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The ‘Starting Hand’ or Mulligan as it is commonly known in other trading card games (TCG’s) is an important decision making stage at the start of a game in Parallel.

Before each battle begins on Parallel, each opponent will have an opportunity to look at five random cards from their deck and choose how many of those five cards they would like to keep for their Starting Hand.

Cards which are not selected for the Starting Hand get shuffled back into the deck and that same number of cards are then drawn at random to complete the Starting Hand.

Starting Hand decisions are given 30 seconds to be actioned and if no decisions are made from the player about what cards to keep or shuffle back into the deck then the Starting Hand will be those cards seen at the initial selection.

Playing cards in Parallel requires energy and players must bank cards each turn to increase the energy they have to play more cards as the game progresses. 

This means that Starting Hand decisions in Parallel not only need to consider the cards a player would like to use for the first few turns but also what cards could be banked for energy too.

It’s also worth noting here that as you gain more experience playing the game and going up against different decks, you will begin to develop a much better understanding of what cards you need more or less of in a particular matchup and this will further improve your Starting Hand decisions.

With all that said, let’s take a look at the different Starting Hand decisions and strategies that exist for our Marco decks to give you an idea of what you should think about when playing with your own decks.

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Lemi Starting Hand Strategy

We’ve explored in detail how important it is for Lemi to swarm the board early on but also how vital it is for the deck to continue to perform turn after turn from Assault.

This means that our primary aim for the Starting Hand should be focused on getting a good amount of 1 and 2 cost units so we can start developing the board early.

Cards such as the Crimson Fleet Machinist, Heavy Weapons Team or the Trigger Happy Trooper in our Starting Hand would represent a strong starting position for the Lemi Peasant deck especially if we were going first in the game.

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We’d also be in a great position if we could keep some units in our Starting Hand for turns two and three while also thinking about an Effect card so we can plan out our board plays for the opening few turns and have a unit removal or Assault trigger contingency should any of our units die early on.

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A good Starting Hand sets you up for a strong start in a game but doesn’t necessarily guarantee a victory. However, a bad Starting Hand will almost always cost you in the game due to not having the right cards to execute your game plan or the cards to stop the opponent from executing theirs.

Here are some Starting Hand examples to give you more insight on what to think about for your own Starting Hand decisions when playing with Lemi.

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Lemi Example 1

In this first example our opponent is Cathy Marco and we are going first in the game.

Our Starting Hand consists of 1x Crimson Fleet Machinist, 1x Black Market Fixer, 1x Improvised Tactics, 1x Crack Shot and 1x Heavy Weapons Team.

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We decide to keep just two of the five cards for our Starting Hand by holding onto the Crimson Fleet Machinist and the Heavy Weapons Team.

The Crimson Fleet Machinist is one of the key cards we need to try and find early in our hand so we can play him and draw an LPC to start getting our wide board going.

The Heavy Weapons Team is a card we decided to keep as we can play this unit on turn two so that on turn three it hits the opponent directly for damage. 

This will trigger Assault which then allows us to play the LPC from our Crimson Fleet Machinist who we played on turn one so we can start to create a wide board of units.

The remaining three cards are redrawn as they are not useful to us in the opening turns or can’t help to develop a strong opening board against our opponent.

We’d also like to redraw here to search for at least one removal card (PS-8 or Determined Assault) as our Cathy opponent will likely play some early threats on the board which we may need to control with a removal Effect.
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Lemi Example 2

In this next example our opponent is a New Dawn Shroud deck and we are going second in the match.

Our Starting Hand consists of 1x Trigger Happy Trooper, 2x Crack Shots and 2x Determined Assaults.

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We decide to keep only the Trigger Happy Trooper and the Determined Assault and choose to redraw the remaining three cards. 

The Trigger Happy Trooper allows us to play an aggressive unit down on turn one with the potential to hit the opponent directly for 3 damage.

Determined Assault is useful here as a card that can be used to remove the Singularity Steward from the board which is an early threat unit our opponent could play that has the potential to buff out of control if not removed early on.

We redraw the other Determined Assault and the 2x Crack Shots so we can find better cards such as the Crimson Fleet Machinist, Heavy Weapons Team or an LPC to give us a stronger start to this match.

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Cathy Starting Hand Strategy

When it comes to our Cathy Noble deck, the focus for our Starting Hand strategy is slightly different compared to Lemi as we need to find as many cards as possible which we can play early in the game that synergise with Effects. 

This means that our primary aim for the Starting Hand should be focused on getting 1 and 2 cost units which provide aggro as well as 2 and 3 cost effect cards to maintain high pressure against our opponent in the early rounds.

Cards such as the Marcolian Bannerman, Trigger Happy Trooper and the Mercenary Gunslinger are the sort of units you should be trying to get in your Starting Hand.

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In addition, we should also be trying to look for cards such as Determined Assault, PS-8 Launcher and Catherine’s Rallying Cry in our Starting Hand so we have low cost effects which can help us to remove threats from the opponent’s side of the board while buffing our own units or triggering damage directly to the opponent with them.

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Catherine’s Rallying Cry in particular is one of the best cards in this deck to overwhelm your opponent and ultimately win the game so if there’s opportunities in the Starting Hand to keep more than one copy then it is strongly worth considering.

Alternatively, the Fleet Support relic is also an excellent option to have in your Starting Hand and play on-curve that sets you up nicely for big effect plays thereafter.

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Cathy Example 1

In this example our opponent is Gnaeus Kathari and we are going first in the game.

Our Starting Hand consists of 2x Catherine’s Rallying Cry, 1x Orbital Strike, 1x Fleet Support and 1x Vigilant Patrol.

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We decide to keep none of these cards for our Starting Hand and instead choose to redraw all of them to hopefully get more lower cost cards for this matchup.

As we are going first in this match we really need at least one card that we can play on turn one and ideally more cards which cost 1 or 2 so we can set the tempo in the early rounds by developing a board and keeping the pressure up on the opponent.

As our opponent is running a Gnaeus deck, it is crucial that we can play lots of low cost units early on or have a way of removing the opponent’s units in the early stages.

This is because Gnaeus is an aggro deck where their units increase in attack and health by +1/+1 every time they attack so in order to counter this it’s vital we try to control the board and be the main aggressor in this match.

Cathy Example 2

In this next example our opponent is running a Juggernaut Workshop Augencore deck and we are going second in the game.

Our Starting Hand consists of 1x Marcolian Bannerman, 2x Catherine’s Rallying Cry, 1x Vigilant Patrol and 1x PS-8 Launcher.

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In this scenario we decide to keep the Marcolian Bannerman, one of Catherine's Rallying Cry and the PS-8 Launcher.

The Bannerman is our turn one play and if he survives until the second turn we can then use the PS-8 against an enemy unit to buff the Banneman by +1/+1.

The Rallying Cry is then our card to play on turn three which will help us to develop a stronger board and give our opponent some problem units to deal with.

We redraw the remaining two cards to find other options such as the Trigger Happy Trooper or another Bannerman that can help us even further in the early rounds.

Armored Division HQ Starting Hand Strategy

Lastly we will look at the Starting Hand strategy for Armored Division HQ which shares some similarities with the previous two decks but due to the vehicle focused nature of this one you will see there is a slightly different dynamic to our decision making.

The focus for Armored Division should be about trying to find as many vehicles as possible and triggering Assault as much as you can in the early rounds.

Cards such as the Crimson Fleet Machinist, Heavy Weapons Team or the Scimitar Scout Bike in our Starting Hand would represent a strong starting position for this deck especially if we were going first in the game.

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Cards such as Determined Assault, Scimitar Captain // Guerrilla Warfare and the Longbow Personnel Carrier (LPC) would be attractive options to consider keeping in our Starting Hand too for their ability to control the early game and develop a board.

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Determined Assault’s flexibility to deal 3 damage to any target gives players the option to keep the pressure on the opponent or remove an early threat from the board.

While Scimitar’s Split card type means you can decide based on how the game is going whether to play another vehicle or disrupt the opponent’s hand with an Effect. 

And even if we hold a Crimson Fleet Machinist in our Starting Hand, it is beneficial in this deck to keep an LPC too because the Crimson Fleet Machinist can draw a random vehicle which we might not be able to play on turn three like the LPC and that would disrupt our own attempts to control the games tempo and board early on.

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ADHQ Example 1

Here are some Starting Hand examples to give you more insight on what to think about for your own Starting Hand decisions when playing with Armored Division HQ.

In this first example our opponent is Augencore Juggernaut Workshop and we are going first in the game.

Our Starting Hand consists of 1x PS-8 Launcher, 1x Longbow Personnel Carrier, 1x Hastati Hovercraft // Spearhead Formation, 1x Crimson Fleet Machinist and 1x Heavy Weapons Team. 

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In this situation we’ve decided to redraw the PS-8 plus the Hastati // Spearhead and keep the LPC, Crimson Fleet Machinist and Heavy Weapons Team.

Opting to keep two one cost units here seems like the sensible approach to get the best out of Armored Division as we can play the Heavy Weapons Team on the first turn to get Assault active for turn two.

This works well because if we then drew a Scimitar Scout Bike after our first turn we could immediately play it on turn two and receive the Assault benefit from the Heavy Weapons Team.

Should we not draw the Scimitar Scout Bike for the second turn, we could instead play the Crimson Fleet Machinist who will draw a random vehicle into our hand which can help for the following turns.

By holding onto an LPC in our Starting Hand we can play this card on turn three and trigger the Assault benefit from the Heavy Weapons Team we already played on the first turn.

This will kickstart our board dominance early on by creating two 1/1 Fresh Recruit units in addition to our LPC Defender unit that will also receive a buff to its health from our Crimson Fleet Machinist who we played on the previous turn.

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ADHQ Example 2

In this second example our opponent is another Augencore Juggernaut Workshop matchup but this time we are going second in the game.

Our Starting Hand consists of 1x PS-8 Launcher, 1x Determined Assault, 1x Tactical Display, 1x Mirielle, The Ghost of Mars and 1x Hastati Hovercraft // Spearhead Formation.

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This time around we decide to keep the PS-8 plus the Determined Assault and redraw the other three cards to hopefully draw better units we can play in the first few turns.

It’s important to remember that not every Starting Hand is going to present you with a good draw from your deck and in this case we didn’t get any units that we could play in the early rounds to start developing a strong board.

While Mirielle is a Legendary card and a really strong unit to play in the mid-game, she is also the type of card you’ll want to have in your hand when you have a wide board. 

This is so you can play Mirielle and take advantage of her destroy ability that will play units with a higher cost than the units she destroyed when playing her on the board.

As we don’t have any low cost units in our Starting Hand or even an LPC that could generate low cost units after an Assault is triggered, the best decision here is to redraw Mirielle so we can naturally draw her from the deck later when we need her.

With no units in our Starting Hand that we could play on the first or even second turn, it makes sense to keep our low cost removal cards such as the PS-8 and Determined Assault so we can prevent our opponent from developing their own board early.

Also because our opponent is taking the first turn here we will want to have at least one Effect card in our Starting Hand anyways so we can immediately respond to a unit played on the board when it comes round to our turn.

With all this considered, our best strategy for this Starting Hand was to keep the two effect cards and redraw the remaining cards to hopefully improve our unit options for the beginning of the game.