Changes that come into force with the Hauptset 2020.

With the Magic the Gathering Hauptset 2020, some things will be changed, some of which are only temporary. But now to the news:

“London” Mulligan

With the release of Core Set 2020, we will be introducing a new mulligan system for all competitive Magic formats. This new mulligan was tested at both the Mythic Championship II in London and Magic Online and works as follows:

103.4. Each player draws a number of cards equal to the size of their starting hand (usually seven). (Some effects can change the size of a player’s starting hand.) A player who is unhappy with their starting hand can take a mulligan. First, the starting player declares whether he will take a mulligan. Then every other player does the same in the correct order. As soon as each player has made a declaration, all players who have opted for mulligans do so simultaneously. To take a mulligan, a player shuffles the cards in his hand back into his library, draws a new hand equal to the size of his starting hand, and then discards a number of these cards equal to the number of times the player took a mulligan under the library in any order. If a player chooses not to take a mulligan, the remaining cards become that player’s cards. This process is repeated until no player takes a mulligan. A player can take mulligans until his opening hand would be zero cards.

Each time you take a mulligan, you draw up to seven cards and then take a number of cards from your hand equal to the number of times you have mulliganed this game and put them under your library. Your starting hand still loses a card each time you mulligan, but you can always choose this starting hand from a selection of seven cards. Unlike the current mulligan (“Vancouver”), there is no scry once you have decided on the starting hand.

This rule comes into force with the update of the Core Set 2020 rules.

The goal of this new “London” mulligan is to make games where one or more players play mulligans more competitive, especially in cases where players mulligan unevenly. In particular, greater starting hand choice reduces the number of “non-games” where a player’s deck can’t work due to an inappropriate mix of lands and spells.

Bundles are getting better

This change appears to apply consistently to all future sets.

Old: To date, Bundles were produced as follows, for example:

• 10 War of the Spark booster packs.

• 1 player manual

• 1 card box

• 80 standard countries

• 1 spindown life points counter

New:

• 10 Hauptset 2020 booster packs

• 1 card box

• 20 standard countries

• 20 Foil standard countries

• 1 premium promo card

• 1“oversized” spindown life points counter

More Foils

Until today, the probability of drawing a Foil was around 1:67. This value is said to have been taken as the Foil ratio for War of the Spark. Interestingly, the ratio for Hauptset 2020 is 1:45, which means more Foils on average. It is not yet clear whether this will also be used for future sets.

Reduced costs for Spellslinger Starter Kit

The Spellslinger Starter Kit suitable for beginners is getting a drastic price drop. From an “RRP” of around CHF 15 (for the last Spellslinger Starter Kit), the price is being reduced to around CHF 9.

5 Planeswalker Decks each

The last sets had 2 Planeswalker Decks, with M20 comes 5 Planeswalker Decks! However, this will probably not be the norm for all sets.