Double Team in MTG: Rules, History, and Best Cards

Timothy Zaccagnino 24 days ago MTG Arena, MTG Cards, MTG Rules

Last updated on September 11, 2026

Hammers of Moradin | Illustration by Justine Cruz

It’s still a bit of a wonder that someone decided to bring Battle for Baldur’s Gate, a set designed for multiplayer Commander drafts, to MTG Arena, which only supported one-on-one Magic when that set released. The compromise was Alchemy Horizons: Baldur’s Gate, a rework of the original set with digital-only designs meant to parallel the paper cards in a way that made sense for heads-up Magic.

The resulting product caught a lot of flack, but it introduced some novel ideas for MTGA’s digital-only Alchemy space, which was still in its infancy at the time. It’s the set that birthed double team, a strong card advantage mechanic inspired by myriad, which didn’t make sense to implement on MTGA.

Let’s walk through the ins and outs of the double team mechanic, and don’t be alarmed if you start seeing double. That’s supposed to happen.

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How Does Double Team Work?

Syr Joshua and Syr Saxon | Illustration by Xabi Gaztelua

Double team is an attack trigger that conjures a duplicate of the attacking creature into your hand. The attacking creature and the newly conjured copy both perpetually lose the double team ability, so you get at most one extra copy of your creature per game.

This is a very straightforward 2-for-1 mechanic that works especially well in aggressive decks.

Note that double team only works if the attacking creature isn’t a token, so making token copies of a double team creature won’t trigger the ability.

The History of Double Team in MTG

Double team was MTGA’s way to capture the feel of myriad in formats in which you’ll only ever have one opponent, and all myriad cards that were ported to MTGA through Baldur’s Gate were redesigned to use double team instead.

The first batch of double team designs included 15 cards across the Jeskai colors (), primarily in white and red and tertiary in blue. The mechanic has since appeared in various Alchemy drops, and it has expanded into green and black.

Due to the nature of the conjure mechanic, double team will never exist on tournament-legal paper Magic cards. Conjure cards have made their way into paper products, but only on non-legal acorn-stamped cards.

Is Double Team a Triggered Ability?

Yes, double team is a triggered ability. It’s triggered when a creature with the keyword attacks. The keyword uses the word “may”, which means you have the option to not take the triggered ability’s action, though it goes on the stack no matter what.

Can You Counter Double Team?

Double team is a triggered ability that uses the stack, so countering it requires that you have something that interacts with abilities, like a Stifle effect. Removing the original creature in response to the attack trigger doesn’t prevent the double team ability from resolving and conjuring the duplicate.

What Happens if You Bounce or Blink a Creature with Double Team?

Generally speaking, bouncing or blinking a creature with a double team ability that has already triggered and conjured the duplicate won’t reset the double team ability. Once the ability has resolved, it’s perpetually removed from the card, and that carries over into other zones like exile or your hand.

However, you can bounce or blink your creature in response to the double team trigger. If the creature changes zones before double team has resolved, it’ll no longer lose its double team ability, and when it re-enters play, it’s treated as a new object with a double team ability that can trigger once again.

Is Double Team Good?

Yes, double team is an inherently strong mechanic since it builds intrinsic card advantage into any creature that has it. Basically every creature with double team is an eventual 2-for-1 if it gets to attack a single time. Even a small-ball creature like Soldiers of the Watch demonstrates the strength of the mechanic as a 2/1 that “draws a card” the first time it attacks.

Double team also scales up with the power of the individual card. Cards like Dragonblood Twins and Amber-Plate Ainok are powerful 2-drops even before you consider the second copy they can make.

Gallery and List of Double Team Cards

Cards with Double Team

Cards That Grant Double Team

Best Double Team Cards

#5. Amber-Plate Ainok

Amber-Plate Ainok has the type of 2-drop design that can spiral out of control if not dealt with immediately, but then it also just makes a duplicate of itself. Endure lets you go tall or wide, and two instances of endure across two copies of this card let you potentially do both.

#4. Thoughtsteal Sprites

Combining multiple digital-only mechanics on one card, Thoughtsteal Sprite comes with a spellbook full of faerie creatures and lets you exchange a card in your hand for one of those when you cast a spell on someone else’s turn. At the very least this draws you a copy of itself when it attacks, so that’s something you can pitch for a better faerie from the spellbook, or another copy you can play to double up on the ability each turn.

#3. Ulder Ravengard, Marshal

Ulder Ravengard, Marshal makes a good enough attempt at mimicking its paper counterpart, Duke Ulder Ravengard. It can quite easily draw you an extra creature each turn so long as you’re able to keep attacking, and you can get value right away if you line double team up on a creature with a good attack.

#2. Terrors of the Track

Alchemy designs have a penchant for taking something you’ve seen 1,000 times before and just making the most cracked version of that effect you’ll ever see. Terrors of the Track is two Zulaport Cutthroats in a trenchcoat, which aggressive stats to boot. Yes it only triggers once per turn, but there are two of them from just one card.

#1. Dragonblood Twins

Dragonblood Twins is a heinously powerful uncommon. Not only can it quite easily attack as a 2-mana 4/4 flier, but it also brings along another copy. It’s a 4-mana investment that can regularly smack your opponent for 8 in the air each turn.

Wrap Up

Enduring Friendship | Illustration by Flavio Greco Paglia

It never really made sense for Baldur’s Gate to exist on MTG Arena in the first place, but at least we got a cool and fairly intuitive digital-mechanic out of it. Double team is fun to play with, and quite powerful as well. No chance we see this in black-bordered Magic any time soon, but it was a good use of MTGA’s digital space while Alchemy was being supported. Paper players are free to keep playing with myriad cards as they see fit.

Do you have any love for the double team mechanic? Do you think there’s a way it could exist in paper, perhaps by just making tokens? Let us know in the comments below or in the Draftsim Discord. And check out The Daily Upkeep newsletter to stay up to date on all the latest MTG news.

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Timothy Zaccagnino

Timothy has been a Magic enthusiast since picking up the game in 2012, with a love of Limited and Commander. He's the co-creator of Jank Diver Gaming and host of The Jank Tank podcast. These days you can find him at the draft table, brewing his 20th EDH deck or cubing with friends on Arena.