Free Mulligans

[Victim]

First of all, Hi I'm new here. Been looking for a project like this for years.

I noticed a bug of sorts with Mulligans, you don't get a free one. If you or your opponent gets a legit mulligan, and you take it, the hand size is still reduced by 1 card. I like the fact that the mulligan is available at all times, but it's just kinda annoying to not get the free ones.

Just thought I'd mention it.

Anyway, Thanks to all those who contribute to this project.

[monopoman]

That's not an official rule except in a 2HG format where every player is given one free mulligan as their first mulligan no drawbacks whatsoever.

The mulligan rule works as such in a real tournament which the rulebase is built around this speaking of 1v1 which is the standard format.

player 1 takes a mulligan he gets 6 cards
if player 2 takes a mulligan he also gets 6 cards
if player 1 takes another mulligan he now gets 5 cards
if player 2 takes another mulligan he now gets 5 cards

It is irrelevant how many mulligans are taken every time the PC takes a mulligan their hand size is reduced by 1 same deal for the player.

The extremely old mulligan rule was if you had no lands or all lands you could take a mulligan in no other case you could. So they revised it to the mulligan rules I gave which allow for a mulligan under any circumstance with a drawback.

[Victim]

Ok, I can understand but it's kinda lame.

The way I understood the rule to be was a combination of both. If you had none or all land you got a free mulligan, and your opponent had a chance to take a free one, or you could take one and get -1 card without a free one on the table.

Unfortunate, but thanks for the info.

[monopoman]

Well the old one was actually the worst because you could have a horrible hand.

Say..

1 Forest
6 spells that cost 3+ mana.

Or something like this

2 plains
5 spells that are all green.

You would have to keep those hand under the old tournament rules meaning that you had to hope to top deck lands for the next 2-3 turns at the very least.

So this one allows for MUCH more freedom in mulliganing.

In casual circles the free mulligan is MUCH more popular but in a tournament format a free mulligan can be very abusive. Combo decks for instance benefit more off mulligans then any other deck. If they get a hand of 7 cards and the hand is playable like they can cast what they have they sometimes will mulligan that if they have no combo pieces or tutors. So giving them a free mulligan would actually cause the non-combo players more headaches and make combo even better.

But in 2 headed giant it works as such every player is given a free mulligan no questions asked after that its the mulligan down 1 down 2 down 3 etc..

This format was allowed that because in 2 headed giant you only play best of 1 games meaning you win the game you win otherwise you lose. Unlike the best 2 out of 3 format that all other tournaments run.

[aww1979]

I noticed a bug of sorts with Mulligans, you don't get a free one. If you or your opponent gets a legit mulligan, and you take it, the hand size is still reduced by 1 card. I like the fact that the mulligan is available at all times, but it's just kinda annoying to not get the free ones.

That's the new way of doing mulligans. The way you describe was done years ago. I had the same issue, as I am also an old school player, and haven't bought cards since Mercadian Masques or so :p I'm not sure when they changed it, but it was sometime since 2000.

Personally, I don't like it, because it encourages decks that rely on a lucky opening hand (Goblin Charbelcher, the old Hulk Flash, pre-Flash restriction) rather than a solid, well-constructed deck that doesn't need to mulligan all the time. They did it to prevent people getting stuck with maybe one land or something, but I think it made things worse. However, it is the way Magic is played in tournaments today, so I support its inclusion in Manalink, even if I think it's dumb :p

[monopoman]

I'm not sure what game you have been playing but no matter how solid your deck is you are forced to take mulligans in competitive magic period.

I am not speaking of combo decks but even your more standard decks with a more common way to win. Limited is by FAR the biggest need for mulligans because its impossible to make a deck in that format that can draw a decent hand every shuffle.