Faeria Academy: Chapter 6 - Understanding the Mulligan

Faeria Academy is a series of articles created in order to help new players get started with Faeria. The game combines the pace of modern digital card games with a living board, creating a dynamic and exciting element that is unique to the game. As the combination of a card game with a living board is entirely unique, we created the Academy to help new players transition and adapt to this style of game play. Faeria Academy starts with the basics but eventually delves into deeper, more advanced tactics and concepts. Each article provides access to additional resources that provide further help on the subjects being covered, including videos and similar articles.

Click here to see the contents page of the Academy.

What is a mulligan?

A mulligan happens at the start of the match after you’ve drawn your opening hand. Mulligans allow you to send up to three cards to your deck and draw new ones. The goal of a mulligan is to optimise your hand for the beginner of the game. Other strategies include looking for specific cards to counter a deck you might know your opponent is playing.

In Faeria you draw three cards for your opening hand. You can select individual cards to send back to your deck and re-draw. The opening turns in Faeria are very important because you will want to have a solid creature to lead your game plan.

What are you looking for in your mulligan?

Knowing what cards you want in your opening hand will require some understanding of the deck you’ve built. It will also be influenced by your decks archetype.

The first card you should prioritise is a creature you can play within the first two turns.

Here are three cards that you would want to see in your opening hand.

• Bone Collector only costs two Faeria and one forest allowing you to play him on turn one.
• Outland Ranger costs three Faeria and doesn’t require any coloured land making her a flexible opening card.
• Dune Drake is an early aggressor for Rush decks. With Explore he can be played on turn one but otherwise you will have to wait until turn two.

If you don’t have an opening creature in your first three cards then you should mulligan them all away. But what if you do have an opening creature?

Support cards

Support cards can assist your opening creature. Once you have your first creature you will want to have cards you can play in the follow-up turns.

Here are three good support cards to play after your opening creature.

• Elderwood Embrace can help your opening creature survive incoming removal and challenge opposing creatures.
• Sunken Tower can move your creature into better positions on the board.
• Groundshaker offers a strong follow-up creature to apply pressure to your opponent.

These three cards are fantastic support cards that would provide your opening creature with extra options and defenses. Let’s take a look at a deck and determine what cards you would want in your mulligan.

Planning your mulligan

The key to figuring out your mulligan is understanding what cards you want in your opening hand. Go through you deck list and work out which cards you want to find in your first two turns.

This is my Budget Mid-Range Green deck. The deck list is sorted by cheapest cards at the top and most expensive at the bottom. Any creatures at the top of your deck list could be a good opening card.

I’ve determined that I want to find one of these three cards in my opening hand. Bone Collector and Tiki Piper can be played on turn one because they only cost one forest. Wood Elemental is a good keep if I’m going second because the Explore card will allow me to play him on turn one. The one thing all these cards have in common is that they can be played early.

These are my priority cards when starting my mulligan.

If I find a priority creature in my opening hand I can then consider a support card. Mid-Range Green benefits from power-up cards so Elderwood Embrace and Tiki Caretaker are good picks. Verduran Force is a solid creature and will make a good turn three play. As a 7/7 he will be able to challenge most early creatures in the game.

Example mulligans

Now we know what cards to look for in our mulligan lets take a look at some examples.

Thyrian Golem and Oakling are not gonna help us in the early game so they’re being redrawn without question. Thankfully there is a Tiki Piper in hand so we at least have an early Faeria harvesters.

This hand is terrible and needs a full redraw. It has no opening creatures. Elderwood Embrace might tempt you but the priority is to find a creature so it should be redrawn.

This is a really strong opening hand. Two potential Faeria harvesters and a power-up to support them. Playing second will allow the Wood Elemental come down on turn one.

Conclusion

Performing a successful mulligan is easy once you’ve figured out what cards you’re looking for. If you’d like to read a bit more on this subject Lbrande has written another mulligan guide where he uses a control deck as an example.