Your opening hand is the foundation of your game. A good start can lead to smooth turns, consistent pressure, or effective control. But Magic offers a chance to try again if things go wrong: the mulligan. Understanding how to mulligan properly is one of the most important skills a new player can learn—and it starts before you even draw your first card.

Let’s begin with the basics. At the start of the game, each player draws seven cards. If you don’t like your hand—maybe you drew no lands, or only expensive spells—you can choose to mulligan. Under the current “London Mulligan” rules, each time you take a mulligan, you still draw seven new cards, then put one card from your hand on the bottom of your library for each time you’ve mulliganed. So if you mulligan once, you keep six; if you mulligan twice, you keep five, and so on.

Here’s where it gets better for new players, especially in Commander: your first mulligan is free. That means the first time you choose to throw away your hand, you still draw a new seven and get to keep all seven without putting any back. This “free mulligan” is standard in casual formats like Commander, and it allows for more fun, interactive games where players aren’t punished too harshly for bad luck.

But how do you know whether to mulligan at all? That’s the real challenge. A good hand usually has a solid mix of lands and spells, and at least one path forward—whether that’s an early play, a way to ramp, or access to multiple colors of mana. A hand full of expensive creatures or one land and six five-drops is usually a trap. On the other hand, mulliganing too aggressively can leave you with fewer tools to work with.

Ultimately, mulligans are about opportunity, not fear. Don’t be afraid to ship a hand that doesn’t let you play the game. Use your free mulligan when needed, and make each subsequent decision based on how your deck functions. Good mulligans aren’t just lucky—they’re smart, calculated plays that win games before the first turn even begins.