[Article] Unlocking Legacy - Mulliganing and Deck Design

[AnwarA101]

Link (http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/15433.html)

Today’s article addresses a commonly made mistake – incorrect mulliganing. The underused resource of mulliganing has effects on design, and Chris talks about and how to avoid it both as a player and a deckbuilder.


A legacy article that discusses in depth the process of designing decks and playing them and more specifically knowing which hands to play and which ones not to play. It provides a framework for thinking about Legacy design that hasn't been presented before. Legacy deck design is unique and can't simply be developed from copying decks from other formats.

I found it informative and I wish there were more articles like it.

[mercenarybdu]

Pretty much another article breaking another set of myths like the one that Adam B did when he needed to address to the majority about the format.

But this is by a different author so we have more of a range than just a single guy.

[FoolofaTook]

Ah, the mulligan, what a great topic for conversation. I've never been conflicted as much by any topic in MTG as the mulligan and it's proper uses.

Slightly off-topic but certainly pertaining to it: I had a draw today in which I drew no land in 7 cards, then 6 cards and then 5 cards. There were 19 land in the deck, however the odds on hitting no land through 18 initial cards was very, very low. I got two land on the 4 card draw but lost to the opponent's 8 card opening hand.

Here's the question: the 7 card hand I initially drew had 3 Streetwraiths, Aether Vial, Duress, Cabal Therapy and Extirpate. I reluctantly mulliganed it because I had a 25% chance to not draw a land to power it even if I cycled all 3 Streetwraiths at a cost of 6 life. It was just too much of a risk. Then I drew 2 Streetwraiths, 2 Aether Vials, Kira Great-Glass Spinner and a Shriekmaw. That was a much worse hand, so I threw it back to draw Engineered Explosives, Augur of Skulls, Echoing Truth, Magus of the Abyss and Shriekmaw. I wound up with Underground Sea, Swamp, Aether Vial and Duress.

What's the right point to stop that chain of events? I keep looking at the first hand and thinking that even though I was on the play I should have kept it. I had a 75% chance to draw a land with the Streetwraiths and probably a 60/40 chance (blind/game one) to not get FoW'd when I played it and dropped the Aether Vial.