Mulligan Rules in Magic: The Gathering — How and When to Redraw
The mulligan is the mechanism that lets players redraw an unsatisfactory opening hand before a game begins. It sits at the intersection of rules, probability, and game psychology — a decision point that separates players who understand variance from those who fight it. The current system, called the London Mulligan, has been the official rule since Wizards of the Coast implemented it in competitive play in 2019 and in all formats thereafter.
Definition and scope
A mulligan is a formal game action, defined in the Magic: The Gathering Comprehensive Rules (Wizards of the Coast Comprehensive Rules, Rule 103.4) as the option to shuffle one's opening hand back into the library and draw a new hand of 7 cards, with a penalty applied for each mulligan taken beyond the first free look. The rule applies to every sanctioned format — from Commander and Standard to Vintage — with no format-specific variations to the core mechanism, though Commander has a once-free "partial Paris" history worth knowing for context.
The scope of the rule extends to all players at the start of a game. Each player, in turn order starting with the player who will go first, independently decides whether to keep or mulligan their opening hand. This process repeats until every player has kept a hand.
How it works
The London Mulligan procedure, as codified in the Comprehensive Rules (Rule 103.4), follows a specific sequence:
That final step is the defining feature of the London system. A player on their first mulligan keeps 7 cards. A player on their second mulligan draws 7 but puts 1 on the bottom, effectively keeping 6. Third mulligan: keep 5. The bottom-library cards are chosen by the player, which introduces meaningful strategic selection — a player can effectively sculpt their kept hand at the cost of card volume.
This replaced the Vancouver Mulligan (used 2015–2019), which granted a free scry 1 to any player who kept a hand of fewer than 7 cards rather than allowing full 7-card redraws with a selective bottom placement. The London system is generally more generous to players keeping small hands with specific pieces, which is why combo-oriented strategies benefited most from the transition.
Common scenarios
The land-light hand. A 7-card hand with 1 land is almost always a mulligan. Most 60-card constructed decks run between 20 and 24 lands (Frank Karsten's mana base analysis, published via ChannelFireball), and a 1-land opener will fail to develop at the rate the deck requires in the vast majority of games.
The land-heavy hand. 6 or 7 lands with 1 spell is a functionally dead hand. Even with the ability to bottom 1 card on a first mulligan, drawing an entirely new 7 gives better expected value than keeping a hand that cannot develop a board.
The missing color hand. A hand with 3 lands, all of one color, while the deck requires a second color by turn 2, is a borderline keep in slower formats and a mulligan in aggressive ones. Understanding the mana system and color pie is essential context here.
The powerful 5. A player on their third mulligan holding 5 cards that include a land, a spell, and a clear game plan will often keep. The poverty of the hand is offset by the selection power granted when bottoming 2 cards from a fresh 7.
Decision boundaries
The keep-or-mulligan decision reduces to a single question: does this hand execute the deck's intended strategy within an acceptable variance window? The mulliganing strategy considerations that separate strong players from average ones involve format context, matchup knowledge, and going-first vs. going-second status.
Going first vs. going second. The player going second draws an extra card at the start of their first turn. This shifts the threshold slightly — a borderline 6-card hand is more acceptable on the draw than on the play, because the extra draw can patch holes.
Format tempo. In Modern, where turn-3 and turn-4 kills are realistic, a slow opening hand is more dangerous than in Commander, where a 40-life multiplayer game creates more time to develop. A keep that's reasonable in Commander may be a clear mulligan in a 60-card competitive format.
Matchup pressure. Sideboard knowledge and metagame awareness — topics covered at how-recreation-works-conceptual-overview — change the calculus significantly. Against a known aggressive opponent, a hand without early interaction is weaker than the same hand against a control deck.
The 6-card discipline. Professional players consistently identify the willingness to take a second mulligan as one of the clearest markers of improvement. A mediocre 7-card hand beats a good 6-card hand in expected value over a large sample — but a great 6-card hand (kept after 1 mulligan) often outperforms a bad 7, especially in game 2 and game 3 of a match.
The Magic: The Gathering home page provides broader orientation to the game's rules ecosystem for readers approaching mulligan rules as part of a larger learning arc.