Deck building
How many copies do I need?
Opening-hand odds for a 50-card deck, before and after your one mulligan. Built for the questions that actually come up: 3 copies or 4, how many interrupts, how many cheap Pals.
I want to open
By
I am going
Extra draws per turn
You have seen 5 of your 50 cards at that point.
| Copies in deck | In your opening hand | After your mulligan | Mulligan adds |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10.0% | 19.0% | +9.0 |
| 2 | 19.2% | 34.7% | +15.5 |
| 3 | 27.6% | 47.6% | +20.0 |
| 4playset | 35.3% | 58.1% | +22.8 |
| 5 | 42.3% | 66.7% | +24.4 |
| 6 | 48.7% | 73.7% | +25.0 |
| 7 | 54.6% | 79.4% | +24.8 |
| 8 | 59.9% | 83.9% | +24.0 |
| 9 | 64.6% | 87.5% | +22.9 |
| 10 | 68.9% | 90.4% | +21.4 |
| 11 | 72.8% | 92.6% | +19.8 |
| 12 | 76.3% | 94.4% | +18.1 |
| 13 | 79.4% | 95.8% | +16.3 |
| 14 | 82.2% | 96.8% | +14.6 |
| 15 | 84.7% | 97.7% | +13.0 |
| 16 | 86.9% | 98.3% | +11.4 |
Four is the most copies of one card a deck may run. Rows past four answer the category questions — “how many interrupts should I play?”, “how many 1-cost Pals?” — where the copies are different cards that do the same job.
Copies for a coin flip
7
The fewest copies that reach 50% without mulliganing.
…counting the mulligan
4
The fewest copies that reach 50% once you use it.
What these numbers assume
- A 50-card main deck and a 5-card opening hand. Souls are a separate deck and are never drawn into your hand, so they do not dilute anything.
- One mulligan, and it is a clean redraw: your whole hand is shuffled back and you are dealt a fresh five from all 50. Nothing is lost, so the second hand has exactly the same odds as the first — which is why the mulligan is worth as much as it is here.
- You mulligan only when the first hand is missing what you are looking for. If you would keep a hand for other reasons, or ship one that already had the card, the “after your mulligan” column is not describing you.
- The player going first skips their draw phase (CR 7.3.1), so they are permanently one card behind on every turn. That gap never closes, which is why the two seats give different answers.
- “Extra draws” covers the Soul draw — rest 3 Souls, draw 1, once a turn — and any other draw engine. It is a choice rather than a rule, so it is counted from turn 2 on, once you have had a main phase to spend Souls in.