How to Mulligan better on MTG Arena in Timeless - Basic Tutorial by a Top 10 Mythic Player
Summary
TLDRIn this tutorial video, the host delves into the art of Mulligan in high-powered Magic: The Gathering formats like Timeless, emphasizing its importance and complexity compared to slower formats. The video focuses on strategic deck understanding, Mulligan decision-making, and the impact of sideboard construction. Using an energy deck example, the host illustrates how to adapt Mulligan choices based on the opponent's deck and game plan, aiming to educate players on optimizing their chances of winning in fast-paced, high-stakes matches.
Takeaways
- 📚 Mulligan strategy in high-powered formats like Timeless is crucial and differs from slower formats like Standard.
- 🃏 Many players, especially from Arena, struggle with Mulligan decisions, which can be a decisive factor in winning or losing games.
- 🤔 Players should understand their deck's game plan, speed, consistency, and interaction with the opponent's strategy for effective Mulligan decisions.
- 🔥 The Mardu energy deck example is an aggressive creature-based strategy that can win through combat or card advantage engines like Codia Nightmare and Lurking.
- 💨 Speed is a critical factor; knowing your deck's average win turn is essential to gauge if your Mulligan hand can meet that pace.
- 🗃 Sideboard construction and understanding your opponent's deck are vital for making informed Mulligan choices, especially in post-sideboard games.
- 🧩 Mulligan decisions should consider the interaction between your deck and the opponent's strategy, including the impact of sideboard cards.
- 🛡 Against combo decks like Show and Tell, specific sideboard cards like Thoughtseize and Deafening Silence can significantly alter the game's outcome.
- 🔮 Mulligan examples demonstrate the thought process of keeping or discarding cards based on the potential for fast aggression and interaction.
- 📉 Mulligan to a lower number of cards can be risky but sometimes necessary to find the right combination of threats and interaction.
- 🏆 Mastery of Mulligan decisions and sideboarding is a key skill that can elevate a player's performance in high-powered formats.
Q & A
What is the main focus of the video tutorial?
-The main focus of the video tutorial is to teach viewers how to Mulligan effectively in Timeless and similar high-powered formats in Magic: The Gathering.
Why is Mulliganing considered a skill-testing part of playing Timeless?
-Mulliganing is considered skill-testing in Timeless because it involves making strategic decisions based on your deck's game plan, your opponent's potential strategy, and the specific cards in your hand, which can significantly impact the outcome of the game.
What is the difference between Mulliganing in Timeless and in slower formats like Standard?
-Mulliganing in Timeless is different from slower formats like Standard because Timeless is a high-powered format where games can be won or lost very quickly, and the Mulligan decisions are more critical due to the fast pace and the importance of starting with the right combination of cards.
What is the game plan for the energy deck discussed in the video?
-The game plan for the energy deck is to be a fair aggressive creature deck that deploys cheap-cost creatures aggressively, generates energy, and uses cards like Ragavan, Guide of Souls, and Ocelot Pride to create a snowball effect, potentially winning the game through combat or through the combo of Thoughtseize and Deafening Silence.
How does the Mardu deck interact with the Show and Tell deck?
-The Mardu deck does not interact well with the Show and Tell deck in the main deck because it lacks discard spells to disrupt the combo. The Show and Tell deck can win quickly if it assembles its combo, which the Mardu deck struggles to prevent without sideboard cards.
What are some sideboard cards that are good against the Show and Tell deck?
-Some sideboard cards that are good against the Show and Tell deck include Thoughtseize, Deafening Silence, and Static Prison. These cards can disrupt the combo by removing key pieces or limiting the opponent's ability to cast spells.
Why is Deafening Silence effective against the Show and Tell deck?
-Deafening Silence is effective against the Show and Tell deck because it limits the opponent to one spell per turn, which slows down their ability to assemble their combo and gives the Mardu deck more time to win through its aggressive strategy.
What is the significance of knowing your opponent's deck when making Mulligan decisions?
-Knowing your opponent's deck is significant when making Mulligan decisions because it allows you to tailor your hand selection to counter their strategy effectively. For example, against a Show and Tell deck, you would prioritize finding sideboard cards that can disrupt their combo.
What is the rationale behind keeping a hand with Thoughtseize and Deafening Silence but no creatures?
-The rationale is that Thoughtseize can disrupt the opponent's hand, potentially removing a key combo piece, and Deafening Silence can slow down their spell casting. This can buy enough time for the Mardu deck to draw into its threats and potentially win before the Show and Tell deck assembles its combo.
How does the Mulligan process change between Game 1 and subsequent games against the same opponent?
-In Game 1, you might make Mulligan decisions based on less information about your opponent's deck. However, in subsequent games, you have a clearer idea of what your opponent is playing, allowing you to make more informed Mulligan decisions that specifically target their strategy.
Outlines
📚 Introduction to Mulligan Strategy in Timeless Format
The speaker begins by introducing the topic of Mulligan strategy in the Timeless format, emphasizing its importance and complexity compared to other formats like Standard. They highlight that many players, especially those from Arena, need to learn this skill. The speaker aims to teach the audience how to Mulligan effectively by sharing their thought process and providing examples. The video is intended for players of Timeless and similar high-powered formats, with a focus on understanding one's deck, winning strategy, speed, consistency, and interaction with the opponent.
🤔 Mulligan Decisions and Deck Interaction
This paragraph delves into the thought process behind Mulligan decisions, using the example of an energy-based creature deck. The speaker discusses the deck's game plan, which revolves around aggressive creature combat and the potential for a backup win strategy involving 'Codia Nightmare' and 'Luris'. They also touch on the importance of understanding the opponent's deck, particularly in a known matchup against 'Show and Tell', and how to adjust Mulligan decisions based on the opponent's strategy and potential sideboard cards. The speaker stresses the need to consider the speed and consistency of both decks and the impact of sideboard cards like 'Thoughtseize' and 'Deafening Silence' on the game.
🃏 Mulligan Examples and Hand Assessment
The speaker provides a detailed analysis of sample Mulligan scenarios, starting with a hand that appears strong but lacks the necessary sideboard cards to combat the opponent's strategy. They explain why this hand is not ideal against 'Show and Tell' and how Mulligan decisions should be influenced by the specific matchup. The speaker then presents a 'perfect six' hand that includes early interaction and aggressive threats, explaining why this hand is preferable. They also discuss the importance of planning the sequence of plays to maximize the impact of the hand and how the inclusion of 'Thoughtseize' can inform subsequent plays.
🔄 Mulligan Deep Dive and Sideboard Card Considerations
In this paragraph, the speaker continues the Mulligan discussion with more complex scenarios, including a hand that is initially considered bad due to a high land count but has the potential for a fast win. They explore the decision-making process for Mulliganing in different game states (on the play or on the draw) and the importance of considering the speed of the opponent's deck versus one's own. The speaker advises on the value of sideboard cards like 'Thoughtseize' and 'Deafening Silence' and how they can be used to disrupt the opponent's game plan. They conclude with a final Mulligan example that emphasizes the importance of card advantage and the potential for a quick win, even after Mulliganing to a smaller hand size.
🏆 Conclusion and Impact on Gameplay
The speaker concludes the video by summarizing the key points of Mulligan strategy and its impact on gameplay. They stress the importance of understanding Mulligan decisions and sideboarding to improve win rates, especially for Arena players transitioning to Timeless. The speaker hopes that the insights provided will be valuable for viewers, helping them to climb the ladder and succeed in tournaments. They encourage players to learn from the examples and apply the concepts to their own gameplay, emphasizing the difference it can make in achieving higher rankings.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Mulligan
💡Timeless
💡High-powered formats
💡Creature combat
💡Sideboarding
💡Deck construction
💡Show and Tell
💡Combo deck
💡Thoughtseize
💡Deafening Silence
💡Amp Raptor
Highlights
The importance of Mulligan strategy in high-powered formats like Timeless, especially for Arena players.
Mulligan decisions can significantly affect the outcome of a game in Timeless format.
Understanding your deck's win conditions, speed, and consistency is crucial for Mulligan decisions.
The energy deck example is used to illustrate the Mulligan thought process in a fair, aggressive creature-based strategy.
The deck's interaction capabilities with the opponent's strategy, including color-based spell options.
The significance of knowing your opponent's deck for informed Mulligan decisions in games two and three.
How the Mardu deck's interaction with the Show and Tell deck is limited, affecting Mulligan choices.
The role of sideboard cards like Thoughtseize and Deafening Silence in Mulligan decisions against combo decks.
The impact of Deafening Silence on combo decks, increasing the difficulty of assembling their win conditions.
The process of evaluating Mulligan hands based on the presence of interaction and threat cards.
The example of a Mulligan to six cards with two pieces of interaction and two aggressive threats.
The importance of card sequencing and mana management when deciding on Mulligan hands.
The dilemma of Mulligan decisions when facing a potentially faster combo deck.
The example of a Mulligan to five cards with aggressive nut draw potential against Show and Tell.
The strategic choice between keeping multiple copies of interaction cards or spreading them out for better resilience.
The final hand evaluation emphasizing the balance between interaction, threats, and mana sources for optimal Mulligan decisions.
The overarching theme of adapting Mulligan strategy to the specific context of the game, including opponent's deck and game state.
Transcripts
hey everyone welcome to another Timeless
video today I am going to be giving a
bit of a tutorial a bit of a lecture on
how to Mulligan in Timeless and similar
High powerered formats multing is a very
skill testing and important part of
playing Timeless and it's something that
I've noticed that a lot of Arena players
tend to struggle with multing in
Timeless is very different than
mulliganing in slower lower powered and
more fair formats like standard and
alchemy that you see on Arena so it's a
skill that a lot of players do need to
learn so making this video to hopefully
help teach everybody I've said before in
the past it sounds like an exaggeration
but I do think there's a shred of truth
to it that a lot of Timeless players
lose games when they cast their first
spell or even before that and the reason
I said that they've already lost the
game when they cast their first spell is
because mulliganing sideboarding
sideboard construction deck construction
are very important very skill testing
parts of Timeless and if you make a
mistake mulliganing you can
more or less throw a game away so I'm
going to go over my thought process as
Ian we're going to go over some examples
together and hopefully you are going to
learn to be a little bit better at Magic
this is aimed at people learning
Timeless though it's also applicable to
other high-powered really fast formats
also this is a PowerPoint not Arena I've
tricked you so let's say for the purpose
of example we're playing the energy deck
that everybody's been playing on Arena
ladder this is a fair deck that is
trying to win through creature combat
and it's very important when you do your
Mulligan decisions to understand your
deck how you're going to win how fast
you're going to win how consistent and
how you are going to interact with your
opponent so let's go over all those
criteria for this energy deck what's our
game plan here we are a fair aggressive
creature deck we're going to slam these
creatures they all cost one and two
really aggressively costed really cheap
we're going to slam them we're going to
turn them sideways we're going have a
nut draw with a ragavan we're going to
have a nut draw with a GU of souls we're
going to have a nut draw with an ocelot
Pride
and we also have the back door option of
grinding with this deck which is awesome
because we play both codia Nightmare and
luris so you can win games through this
Avenue as well that's something we want
to keep in mind how fast and consistent
I've played this deck the most out of
any deck on ladder and even when your
opponent interacts with you and they
lightning bolts your turn one ragavan
you're still winning on turn five and
six if you have a dense draw of
creatures and if your opponent is
playing another creature deck that comes
up the board it will go slower but you
can overcome with your cthonian
nightmare um but with a minimum am
minimal amount of interaction just like
one or two removal spells and then your
opponent doesn't put too many blockers
up yeah you're very consistently winning
on turn five turn six with this
deck so let's also think about what this
deck does to interact with its our
opponent we are in the Maru black white
red colors so that means we have access
to Black discard spells which are very
strong against a bunch of different
decks we have access to Red creature
removal which is strong against some
decks does nothing against others we
have access to cards like static pres
that Exile any per which is sweet and
then we have specific hate pieces in our
sideboard which are tailored to fit the
meta and Decks that we are weak against
I'm not going to go over sideboard
construction now let's just assume that
we have these things in our
sideboard for the purposes of example we
also need to understand what we're
playing against so for the example we're
playing against Shanel and every single
time you make a Mullan decision you need
to consider what your opponent is
playing against if you watch my videos
where I post me playing like and I'm
really high Mythic I always think about
what my opponent is playing if it's game
one I look their companion and I try to
figure out what their deck is and if I
don't know that then I make the Mulligan
decision as best as I can but if it's
game two and game three I always know
what my opponent is playing and I will
always consider it when I'm making the
Mulligan decision so the show Intel deck
what are they trying to do they are an
a+b combo they need to cast a show Intel
with an omniscience in their hand that's
more or less it and once they put the
omnics into play they can win with a ham
sandwich as long as they have any spell
that draws cards or digs through their
Library they're pretty much guaranteed
to win once the omniscience hits the
battlefield they're very fast Speedy
gonzale deck they could do it on turn
three if they just happen to have all of
the cards in their
hand and even if they don't have it in
their hand on turn three they play a
bunch of draw spells a bunch of Dick
spells a bunch of tutors so you bet that
they're going to get it together on turn
four and turn five so how do our two
decks interact with each other
Unfortunately they don't if you go back
a couple slides and you look at how I
had the mardu deck set up I'm not
playing main deck discard so I don't
have a way to mess with their combo we
don't interact and the unfortunate part
for us is that they are a little bit
faster when I said how fast are the
decks Our Deck was winning on turn five
turn six very consistently but their
deck can win as quick as turn three
there is no nut draw on the boros deck
that wins on turn three so that is a
problem for us so one last thing to
consider before we get to mulliganing is
what cards are good against them in our
sideboard I just said thought Seas very
good we also consider cards in the main
deck of course if thought Seas was in
the main deck we would be considering it
as well so we have thought Seas which
are very strong against them and the
reason that it is strong against a combo
deck is because they are an A plus b
combo deck they need both A and B in
their hand when they try to win the game
so if we thought seiz them and we take B
and they only have a they need to Now
cast a tutor or a draw spell to try and
get B again and in order to do that it's
going to slow them down we also have
deafening silence which is good which
can slow them down I have another slide
on defening silence next so we're going
to get to that later and then we also
have some backup like emergency could
maybe interact with show Andel cards but
they I wouldn't count on them static
person is one of them uh if her opponent
cast show Andel and they put an omnition
into play you could put a static prison
into play and it'll Exile the omnics
though a lot of Show and Tell decks are
built to beat that because they play Bor
upo in so don't rely on cards like this
but you can consider them when you m so
let's think about how good our sideboard
cards actually is as I said before
they're an e plus b combo they just need
two cards in their hand two specific
cards if we slam a defining silence and
we put this onto the battlefield they
now become an A+ B combo still need the
payoff they also need interaction with
us and the interaction that this deck
usually plays is force of vigor so they
very specifically need Show and Tell
omniscience force of vigor and extra
green card and a draw spell in their
hand that's five cards now that is part
for them to assemble it's pretty much
impossible for them to naturally have
that on turn three and it's going to
take them quite a few turns to dig
through their deck and find all of those
pieces especially considering deing
silence is limiting them to one spell
per turn so it's slowing down how they
even assemble their combo so this is a
really really really good card putting
this card in play is the difference
between oh they went on turn three and
we win on turn six we're going to lose
every time because they're faster to a
their deck is now stumbling and they're
putting their combo together only on
turn six or turn seven we can win faster
than
that and as I said before we're not
trying to shake them off forever because
they do have cards like force of figure
they can't answer our sideboard cards if
we thought seiz them it's not like we
permanently removed all copies of show
Andel from their deck they could still
do it but we've delayed them to make
them slower than our deck to give us a
chance because without sideboard they're
going to win turn three before we've
even dealt 10 damage to them if we
thought seiz them we take the important
card and then they take five turns to
reassemble their combo we kill them
that's simple it's shrimp as that as
they say all right it's been 10 minutes
approximately and we still haven't
gotten to actually talking about
mulliganing so let's go ahead and go
through some sample Mulligans together
I'm sorry it took a little bit to get
here but you know the phrase Don't Give
A Mana fish teach the fish I'm trying to
explain why we're going to mull again so
hopefully you can do these decisions by
yourself and not have to reach for a
sideboard guide every single time that
you play a specific
deck all right here's your opening seven
after doing the yunk splanky we have
indeed drawn seven cards we know we are
against Show and Tell let's say we're on
the play it doesn't particularly matter
with this hand we are against show Andel
are you going to keep this seven think
pause the video real quick
I am not going to keep this seven and I
posted this because I think this is a
hand that's going to trick a lot of
Arena players and a lot of people who
are not used to mulliganing to specific
sideboard cards this is a hand that has
a mix of lands and spells we have four
spells three lands that's optimal if
you're playing draft you're going to
keep this every single time if you're
playing standard you're going to keep
this you know why you might be tempted
to keep this because we have amp Raptor
and unstable amulet together those are
two cards that work very well together
we have the Nightmare and the Bro
Masters those are two more cards that
work really well together these are
cards that let us grind the GL game
we're going to we're going to win if we
get to play all of our cards right I
think we're against show Andel if we
don't kill them before like turn five
they're just going to combo we need to
stop their combo so we cannot keep this
the only way this hand has a chance of
winning is if amp Raptor just gets super
lucky and hits into a defening silence
or something like that or we just happen
to draw a sideboard card and then our
opponent happens to stump
but that's a 5% chance to
happen we're not doing that so here six
cards are better than the seven even
though this is a totally fine seven to
keep in game one against a random
opponent so in game one I would also
think about hey could I be against an
unfair deck should I Mullan a little bit
deeper to have some One Drops let's
Mullan this seven new cards will you
keep six of these pause think
Sor you're getting a little silly here
this is perfect this is a perfect six
here and let's talk about why it's a
perfect six we have two pieces of
interaction and we also have our two
fastest most aggressive threats in the
deck both guide souls and ocelot Pride
our One Drops so we can deploy them both
on turn two and they instantly start
snowballing we're going to instantly
start generating energy we're going to
start creating extra creatures we're
going to be able to put the pressure on
our opponent really really fast and then
we interact with them in two different
ways if interacting with them once
pushes them back from a turn three combo
to like a turn five or six combo
interacting with them twice is going to
push them back to turn seven turn eight
and then we are very very very very
favored at this point this is a obvious
example of a very strong six that I'm
always going to be happy to keep and
since we have all One Drops here how I
would particularly do it is I would put
the mountain back and we would keep
these particular six cards because we
really only need the two lands and then
one other important thing that you want
to think about when you keep these sorts
of hands is Secret saying in exactly
what order you're going to play your
cards it matters less here but if we had
two drops in our hand we would have to
consider okay are we going to have the
Mana to cast all of these things in what
order do we want to cast these things
here what we can do is we can cast the
turn one thought Seas to look at what is
in their hand to take any interaction
that might kill our deafening silence or
kill our creatures early and then turn
two based on what we saw at the thought
Seas we can play guide of souls followed
by defening silence or guide of souls
followed by ocelat Pride if we have time
and we don't need deafening silence on
the board
immediately if we had like two drops in
this hand we have to rethink that it
might be a little bit awkward you might
think about keeping three lands in that
case so always always think about your
sequence and what order you actually
want to play these spells and the fact
that we the thought seas and the silence
at the thought Seas to inform our
sequencing increases our win rate by a
lot all right example number
two I presented you with seven cards are
you going to keep these seven
water break Yep this is an obvious bad
hand where unfortunately we got screwed
by RNG uh we do have our two most
explosive one drops but we have five
lands we don't have the sideboard pieces
against the unfair deck so we are going
to knock this back if this was game one
and we were on the play against a random
opponent you could maybe keep this on
the draw you would really like never
want to keep this and against show and
tell when we know what we're playing
against yeah we got to find those sideb
bird cards go to six are you going to
keep this six think about it I'm taking
another sip just so you can
think now this is a tough one I'm G to
be honest with you this is one of these
Mulligans that if I saw this hand in
game I would think about it until the
Rope showed up on Arena because this is
really interesting every single time you
mull in it's super punishing when you go
from 7 to six and then 6 to 5 and then 5
to four your win rate drops pretty
significantly for each card you lose out
of your hand of course 7 to six isn't a
big issue we can all think of times that
we Mullan to six and one happens really
frequently even mulliganing to five you
still win sometimes on five but if we're
going to go to four or
less it's not it boys I don't think you
could really win at that point it's very
very rare So now that we're on six we
going to five after this which is really
sus I don't see our sideboard cards here
which is a reason to want to go to Five
however in this example we have probably
our best most aggressive nut draw if we
are on the play here we can go turn gu
of souls turn two we do second guide and
ocelot Pride generate an extra creature
token generate so much energy turn three
we play an amp Raptor we hit another
threat we can pay energy with gu of
souls twice because we're going to have
so much energy we're going to have the
aggressive nut draw that keeps our
opponent dead on either turn four or
turn five this is kind of crazy so if we
were on the play I would keep this
instead of going to five because I think
us killing our opponent by turn five at
the latest is going to be faster than
they kill us on average I did say the
show and H de can win on turn three but
they're not going to do that pretty
frequently their average turn to win is
closer to five so if we're going to kill
them on turn four or turn five on the
play we're good in that scenario it's at
least better than willig getting to five
and we might end up keeping an even
crappier hand with close to zero chance
of winning or we just keep a hand that
has sideboard cards and no action and
then we just sit there waiting to draw a
threat and our opponent wins on turn 16
that would also really really suck so if
we're on the play I think this is a
pretty simple keep I would put one of
the amp rptor back I have that slide
right nope I don't have that
slide if we were on the play I would put
one amp Raptor back because this is the
nut draw if we were on the draw
I would probably mull again this which
is tough this is one of those marginal
decisions because even on the draw this
is the nuts this is very fast and it's
worth keeping so let's say we
hypothetically do Mulligan because we're
on the draw and we go to Five are we
keeping this five the answer is yeah we
are keeping this five we we three
sideboard cards and an amp Raptor and
amp raptor is awesome because it lets us
get the card Advantage back amp rapor is
essentially a two for one you C you get
the two1 Raptor and then you can cast
another card out of your deck it's
awesome it's how you rebuild from
mulliganing so this is fantastic but my
question to you the viewer is this is an
obvious keep but what five cards are you
keeping simple
water
excepts so the specific five that I
would keep our next slide is we keep one
thought Seas one defening silence one
amp Raptor and the two lands we need the
two lands to Caster Spells Of course so
we don't want to keep just one the
reason we kept a split of thought seas
and deafening silence is because I know
my opponent on Show and Tell and their
main sideboard to fight my sideboard
cards is force of Viger force of Viger
says destroy up to two target artifacts
and enchantments so having a second copy
of defening silence doesn't do anything
that's why I'd rather split the thought
sees and the deafening silences we also
went down to one amp Raptor because it
doesn't make sense to keep two amp
Raptors cuz then that would force us to
keep only one land and then we would be
top decking hoping that we hit it I
would much rather keep it like this and
let's say we do our thought seas turn
one and then we happen to draw our third
land well now we have a fetch that we
can use to get a surveil land to
hopefully filter our draws to make sure
that we don't flood and that we are
actually able to kill our opponent in a
reasonable time frame I think even
though you Mulligan to five here you
still have a good chance to win against
shael because you have two pieces of
interaction and the amp Raptor should
rebuild your board and if you don't top
deck horrendously you should still be
able to kill them on like turn six or
seven with your energy cards and through
two sideboard cards it's probably going
to take them that long to do their Show
and Tell thing unless they get very
lucky so I think you have a really good
shot
here and that's it that's the video we
only did two examples but the point with
this is to more teach you the idea
behind how you make these mulling
decisions and how you make sideboarding
decisions as opposed to going through
every specific example with you this is
in my opinion the difference between
somebody who ends up wallowing and
languishing at like 80 something perc
Mythic even though they play a crap ton
and somebody who goes to the moon and
ends up at the top of the ladder and
ends up smashing some tournaments so
hopefully this was eye opening hopefully
you learned something if you've been
playing Paper vintage for 20 years no
you didn't learn anything but you're an
arena player who's new a Timeless hoping
to get there win rate up hopefully this
was some really nice insight for you
thanks for watching folks
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