A · Fundamentals · §6

Mulligan Strategy

Keep a configuration, not four strong cards: protection is far easier to find than a body.

The correct opening is a configuration rather than a collection of individually powerful cards: an early unit, one efficient protection or interaction card, one card that advances the middle game, and one flexible slot.

Premium openings

Pilot note plus protection. Poro is naturally aligned with the Legend: it attacks their resources while preserving a card if it dies alone.

plus disruption replaces itself immediately, and if it dies it supplies information and XP so the next action is made with unusually complete knowledge.

Two-drop plus is the strongest curve in the deck: two-drop to the battlefield, attack or exhaust it, First Mate to base, ready the original without adding a second body to its location.

Early unit plus is a keep when the rest of the hand guarantees you reach five Energy with a functioning board. Poro, , Irelia, is excellent. Irelia, , , Whiteflame is not.

Cards to recycle aggressively

. A finisher, not an opening plan. Keep it only in a very slow known matchup where the other three cards form a complete opening by themselves.
Unsupported , which needs , a stable unit, a decisive combat and time to exploit Flow.
Excess Hourglass. The first may be excellent; the second is frequently a development failure, because it preserves a unit without providing a body.
with no body. It needs a friendly unit, a worthwhile enemy, favourable Might, and protection from the reply.
Multiple five-drops. and are both powerful, and a hand of several five-Energy cards with no early body is too slow.

Play versus draw

On the play, prioritise a true two-drop, or to keep pressure, before they stabilise, a line toward , and enough interaction to force the first Hold. You can keep a slightly more proactive hand because they have to answer your first conquest attempt.

On the draw, prioritise two early bodies, , a cheap protection card, and a credible retake. The draw punishes hands that only start playing meaningful units at four or five Energy.