Riftbound mulligan and replacing up to two cards
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Riftbound starts with four cards in hand, and the mulligan lets you replace up to two of them. Set the chosen cards aside, draw the same number, then Recycle the set-aside cards. You keep four cards; this is not a complete-hand redraw and does not impose a one-card penalty.
The order is important because the selected cards are outside the Main Deck while you draw replacements. The official rules resources provide the current comprehensive rules; the opening procedure is covered in rules 116–117 and Recycle in rule 416.
Which cards form the opening hand
The four-card hand is drawn from your Main Deck. Your Legend, chosen Champion and Rune Deck belong to their separate parts of setup. Do not count those pieces as extra hand cards or replace a Rune through the Main Deck mulligan procedure.
Complete the earlier setup instructions before evaluating your hand. That gives you the actual deck, Champion and turn order for this game. A mulligan decision made before identifying those factors can be based on a plan that does not match the game you are about to play.
The rules have players perform their mulligan in turn order. Keep the procedure distinct from the first turn itself. You are making a setup decision, rather than activating a spell, using a Champion ability or taking a normal draw during play.
Replace zero, one or two cards
“Up to two” permits keeping all four. It also permits replacing one or replacing two. It does not permit returning three because the hand looks awkward, nor replacing the entire hand because another card game uses a full redraw.
Choose the cards you will set aside together. Draw the corresponding number, then finish the procedure by Recycling those selected cards. You do not inspect one replacement and then decide to add a second original card to the same mulligan.
| Choice | Original cards kept | Replacement cards drawn | Final hand size |
|---|---|---|---|
| Keep everything | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| Replace one card | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| Replace two cards | 2 | 2 | 4 |
Once the replacement draw has happened, the opening mulligan is complete after the required Recycle. It is not a repeat-until-satisfied process. A disappointing replacement becomes part of your opening hand; it does not create a new opportunity to reroll it.
Why drawing comes before Recycling
Imagine your original hand contains cards A, B, C and D. You choose C and D. Put those two physical copies aside, retain A and B, and draw two new cards from the Main Deck. Only then do you Recycle C and D.
That sequence means the same physical copies of C and D cannot be drawn as those immediate replacements. They were not in the deck when the draw occurred. Another copy with the same name can still be drawn if your deck contains one; “same physical copy” and “same card name” are different statements.
Recycling first would create a different procedure and could change what is available to draw. Do not shuffle the selected cards back before the draw because that resembles a familiar mulligan from another game. Follow the Riftbound sequence specifically.
What Recycle does in this setup
For these Main Deck cards, Recycle puts them on the bottom of the Main Deck. If two are Recycled together, their order on the bottom is random. This is not an instruction to shuffle the entire Main Deck after replacing the hand.
With one selected card, the destination is still the bottom. With two, randomise the order of those two as required, keeping the rest of the deck's order intact. Do not secretly choose which rejected card will be reached first later in the game.
Recycled cards have not been trashed or banished. They remain in the deck and may be encountered later through normal play. A future effect that moves or shuffles cards can change what happens next, but it does not alter what the mulligan instructed at setup.
Decide what the hand needs to do
A useful mulligan decision begins with a concrete early-game plan. Ask which cards you can realistically use in the first part of the game, what they contribute to board development, and whether keeping several expensive cards leaves you without meaningful early options.
The right answer depends on your deck and matchup. A card essential to one deck's opening can be unnecessary in another. Avoid rules such as “always replace the highest-cost card” without looking at the rest of the hand and the way your chosen Champion supports the plan.
Think about roles rather than card price. An expensive collectible printing is not more suitable for an opening hand because it has a special finish. Early units, interaction and later-game pieces have strategic jobs determined by their game text, regardless of rarity.
A hypothetical uneven hand
Suppose you have one useful early unit and three cards intended for later turns. Replacing two later cards can increase the opportunity to find early options while preserving the unit you already have. You still keep one later card because the replacement limit is two.
That is a plan for improving the hand, not a guarantee. The new cards may also be expensive. Before replacing, identify what kinds of draws would improve the hand and how many such cards your actual deck contains. Without that information, “two new cards” is only movement, not an informed decision.
A hypothetical functional hand
Now imagine two early units, suitable interaction and a later card supporting the deck's plan. Keeping all four can be reasonable. The mulligan is optional; using it because you are allowed to replace cards can trade a functional hand for uncertainty.
If one early unit is redundant for the expected matchup, replacing one card is another valid choice. You do not have to choose between a full keep and the maximum two-card replacement. The one-card option lets you preserve three useful pieces while seeking a different role.
Account for turn order without inventing a universal rule
Knowing whether you play first or later can affect which early tools you value. It does not change the four-card opening hand or the two-card maximum in this setup procedure. Keep the strategic question separate from the mechanical rule.
For testing, record the hand, turn order and reason for your decision. Then note whether your early plan actually functioned. A few games in which a replacement happened to be excellent do not establish that the same choice is always correct.
Review repeated patterns rather than only wins and losses. If hands frequently lack early plays, the issue may be deck construction as well as mulligan choices. If the hands are functional but you keep discarding useful interaction, the decision process itself may need adjustment.
Execute the mulligan clearly with another player
Avoid using the word “discard” for the selected cards during this demonstration. They are temporarily set aside and then Recycled; they do not enter the trash as part of the procedure. Using the correct movement words helps a new player understand why a later trash-recovery effect cannot retrieve them simply because they were rejected from the opening hand.
Keep the set-aside cards visibly separate from your retained hand and the Main Deck. Announce how many cards you are replacing without unnecessarily revealing their identities. Draw that number and complete the Recycle before starting normal play.
If either player notices the cards were returned too soon, pause before taking further actions. In an event, call a judge and describe exactly what happened. Do not privately draw extra replacements to compensate; that creates a second problem and makes the original sequence harder to repair.
For a first teaching game, demonstrate the process with labelled example cards before drawing the real opening hands. Seeing “set aside, draw, Recycle” once is often more helpful than comparing the procedure with several unrelated games' mulligans.
Frequently asked questions
Can I replace all four opening cards?
No. The opening procedure permits choosing up to two cards. You may replace zero, one or two.
Do I shuffle the rejected cards into the deck before drawing?
No. Draw the replacements while those cards are set aside. Recycle them afterwards to the bottom of the Main Deck, randomising the order when two are Recycled together.
Can I draw another copy of a card I rejected?
Yes, if another copy is already in the deck. The set-aside physical copy cannot be the immediate replacement, but another copy with the same name can be.