Opponents and Shuffling My Deck

[Shawn]

This situation has happened to me at several GP and SCG events:

I have presented my deck. They shuffle a bunch, then give it back to me. I draw my opening 7, and notice some cards are upside down. They still face the same way, but about about half are upside down. When I've fetched or after the game I noticed my whole library is like that.

Outside of being annoying, is their anything wrong with my opponent doing this? Is my opponent marking my cards, as my opponent could notice which direction the cards in my library are facing and so could I?

[Koby]

You should reorient the deck on your first opportunity (while searching for instance) and remind your opponent not to intentionally skew the direction of the cards in your deck. If this problem continues, call a judge over.

[cdr]

Yes, it could mark the deck and such sloppy shuffling is definitely not acceptable in a competitive event. Remind him to be more careful while shuffling and if he doesn't take you seriously and it happens again, feel free to call a judge. Be polite, of course.

[John Cox]

I'm just going to jump on the back of this and ask if there's is there some form of shuffling etiquette. I have some nice foils and I'm terrified my opponent is going to riffle, I know the official line is "sufficiently randomized" but is there some normal shuffling procedure that's I can refer an opponent to to guarantee a shuffled deck that's not damaged? Nine times out of ten this isn't a problem but there's always a guy who thinks he's playing bridge and flicks my deck like its a bicycle. Is it alight to say "just hand over hand it?" or is that illegal?

[Sloshthedark]

I'm just going to jump on the back of this and ask if there's is there some form of shuffling etiquette. I have some nice foils and I'm terrified my opponent is going to riffle, I know the official line is "sufficiently randomized" but is there some normal shuffling procedure that's I can refer an opponent to to guarantee a shuffled deck that's not damaged? Nine times out of ten this isn't a problem but there's always a guy who thinks he's playing bridge and flicks my deck like its a bicycle. Is it alight to say "just hand over hand it?" or is that illegal?

in vintage there is usually etiquette just to hand over hand and cut...

just tell them to be careful or not to riffle shuffle, I haven't had any problems with it yet...
I'm bit more worried about those guys who just hold cards too firm and simply do not know how to shuffle, you tell them and they still crush cards together bending the sleeve corners... I remember a guy who got Confidant split into two during shuffling and was told by local judge he has to solve that with his opponent privately... I'm also wondering how other judges would handle it - if you don't have 5th Confidant you just put swamp in and go?

[Justin]

I once had an opponent riffle shuffle my deck half-upside down as you describe, but he also busted one of my sleeves in the process. I was pretty frosted by that.

[cdr]

I'm just going to jump on the back of this and ask if there's is there some form of shuffling etiquette. I have some nice foils and I'm terrified my opponent is going to riffle, I know the official line is "sufficiently randomized" but is there some normal shuffling procedure that's I can refer an opponent to to guarantee a shuffled deck that's not damaged? Nine times out of ten this isn't a problem but there's always a guy who thinks he's playing bridge and flicks my deck like its a bicycle. Is it alight to say "just hand over hand it?" or is that illegal?

You can certainly ask to be gentle, and you can ask him not to riffle. Ultimately though, you can't require your opponent to shuffle or not shuffle a certain way. If you really think your opponent is overly rough after asking him politely, you can call a judge to shuffle instead. Such cases should be very rare though.


I remember a guy who got Confidant split into two during shuffling and was told by local judge he has to solve that with his opponent privately... I'm also wondering how other judges would handle it - if you don't have 5th Confidant you just put swamp in and go?

If I was HJ and an opponent split a player's card while shuffling - which I've never even heard of before, so is definitely a corner case - I would issue a proxy. Proxies can be issued by the HJ for "cards accidentally damaged or excessively worn during a tournament". Even for someone splitting their own card, I'd probably be inclined to issue a proxy at least for the current match and let him find a replacement after.

[Malakai]

If I thought it was an honest mistake, then I would just point it out and express my frustration.

If I thought it was an attempt to put me on tilt, or to let my opponent later call a judge and say my cards are marked...well, I would call a judge over immediately. My test for whether or not I think they're being honest is pretty simple: if there's something significant at stake, and my opponent seems like they _remotely_ know what they're doing, I'm bringing the judge over.