Nagashi mangan

If the hand ends in a draw and every tile you discarded is a terminal or honor — none claimed by anyone — you score a mangan.

Value Special
How often very rare
Status Optional / local rule — agree on it before you play

Nagashi mangan isn't a hand you build toward — it grows out of a deal too weak to win with. When your starting tiles are scattered terminals and honors with no realistic road to tenpai , discarding nothing but terminals and honors turns a dead hand into a live one. The decision has to come with your first discard, because every discard counts, including the ones you make before you have a plan.

It's a fragile line. One call on any of your discards kills it for the rest of the hand, and late honor discards are exactly what a yakuhai hand wants to pon. You also only collect if the hand actually reaches the exhaustive draw: if anyone wins first, there's nothing to check. Playing for it means keeping the discard row clean and quietly hoping the wall runs out.

Since some tables treat this as an optional rule, confirm how yours plays it before the first deal. And remember it cuts both ways: when an opponent's discards run nothing but terminals and honors deep into a slow hand, calling a tile you don't even need is the standard counter. One call, and the mangan is gone.

Key points

Rule variations

An optional rule: not part of WRC core rules (it appears only in the separate WRC optional-rules extension) or current EMA rules, but common in Japanese casual play. Payment details vary by ruleset.

Related yaku

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