Format Friday: Mulligan Draft

50% of a Modern Pro-Tour deck.

Unlike Wizard's Tower Wednesday, different casual formats will not be a weekly posted topic and not even necessarily on Fridays. Alliterations just do it for me so today will be Format Friday.

The inspiration of the Mulligan Draft originates from the players who will pull an expedition land and a Planeswalker and then drop from the draft so they can keep both.

In a mulligan draft you use four booster packs rather than three. When you open any one of the three packs, and before you draft any cards, you are allowed to set the opened pack aside, open the fourth booster, and pick from that new pack instead. You then just pocket the booster you are not drafting.

This allows for a couple scenarios:

1. You open pack 1 (or any pack really) and you just get the dopest cards. You get a rare you wanted and a foil mythic rare that you also wanted. Now rather than being a bag of dicks and ruining the draft for everyone as you yell "I DROP" and storm out of the kitchen to awkwardly hit on Steve's sister, you can simply put that pack to the side, open your mulligan booster, and use that for drafting.
2. Pack 1 has come and went. Your palms start to sweat as you open pack two (or three, who cares) because you know the rare in that is going to be perfect for your deck. Except that it's not. It was one of the oath enchantments. Your spirit is crushed until you remember, you don't have to use this pack for draft. Angle (Dan: Gaige typo'd "Angel" here, but I like it so we're keeping it from here on out) creatures sing out in exultation as you grab your mulligan pack and you now have a chance at rare redemption.
3. Pack 1 was good for you all over. You got colors you needed and a decent rare. Pack 2 made you splash into a third color but you still feel pretty confident you're the best drafter here. When the time comes you open pack three and you get one of the best rares in set...in a 4th color when you're REAL deep in the first three. Now when you mulligan, not only do you get to keep that rare that is perfect for your tribal fish deck, but you now have a stronger draft deck so you can go 1-3 rather than 0-4.
4. You make it through three packs and didn't even need to open that fourth pack. Good for you. You are not only better than everyone else but luckier in pulls probably. Now as your reward for not needing a handicap like I do, you just have a booster to open. 

Overall it's a nice twist on drafting that doesn't change the overall dynamic of the draft, so if you're looking for something a little different but aren't quite ready to draft cards based on which ones you can throw into a hat from 10 ft away, then this is a nice "just the tip" format.

-Gaige


Dan typing words:

Mulligan draft is pretty neat. I mean, it doesn't help me any, because every pack will just have a Prism Array as the rare (even Oath packs), so it doesn't do a lot for me. But that feeling after opening three packs and then noticing you have another pack to open is great. And then that feeling when it's a fourth Prism Array is exactly like that feeling every woman has when she sees you get naked with her for the first time.



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