General Special Mulligan Rules

Velrun

Velrun

Do you guys run any special mulligan rules?



We're doing this variant:

Players begin the games with 8 cards in hand, then puts one of those cards on the bottom of their library. Then the player decides to keep the hand or not. If not, the player puts the remaining 7 cards on the bottom of their library. For each mulligan thereafter, the player still draws 8 cards but puts an additional card on the bottom of ther library before deciding to keep or not.

Think of the rule like this: If Magic was a game where you start with 8 cards in hand but always take a mulligan. And cards are put on the bottom when mulligan to avoid shuffle time.



Do you guys run any special mulligan rules?
 
sigh

sigh

Just so I'm clear, the current mulligan rule is like what Velrun does, but starting with 7 cards, then draw 7 bottom 1, etc., right? I haven't played anywhere where concise mulligan rules are enforced in ages...
 
Velrun

Velrun

To elaborate

Wizards are restricted by having so many different formats that all need to be balanced around the same mulligan rule. We don’t since we only have one format: A limited set that we call our cube.

Our mulligan rule is much faster than normal mulligan rules and we greatly mitigate non-games (games where one of the player doesn’t get to interact with the opponent.) And we do it at no real cost other than having cards on the bottom of the library be known. This would be a huge issue in constructed formats. We have not found it to be an issue in cube, yet.
 
Velrun

Velrun

sigh said:
Just so I'm clear, the current mulligan rule is like what Velrun does, but starting with 7 cards, then draw 7 bottom 1, etc., right? I haven't played anywhere where concise mulligan rules are enforced in ages...
Click to expand...
Correct. Except when you take a normal mulligan in Magic you have to shuffle your hand into your library and present it to your opponent before being allowed to draw 7 cards again and put N on the bottom of your library, where N is the number of times you’ve taken a mulligan.

One of the reason why we like our version is because we do not spend time on shuffling. I like shuffle effects for Brainstorm but not to shuffle several times before the game begins.
 
sigh

sigh

Velrun said:
Correct. Except when you take a normal mulligan in Magic you have to shuffle your hand into your library and present it to your opponent before being allowed to draw 7 cards again and put N on the bottom of your library, where N is the number of times you’ve taken a mulligan.

One of the reason why we like our version is because we do not spend time on shuffling. I like shuffle effects for Brainstorm but not to shuffle several times before the game begins.
Click to expand...
Thanks for confirming!

Shuffling between mulligans is so normal for me I missed that you just put them to the bottom. Certainly faster.
 
ravnic

ravnic

Yes. We do the current London Mulligan rules, but instead of 7-6-5-... we go 7-7-6-6-5-5-...

Just leads to more fun for a casual group. Mulligans to 5 or less are almost non-existent
 
Morphling

Morphling

Our playgroup has had a very nice one for several years now. I adopted this 'house rule' for games at my house as well:

1) You may take as many re-deals as you want. For any reason. 7 new cards each time.
2) Keep track of how many re-deals you take.
3) Your opponent(s) may Scry that many cards before the match begins.

Is it perfect? Absolutely not.
Is it completely balanced? Nope, but in a singleton, limited format there seems to be a lot less potential for abuse. It tends to self-balance because it feels very bad to let your opponent scry a bunch of cards for free. :)
Does it produce better opening hands and less feel-bad games? Yes, in our experience, very much so. I think it *REALLY* helps new cubers have a little more to say/do (encouraging them to come back for more!)
Does it harm gameplay? No idea but we've been using it for over five years now without much problem.
 
Velrun

Velrun

Morphling said:
1) You may take as many re-deals as you want. For any reason. 7 new cards each time.
2) Keep track of how many re-deals you take.
3) Your opponent(s) may Scry that many cards before the match begins.
Click to expand...

Have you ever had a guy saying "Well since I've already taken 3 mulligans, I might as well take 'infinite' until I get my perfect starting 7 cards"?
Opponent would be able to scry the whole library and that game would take... a very long time to begin :D But it would probably be a game for the history books.
 
Morphling

Morphling

Velrun said:
Have you ever had a guy saying "Well since I've already taken 3 mulligans, I might as well take 'infinite' until I get my perfect starting 7 cards"?
Opponent would be able to scry the whole library and that game would take... a very long time to begin :D But it would probably be a game for the history books.
Click to expand...
It hasn't happened yet, but I'm also not inviting you to any of our games now lmao. :rolleyes:

We're all old friends is probably the biggest reason why. I've been playing with them since 2000 and the group was created way back in 1995. No one wants to curb-stomp anyone. If they do, "social feedback" will ensure it doesn't happen regularly--if it continues, that person will feel very unwelcome.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top