Board Game Arena

I too would like to see a mulligan system;
perhaps it should just be a mulligan system based on the potential useability of the cards you're given.

For me one of the biggest annoyances is when you get 6+ cards that are simply unuseable at the start; and I do'nt mean bad, I mean cards with requirements that aren't met at game start.

It's also tricky though to define a system, cuz you have cases like cards that need energy but you get no energy generation, so you can only play them if you use standard project power plant. so you can still get cases where you're kinda hosed that aren't caught.

It’s very simple.
This should be an option.
That way, every player can choose which game to take part in.
If you don’t like the initial hand draft, you don’t take part in the game.
Otherwise, you do.
Every competitive game and every tournament involves a draft of initial hand.
If you have the best 10 cards in your hand, you’ve already won.
With the draft of initial hand, the game is undeniably more balanced.
It rewards choices, not initial luck.

Suggestion for the forum mods:

A sticky post at the top (right below the forum moderation sticky) that reads simply"

"Nothing can be implemented on BGA that has not been approved officially for the game by the game publisher".


...

That is a good idea in theory but it likely wouldn't help much.

There could probably be numerous stickies added to the bug forum requesting players not waste everyone's time with inane bug reports, but the people who post these inane reports in the first place probably don't bother to read stickies.

If you are in a really bad spot you can just ask for a mulligan, I personally volunteered many mulligan/abandon when I had too good of a start. I don't think most of the top players would refuse one if it's offered at the start or early gens.

I recently became aware that some games on BGA, like Wingspan, had their developers or the volunteer workers on here contact, and get approval, from the game publisher to rebalance the game (in Wingspan, to ban four OP cards / birds).

So for those who feel strongly this game T Mars needs rebalancing, I suggest reaching out to the publisher. Get the change approved and perhaps we could have it implemented here. I would personally love mulligans (perhaps like the MTG current one, draw a need hand of the same number of cards, then put one back in the deck of your choice (per time you have mulliganed).

Approval is not enough: You need the publisher to be willing to pay the developer for implementing the change too.

I recently looked thru a bunch of replays of the top few players, and I found that there were many 'oh, u can do that?!' moments.

There was one I watched the replay thru a YouTube commentary, and I thought to myself that that (opening hand) was so bad. But he actually said that he was comfortable about it and went on to comment about the general trajectory of how he saw the game going.

I think it opens my eyes into what is a good hand and I've been having a bit of fun re-thinking my picks.

The context is that I've been sitting at 500+ for a while and I kind of know that at this pt my default game knowledge will result in me staying areld there, which is fine, but recently I wanted to get an insight into how 700+ players think abt the game.

The result of allowing mulligan or other wise more choices is that it will more consistent let me play the strategies I am familiar with. It might also have a side effect of stronger strategies being more consistently used and decreasing the game variance.

I'm sure there are lots of benefits to it, and it's probably a moot discussion as boardgame rules don't generally change in such a major manner - but I thot I just share my perspective.

xspuipuke wrote: ↑07 September 2026, 06:51 Approval is not enough: You need the publisher to be willing to pay the developer for implementing the change too.

Now we know - those who 'wish this game had XYZ', all that is needed is to get the publisher to agree to the change and to pay for it.

Yahyra wrote: ↑12 September 2026, 12:35

xspuipuke wrote: ↑07 September 2026, 06:51 Approval is not enough: You need the publisher to be willing to pay the developer for implementing the change too.

Now we know - those who 'wish this game had XYZ', all that is needed is to get the publisher to agree to the change and to pay for it.

Exactly.

For example, it was recently pitched to the Fryx family to modify Colonies to make it more balanced such that maybe enough people would vote for it to be played in Arena seasons occasionally. (The pitch was unsuccessful.)