Mulligan
Knowing when to keep and when to throw back your opening hand is one of the most important skills with Replenish.
Mulligan Philosophy
With Parallax Tide banned, the deck went from having 8 hand-fixers (Attunement and Parallax Tide) to just 4. You can't rely on drawing out of a bad hand anymore. You need to mulligan aggressively in Game 1 in the dark. Don't keep slow hands hoping to topdeck exactly what you need.
See how many of these boxes your opening hand ticks. As a rule of thumb, keep if you have 3 or 4 of these; anything with 2 or fewer is probably a mulligan.
- Interaction (Swords, Seal, Leak)
- A 3-mana blue Spell (Attunement > Intuition > Frantic Search)
- A 4+ mana enchantment (Opal, Wave, Decree)
- Replenish
- 4+ mana (Lands/Tomb)
Kudos to The Atog Lord for working out this concept.
Hands You Might Keep
Assuming you have the lands to cast your spells, these are solid starting hands in the dark:
Intuition + Search + Replenish + 3 mana: This hand can assemble the combo by turn 4 (or even turn 3 with an Ancient Tomb) and is very solid if the opponent lacks early interaction.
Attunement + lands + something else (interaction, Replenish, or enchantment): This is a strong start. Generally, if you have the time, Attunement will let you dig for the exact pieces you need.
Opalescence + Parallax Wave + lands: A natural Opalescence/Wave start is excellent against aggro decks in general, though it can be a little slow against faster combo decks.
Replenish + Frantic Search + Decree + lands: This hand can set up an early Decree of Silence, buying you crucial tempo and card advantage while you assemble your final combo pieces.
Hands You Could Mulligan
Keeping these hands in the dark is a big risk. Let's review why their game plans usually fall apart:
The "Do Nothing" Hand (Lands + Opalescence + Decree + Seal): You have to topdeck perfectly for several turns to actually do anything. To make this hand work, you need to draw an enabler (Attunement or Frantic Search) and a Replenish, or exactly a Parallax Wave for a natural Opalescence lock. Your interaction is limited to just one Seal of Cleansing, leaving you dead to fast aggro and quick combo decks like Angry Hermit.
Flooded (Lands + 2 Interaction Spells): With no combo pieces and no enablers, you're forced to just sit there and watch your opponent play. You can interact a bit, but you'll quickly fall behind. (Note: This hand completely changes and becomes keepable if one of those cards is an Attunement).
Dead Weight (Lands + Interaction + Replenish): Replenish without an enabler in the graveyard (like Attunement, Frantic Search, or Intuition) is a completely dead card in your opening hand. To win, you will still need to naturally draw both an enabler and targets to discard.
The Enablers Math
Assuming you are on the play and cast a draw spell on Turn 3 (51 cards left in the deck), here is the chance to find a specific card you need (like Replenish). While comparing a single Frantic Search to multiple Attunement activations isn't a completely fair 1-to-1 comparison, it illustrates a crucial point about risk: relying on a non-recurrent enabler limits how deeply you can dig, greatly increasing the risk of running out of gas.
| Spell Cast | Cards Seen | Chance to find at least 1 of a 4-of | Chance to find at least 1 of a 3-of |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frantic Search | 2 | 15.1% | 11.4% |
| Attunement (1 activation) | 3 | 22.2% | 16.9% |
| Attunement (2 activations) | 6 | 74.7%. | 63.9% |
| Attunement (3 activations) | 9 | 81.3%. | 71.1% |
| Fact or Fiction | 5 | 35.3% | 27.3% |
The Frantic Search Paradox: As the table shows, a single Frantic Search gives you just a 15% chance to find one specific 4-of. This is why keeping a hand where you desperately need Frantic Search to find exactly Replenish is a huge gamble. This dynamic changes with Attunement. Because it's a recurrent card selection engine, each activation drastically increases your cumulative chance of digging into what you need. You should almost always value an opening hand with Attunement over one with just Frantic Search. Frantic Search shines when you already have Intuition + Replenish lined up, or when your hand is already full of expensive enchantments you just need to discard.