ScrySpireCommander mulligan rules
Multiplayer games give you a free first mulligan, so a Commander pod effectively gets two shots at a seven-card hand. Heads-up is a different story.
Every format uses the London mulligan: shuffle back, draw a fresh seven, then put a number of cards on the bottom of your library equal to how many times you have mulliganed. The part people get wrong is not the mechanic — it is that Commander bends it.
The free first mulligan
The comprehensive rules (103.5c) grant a free first mulligan in any MULTIPLAYER game — and, as a named exception, in any Brawl game. Your first mulligan costs you nothing and you keep all seven cards; only from the second onwards do you start bottoming.
| Mulligans taken | Cards kept (multiplayer / Brawl) | Cards kept (heads-up) |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 7 | 7 |
| 1 | 7 (the free one) | 6 |
| 2 | 6 | 5 |
| 3 | 5 | 4 |
Which formats get it
The rule is written around the table, not the format: any multiplayer game gets it, which is why a normal three- or four-player Commander pod always does. Brawl is the one named exception — it grants the free mulligan even heads-up.
- Free first mulligan: any game with three or more players — a normal Commander pod, Oathbreaker, Pauper EDH, Planechase, Archenemy — plus any Brawl game, including one-on-one.
- No free mulligan under the comprehensive rules: heads-up games that are not Brawl. That includes Duel Commander, the competitive one-on-one Commander format, and 60-card constructed such as Standard and Modern.
- The grey area: two-player Commander that is not Duel Commander. The comprehensive rules do not grant the free mulligan there, but the Commander Rules Committee advises using it anyway, and most tables do.
What this changes about keeping hands
A free mulligan makes marginal seven-card hands much less appealing. If a hand needs two things to go right and you have not used your free mulligan, the expected cost of shipping it is close to zero. Under plain London the same hand is a far more serious decision, because mulliganing costs a card immediately.
It also changes what a “bad opener” means over a season. A player who mulligans often is not necessarily unlucky — they may be running a manabase that produces unkeepable hands, and the only way to tell the two apart is to record it.
ScrySpire records each player’s mulligan count before the first turn and shows the resulting hand size, so nobody has to do the arithmetic mid-game. Per-deck opening-hand stats then show which of your decks actually keeps its openers.
Frequently asked questions
Does Commander have a free mulligan?
In a normal multiplayer pod, yes. Rule 103.5c gives every player a free first mulligan in any multiplayer game, so you keep all seven. From the second mulligan onwards you bottom one card per mulligan, as the London mulligan describes.
How many cards do I keep after two mulligans in Commander?
Six. The first mulligan is free, so the second is the one that costs you a card. After three mulligans you keep five.
Does Duel Commander have the free mulligan?
No. Duel Commander is played one-on-one, so the multiplayer rule does not apply — your first mulligan already costs a card and you keep six.
Is the free mulligan decided by how many players are at the table?
Mostly, yes — the rule applies to any multiplayer game regardless of format. Brawl is the single named exception, granting it even heads-up. For two-player Commander the rules do not grant it, but the Commander Rules Committee advises playing with it.