Mulliganing is a huge part of magic, we’ve all been given free wins from opponents sloppy and half hearted keeps, it happens everywhere from kitchen tables to Grand Prix. If you ask me, getting better at mulligans is one of the best ways to get better at magic. When you are new it is always difficult to know what to keep, this guide should help make it easier and ensure that you are the wizard slinging spells and not the one solemnly discarding your best cards turn after turn because of a risky one land hand.

Five cards

Super basic here but going below five is bad, it is seriously hard to win with only four resources vs their seven.  A decent five is still better than a bad six  but ideally don’t go to five, the more cards you start with the better.

The Mana

First things first, you need to actually be able to play your hand. Does it have relevant mana sources to play your cards, what will it take to draw into the mana that you need? If you don’t draw the mana to play your spells on time will this matter a lot or a little?

If the answer to these questions are NO or A LOT then you should probably mulligan. This will be influenced by your opponent’s deck because missing needed mana sources is more disastrous against a fast mono red deck than a slow control build.

This means no one land keeps because your hand has a few good two drops in it, every card you cant cast for a prolonged period of turns is basically a mulligan anyway.

Limited – The basics of mulliganing start here 

Sealed

This is probably the easiest to mulligan for, because in general decks are built to just slam fatties or removal, turn after turn. You can keep any hand that has the mana and cards to put out a decent curve. Its unlikely that you will die too quickly and will draw into a few more lands and playable creatures.

Draft

I view draft like a supercharged version of sealed, the chance your opponent will curve out into two drop , three drop, four drop is much higher, the chance they could blow you out with removal or a combat trick is also much higher. When I look at my starting hands I always keep in mind how they will fare against a deck that curves out if I draw nothing useful myself. This means a hand of four lands and a four drop, a five drop and a four mana removal spell may get a mulligan from me, if the opponents deck is fast enough.

Example hand

Forest, Forest, Mountain, Mountain, Llanowar Empath, Lightning Javelin, Skysnare Spider

Would you keep this hand vs an aggressive deck? A lot of newer players would, I mean, it has land, creatures and removal right? Well if we know we are against an aggressive deck in an origins draft, then we have to pray to draw some early spells on time. Because if we don’t,  we will get steamrolled by renown creatures or aggressive red threats. If we don’t have a high chance of drawing two or three drops on time with our deck then this would definitely get a mulligan from me because the Llanowar Empath is such a bad blocker, and the removal isn’t very mana efficient. The spider is great but vs an aggressive deck it may be unlikely to actually do anything to stop us losing by the time it comes down.

Constructed

The same rules apply with mana and looking at how the first few turns play out but in constructed (especially eternal formats) it is even more important to mulligan correctly as a stumble at the wrong point or turn spent doing nothing can spell disaster. There are also some match ups that require your hardest hitting creatures, most sneaky removal or most frustrating denial cards. This mostly only comes up in eternal formats, so if you are relatively new its best not to worry about this for now, but sometimes you will want to mulligan a usually keep able hand because it is bad vs a certain deck. Examples of this might be a hand without disruption vs splinter twin in modern or one without removal or artifact hate vs affinity.

To conclude

Remember when you see your opening seven think to yourself about how the first few turns of the game will play out from your side and theirs and try to form a strategy to win. This will help you with your mulligans and you really will see the results quickly if you were just used to keeping any old land and spells. And remember to always have fun of course.