A good Netrunner mulligan guide is not about chasing the perfect five cards. It is about avoiding the kind of opening hand that makes Turn 1 feel like you are already paying interest on a bad decision. New players overthink this. They stare at a hand, imagine the coolest possible line, and keep something that does not actually function. Then two turns later they are broke, flooded, or clicking for credits while the other side gets to play real Netrunner.
The clean way to think about mulligans is simpler. Your opening hand needs to let your deck do its job soon, not someday.
What The Mulligan Actually Does
In Netrunner, both players draw five cards to start. Each player gets one chance to shuffle that hand back and draw a new five. The Corp decides first, then the Runner decides second. That order matters a little, but the bigger point is this: you only get one reset, so use it on hands that are actually weak, not hands that are merely unexciting.
That last part is important.
A lot of beginners mulligan because a hand is not flashy. That is not the standard. A keepable hand is not always exciting. Sometimes it is just honest. It has economy, it has a path to early turns, and it does not ask you to pray.
That is a fine hand.
Runner Mulligans Should Respect Money First
Official beginner guidance is pretty blunt here. If your Runner starting hand has no cards that give you money, that is a good reason to mulligan. I think that advice still holds up, even once you are past the very first games.
Runner can recover from a lot. Runner draws well. Runner can poke weak servers, threaten centrals, and sometimes get away with slightly awkward starts. But Runner still needs money to turn possibilities into actual runs. If you cannot install, boost, contest, or recover, you are just narrating your own collapse.
So for beginners, i like a very simple Runner test:
Can this hand do at least two of these three things?
- make money
- improve setup
- apply early pressure
If the answer is yes, i am usually interested.
A Runner hand does not need to contain every breaker right away. It does not need your favorite bomb card. It does not need a full plan for Turn 6. It needs to let you do real things in Turns 1 and 2. That usually means some economy, some way to dig or install, and at least the threat of making the Corp care.
A hand with economy plus draw is often fine.
A hand with economy plus a relevant install is often fine.
A hand with no money and a bunch of expensive dreams is usually a lie.
Corp Mulligans Should Fear Agenda Flood More Than Boredom
Corp mulligans feel different because Corp is more vulnerable to disaster hands early. Official beginner guidance says it is probably a good idea to mulligan if your opening hand has more agendas than ice. That is a very solid starting rule. I would not treat it as sacred law forever, but it is an excellent beginner filter.
Corp starts the game under immediate pressure because the Runner can contest weak servers fast. If your opening hand is stuffed with agendas and does not have the tools to protect HQ or R&D, you are already leaning on topdecks to save you. That is not where you want to be.
A beginner-friendly Corp opener usually wants three things:
- money
- at least some early ice
- not too many agendas at once
That does not mean every Corp hand needs HQ ice, R&D ice, Hedge Fund, and a perfect scoring plan. Again, perfect is not the bar. Functional is the bar.
If you can defend something important, not die to early access, and keep your economy moving, that is usually enough to keep.
If your hand is rich but naked, be careful.
If your hand is iced up but broke, be careful.
If your hand has three agendas and vibes, throw it back.
Mulligan For Tempo, Not For Fantasy
This is the idea that helps the most.
You are not mulliganing toward a beautiful screenshot. You are mulliganing toward tempo. You want a hand that lets you spend your early clicks doing productive things instead of emergency chores.
That is especially true once you understand what each side is actually trying to do. If you want the big-picture version of that, Runner vs Corp Netrunner: What Each Side Is Trying to Do breaks it down well. Mulligan decisions make more sense once you understand that Corp wants scoring windows and Runner wants pressure.
A bad keep often creates dead clicks.
Runner keeps a hand with cool tools but no money, then spends two turns clicking for credits instead of pressuring.
Corp keeps a hand with agendas and operations but no safe early defense, then spends turns panicking instead of shaping the board.
That is what you are trying to avoid.
Tempo hands are not always dramatic. Sometimes the correct keep is just “two money cards, one solid install, one card i may not use yet, and one whatever.” That hand may not look sexy, but it actually plays.
And that matters more than potential.
Common Runner Mulligan Mistakes
The first big one is keeping a hand because it has a breaker suite but no way to afford using it. Breakers are not magical. They still need credits, memory, and a game state where running matters.
The second is keeping all setup and no pressure. New players love hands that look responsible. Draw card. Economy card. Economy card. Utility card. Utility card. That can be fine, but if it is too passive, the Corp gets a free license to build a clean early game.
The third is refusing to mulligan because a hand contains one favorite card. That card might be great. It might also be stranded for four turns while the rest of your opener quietly loses the game.
Runner mulligans are usually about asking: can i function now?
If not, stop being sentimental.
Common Corp Mulligan Mistakes
The classic one is convincing yourself that you can “just draw out of it” when your HQ is a mess. Sometimes you can. Sometimes the Runner accesses twice and makes you look silly.
The next one is overvaluing trick cards and undervaluing early structure. Ambushes, scoring tools, and cute operations are nice. But if your opening hand cannot protect central servers or stabilize money, those cards are often just decorative.
Then there is the greedy keep. One strong economy card, no real defense, maybe multiple agendas, and the thought that it will all work out because you go first. That hand can absolutely punish you.
Corp mulligans should be a little more conservative than Runner mulligans. Corp has less room to be casual early because hidden information only helps if the Runner cannot safely poke everywhere.
Format Changes The Details, But Not The Core Rule
This is one place where format matters a bit, but not enough to change the foundation.
In Startup, hands can be easier to judge because the pool is smaller and the early-game patterns are often easier to map. In Standard, there is usually more nonsense to respect, more pressure profiles, and more ways a game can spiral. But your mulligan logic is still mostly the same.
You want money.
You want a functional early turn.
You want to avoid the hands that force recovery clicks before the real game has even started.
If you are refining lists and trying to understand whether bad opening hands are actually a deckbuilding problem, How to Use NetrunnerDB to Build and Print a Legal Deck is worth reading next. Sometimes a hard mulligan decision is not bad luck. Sometimes it is the deck telling you it is built crooked.
A Simple Keep Or Ship Checklist
If you want the shortest possible version of this Netrunner mulligan guide, use this.
For Runner, keep more often when:
- you have money
- you can install or draw into action
- you have a reason to contest early or set up quickly
Ship more often when:
- you have no money cards
- your hand is all expensive setup and no action
- your opener does nothing until several turns later
For Corp, keep more often when:
- you have money
- you can protect at least part of your central game
- your hand is not flooded with agendas
Ship more often when:
- you have more agendas than ice
- you have no clean early defense
- the whole plan depends on drawing perfectly right away
That checklist is not perfect. It is not supposed to be. It is meant to stop the worst opening mistakes, and honestly that is where most beginners get the biggest gain.
Mulliganing Is Part Of Playing Well
Some people treat mulliganing like an admission that something went wrong. It is not. It is part of the game. You are allowed to use it. You should use it. The only embarrassing mulligan is the one you were too stubborn to take.
And yes, sometimes you will mulligan into another awkward hand. That happens. The point is not to guarantee a perfect start. The point is to improve the odds that your early clicks matter.
That alone wins games.
Conclusion
A good Netrunner mulligan guide comes down to one question: does this hand let me play real Netrunner soon?
For Runner, that usually starts with money and some path to pressure.
For Corp, that usually starts with money, early defense, and not getting buried under agendas.
If you mulligan for tempo instead of fantasy, your opening turns get cleaner fast. And once your opening turns get cleaner, the rest of the game becomes much easier to read.