Favored card type: are you forced to mulligan?

[Colin McMillen]

Page 6 of the (Nov. '13) revised rulebook reads: "The character card also lists a favored card type. If you didn't draw at least one card of that type, discard that hand and draw again, repeating as needed until your hand contains at least 1 card of that type."

Because it doesn't say "you *may* discard that hand", I take the rules to mean you are *forced* to draw a new hand, even if you like the hand you drew. Is that a correct interpretation of the rules, or is it the player's choice?

[Steve Townsend]

An authoritative ruling will likely follow but typically what I find is that the "cards mean what they say" directive applies equally to the rules. If a player option was desired, it would say 'may discard'. I've therefore played this as 'must redraw'.

My followup question is, if you'll indulge me hijacking the thread, should the original hand be shuffled back in before the redraw. That point is not a huge deal, but I'd like to play correctly.

[Colin McMillen]

Yeah, as I said, my reading is "must redraw" but an official clarification would be nice.

I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to shuffle the original hand back in. The revised rulebook says "If you discard so many cards that you can't draw up to your full hand size, draw all of the remaining cards, then shuffle your discard pile into your deck and draw the rest of your hand." There wouldn't be a need for this sentence if you were supposed to shuffle in your original hand before the redraw.

[Colin McMillen]

Additional source for "don't shuffle in before re-draw": http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2q4af?Lems-favored-card-type-permanent#1

See the post from Vic Wertz near the bottom: "The way we've told you to do it minimizes the number of draws it takes to ensure you get your favored card. If your favored card were the bottom card in a 15-card deck, and your hand size were 6, our method ensures you get that card in no more than 3 draws. Your way, you may have to redraw any number of times until you happen to shuffle that card into the top 6."

[Perdue]

Last sentence in that section clearly says "Shuffle any discarded cards back into your character deck."

[Colin McMillen]

Yes, you shuffle the cards back into your deck, but that's *after* you've redrawn (possibly repeatedly) from your draw pile until finding a hand that contains your favored type.

[huskyskins]

Unfortunately, a lot of the answers given on this forum are written in the theoretical instead of real-world. So, here's an example of Harsk drawing his initial hand.

Harsk begins the game with 15 cards in his character deck. His favored card is weapon, and he has five of them in his deck. His hand size is five cards. Harsk draws five cards from his deck and none of them are weapons. He discards those five cards. There are now 10 cards left in the deck, and five cards in the discard pile. Harsk draws another five cards. By chance, he did not draw a weapon. Harsk discards those five cards. Now there are only five cards left in his deck, and 10 cards in the discard pile. Harsk draws the last five cards - all weapons. This is his starting hand. The 10 cards in the discard pile are now shuffled into the draw deck of zero cards and make up the new draw deck.

If you were to reshuffle the discard pile into the draw deck before redrawing your hand, you could end up not drawing your favored card over and over. This is more likely when you have fewer favored cards in your deck. Fore example, Lini only has three allies in her initial fifteen card deck. By discarding, you guarantee that eventually you will draw your favored card.

[csouth154]

You MUST redraw your hand. You DO NOT shuffle again before doing this. The only time you shuffle is if you finally get a favored card on your last draw and there aren't enough cards to draw to make a full hand, then you shuffle and keep drawing until your hand is full. You also shuffle after drawing a legitimate hand if you had to discard at all.

Basically, if your first draw is gives a legitimate hand, you don't shuffle. If your first draw doesn't give you a legitimate hand, you shuffle after you finally draw one. If you don't get a favored card until you last draw and you can't draw to your hand size, you shuffle and continue drawing until you get to your hand size, but don't shuffle again after that.

[Mike Selinker]

You must redraw.