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Competitive REL » Post: Cutting instead of shuffling the opponents deck

Cutting instead of shuffling the opponents deck

May 2, 2015 08:00:26 PM

Konrad Eibl
Judge (Level 3 (International Judge Program))

German-speaking countries

Cutting instead of shuffling the opponents deck

Should I remind the players at GPT/PPTQ level that they are required to shuffle their opponents deck if they just cut it?

May 2, 2015 09:03:53 PM

Toby Hazes
Judge (Level 2 (Judge Academy))

BeNeLux

Cutting instead of shuffling the opponents deck

It's not a rule we have to enforce, it's there to accommodate cultures where it would otherwise be considered rude to choose to shuffle the opponent's deck =)

http://apps.magicjudges.org/forum/topic/1648/?page=1#post-7649

May 2, 2015 09:17:20 PM

Konrad Eibl
Judge (Level 3 (International Judge Program))

German-speaking countries

Cutting instead of shuffling the opponents deck

Great, thanks!

May 3, 2015 02:14:59 AM

Eli Meyer
Judge (Level 2 (Judge Foundry))

USA - Northeast

Cutting instead of shuffling the opponents deck

Originally posted by Toby Hazes:

It's not a rule we have to enforce, it's there to accommodate cultures where it would otherwise be considered rude to choose to shuffle the opponent's deck =)
I'm not clear that Scott's post explaining the reason for the rule implied that we didn't have to enforce it…

May 3, 2015 03:13:08 AM

Chris Nowak
Judge (Level 2 (Judge Academy))

USA - Midatlantic

Cutting instead of shuffling the opponents deck

Another perspective on this is that a cut is just a really really lose shuffle. If the deck started off as random enough, that cut would still leave it random enough though.

May 3, 2015 04:31:00 AM

Scott Marshall
Forum Moderator
Judge (Level 4 (Judge Foundry)), Hall of Fame

USA - Southwest

Cutting instead of shuffling the opponents deck

It is a rule, and we don't ignore it - but there's no infraction for it. Just educate players and carry on.

A cut is moving one section of the deck to another position, in its entirety. More rearrangement than that is, technically, a shuffle. (Probably not sufficient, however…). But Insufficient Shuffling does not apply when shuffling your opponent's deck, only for your own.

d:^D

May 3, 2015 08:17:56 AM

Toby Hazes
Judge (Level 2 (Judge Academy))

BeNeLux

Cutting instead of shuffling the opponents deck

Oh, I thought this meant that we could ignore it:

Originally posted by Scott Marshall:

And, to be fair, if Newt is OK with how Aardwolf shuffled his own deck, then Newt is probably also OK with just cutting it afterwards - and we can overlook that small breach.

Bonus question: what are players doing around the world?
I believe around here around half of the players only cut. So we should educate some more?

May 3, 2015 10:02:04 AM

Philip Wieland
Judge (Level 2 (International Judge Program)), Scorekeeper, Tournament Organizer

German-speaking countries

Cutting instead of shuffling the opponents deck

One reason for this rule is to solve problems with cultures seeing the opponent shuffle your deck as sign of mistrust. So if you cut the deck in such a country you can say: it's in the rules!

Edited Philip Wieland (May 3, 2015 10:03:23 AM)