This tutorial teaches how to shuffle a deck of magic cards, a skill many people struggle with. It covers basic shuffling techniques such as The Hindu S… Shuffling Styles And Techniques, Shuffle Cards From Above, Riffle’s Method, Method of Hindi, Shuffling Faro, The Grandma Method, and Stack shuffling.
To improve your technique, you can follow these professional shuffling techniques. Mash shuffling is a popular technique for shuffling cards in games like Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and poker. To shuffle a deck reliably, you need to do more than one shuffle.
For example, hold the cards face down with one hand, grab a small number of cards with the thumb of the other hand, drop them back into the deck, cut the deck in half, and push one half into the other block of cards. They will naturally interleave, imitating a riffle shuffle.
If playing Magic: The Gathering, separate the cards into two piles, lift the corners up, and “flick” them together, weaving them into one deck. Pile shuffle with 9 piles, then overhand shuffle 3-5 times. Pile shuffle involves dividing the deck into 4 to 6 piles and rejoining them in a random order.
Mastering these professional shuffling techniques is crucial for improving card handling and learning sleight-of-hand techniques. Fail at shuffling could ruin your reputation as a skilled magician before you even start practicing tricks.
📹 How To Shuffle MTG Cards Sleeved (And Catch Cheating!)
How to shuffle MTG cards with sleeves. I’ll go over technique, rules related to shuffling, and how to protect yourself from cheaters.
📹 MTG – How to Shuffle Unsleeved Cards Without Bending!
Follow MTG Degree at: twitter.com/MTGDegree The MTG Degree channel is a Magic: the Gathering variety channel where you …
I have always been pile shuffling and pretty much everyone in our playgroup does it. This new shuffling way you showed makes sense. I’m going to start doing it even though I don’t play at any competitive events. I really like all the points you highlighted in this article thanks man! There is commander event held at a game store I go to everyone and then and they’re very light on shuffling rules. Also, I didn’t know I could shuffle my opponents deck then cut it when I gave it back to them. I’ll be cutting it like how you did so in the article.
When I began playing MtG, back in 2003, a judge at my LGS actually taught me that mana weaving was a thing and we should do that to prevent mana flooding/drought. Besides, I also learned pile shuffling with 6 piles as a way to counter that (as on a perfectly weaved 20 land-40 spell deck, all lands would fall on the same pile).
As a new-ish player I’m always grateful for good deck advice. Don’t squeeze your deck, let your deck easily slide through your hand. And stare at the other person’s deck while you handle yours. I’m still developing, so I’ll be on the lookout for ways to grow and strengthen my deck. Maybe one day my deck will be as good as yours.
I like the Dragon Shield perfect fit inner sleeves too. The little flap adds an extra layer of protection, almost makes it like they are triple sleeved. It takes a minute to get used to the size of your deck with them sleeved that way, but I had to get used to them being sleeved when I first started sleeving cards and get used to commander decks as well, so nothing out of the ordinary. When magic starts being played with 350 card decks I’ll rethink my plan heheh
Beware of the player who pile shuffles twice using 5 stacks. This is known among pros as the Double Nickel. They put all their land on top, do the piles twice then do superficial shuffling. It gives them a perfect mana weave without having to look at their own deck and cutting it will have no effect.
Mana weaving can be hard to explain as cheating sometimes, and I often get “But I shuffle my deck afterwards.” So I always explain: “There are two options. Either you don’t shuffle enough afterwards and the mana weave affects your deck, in which case the mana weaving is cheating…. or you did shuffle enough afterwards and the deck is in a ‘random order,’ in which case the mana weaving was pointless. Either way, if your intent is to effect what you draw, then your intent is to cheat. “
This is going back over ten years, but I used to be very I to card tricks, and they all involve deck manipulation, I knew quite a few judges, and in more than one tournament I was asked to watch somone shuffling. It’s super obvious when you know what to look for, also helped teach new people at our flgs both how to shuffle and what to look out for, and your vid is on point.
Watching this reminded me of a time at an old LGS. I was playing Standard against someone there who was a judge, and instead of cutting my deck, he picked it up to shuffle it, and was clearly looking through it as he shuffled it. It was even more obvious since that was the only time I had ever seen him shuffle a deck rather than cut it.
It’s worth noting that cutting can also be used for cheating – if I shuffle a card I know is important to your combo and/or is detrimental to my deck to the top of your deck, I can then cut your deck, putting that card in the middle and reducing the chance you’ll draw the card. Depending on the situation, this can be more valuable than merely shuffling a bad card to the top and not cutting – and it’s going to be less obvious for opponents who aren’t paying close attention to my actual shuffling.
When I first started playing Magic at FNM the top players would ALWAYS Mana Weave and act like it was normal and said it was the best way not to get mana screwed/flooded and said I should do it (as a new player I didn’t know any better and they consistently won). However, I always shuffle my deck fairly well and it never worked (because it shouldn’t work in a well shuffled deck) so I thought it was stupid and stopped doing it. Now looking back I realize that those people were just cheats and I’m glad they don’t play at my lgs anymore. Thanks for the tips! This is gonna help me up my shuffle game.
A tournament classic for me will always be that time my opponent called a judge because after fetching and searching my shock land from the bottom of my library only to find it second from the top because I said “I knew it was there.” Taught my that there are conditions that make people take everything literally.
As an EDH player, I mana weave exactly once: after I’ve finished a deck, sleeving it for the first time. I don’t have any fancy technique for this, either- just throwing lands in order every few cards. If I were to just leave it like that, I’d get the same type of land over and over- but I don’t just leave it like that, I immediately shuffle the deck around 12-15 “cycles”, which should serve as sufficient randomization. The only reason I “weave” in this way is to avoid pile shuffling, which would do a similar thing in a slower way. When it gets pulled out for play, it’ll get shuffled another seven-plus cycles, or if I’m one of the first to get their deck out, upwards of 20 times. At this point, the main reason I do this is tradition- I used to be complete garbage at shuffling, but I finally figured out how to do it properly. In those early days, it was absolutely cheating- but now that I actually properly shuffle, it’s more a reminder to myself to get those extra shuffle cycles in any time I pull something new out.
In my judging experience, people drawing extra cards is the hardest thing to catch and is done frequently. Had a situation where we basically knew a guy drew a extra card but it was just one guys word vs another. We tried to count cards but with the prolonged game state cards had entered the graveyard without being cast and some cycling had happened. We had no hard evidence. Basically in a competitive rel events you can draw extra cards with very advanced board states and just deny you did. Cards like DRC and ragavan make counting cards extremely hard.
Years ago I was playing Legacy at my LGS when I tipped over my open bottle of Cola but thanks to my reflexes I smash the bottle in another direction causing a huge but fortunatley less expensive mess. We were playing withouth double sleeves, looked at each other for a second after the shock moment, shipped the cards and went to buy packs of perfect sized sleeves. Never went without them since.
Honestly, I’m playing Magic for years now, was never really on a turnement. I was introduced into it by a friend, who is, as I am, a casual. And he actually taught me to manaweave. Until now I didn’t knew that this was illegal and I’m kinda shocked. I just didn’t really thought about it and kinda thaught that everyone is doing it. Got to know that, because I’m currently preparing myself to enter some Modern Tournaments in the coming year. Thanks for teaching me that Nikachu!
I see cutting as a way to mitigate potential sleight of hand. During the shuffling process, I always assume my opponent is cheating, even if I personally know they are the most honest person I know. This is, of course, not to say they ARE cheating, but I always like to shuffle under the assumption the opponent is cheating six ways from sunday.
On any game I played all people was shuffling by (usually) pilling 5 stacks on the table. I’ve also learn a “double nickel” trick from a pro player on youtube that was being used on tournaments. You separate lands, put on top of deck and pile shuffle to 5 or 7 piles twice. Your deck is basically manaweaved at this point (learned about “manaweaving” therm just now). Never thought it as cheat and most people around were using it. Also noticed one thing – when you stack shuffle to 8 stacks twice, you wnd up with basically same card order (64 cards is identical order, 60 cards only like 4 cards switch placement). In beginning of playing mtg I shuffled to 8 stacks and ended up usually with mana drought (whenever placed spell cards back to top before shuffling). I wonder, how often mana drought is the thing on big tournaments? I feel like the “double nickel” and splitting afterwards should be the standard
Whenever I put a deck together I mana weave but then I shuffle it like 20 times. I just use it as a starting point usually. It doesn’t really matter once I’ve shuffled it that many times cuz they’ll be sufficiently randomized regardless but it genuinely just puts my mind at ease that I’m gonna instantly get mana screwed when I play it. I never weave between games or anything like that tho. I personally think it’s ok to do so long as you shuffle it a shit ton after.
I just recently got into paper TCGs, and I am not practiced in shuffling yet (I’m JUST starting to understand the feel of it so that I can do it without looking), and I have a couple of questions about something in your article. In the middle of the article, you talked about shuffling your opponent’s deck or having your opponent shuffle yours. My questions are: 1) When is it expected that you would shuffle your opponent’s deck or that they would shuffle yours? Is it only by request? And do you typically only request to shuffle your opponent’s deck when you personally feel they haven’t shuffled enough? 2) Is it ever improper to ask to shuffle your opponent’s deck? I suppose asking to do it every time they shuffle their deck in a turn due to various minor effects might be overkill and could be perceived as rude, so do you just make an unwritten rule of once per turn or every few turns or something? 3) At 10:40, you talked about cutting the deck after you shuffle your opponent’s deck. That seems pretty self-explanatory to me, but I don’t understand why you would ask your opponent to cut the deck if they don’t do it instead of just cutting it yourself after they present it to you. Is there a rules or non-rules-related reason why you can’t or wouldn’t cut the deck after your opponent shuffles it? Could they somehow accuse you of deck manipulation if you do it? 4) Is there a reason you should not or cannot shuffle your deck immediately after your opponent shuffles it? I’m wondering this in case I come up against someone who I feel didn’t shuffle well enough or who I think might have tried to manipulate the deck.
The ONLY reason you should start out with a “card count” method is if you just finished a deck, and the cards are “ordered,” as in lands, spells, creatures, etc. When we played back in the day, this broke up the clumps, and then you picked up the cards, THEN did the “shuffle” method you described first. But, don’t do this at a tournament! Do it beforehand, so you can pull your deck, then shuffle normally.
I mana weave my deck when its not meeting the law of probability anymore, if I keep getting no land hands or all land hands that means that my deck isn’t matching the law of probability anymore. Mind you I still shuffle the deck 10+ times after that but the deck will start meeting the law of probability again. FYI the probability of getting no land in your stating hand is roughly 5.9%.
Commanderplayer here, mana reaving is a common way in my playgroup and nobody is cheating at any chance, its just when u finish a game wiht like 15/20 lands out u want to make sure to not clumb all these lands in the 99 card stack, ofc we shuffle afterwards, bbut shuffling such a ig deck takes even longer.
Stack shuffling does not randomize, correct, but it does spread your deck out into a different order. If you had 5 cards in a row without a stack shuffle, your riffle shuffling could miss them if you aren’t careful. Stack shuffling essentially eliminates that. Of course if you only stack shuffle, a skilled cheater could stack the deck pretty easily, so it’s not okay to just stack shuffle. But I like that it eliminates the chance of having the same run of cards in back to back games. And you’re right, it’s an easy way to make sure you didn’t either lose a card, or leave one in your sideboard.
I’m glad that I only play Commander casually with my friends and never do tournaments because I would get really frustrated over not being able to look at my deck while shuffling it. I don’t do it to try and figure out where certain cards are in my deck but if I’m not focusing on my hands I get very shaky and clumsy and drop things a lot. Plus it feels very nitpicky and I can’t stand that when I’m just trying to enjoy a game.
One thing I tend to do with regards to deck randomization… After laying out my deck for making changes (i.e. all the cards sorted into lands and by CMC), I pile shuffle the deck first, and then proceed to do normal pharaoh shuffles for at least 10-12 times. I realize that this can seem a bit similar to manaweaving (spreading lands out evenly-ish throughout the deck), I instead would argue that the reason why I do this is to instead complement the pharaoh shuffle, which has some distributional weaknesses (For instance: how likely are you to shuffle the bottom most card to the top of the deck when doing a pharoah shuffle, even after numerous shuffles? Relatively unlikely.) By pile shuffling, and randomly combining the piles, it helps the final result to be as close to a uniform distribution as possible. (uniform in this sense meaning that any card has an approximately equal chance of being in any position).
When I was in elementary school I went through a pretty hardcore magic trick phase. If you don’t think cheating is easy, hard to detect, and common place, its because you don’t know how to look for it tbh. Sleeves also heavily impact randomization of decks. Some have a tendency to stick due to static buildup, or have corners fray or split which marks cards. You can imagine the massive advantage of knowing where a leyline or whatever other silver bullet is. Do you crack your fetch if you have rest in peace on top of the deck into dredge?
Mana weaving is a good tool after your round if u had games go long to avoid lands piling up. So when you go to shuffle u don’t have 15lands stuck together. But then after weaving you must shuffle it throughly 10-20 times. At fnms I just spend alot of my down time shuffling because it keeps my hands occupied
I had an opponent drop half my deck all over the table and the floor in a tournament before. I didn’t have a good understanding of the rules back then so I didn’t call the judge, a friend then told me I should have called a judge. I now dedicate a few minutes once in a while to read the comprehensive rules of the game.
I like pile shuffling as a way to remove giant mana pockets after organizing the deck. Sometimes while counting my deck, separate the lands and the spells (and even categorize the spells) and find even after tons of shuffling, I’ll still have 3 opts together. A pile shuffle splits everything out, then regular shuffling after that ensures randomness.
7 times is only for 52 card decks and is pretty optimistic about quality of iterations in the paper that figure comes from. You can do a perfect shuffle mathematically by pile shuffling, but instead of deterministically choosing which pile a card goes into, roll a dice. This allows for piles to have different sizes and if repeated recursively results in a fully randomized deck. Additional shuffling is only needed afterwards to ensure locations of particular cards are unknown.
I play commander and I sometimes pile shuffle before a game before reshuffling after dice rolls. But since I developed carpal tunnel I have to wear a glove that always catches the sleeves. 50% of the time a card will fall out while I shuffle and I end up taking longer. I asked for help but everybody is ok with it since they see me shuffle for like a minute or so. I can’t wait for my surgery though.
just seeing this article. after years of wanting to go into a in person event. I finally went to one. When it came to shuffling I myself wasnt sure if I shuffled my deck enough. My opponent used that technique of making multiple piles. after double sleeving my deck was pretty thick due to the extra air from double sleeving. So here I am trying to figure out how much is enough of a shuffle.
I admit I used to “mana weave” my deck before shuffling it normally multiple times. nobody ever had any problem with it and also I almost never win any game so it doesn’t really matter I think. but in time I realised it’s just a waste of time 😀 now I shuffle my deck following this procedure – shuffle top 1/3 of deck in the bottom part two times, then bottom 1/3 into top part and repeat this several times. works fine and it’s fair (IMO even better then shuffling in halves like most people do because most people just shuffle bottom half up, and it very often leaves the top card the same)
Very fascinating look at shuffeling especially with the combination with cheating. I just feel like the “A cheating opponent is just bad at the game” is a bit underestimating some cheaters, because since Magic is a game that partially includes luck with draws the only difference between to really skilled players is almost exclusively the luck factor. You can play perfectly, responding perfectly, your opponent does the same and you still lose because they drew better. I think thats also a point were some very ambicious people start cheating to tip the scales even more in their faivor.
The example of mana weaving on a forum you shared didn’t say mana weaving without shuffling. They just mana weaved before shuffling. I don’t think it does what they were saying on the forum, however. I mana weaved before shuffling at a casual game and somehow shuffled 10 lands in a row even after mana weaving.
Our whole high school practiced mana weaving. 90s. Memories. One day I bought Magetha The Lion for the price of two Bigmacks from a card dealer outside a fantasy store, and the next day everyone was pissed. We’re talking about a company of about 5 people. The third day they had a sideboard. 🙁 Sad story short.
Pile shuffling on its own isn’t a shuffle, but sometimes I’ll pile and then shuffle all of the piles together. If you make 5 piles and shuffle the each pile 3 times as you put them together, they are certainly shuffled. I don’t normally use that method unless the deck is in a fully unshuffled state. In that case I’ll pile shuffle (while actually shuffling the deck back together when the piles recombine) 4-5 times in a row just to ensure a good shuffle. Like you say the point most of the time isn’t to actually ensure a fully random shuffle – it’s mostly about your own information about the order of the cards. Which is why decent honest pile shuffling can count as fair (I wouldn’t bother at a tournament not that I actually go to tournaments), but manaweaving cannot.
I’ll be honest, I mana weave my commander decks before games. I do it for 2 reasons 1: It helps when you look for a specific card to change when not playing 2: I shuffle the deck regardless, making the weave obsolete. It’s just a weird habit for some reason. I know I shouldn’t but it helps with changing up cards. And more often than not I don’t benefit from it because I usually mulligan.
my local has this exact problem where you are disallowed to shuffle the opponent deck, only allowed to cut. the same thing with tournament shuffle rule for the game when email the ruling. its a cardfight vanguard local where the concept of trigger is about the same as land, i guess trigger weaving is the name of the game.
You pointed out a lot of good points for organized play, so very thankful for that. On the subject, something recently has come up and had a judge give me what I think is the right info, but other people seem to disagree. I know during tourneys and the like, deck lists have to be presented. One can take notes on their opponents deck from cards that were revealed and whatever is in the gv. However, can you have your opponents deck (let’s say on a sheet of paper) right next to you mid match. The judge I asked said absolutely not, and some players I know say you can. Seems crazy to me to be able to look at someone else’s deck the whole time as you’re playing. Plus, I’ve never seen anyone do that. Sorry for the length and hope that makes sense, but would love to hear all feedback. Thanks!
I just give everyone a heart attack by zip shuffling my deck 4-7 times before standard shuffling. Did that to a modern superfriends deck (including two original Ravnica Doubling Seasons and three Ugin, the Spirit Dragons) I built and I could see the pain on my opponent’s face. For some reason, I don’t deal with many shuffle cheaters.
In my community, the format is very much mostly Commander. (not playing anything which is not Commander in many years, except for that brief period I had a pioneer deck) The problem is that with 99 card decks, not all the players have big enough hands to handle the whole deck well. One friend always gets someone with bigger hands to shuffle her decks because she physically can’t. Then there is me, I physically struggle to shuffle decks but I manage it. I don’t tend to split the deck and put cards together in that “riffle?” method. I physically can’t without great difficulty. So my shuffling method has become, take a portion of the cards, from the bottom, then release a few to the top of the deck, few to the bottom, top, bottom etc, then if I have a few cards left, they will get gently pushed somewhere into the middle. My group is generally ok with me doing that. because I do that several times to try and sufficiently randomize the deck. I don’t go to any official tournaments but my method has so far been considered acceptable by everyone in FNM (at least when we last had FNM 18+ months ago) My problem is how to avoid technical mana weaving after a game. depending on how long the game has gone and how many lands and other cards I have got out of the deck, I will either riffle the lands into the collected hand/field and graveyard (minus the land), or I will riffle the collected land into the deck after adding everything else to the bottom. Either way, the deck will get shuffled before I move on to the next game.
Great article, as always. Any chance you might have some advice on how to shuffle sufficiently for a disabled player who can only use one hand? By the later rounds of events, my bad hand is in horrible shape and shuffling becomes a major burden. I usually just end up in so much pain that I can’t focus on gameplay as well. 😕 I wish I could find a viable way to shuffle with just my left hand.
I swear by dragon sheilds matt, the royal purple and green are good and red Matt are now all I use. For inner sleeves I use top loaders mostly but for flip cards side loaders remove and reenter alot easier. I have ruined 3 playmats by dumping a monster all over my edh deck accidentally. And not 1 card that was worth more then a dollar was ruined, some lands got tossed but overall I live and die by dragon sheilds. There durability consistency and shuffle feel and longevity are amazing. Since shadows over inistrad ive only had 3 reds tears out of the thousands I own.
You can certainly randomize to some extent with pile shuffling, you just have to put the cards in random piles, not going through the piles one by one in order. I do this to both shuffle and count my cards. If you’re properly shuffling otherwise, it’s not really necessary, but I don’t think it’s fair to say that pile shuffling is completely useless if you’re doing it properly.
I was at a Type 1 tournament when they first came out the the rule where you had to let your opponent shuffle your deck. Sure enough, during the first match I heard a guy freaking out. A guy shuffled his opponent’s deck like playing cards. The top card was bent from how hard he did the shuffle. The top card was a Black Lotus. This was when a unlimited Black Lotus was about $200.
I have had to call people out on mana weaving. At one event, I even called a judge to check my opponents deck and the opponent was given a warning the first time and then he tried it with another opponent who called him out and had to take a game loss. He thought he would have learned by then but nope, got called a third time and was disqualified while being 3-1-1 during his last match.
Back then in the early 90s here in the philippines when judges check your entry deck…everyones peeking when the judges check your deck…i lost the game because everyone has hurricane on their deck because they saw that im a life gainer and all my creatures where flying…anyway some goblin aggro burn won that day…i rarely won games until i shift to UB control through the years…win or lose i still keep playing…the game become more fun…
I have been in casual play with friends and someone was getting no land for like their fifteenth turn in a row and we had someone outside the game look at their deck and they had zero lands for almost twenty more turns. After that we had him reshuffling his deck and he still didn’t get any lands until the second to the last turn and then he got his third land.
You like thicc dice? I got some nice d6 made out of crystalline limestone. Used them once in an online match. They are at about 50 grams a piece and do a really heavy thunk when hitting the table. You can’t even roll them on your play mat, because it bears the risk of causing pressure marks, if a die ends up landing on a card. xD They are very readable, but everyone’s ears die when you roll them on the bare desk, because the desk microphone pics them up like a rolling thunder.
the problem i have is i have small hands so when i shuffle my commander single sleeved it is hard ti take one half and cut it into the other and push them down do i end up tilting it to much to use both hands and i almost able to see so i have to look away and kinda of shuffle more. i want to he fair and i k ow i am because i always get clumps and i thought i was shuffling wrong but i watched your last article and it actually helped me feel better. i like to be honest and i want to become a better player if you cheat that doesnt mean your better. i dont get why people can do that and still call themselves good no your a cheat. i do know i will shuffle every deck presented to me from now on you just cant trust people… thanks for your articles they have helped me catch up on magic i started playing right before mirroden came out so onslaught elves was my first deck then i built tooth and nail with kiki and darksteel or platinum and sundering titan such fun times i stopped many times but came back about a year ago and got into commander. i will never quit again
I used to play with someone in Yugioh, who would stack their cards in specific orders so that synergy cards were aligned with each other. Then he would shuffle by cutting the deck in half over and over. When I mentioned this to him, he claimed, “This is what they do at regional tournaments” So I asked if I could shuffle his deck, and surprise, surprise, he couldn’t do anything because he didn’t draw his synergies.
I mana weave when playing jumpstart. Put all the lands out, flip them over, then put everything else on top in piles. Then I stack them up. But then I shuffle the traditional way .Although I only play at the kitchen table. Not sure if actually mana weaving since I shuffle after I do it, but I still feel bad.
Idk, i am just unable to slide these cards in between gaps. I either shuffle it normally, with risk of cards falling off from lowest part of stack at random. Or i use pile shuffling BUT! i actually put cards in piles at random order and i pick piles at random order and i repeat it at least 2-3 times. So i have no idea where any of card from original order will go (i as well may get 0 lands or 5+ lands in row… No idea). Granted i have no own deck, and just used my friend’s ones, so i don’t even know original order. But he is not a person to do manaweave for sure.
I know, I know, pile shuffle. I like to pile shuffle in piles that can’t be divided into 60, so 7 piles, to try and break up a clumps of spells and land. I do the style of shuffle that he demonstrated with EACH pile in the the other piles and then shuffle some more. Then I shuffle like normal. But my pattern is fist shuffle 1/2 of the amount I grab in front then the last in the back. The second shuffle I switch to in the middle then back and forth between the 1/2 front and back then middle. Oh yeah I also try to place cards in random piles of the seven: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 to establish the piles but then like 2, 7, 5, 3, 4, 6, and then 1. Stuff like that. But then I am only a stinking casual.
Some basic tips, however, sleeves vary. Most sleeves (dragon shield etc.) are impossible to shuffle without damaging the sleeves or cards. Art Brushed sleeves are particularly impossible to mash shuffle, e.g., the typical Ultra Pro art sleeves. The only sleeves that fulfill my needs are Ultima Guard Katana sleeves. That is the only mystery – pay more get better shuffleable sleeves – no rocket science
I totally understand where you go with pile shuffling. Though I wonder, what if you do piles of eight first, shuffle each pile, combine them into four piles, then repeat until it’s all one deck. Would you still see that as cheating? That’s how I handle my Commander decks as they’re 99 cards (Commander is left out) Edit: forgot about mentioning that I am trying to shuffle like in the article.
I will say though the online shuffler on mtgo is strange — like thanksgiving day for example I ran a league and went 4-0, pretty much god hands every single game for the most part, even my mulligans were exceptional but on my final match I got no lands for multiple hands in a row game one, took a loss, then game 2 was a solid hand and I won, game 3 same as game 1, kept having to mulligan no landers down to 4 lol. VERY weird.
I remember back when I played magic I had some terrible hands game after game and for the final game I actually sat at the table “mana weaved” and then pile shuffled, shuffled normally several times, pile shuffled again, shuffled normally several more times before presenting my deck to my opponent, judge as sitting at the table as well. No complaints, judge had no issues with it, mostly because of how much I shuffled the thing, and my opponent also pile shuffled and then shuffled my deck normally several times to boot. Most people understand after several games sometimes cards, and mana, can pool in various areas of the deck, and as long as you actually properly shuffle the deck after “mana weaving” it can break that up while still properly randomizing a deck.
I do the pile shuffle personally, I guess I think its the ONLY way to guarantee that no cards that were grouped from a previous game are still right next to each other. Like ig you do 5 piles like you just did, you are basically guaranteeing that cards that were previously in your graveyard or hand, are all mixed up. Your point that “it just makes a new order” doesnt make sense, thats what shuffling is, creating a new order that is unknown. Edit: just looked it up. I am wrong because if you know the order before you pile shuffle, you will know the order after. I was just never malicious about it and thats why it never occurred to me.
Im a superstitious basted about lands. What usually do is take my land pile at the end of a game and slot them back into the deck so that none of them are touching. Then I shuffle the crap out of the deck because truly random is actually beneficial. I don’t think i get any advantage out of this and no one has ever called me out on it and trust me I don’t hide it.
I always carry my decks mana-weaved from home, but from the first time they become shuffled (and I’m a proper shuffler) they remain fully randomized for the rest of the session. I didn’t even know this had a name let alone it was even illegal, you could even think of it as a tradition in my town: when a newbie gets consecutive awful hands you tell him: “Ordénate el maná”. And then you teach him the ” uno, dos, tierra “.
Early on you said 7 shuffles to sufficiently shuffle, it’s 7 RIFFLE shuffles. Since doing that is bad form (damage your own cards all you want though I guess, but opponents will probably ask you to not to), I would advise a lot more than 7. Small but necessary distinction I feel. Just one more thing, you can actually stack the deck and shuffle a card into the middle of the deck, but leave a ledge or break in the deck, which you naturally would pick up from that point to cut (it won’t be big, you won’t see it less you look real hard). While this doesn’t guarantee a card, it does mean that after the cut it’ll be near the top, so ‘draw 3’ type effects will probably hit it. So yes, cut, but never the same way in a row, cut into 2/3/4 and replace randomly, cut all game then one turn just don’t, mix it up.
i realize i only manaweave when putting together a new deck and dont want all the lands and spells to be bunched, basically i just split it up then shuffle and play go fish like 20 times. i feel like thats not too bad because i usually spend a long time shuffling and only do this at home not when playing with others.
I play with a group of friends and don’t have to worry about cheating. We don’t even bother cutting each other’s decks anymore. One of my friends does stack his lands (or whatever it’s called) before shuffling up which kind of bugs me. His decks are so low powered though that I’m okay with it. The one thing that bothers me the most about it though is that I think it’s stunting his progression at learning to build proper mana bases for his decks because he’s able to get away with running fewer lands than I think his decks really need to be running.
I’ve been in a few Gp’s and the most common thing I see and play against is slow play, running down the clock. I always give my opponent the benefit of the doubt however even if I wanted to call a judge over to say something… how do I call someone out for that when as soon as I call a judge they are just “your turn”. I don’t know maybe I’m just overthinking it.
I still hate it when I shuffle my deck, pull 6 lands and a sorcery, mulligan to shuffle, pull another six lands and an instant, decide this is my fate and then pull lands for two full turns. My decks are only 1/3rd lands, how is it that I’m doing a full riffle shuffle with cuts and still getting all my lands on top?!?! I play EDH too, so I don’t want to scoop just because I’m being mana-flooded to oblivion and sit out the rest of the game; but this is annoying as all balls, especially when my opponents are already playing with full armies before I even have a few creatures to defend.
Deck shuffling is rocket surgery. Edit: Was at a tournament once and showed up to the table to play my opponent, and he already was set up and ready to go. He was shocked—SHOCKED, I tell you—when I told him he needed to shuffle in front of me, his opponent. IIRC I had to call a judge over to tell him that he couldn’t play with his potentially stacked deck and needed to shuffle in front of me.
5:44 What the hell are you talking about? Ordering your deck? What? Literally no card is next to any other card after shuffling. I don’t even understand the reasoning. You’re literally putting them into piles facedown. HOW THE HELL ARE YOU ORDERING ANYTHING? Unless your opponent is Rainman and memorized his deck the last time he searched it. And if your reasoning is that your opponent could have stacked the deck………….my guy, go on youtube and check out any card trick magician. Shuffling the way you shown can be just as easily manipulated.
Oh and for the record. For shuffling. I am more than happy to let others shuffle my deck. I have small hands and so if someone else wants to do the work for me, go for it. Sure, they might look at my deck but there is always going to be someone out there that will cheat so I just hope they don’t and I plan to have fun.
you’re allowed 1 pile shuffle right? During the first time your opponent gives you the deck pile shuffle theirs into 3 piles. If they Mana weaved that will put all the lands into 1 pile. then put the cards together and just cut it. So if they decided to mana weave they now have giant sections of mana and will lose for cheating. easy
I can’t understand how mana weaving at the end of the round, THEN shuffling at the start of a game, is cheating. As you said, shuffling does not need to fully randomize the deck, it just needs to obfuscate the order. That being the case, a legally shuffled deck will still have the pattern of its cards heavily influenced by the last game that was played with it.
I mean I always “manaweave” in between rounds mainly because I have sideboarded, but then like you are supposed in front of your opponent shuffle your damn deck. I love shuffling cards anyways. Always at least cut your opponents deck, shuffling is the best route, dont look at your cards while shuffling or your opponents. Stay vigilant when playing and don’t get rekt
Is Mana Weaving cheating if you do it AND shuffle properly? I mean, balancing your mana distribution while you’re preparing your deck for the match and then, in the game, you shuffle it properly? Also, I make pile shuffling before normal shuffling between games so I’m completely sure that all those cards I played, all those 3 copies of the same creature, stacks of mana, etc, is properly apart from each other even before shuffling. And something final to mention: When training shuffling, do check your cards or at least do test draws between shuffles so you know if you’re doing the randomization part properly.
if Mana Weaving is cheating, is Un-Mana Weaving Un-cheating? Example: Your opponent mana weaves their deck and then you deal their deck into 3 piles, stack those piles, and hand your opponent’s deck back to them. If they cheated by mana weaving and you un-stacked their deck, they will have an unplayable stack of cards. However if they DIDN’T mana weave, and you un-mana weave their deck, their deck should still be shuffled fine.
Mana weaving is only considered cheating because some people feel like it is cheating. But if you mana weave your deck, then you’ve got to shuffle it a bunch regurarely and present it to your opponent for a shuffle, there is no way you will ever get a better distribution than the mana weave, you can only get worse one. I kinda dont get the rule, I wouldnt want to see someone mana weave between games sure, because they get to look at the cards etc, but the process itself is hardly cheating imo.
I get that “luck” is the highest factor in playing MTG but I don’t understand how anyone would enjoy winning a game where your opponent had one land in five turns or five lands in five turns with three more lands in their hand. I’m all for the better deck winning but mana flood or screw should not be a thing. I’ve won games where the opponent had that happened and the win was hollow and I’ve been on the other side where I’ve lost and thought “what a waste of my life”. The best games of magic are when both players are battling it out and you are able to squeeze out a win and mana had nothing to do with it.
My god I knew someone who always “mana weaving” and it was such bullshit as it took so long and they always had a perfect mana/spell ratio. I just never knew it was cheating because I was new. I do mana weave if I haven’t used the deck in forever but then I shuffle the shit out of my deck and won’t do it again for the rest of the play session.
What about manaweaving after organizing a deck into it’s different components when deck making and altering, followed by a good shuffle? Cause my issue is that if I don’t do an initial weave of my deck I end up with massive pockets of mana which I’d argue is just as bad as it randomizes your deck against yourself.
The truth is I do Mana Weave, but that’s just cause I play with my brothers and one of our friends, we just like to have fun, we like to play commander so yeah, when one of us can’t have fun playing MTG. We do this before our shuffles so that there is roughly a mana or two throughout the deck, but we still shuffle afterwards. Now if I was playing competitively or with someone that wanted to play a specific way, I would abide by whatever rules.
No human can be random. No human shuffle is even close to random. The math shows that “pile shuffling” using an algorithm is the most effective way randomize a deck. Depending on how an individual shuffles their deck, the cards will end up in the exact same position they started in a certain number of shuffles.
I actually used to mana weave. When I first started playing I had a hard time with mana drought and a friend taught me how to weave saying it helps him and I thought it was fine because a friend said so. It wasn’t until I started playing at my local shop that a very friendly player told me it was considered stacking the deck which is of course cheating. Needless to say I am no longer friends with that person plus they’ve been banned from our local shop due to mana weaving.
I have just one thing to say about mana weaving( or seeding as we called it) you can do it between matches and If I was having huge mana pockets or mana gaps, I’d always mana seed, because of how smart I am, after a game, I’d always scoop spells together and mana together. It was usually about after 7 rounds I’d do this, I always shuffled as you explained and presented my deck after being shuffled. I know statistics are a thing and so is randomization, but to achieve the mana pockets and gaps I create is very unlikely.
If i remember correctly from articles many years ago, making piles makes sense with 60 cards deck, but they should be a 7 piles, because 60 is not divisible by 7. Then it works fine, but making a 5 or only 3 piles doesn’t shuffle, there was some math behind. With EDH deck takes too much time, i dont bother with that.
Okay so an actual question for yah, the way i shuffle my deck and randomize my deck goes as follows, in the following order; 1. I do do the mana weaving, layering 2 spells and 1 mana source. (i didnt know this was considered cheating and is just a habbit picked up from other ingrained shuffling biases) 2. I then do the pile method to start randomizing it a little bit, picking up the piles in a random order & cutting 3 of the 5 piles, putting them randomly in places throughout the deck. (i just use this randomize a little bit and get the innate order of cards out of my head) 3. I then shuffle 10 or so times until i have no clue what the cards are. (this includes me cutting a couple times or so as well just to make sure) 4. Then i present my deck for my opponent to do whatever with. My mana not only in my opening hand but throughout the game varies quite a bit from 0-1 all the way to 5-6. So my question being, despite these methods alone being classed as cheating or biased in some form, combined and reshuffled with the standard shuffling i do are they still okay? Or should i adopt a different methodology to true randomness when first constructing a deck? If so would you recommend any starting tips or the such for it? or should i just throw all the cards i want to use in a pile & shuffle to see my results?
I have motoric skills issues and I its clunky shuffeling. People in my LGS knew and it was hardly an issue .. ever. My first GP I ever went to however, the first opponent I played called a judge and I got a game loss and warning. Put me off for Gps forever. Still won that game by explaining to the judge and having him shuffle his deck everytime it was offered to me. It was a titanshift mirror … it was so bad
holy shit ive been playing card games for 15 years or so, started with Yu-gi-oh (back when a competative deck was just a compilation of good individual cards/staples like Jinzo, Mirror force, Magic cylinder, Breaker, etc instead of this newer archetype bullshit) and later went on to play and love mtg and i have ALWAYS shuffled with the standard mash shuffle with the back of the sleeves on the left but i would, out of habit, shuffle off to the left side of my body not even realizing or paying much attention to the fact that would mean the face of the cards were facing me. my opponents probably thought i was shifty. All these years and ive honestly never really thought about it or gave much thought to it since its how i have shuffled cards my whole life.
There’s two option in this world: – you choose to watch, cut and shuffle – you choose who you play with I never cut, and shuffle only to help small hands, I couldn’t imagine someone putting magic in the shuffle and not on the stack at “private magic table”. Just to say, for those not playing in “public event”, don’t be too paranoid neither and assert what is the context ^^ But I’ve been in the game for long enough to not care, be there for the fun and prefer quality over quantity. Is it worth it to play in environement where those things are common? Is it still fun? If yes, gl and hf grinding ptq if nope, find alternatives ^^
just encountered my first cheater (or at least catching a cheater), and wouldn’t you know it, at a local FNM draft. My opponent was playing blue green mill and had the 2 mana artifact with omen counters that flips into a 3/2 flyer i was playing black green butts, because why not. my opponent clearly on the defensive, in response to my attacks, flips the artifact that is clearly not supposed to flip, and then blocks, sending it to the grave. I pause for a moment–then ask to read the card–my opponent–without ever looking at the card–says “oh wait it doesn’t work like that,” and then scoops.