1.  Game Concepts

103.  Starting the Game

103.1  At the start of a game, each player shuffles his or her deck so that the cards are in a random order. Each player may then shuffle or cut his or her opponents’ decks. The players’ decks become their libraries.

103.2  After the decks have been shuffled, the players determine which one of them will choose who takes the first turn. In the first game of a match (including a single-game match), the players may use any mutually agreeable method (flipping a coin, rolling dice, etc.) to do so. In a match of several games, the loser of the previous game chooses who takes the first turn. If the previous game was a draw, the player who made the choice in that game makes the choice in this game. The player chosen to take the first turn is the starting player.

103.2a  In a game using the shared team turns option, there is a starting team rather than a starting player.

103.2b  In an Archenemy™ game, these methods aren’t used to determine who takes the first turn. Rather, the archenemy takes the first turn.

103.3  Once the starting player has been determined, each player sets his or her life total to 20 and draws a hand of seven cards.

103.3a  In a Two-Headed Giant game, each team starts with a shared life total of 30 instead.

103.3b  In a Vanguard game, each player sets his or her life total to 20, as modified by the life modifier of his or her vanguard card, and draws a hand of seven cards, as modified by the hand modifier of his or her vanguard card.

103.3c  In an EDH game, each player sets his or her life total to 40.

103.3d  In an Archenemy game, the archenemy sets his or her life total to 40.

103.4  A player who is dissatisfied with his or her initial hand may take a mulligan. First, the starting player declares whether or not he or she will take a mulligan. Then each other player in turn order does the same. Once each player has made a declaration, all players who decided to take mulligans do so at the same time. To take a mulligan, a player shuffles his or her hand back into his or her library, then draws a new hand of one fewer cards than he or she had before. If a player kept his or her hand of cards, those cards become the player’s opening hand, and that player may not take any further mulligans. This process is then repeated until no player takes a mulligan. (Note that if a player’s hand size reaches zero cards, that player must keep that hand.)

103.4a  If an effect allows a player to perform an action "any time [that player] could mulligan," the player may perform that action at a time he or she would declare whether or not he or she will take a mulligan. This need not be in the first round of mulligans. Other players may have already made their mulligan declarations by the time the player has the option to perform this action. If the player performs the action, he or she then declares whether or not he or she will take a mulligan.

103.4b  In a multiplayer game, the first time a player takes a mulligan, he or she draws a new hand of as many cards as he or she had before. Subsequent hands decrease by one card as normal.

103.4c  In a multiplayer game using the shared team turns option, first each player on the starting team declares whether or not he or she will take a mulligan, then the players on each other team in turn order do the same. Teammates may consult while making their decisions. Then all mulligans are taken at the same time. A player may take a mulligan even after his or her teammate has decided to keep his or her opening hand.

103.4d  The EDH casual variant uses an alternate mulligan rule. Each time a player takes a mulligan, rather than shuffling his or her entire hand of cards into his or her library, that player exiles any number of cards from his or her hand. Then the player draws a number of cards equal to one less than the number of cards he or she exiled this way. Once a player keeps an opening hand, that player shuffles all cards he or she exiled this way into his or her library.

103.5  Once all players have kept their opening hands, if any cards in the starting player’s hand allow that player to begin the game with those cards on the battlefield, he or she may put any or all of them onto the battlefield. Then each other player in turn order may do the same.

103.5a  In a multiplayer game using the shared team turns option, first each player on the starting team, in whatever order that team likes, may put any or all such cards onto the battlefield from his or her opening hand. Teammates may consult while making their decisions. Then each player on each other team in turn order does the same.

103.6  In a Planar Magic game, the starting player moves the top card of his or her planar deck off that planar deck and turns it face up. (See rule 901, "Planar Magic.")

103.7  The starting player takes his or her first turn.

103.7a  In a two-player game, the player who plays first skips the draw step (see rule 504, "Draw Step") of his or her first turn.

103.7b  In a Two-Headed Giant game, the team who plays first skips the draw step of their first turn.

103.7c  In all other multiplayer games, no player skips the draw step of his or her first turn.