] and [[[Sorin Markov]]]) allow a player's turn to be controlled by another player. This effect applies to the next turn that the affected player actually takes. The entire turn is controlled; the effect doesn't end until the beginning of the next turn.

711.4. The controller of another player's turn makes all choices and decisions that player is allowed to make or is told to make during that turn by the rules or by any objects. This includes choices and decisions about what to play, and choices and decisions called for by spells and abilities.

805.1. Some multiplayer games between teams use the shared team turns option. It's always used in the Two-Headed Giant variant (see rule 810) and the Archenemy casual variant (see rule 811). It can be used only if the members of each team are sitting in adjacent seats.

805.4. Each team takes turns rather than each player.

810.2. The Two-Headed Giant variant uses the shared team turns option. (See rule 805.)

Unfortunately, there's no explicit rule for the interaction between rules 711 and 805, but it can be reasoned as follows:

The team shares a single turn.
Another player is controlling that turn.
All of the effects in rule 711 state that if the turn is controlled, then it affects any player whose turn it is.
Therefore, [[[Sorin Markov]]] and [[[Mindslaver]]] let you make all decisions for all members of the team, not just the targeted player.

Note also that Archenemy uses shared turns, which makes that effect extra appealing for a certain villain.

Controlling another player’s turn in a two-headed game

2 Answers