MTG Players Rediscover 24-Year-Old Card That Turns Your Opponent’s Hand into Basic Lands

Few things are more satisfying in MTG Commander than showing up with a forgotten piece of tech no one’s ever heard of. Suddenly, a bizarre card from an old set hits the table, and all your opponents read an ancient line of text right after they question your sanity. Once they do, they realize that they’re royally screwed.

Thanks to a hilarious YouTube short from MTG creator WozzlebugMTG, players are now talking about Head Games, the perfect example of a bizarre card from an old set. You can use this card politically to help clean up the board, or take an opponent out of the game by turning their hand into basic lands.

MTG Head Games

At a baseline, Head Games lets you turn your opponent’s hand into whatever you want, whether that’s a bunch of basic lands or answers to other problems on the board. Bonus points if you use cards like Chain of Vapor to bounce crucial permanents, or Commanders, to their hand before shuffling them away.

Of course, Head Games can also do the opposite, filling a mana-screwed opponent’s hand with massive, unplayable bombs, especially when ramped into play. This makes Head Games a particularly strong hatepiece against Jace, Multiverse ArchitectJace, Multiverse ArchitectAt the beginning of combat on each opponent's turn, they may pay {2}. If they don't, creatures they control can't attack Jaces you control this turn.
+1: Draw two cards, then put a card from your hand on the bottom of your library.
−3: Exile another target planeswalker or creature you control. Reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a creature or planeswalker card. Put that card onto the battlefield and the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
Jace, Multiverse Architect can be your commander. Polymorph decks, since you can just load their hand with massive 9-drop creatures.

While this lets the card create some hilarious moments, Head Games suffers in EDH from only affecting one opponent. Some Commanders can circumvent this, however, like Zevlor, Elturel Exile, who can create a copy of Head Games that targets each player. While not quite as effective, Silverquill, the Disputant and Anhelo, the Painter can use Causality to target two opponents with Head Games, and Magar of the Magic StringsMagar of the Magic Strings{1}{B}{R}: Note the name of target instant or sorcery card in your graveyard and put it onto the battlefield face down. It's a 3/3 creature with "Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, you may create a copy of the card with the noted name. You may cast the copy without paying its mana cost" and "If this creature would leave the battlefield, exile it instead of putting it anywhere else." can animate the sorcery to cast it multiple times.

If you want to get particularly nasty with MTG Head Games, running this card with Sen Triplets can outright win you the game. After you target an opponent with Triplets’ ability, you can use Head Games to tutor an infinite combo, like Thassa’s OracleThassa’s OracleWhen this creature enters, look at the top X cards of your library, where X is your devotion to blue. Put up to one of them on top of your library and the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order. If X is greater than or equal to the number of cards in your library, you win the game. (Each {U} in the mana costs of permanents you control counts toward your devotion to blue.) and Demonic Consultation, into their hand. Then you can play those cards with Sen Triplets and win the game yourself.

Turning Off Tutoring

While Head Games can ruin your opponent’s day without extra support, Leonin ArbiterLeonin ArbiterPlayers can't search libraries. Any player may pay {2} for that player to ignore this effect until end of turn. turns it into a full discard spell if you want to go the distance. As long as you don’t pay the two, Leonin Arbiter prevents you from searching your opponent’s library, so you can’t put cards back in their hand after discarding them.

Notably, while your opponent can pay the two for Leonin Arbiter, that doesn’t actually stop Head Games from discarding their hand. Because you’re the one searching their library, not your opponent, Leonin Arbiter will still stop Head Games from putting cards back in your opponent’s hand. Unfortunately, this interaction goes both ways, so Opposition Agent and Ashiok, Dream Render don’t work with Head Games.

Surprisingly Expensive

Even if you don’t use this weird trick, MTG Head Games is the perfect card to spice up your casual Commander night, causing opponents to read a card before getting blown out in a crazy way. Sadly, however, despite Head Games being rather unpopular in Commander, this card isn’t exactly a budget gem, available for about $3.80 at the absolute cheapest, in poor condition, to boot.

Still, MTG Head Games is far from unaffordable, and the crazy reactions it can cause can easily make it worth using. Of course, this card’s ability can be game-warping, too, especially if you have additional synergies.

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