New London Mulligan Rule Coming with Core Set 2020

The new expansion Core Set 2020, is looming upon us in July and with it brings a welcome change to the current mulligan rule.

The current rule, also dubbed the “Vancouver” mulligan, replaces your unwanted hand with a completely new random hand minus one card. This rule had been modified from the Paris mulligan, to give you the opportunity to Scry after a mulligan in 2015.

The new rule, the “London” mulligan, will likewise be named after the place where it was first trialed – Mythic Championship II London. Essentially, if you are not happy with your starting hand of 7 cards, you draw 7 new cards, then choose one of those cards and put it on the bottom of your library, and repeat if you are not happy with the 6 new cards. There is no Scry after you decide your final hand.

This rule will reduce the random factor of the game further. We will be getting more fair and competitive matches, even after a mulligan which is usually a big disadvantage.

The primary argument against this rule was that it will give combo decks (namely in eternal paper Magic formats like Modern or Legacy) a huge advantage over the other “fair” decks. The developers were happy with the risks and benefits despite this.

MTG Arena will test functionality of the London mulligan in a special event starting June 7 and will fully adopt it for all play formats with the release of M20 card content starting on July 2.

A more detailed explanation of this rule change is available from the Wizards offical website here.