There is a kind of opening hand that ruins more Commander games than people want to admit. It has lands. It has spells. It even has one card you are excited about. So you keep it. Then the game starts, your colors do not line up, your first two turns are mush, and by the time your hand becomes “playable,” someone else is already established. That is not just bad variance. That is usually a mulligan mistake.
I think a lot of Commander players keep too many hopeful hands. They talk themselves into hands that are technically possible instead of hands that are actually functional. This makes sense. Nobody likes going to six. And because Commander is a social format with slower games, people convince themselves they can get away with more. Sometimes they can. But a shaky seven still loses plenty of games.
The good news is that mulligan decisions get much easier once you stop treating them like a vibe check. A strong keep is not mysterious. It has a few clear traits, and once you get used to looking for them, your opening hands become much less stressful.
How Commander mulligans work now
Commander uses the London Mulligan, and that matters.
The short version is simple: when you mulligan, you draw a fresh seven cards. After you decide to keep, you put a number of cards on the bottom of your library equal to the number of mulligans you took. In normal multiplayer Commander, the first mulligan is effectively free, which means your first trip to a new seven does not cost you a card.
That rule changes a lot.
It means you should not feel weird about shipping a truly bad opener. If your first seven is unworkable, you are not “being greedy” by trying again. You are using the rule the format gives you. And in a normal multiplayer Commander game, the starting player still draws on turn one, which makes functional keeps a little easier to judge than in two-player Magic.
That does not mean you can throw away hands forever looking for a dream opener. It means you have room to reject nonsense.
What a keepable Commander hand usually needs
Most keepable hands do not need to be amazing. They need to be usable.
In general, I want a hand to do three things:
- produce mana on time
- cast something relevant in the first few turns
- point toward what the deck is trying to do
That is it.
If a hand does those things, I am usually interested. If it fails at two of those things, I am usually not.
A solid Commander keep often has two to four lands, access to the colors that matter early, and at least one spell or setup piece you can cast without needing the top of your deck to rescue you. That could be ramp. It could be card selection. It could be a cheap value creature. It could be interaction if the rest of the hand is already stable.
The big thing is that the hand should function even if your next draw is mediocre. That is the test many loose keeps fail.
The hands people keep too often
The easiest way to improve your mulligans is to recognize the bad hands that look charming.
The “one land and a mana rock” hand
This is the classic trap.
If your hand has one land, one cheap rock, and a bunch of powerful cards, it can feel tempting. But unless your deck has a ton of cheap selection or the one land plus rock already solves your colors, you are asking too much from one draw step. In Commander, that kind of gamble fails often enough to matter.
The “all my lands enter tapped” hand
This hand looks much safer than it is. You see three lands and feel responsible. Then you realize your first real spell happens too late, your mana colors come online awkwardly, and the table moves around you.
Tapped lands are not automatic mulligans. A hand full of slow lands with no payoff for the delay is another story.
The “my commander fixes this” hand
Sometimes players keep hands that only become playable if the commander enters on time and lives. That is not a strong keep. That is a dependency problem.
Your commander should help your hand. Your hand should not be a hostage situation built around your commander.
The “great later” hand
A seven-card hand with lands, a board wipe, a six-drop engine, and a finisher can look impressive. It is also a great way to spend the first several turns watching everyone else play. Commander rewards big plays, but it still punishes idle starts.
Land count is not the whole story
A lot of mulligan advice starts and ends with land count. That is useful, but it is not enough.
Two lands can be excellent or awful depending on the hand.
Four lands can be comforting or clunky depending on the rest.
What matters is whether the mana and spells actually fit together.
A two-land hand with both colors, a two-mana ramp spell, and a draw spell can be much safer than a four-land hand with mismatched colors and nothing until turn four. Likewise, a three-land hand in a low-curve deck may be perfect, while the same hand in a slow five-color list might be asking for trouble.
This is why I prefer to think in turns, not just totals. What am I doing on turn one? Turn two? Turn three? If your hand cannot answer that without imagination doing heavy lifting, it is probably weaker than it looks.
Commander cost changes what counts as a keep
Your commander should affect your mulligan decisions more than many players realize.
If your commander costs two or three mana and helps stabilize your hand, you can often keep more borderline openers. You already know one of your early turns has a live play built in.
If your commander costs five or more, you need the rest of the hand to stand on its own a little better. You cannot keep a hand that does nothing for several turns just because your commander is eventually excellent. That is how you fall behind before your deck ever gets started.
Color intensity matters too. A two-color deck with a modest early game can keep more flexible mana. A three-color or five-color deck with double-pipped spells needs a lot more honesty. If your hand “has lands” but not the colors your first spells need, that is not actually stability.
Ramp and card draw make borderline hands safer
This is one reason cheap ramp and cheap draw are so valuable. They do not just help after the game starts. They widen the range of hands you can reasonably keep.
A hand with two lands and a two-mana ramp spell is different from a hand with two lands and no bridge.
A hand with solid mana plus a cheap draw spell is different from a hand that just hopes the top of the deck behaves.
That does not mean you should keep every lean hand with a Signet in it. It means good setup cards reduce the number of things that have to go exactly right.
And this is where deckbuilding meets mulligan discipline. A deck with a healthy curve, good early plays, and a sensible mana base naturally keeps better hands. The mulligan phase exposes deck flaws very quickly.
Why going to six is often better than pretending seven works
This is the emotional part.
People hate going to six because it feels like starting behind. Sometimes it is. But a functional six is often much better than a seven-card hand that cannot participate.
The London Mulligan helps here because you still get to see seven before you put cards back. That means your six is not some random punishment hand. It is usually a curated version of a workable seven. That is a much better deal than a bad keep that asks the next two draw steps to do emergency repair work.
I have lost way more games keeping fragile sevens than I have lost by starting on six with a hand that actually plays Magic.
A quick test before you keep
Before you lock in an opening hand, ask yourself five simple questions:
- Do I have enough mana to cast something useful in the first few turns?
- Do my colors line up with my early plays?
- Does this hand work if my next draw is average instead of perfect?
- Am I keeping because the hand is good, or because one card in it is exciting?
- If this were a six-card hand, would I still feel okay about how it functions?
That last question is sneaky, but it helps. Sometimes it exposes how much dead weight a “keepable” seven is really carrying.
Final thoughts
A good MTG mulligan is not about finding the perfect hand. It is about avoiding the hand that lies to you.
You want mana that works, a real early play, and a believable path into the middle turns. You do not need fireworks. You do not need a flashy curve-out. You just need a hand that lets your deck operate without begging for help.
Commander gives you some grace with mulligans. Use it. Throw back the opener that looks brave but behaves badly. Keep the hand that actually functions. Over time, that one change alone wins a surprising number of games.