Mulligan
Your starting hand can be one of the toughest decisions in the game. Knowing when to keep, when to ship, and what to dig for shapes everything before turn 1.
The Big Idea
The mulligan is your one chance to reshape your starting hand without consequences during the game. You're dealt 4 cards. Before the game begins, you may recycle up to 2 of them back into your deck and draw replacements equal to how many you sent back. The other cards stay. Sometimes you draw perfect and keep, other times you pray you see a turn 1 play!
How the mulligan actually works
- Your opening hand is 4 cards.
- You can recycle 0, 1, or 2 of those cards.
- You draw the same number you recycled.
- Hand size stays at 4 either way — you're trading specific cards, not the whole hand.
That cap of 2 matters. You can't ship a bad hand wholesale and start fresh — you can only swap your two worst cards. Picking which two is the entire skill of mulliganing in Riftbound.
What you're looking for
Mulligans goals are different accross the board depending on your legend and gameplan but a keepable 4-card opener has three things:
- A turn-1 play. Something you can credibly do on your first action without sandbagging. A unit or equipment is typically acceptable.
- A clear goal for turn-2. A second unit, removal spell, battletricks, or counters are all great cards to have in hand.
- A line into your win condition. Anything that boosts your current position from turn two or gets your engine roaring towards your win con.
If any of those three are missing, that's your swap target.
Which cards to recycle - the hardest decision
You're not making a "keep or ship" call on the whole hand — you're identifying your worst 0, 1, or 2 cards and replacing them. Common ship targets:
- Expensive spells or units It's hard to see these go as they're so impactful when used but there is a high chance you'll see another by the time you need it.
- Low value cards Before you start you don't know what your opponent will play. Once you see, mulligan anything that doesnt bring value vs their deck.
- A card that only matters in long games when your deck wants to push tempo early.
- Duplicate of a card you already have one of — drawing two of the same situational tool is rarely better than digging for the missing piece.
If you swap without knowing what you're hoping to draw, you're rolling dice with no plan.
Try the mulligan
Use the demo below to practice. You'll be dealt 4 cards from an Ahri deck. Click up to 2 to recycle, hit Confirm, and watch the mulligan resolve before turn 1's draw.
Try the Mulligan
Your Hand
Going first or second shifts your mulligan math. Plan around the runes you'll actually have. Going first, you have 2 runes turn 1 and 4 turn 2. Going second, you start with 3 runes and have 5 by turn 2 — the second player gets an extra rune as compensation. A 3-cost unit is a live turn-1 play going second but has to wait until turn 2 going first, which should change what you keep and what you ship.