Mulligan order in multiplayer

[Corvin90 0]

Hello,

I am not sure about the timing of hand draws and mulligans in a two player game.

Is it :

1. First player draws his hand

2. First player decides to mulligan or not

3. Second player draws his hand

4. Second player decides to mulligan or not

 

Or

1. First player draws his hand

2. Second player draws his hand

3. First player decides to mulligan or not

4. Second player decides to mulligan or not

 

Or

1. All players draw their hands

2. They decide in which order which player mulligans or not

 

Thanks.

 

 

[sappidus 531]

RR Setup and Mulligan Draw detail the initial draw and mulligan process. Neither specifies any order, e.g., turn order. So the draw is simultaneous, and I suppose the players (or technically, the first player) can choose in what order they'll decide to perform a mulligan—essentially, the third of your listed possibilities.

[GrandSpleen 1,756]

Because it's unspecified, I think players always do it simultaneously.

If there is intended to be any sort of turn order, I suppose the first player could choose-- which essentially boils down to "go ahead and do it simultaneously or in whatever order you want."

When I play 2-handed solo I always do 1st player's hand and decide whether to mulligan or not without looking at the 2nd player's starting hand.  This was my way of paying lip service to the now defunct "table talk" rule from the core set manual, which basically described that players weren't supposed to know what was in other player's hands.  That's not possible in 2-handed solo play, so I did it this way to preserve some spirit of that rule, if only minimally.  I've continued that practice to this day, although the online rules reference has basically opened up table talk fully.

[dalestephenson 1,482]

When I play 2-handed I also fully do player one before doing player two -- but when I play with my son we talk about our hands and mulligan in any order.

[player3351457 167]

My buddy and I have always been worried we've been playing our mulligans incorrectly/illegally.

Typically it goes like this.

"My hand is okay, not sure if I want to mulligan, depends on what you have."

"My hand is trash -- going to mulligan."

"Okay, I will wait to decide whether or not to mulligan based on what your new hand looks like."

Legal? We do this outside of player order, but since we build decks with the intent of helping each other, often times if one person has a strong hand and the other a mediocre hand, the mediocre hand will keep it to support the strong hand (better the devil that you know than possibly getting worse).

[Distractionbeast 132]

16 hours ago, player3351457 said:

My buddy and I have always been worried we've been playing our mulligans incorrectly/illegally.

Typically it goes like this.

"My hand is okay, not sure if I want to mulligan, depends on what you have."

"My hand is trash -- going to mulligan."

"Okay, I will wait to decide whether or not to mulligan based on what your new hand looks like."

Legal? We do this outside of player order, but since we build decks with the intent of helping each other, often times if one person has a strong hand and the other a mediocre hand, the mediocre hand will keep it to support the strong hand (better the devil that you know than possibly getting worse).

This is exactly how my friend and I do things.  It's coop, so it's all fine.  The no table-talk rule is pretty loose - mostly just avoid specifics.  We will usually kind of express our confidence in our hands before deciding whether or not to dump and redraw.

[Corvin90 0]

Thanks for your responses. I also find it more fun to be able to discuss our hands. And it also opens strategic options. I wanted to be sure I did not make the game easier than expected this way.

[Rouxxor 271]

I also go with the third and do the same as @player3351457 and @DistractionBeast