Rules about an opponent shuffling your deck

Asked by TypicalTimmy 3 years ago

I've seen maybe two dozen videos calling out cheaters for shuffling. Whether it is deliberately pile shuffling as to stack the deck for the perfect opening hand, palming a land to the top and fake shuffling as to keep it there, stacking the deck with high MV cards so your opponent has no plays, etc.

What I have noticed is two things:

• The cheater is almost never formally presented the deck. The owner of the deck shuffles and sets it down and the cheater immediately grabs it and goes at it.
• The cheater NEVER presents their deck to be shuffled by their opponent. Instead they shuffle and immediately begin playing the game again.

These seem like the same thing but there is a subtle difference. The honest player shuffles and resumes the game, or awaits to present their deck. Meanwhile the cheater immediately lunges for the deck as to get their cheating game on.

But the cheater works as quickly as possible as to ensure their deck is never touched by their opponent under any circumstances.

So what is the question?

After the deck is shuffled by their owner, and someone else cuts or re-shuffles, why doesn't the owner of the deck cut one last time as to bury the top card in the event of facing off against a cheater?

Or, more appropriately, present it to a judge to be shuffled?

MagicMarc says... Accepted answer #1

Regarding the "After the deck is shuffled by their owner, and someone else cuts or re-shuffles, why doesn't the owner of the deck cut one last time as to bury the top card in the event of facing off against a cheater?" statement. Depending on the tournament level you are no longer allowed to cut your deck after your opponent returns the deck to you. You can no longer take any action involving your library after you get your deck back.

Found here: Shuffling The Deck "Each time a player shuffles his or her deck, he is supposed to present it to his or her opponent to shuffle. After the opponent shuffles the presented deck, no actions are taken."

Your best course of action is to call over a judge, identify that you would like them to shuffle your deck. If asked for a reason, state your reason or say something like my opponent did not make a reasonable effort to randomize my deck.

March 20, 2022 7:21 p.m.