The Mulligan and the Basic Number
By: Dave Coleman II
Knowing the contents of your opponent's deck before the first turn of the game can be the single biggest advantage that you can gain over your opponent. How is this accomplished? Mulligans.
If your opponent draws a mulligan it is very important that you look carefully at your opponent's hand before he/she shuffles it back into his/her deck and draws a new hand. Some very important things to look for are:
The Flip Side
Letting your opponent know what type of deck you are using can be the biggest advantage that you can, conversely, give your opponent. So what is the best number of basics you can run to avoid a mulligan? I settled on 12. This is the way I figure it- your deck is 60 cards and you're drawing 7 cards for your opening hand. That’s a little more than 10 percent, but it’s close enough to 10 percent for figuring at this point. So if you were to run 10 Basics in a 60 card deck, every 6 card chunk you drew from the top would, on average, contain 1 Basic. Since we are working with averages here sometimes you’ll have 2 or more Basics and sometimes you’ll have 0 Basics. Since we are drawing 7 cards instead of 6, that increases the odds a little right there, but we still need to go a little higher sometimes. We want to reduce the number of times that you’ll get 0 Basics as far as possible so I just started adding 1 at a time and testing the deck out to see how it ran. I have discovered that 12 will usually mean that you will not draw very many mulligans at all. Depending on the deck, sometimes you can drop down to 11 or even 10, but if you lower the number any more than that you will find that you will have a lot of mulligans. You generally will not want to go much higher than 12 because you will be taking up too much space in your deck for basics and it will slow down your set up. Maximum number of Basics can be a little flexible. 15 to 20 is a on the high side but depending on the kinds of Basics and the kind of deck you may be able to run that many.
An example of a Basic Pokémon that may allow you to increase your “Basic Number” is Ditto (Ex Fire Red Leaf Green) because it kind of doubles as a Pokémon and a trainer card, in that it can be switched for a Basic Pokémon in your discard pile from play. Also, Basic Pokémon Ex may allow you to increase your basic number by a couple sometimes, but be careful because they are usually not good Pokémon to start with. If you’re running a Pokémon that is normally used only in the beginning of the game for set up purposes, like Dunsparce (EX. Sandstorm), you will probably want to run 4 of that Pokémon. You should remember at this point that if you are running 4 of another type of Basic Pokémon, that you’ll have the same odds of starting with that Pokémon as the Pokémon you have in there that is mostly just for starting.
There are decks that are built specifically to get mulligans on purpose. Examples of this kind of deck would be a Mewtwo EX (EX Ruby & Sapphire) deck or a deck that uses the 3 types Fossil Trainer cards. In these cases, you can pretty much throw out the second half of this article. Be careful though. Just because you see a fossil in your opponents mulligan hand doesn’t mean that he/she is trying to get mulligans!
By: Dave Coleman II
Knowing the contents of your opponent's deck before the first turn of the game can be the single biggest advantage that you can gain over your opponent. How is this accomplished? Mulligans.
If your opponent draws a mulligan it is very important that you look carefully at your opponent's hand before he/she shuffles it back into his/her deck and draws a new hand. Some very important things to look for are:
1. Type of energy - this can not only tell you whether your opponent is running a deck that has your deck's weakness or resistance, or tell you that you might have his/her weakness or resistance, but it can give you a potential clue to the actual Pokémon that he/she is running. If you are familiar with the most current popular decks you can sometimes assume what Pokémon you might be likely to face. Also keep a look out for special energies. I.e., if they are running a dark type deck and you see at least one Rocket energy (Ex Team Rocket Returns) you can assume that they have four dark and at least that one Rocket energy. Then you can assume that they may be able to increase their attack by 50.
2. Type of Pokémon - this one's pretty straightforward, but an example would be if you see a Kirlia (EX Ruby & Sapphire) then you should watch out for both Gardivoir EX (EX sandstorm) and Gardivoir (EX Ruby & Sapphire) and be on the watch for Gorbyss (EX Hidden Legends) because it is very good at abusing any psychic energy that is in play.
3. Types of Trainers - You’ll want to notice here first of all whether they are using cards like Rockets Admin. (Ex Team rocket returns) that can make you shuffle your hand into your deck. Also look for cards such as Warp Point (Ex Team Aqua/ Team Magma) and Pow Hand Extension (Ex Team Rocket Returns). That can force you to change your active Pokémon. Look for cards like Rockets Mission (EX Team Rocket Returns) and Rockets Hideout (Ex Team Rocket Returns) this might help you know that your opponent may be running darkness pokemon. Or cards like Aqua and Magma Schemer (EX Team Aqua/Team Magma) and Aqua or Magma Hideout (EX Team Aqua/Team Magma) which can give you a clue if your opponent is running Team Aqua or Team Magma Pokemon. Take note of stadium cards if any. For example if you see Desert Ruins (Ex Hidden Legends) you can figure that your opponent probably is not running any Pokémon Ex.
2. Type of Pokémon - this one's pretty straightforward, but an example would be if you see a Kirlia (EX Ruby & Sapphire) then you should watch out for both Gardivoir EX (EX sandstorm) and Gardivoir (EX Ruby & Sapphire) and be on the watch for Gorbyss (EX Hidden Legends) because it is very good at abusing any psychic energy that is in play.
3. Types of Trainers - You’ll want to notice here first of all whether they are using cards like Rockets Admin. (Ex Team rocket returns) that can make you shuffle your hand into your deck. Also look for cards such as Warp Point (Ex Team Aqua/ Team Magma) and Pow Hand Extension (Ex Team Rocket Returns). That can force you to change your active Pokémon. Look for cards like Rockets Mission (EX Team Rocket Returns) and Rockets Hideout (Ex Team Rocket Returns) this might help you know that your opponent may be running darkness pokemon. Or cards like Aqua and Magma Schemer (EX Team Aqua/Team Magma) and Aqua or Magma Hideout (EX Team Aqua/Team Magma) which can give you a clue if your opponent is running Team Aqua or Team Magma Pokemon. Take note of stadium cards if any. For example if you see Desert Ruins (Ex Hidden Legends) you can figure that your opponent probably is not running any Pokémon Ex.
The Flip Side
Letting your opponent know what type of deck you are using can be the biggest advantage that you can, conversely, give your opponent. So what is the best number of basics you can run to avoid a mulligan? I settled on 12. This is the way I figure it- your deck is 60 cards and you're drawing 7 cards for your opening hand. That’s a little more than 10 percent, but it’s close enough to 10 percent for figuring at this point. So if you were to run 10 Basics in a 60 card deck, every 6 card chunk you drew from the top would, on average, contain 1 Basic. Since we are working with averages here sometimes you’ll have 2 or more Basics and sometimes you’ll have 0 Basics. Since we are drawing 7 cards instead of 6, that increases the odds a little right there, but we still need to go a little higher sometimes. We want to reduce the number of times that you’ll get 0 Basics as far as possible so I just started adding 1 at a time and testing the deck out to see how it ran. I have discovered that 12 will usually mean that you will not draw very many mulligans at all. Depending on the deck, sometimes you can drop down to 11 or even 10, but if you lower the number any more than that you will find that you will have a lot of mulligans. You generally will not want to go much higher than 12 because you will be taking up too much space in your deck for basics and it will slow down your set up. Maximum number of Basics can be a little flexible. 15 to 20 is a on the high side but depending on the kinds of Basics and the kind of deck you may be able to run that many.
An example of a Basic Pokémon that may allow you to increase your “Basic Number” is Ditto (Ex Fire Red Leaf Green) because it kind of doubles as a Pokémon and a trainer card, in that it can be switched for a Basic Pokémon in your discard pile from play. Also, Basic Pokémon Ex may allow you to increase your basic number by a couple sometimes, but be careful because they are usually not good Pokémon to start with. If you’re running a Pokémon that is normally used only in the beginning of the game for set up purposes, like Dunsparce (EX. Sandstorm), you will probably want to run 4 of that Pokémon. You should remember at this point that if you are running 4 of another type of Basic Pokémon, that you’ll have the same odds of starting with that Pokémon as the Pokémon you have in there that is mostly just for starting.
There are decks that are built specifically to get mulligans on purpose. Examples of this kind of deck would be a Mewtwo EX (EX Ruby & Sapphire) deck or a deck that uses the 3 types Fossil Trainer cards. In these cases, you can pretty much throw out the second half of this article. Be careful though. Just because you see a fossil in your opponents mulligan hand doesn’t mean that he/she is trying to get mulligans!
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