Mulligan (games)

In collectible card games, a mulligan refers to the process of adjusting which cards are in a player's initial hand of cards. Card games have various official rules for how mulligans are performed.

In Magic: The Gathering, a player may declare a mulligan after drawing their initial hand at the beginning of each game. If such a declaration is made, the player puts their cards back into their deck, shuffles, and draws a new hand and then puts one card from their hand into the bottom of his library. The player may repeat this until satisfied, or until the number of cards in their hand reaches zero. The mulligan process has changed drastically over the history of the game. The current style is known as the London mulligan, as it was first used at a Mythic Championship tournament held in London.[9]

Other card games, such as Hearthstone and Shadowverse, use "partial mulligan" rules, in which players may choose which cards in their opening hands to keep and which ones they want to discard. Each player discards these cards at the same time and draws a new card from their deck for each discarded card, then shuffle.

In the Pokémon Trading Card Game each player needs at least one Basic Pokémon Card in their opening hand to start the game. The rules force players that do not fulfill this requirement to declare a mulligan, repeatedly if necessary, until they draw a hand that does.[10] To dissuade players from abusing this rule, their opponent may choose to draw one additional card for every mulligan performed.

In Dragon Ball Super Card Game, the player is given the chance to mulligan. They may return any number of cards into their deck and shuffle it, then draw the same number of cards.

In LCG Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn, The First Five rule allows a player to choose the first five cards that comprise their first hand.

In KeyForge, a player who is dissatisfied with their hand may discard it and draw a new hand with one fewer card.

In politics, the term mulligan race or mulligan candidate is used to describe a losing and/or disqualified candidate in a party primary or nomination who nevertheless runs in the general election on another ballot line, either as an independent or as the nominee for a third party. In the 2006 Connecticut US Senate race, many Ned Lamont supporters accused Senator Joseph Lieberman of running a mulligan race as an independent, since he had lost the Democratic Party primary. Several U.S. states have so-called sore-loser laws specifically designed to prevent such failed candidates from appearing on the ballot in the general election in such a manner.

As a general rule, in liberal democracies outside the United States there are few (if any) laws that would prevent failed and/or disqualified nomination candidates from contesting the general election, although mounting such a challenge often results in expulsion and/or permanent ostracization from the candidate's former party. In jurisdictions using the Westminster system and/or single-member districts, mulligan candidates are a fairly common occurrence especially in cases where the mulligan candidate alleges (s)he lost a nomination contest due to unfair electoral practices or was disqualified by his or her former party without reasonable cause.

Related terms include mulligan leader and mulligan party, the latter of which is used to describe a party founded or taken over by a failed leadership candidate (or deposed former leader) from another party. A recent example of such a party is the People's Party of Canada, founded by failed Conservative Party of Canada leadership candidate Maxime Bernier, while a notable historical party from the same country was the provincial Newfoundland Reform Liberal Party, founded and led by former Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Joey Smallwood. Although such parties rarely become serious contenders to form government in general elections if popular enough they can cause vote splitting which, especially in first past the post voting systems, may severely damage the electoral prospects of the mulligan leader's former party.

In the 2008 American Democratic primary elections, the term mulligan has been used to describe the possible redo elections in Michigan and Florida, after their results were declared invalid due to the early scheduling of the contests, against Democratic party rules.[11]

The term is also coming into use to describe situations (which are becoming increasingly common in the age of social media) where a political party's candidate or delegate is suddenly replaced by the party leadership on the eve of an election or convention, usually either because the person's loyalty to the party or its leaders have come into question or because unsavory details regarding his past or character surface that warrant drastic measures to mitigate damage to the reputation or electoral prospects of the party or its leadership. Electoral rules and laws mostly drafted prior to the advent of social media often severely restrict or prohibit the replacement of candidates after the nomination period has closed, which might be weeks or even months prior to the final vote. Proposals to relax such rules to allow parties to deal with to the increased likelihood of a candidate's dodgy past coming to light at an inopportune moment have been mocked as mulligan rules by critics.

In finance, the term used to refer to provisions in syndicated loan documentation where lenders only get the right to accelerate their loans after two financial covenants are breached. This practice is rarer today but was popular with sponsors at the height of the credit boom in 2006/07, allowing them to postpone the date at which they needed to start negotiating a restructuring with lenders. The loan "mulligan" is to be contrasted with a "deemed cure" clause which would allow a covenant breach to be disregarded in the event the next covenant tests were met. In addition, it typically remains possible with loans carrying financial covenants for a borrower to "cure" covenant breaches after the event by injecting new cash equity.