Comprehensive look at Commander mulligans and opening hand strategy

A comprehensive guide to Commander mulligans broke down the official Comprehensive (London) mulligan, the multiplayer free mulligan exception, and common house-rule alternatives, pairing rules clarity with pragmatic advice for evaluating opening hands.

The guide lays out the official flow: draw your starting hand, declare mulligans simultaneously, draw a new hand, then put a number of cards equal to the number of mulligans you took on the bottom of your library. It highlights the multiplayer free mulligan exception that many playgroups still observe and notes that, in practice, tables often default to informal house rules rather than the strict procedural variant.

Decision-making guidance focuses on concrete, table-ready criteria. Consider your curve and color-fixing first; a hand that can’t reasonably cast its early plays or find its colors is a frequent mulligan. Ask whether the hand provides a clear opening plan and sequence, and whether it supports your commander and primary lines. Factor in interaction: hands with no removal or reactive answers can be comfortable in some metas, but dangerous in groups that race or target threats quickly. The guide emphasizes keep-versus-mull tradeoffs specific to multiplayer, reminding readers that card advantage and political reality change the calculus from two-player formats.

For groups that want alternatives, the piece sketches a short history of mulligan systems and offers several friendly options. It references earlier systems you’ve heard called Paris and Vancouver, and the Gis mulligan, and suggests variants such as backup-plan style draws and Brainstorm-style fixes that let players preserve tempo and reduce miserable starts. Those alternatives are presented as choices playgroups can adopt depending on whether they prioritize competitive parity, social speed, or reducing variance.

Practical tips are compact and usable at the table. Evaluate prospective hands with the simple rubric plan + interaction + sequence. Set expectations before you shuffle, and explicitly agree on whether you’re using the official Comprehensive mulligan, a free mulligan, or a house variant. That prevents midgame disputes and saves time when players are hungry to start.

Our two cents? Mulligans are a tiny rule with outsized influence on game feel. If your table wants fewer miserable first turns, pick a consistent policy, lean into the plan + interaction + sequence check, and don’t be shy about adopting a friendlier mulligan variant that better fits your group’s social goals.