There is a guy at the local LGS who shuffles your deck normally after you present it to him except that when he is done shuffling he cuts the deck taking one card at a time out until he gets seven cards and then places those seven on the top of your library.
I haven't played him because we get quite a few people at the store even though we're both regulars. I'm wondering what I can do to prepare myself against him doing this to me because I don't feel that it's right and I don't think he should be able to do this. I couldn't find a section in the Tournament Rules that says something about this so maybe I overlooked. If there is a section I want to be prepared. The owner is usually the head judge but if I could have the article and section handy for him it could make it easier on everybody and finally getting this guy to stop shuffling this way.
There is a guy at the local LGS who shuffles your deck normally after you present it to him except that when he is done shuffling he cuts the deck taking one card at a time out until he gets seven cards and then places those seven on the top of your library.
I haven't played him because we get quite a few people at the store even though we're both regulars. I'm wondering what I can do to prepare myself against him doing this to me because I don't feel that it's right and I don't think he should be able to do this. I couldn't find a section in the Tournament Rules that says something about this so maybe I overlooked. If there is a section I want to be prepared. The owner is usually the head judge but if I could have the article and section handy for him it could make it easier on everybody and finally getting this guy to stop shuffling this way.
Any help is appreciated. Thank you.
I don't think there is anything against that, unless it is taking too long or you think he's looking at the cards and stacking your deck.
To prevent the shuffling, nothing you can do about that. Depending on the REL, either he has the option or he's required to.
As for the seven cards on top, about the only thing I can think of is trying to hit him with slow play or something similar since it's not adding to the randomization but that's a long shot at best. You could also try and appeal to the Owner/Judge that the 7 card placement is pointless unless he's somehow stacking it, but baseless allegations of cheating should be avoided.
Personally, I'd either let it go or just ask him not to. If both of you did a good job randomizing, the 7 cards on top won't will only have an effect if he knows what those cards are.
I think it's some kind of manipulation of game materials. Something along these lines.
We've had a problem with this in the past but I don't want it to happen against me. I doubt that he is doing some kind of sleight of hand but I think my point is that he could be and I can't prove it so he should shuffle in conventional ways.
I tried very hard to find a rule that would give you a useful answer. I know this would annoy me to no end if someone actually did this to me. The best I can come up with is a dry interpretation of the shuffling rule.
103.1. At the start of a game, each player shuffles his or her deck so that the cards are in a random order. Each player may then shuffle or cut his or her opponents’ decks. The players’ decks become their libraries.
The rule explicitly states "shuffle or cut his or her opponents’ decks". As picking cards out of your deck and stacking them on top is neither "shuffling" or "cutting", I would say this is not allowed and the opponent should reshuffle.
Hope that helps.
...or I could be completely wrong. Who really knows?
Back when I was in high school, I used to write little quotes on the whiteboard of my chemistry class, little, funny things that I'd made up and attributed to an anonymous author. Just tiny things I found amusing. Some time near the end of the year, a substitute teacher game in, read it, and told us a quote she had heard from a 13 year old girl. I don't remember what it was, but the quote sounded deep and philosophical. Then I actually thought about it. I realized that the quote was actually meaningless, but simply couched in the language of philosophy and depth. And that's what your post is. It is meaningless bull**** that you said in such a way as to make it seem sophisticated. But just as a lab coat doesn't make you a scientist, language won't make you a philosopher. Only love of wisdom will. And until then, you will always remind me of a nameless 13 year old.
You could ask the Judge to have him shuffle differently "because I feel it would be very easy for my opponent to accidentally see the cards I'll end drawing".
The rule explicitly states "shuffle or cut his or her opponents’ decks". As picking cards out of your deck and stacking them on top is neither "shuffling" or "cutting", I would say this is not allowed and the opponent should reshuffle.
Technically, his actions does match the definition of shuffling since it's a form of pile shuffling.
Anyway, the Tournament Rules override that definition with a better one. They require "randomization" (not "shuffling"), and his method does produce a random deck.
Decks must be randomized at the start of every game and whenever an instruction requires it. Randomization is defined as bringing the deck to a state where no player can have any information regarding the order or position of cards in any portion of the deck. Pile shuffling alone is not sufficiently random.
Judge has been called on it before and we've had to deal with it a lot in the past and he still does it.
See, in my eyes it doesn't produce a random deck because he is take out the seven cards from my deck for me. I don't know if he has the ability to use sleight of hand as I'm not trained to spot those kinds of things. I just don't want him manipulating my cards in that way.
I just don't want him manipulating my cards in that way.
So it makes you uncomfortable. As I mentioned earlier, you should ask the judge to have him shuffle differently because it makes you feel uncomfortable. Politely. This is the only recourse I see.
