Plenty of games are lost on turn zero. A keepable-looking hand with no way to make ink, or a fistful of expensive cards with nothing to do early, quietly hands the game to your opponent before the first quest. The good news: Lorcana's mulligan is one of the friendliest in all of card games, and once you understand it, throwing away those bad hands costs you almost nothing.

Unlike Magic, where every mulligan shrinks your hand, Lorcana lets you swap out as many cards as you like and still keep a full seven. That changes the whole calculation: the question isn't "can I afford to mulligan?" — it's "which cards should I bottom?"

This guide covers exactly how the mulligan works, the two questions that decide every keep, how going first or second changes things, and a clear what-to-bottom framework — including how it shifts by archetype.

How the Lorcana Mulligan Works

The mechanic itself is simple, but a couple of details matter more than people realize:

• Decide turn order first. You determine who goes first before drawing and before mulliganing — so you already know whether you're on the play or the draw when you evaluate your hand.
• Draw seven, then alter once. After your opening seven, you get a single chance to put any number of those cards on the bottom of your deck (face down, without revealing) and draw that many replacements. One time only.
• You always end on seven. There's no card penalty. Bottoming three cards and drawing three new ones still leaves you with a full hand — which is why you should be willing to fix problems.

Rule #1: Can You Make Ink?

This is the question that decides more Lorcana mulligans than anything else. Each turn you may put one card from your hand into your inkwell to fuel your plays — but only cards with the inkwell symbol around their cost can go in. If your hand is short on inkable cards, you simply can't grow your ink, and a deck that can't make ink can't do anything.

So before you look at curve, power level, or synergy, count your inkable cards. A rough guideline for a standard seven-card hand:

• Two or fewer inkable cards: Danger zone. You'll likely stall on ink within a couple of turns. Strongly consider bottoming uninkable cards to dig for inkables — even good cards you can't yet afford to play.
• Three to four inkable cards: Healthy. You can ink every turn for a while and still have plays in hand. This is the comfortable range to keep.
• Five or more inkable cards: Ink-rich, but watch that you also have enough you actually want to play. A hand that's all fuel and no payoff can be its own problem.

The trap to avoid: keeping a hand full of your best cards that all happen to be uninkable, telling yourself you'll "draw ink." Hope is not a plan. If you can't reliably make ink, the rest of the hand doesn't matter.

Rule #2: Do You Have an Early Game?

Once ink is sorted, ask whether you can actually do something in the first few turns. Lorcana rewards getting on the board and starting the lore race; a hand whose cheapest card costs five ink means you'll spend the early turns inking and passing while your opponent races ahead.

You're looking for a sensible spread — ideally a play or two in the one-to-three cost range, with your bigger cards as the payoff once your ink catches up. A hand of three cheap plays and a couple of mid-cost cards is usually excellent. A hand of five- and six-drops, however powerful, often needs fixing.

First or Second Changes Everything

Here's a detail newer players miss: the player going first does not draw on their first turn. That's the game's way of balancing the tempo advantage of acting first — and it should change how you evaluate your hand.

• On the play (going first): You'll see fewer cards over the opening turns, so your hand needs to be more self-sufficient. Lean toward keeping proactive, ink-rich hands with a clear early plan, and be a little more willing to bottom cards that only matter later or that depend on drawing the right follow-up.
• On the draw (going second): You draw on your first turn, so you'll see more cards sooner. You can afford to keep slightly greedier hands or hold a reactive card, trusting that the extra draws help you find the rest of your plan.

What to Keep, What to Bottom

Note that "bottom" doesn't mean "bad." You'll often bottom a genuinely strong six-drop simply because you need an inkable two-drop more right now. Mulligan for the shape of a functional opening, not for raw card quality.

Mulligan by Archetype

Your deck's plan should bend these guidelines:

• Aggro: You live and die by the early turns. Mulligan hard for a low curve and proactive bodies; a hand without cheap plays is a near-automatic alter, even if it's loaded with ink. Tempo is everything.
• Control / Midrange: You can keep slightly slower hands, but you still need ink and a way to survive the first few turns. Prioritize inkables, early blockers or removal, and a card-advantage engine to take over later.
• Shift / Combo: You usually need a specific piece — the base character to Shift onto, or a key engine card. Keep hands that can assemble the plan and make ink; bottom the back half of combos you can't yet set up.
• Song decks: You want a workable balance of Singers (or characters to sing with) and songs — plus ink. A hand of all songs and no one to sing them, or all singers and no songs, wants fixing.

Common Mistakes & The Verdict

• Keeping a no-ink hand on hope. The most punished mistake in the game. If you can't make ink, fix it — you have nothing to lose.
• Treating it like a Magic mulligan. There's no card penalty here, so the timid "I'll just keep it" instinct costs you. Be willing to swap two or three weak cards.
• Ignoring turn order. Forgetting you skip your first draw on the play leads to keeping greedy hands that never come together.
• Over-bottoming. You don't have to swap a working hand just because it isn't perfect. Fix real problems; don't gamble away a functional seven chasing an ideal one.

© GEEKYDOMAIN.COM | Strategy Powered by Data