Thinking it Through
Etiquette begins the minute you sit down and set up at the table. There are the small things such as introducing yourself to your opponent and asking how their experience has been, and there are more important things to be mindful of, such as keeping drinks off the table and making sure your playmat doesn’t creep into another player’s space. These conventions are out of politeness. The practice of sharing is a necessity for an honest game.
The Die Roll
When deciding who will go first, always share the die or dice. If a player doesn’t do this, it’s grounds to call a judge. I’m sorry if it’s your lucky die and if anyone else touches your die then it will lose its magic—I need to touch it. Cheaters will use weighted dice to make sure they always have the option. If you happen to have a lucky die that is honest but you don’t want to share, then leave it at home. It unfortunately won’t fly in a tournament setting.
This is pretty common knowledge. I would also wager that it’s common knowledge that players use a highest result when determining the winner of the die roll Many players announce this before rolling. Props to them for great communication, and I recommend that everyone does the same; however, in the event that someone doesn’t declare, the default is clearly a high roll. Don’t be the guy that tries to snake your opponent for not saying high or low and you rolled the worse result. If your opponent is a seasoned tournament player, he will just call a judge and both of you might end up with a communication violation or an unclear game state warning, or as I like to call it: “Failure to agree on reality.”
Don’t be that guy. Assume your opponent meant high roll.
“But this is the Only Way I Know How to Shuffle”
Don’t be this guy either. When each player presents their deck to their opponent, he or she has the right to shuffle instead of just cut. Always shuffle. It’s just good common practice to ensure an honest game; however, if you do shuffle your opponent’s deck there are some key ways of doing it to make sure you don’t come off as a cheater.
- Keep the deck off to the side. Shuffling off to your side ensures that neither your opponent nor you can see where cards are being shuffled into the deck. If one of you could, that would destroy the integrity of shuffling in the first place.
- Keep the deck above the table. Obviously shuffling under the table is a huge “no-no,” but even shuffling a deck not above the table is questionable. It could lead your opponent to think you might drop-kick** him. Worse, you could be an honest player and accidentally drop a card on the ground. If neither of you notice but a judge does, you receive a game loss immediately.
- Keep your eyes on your opponent. This serves two purposes. It shows your opponent that you are honest and aren’t trying to peek at their deck. It can also protect you by making sure your opponent isn’t sneaking peaks at your deck.
Time and time again I’ve heard people try and tell me that they can’t shuffle without looking at the deck. This might be true, but this is a competitive tournament. First place is free airfare, and last time I won WotC paid for a ticket costing $850. We’re playing for serious, so please respect the context in which we’re playing. I’ll trust you on your kitchen table or the local card shop to not cheat me, but at a KMC, I have to be skeptical to protect my interests.
If you honestly can’t shuffle without looking at the deck, then start practicing at home before playing in a high-level competitive event. It’s a skill that you just need to acquire if you want to perform on that stage.
I Choose You, Randomly Selected Card
With the advent of cards like Spire Puppet, players can start discarding cards from their opponent at random. For many games, there is a generally accepted way of handling this action across all high-level tournament play:
- The opponent shuffles his hand then lays out the cards, face down, in a row on the table.
- The player who played Spire Puppet assigns numerical values to the face down numbers.
- Example: If the opponent has three cards in hand and you have a six-sided die, then two numbers can be assigned to each card.
- Example: If the opponent has five cards in hand and you have a six-sided die, then they’re numbered 1 through 5 and the player rerolls on a six.
- The opponent rolls a die to determine the result.
Why does this matter? The opponent shuffling his hand ensures that no one knows the order of the cards in his hand. This information could be somewhat public before playing Spire Puppet if the turn before you casted Mesmerize. Rolling a die—the same common die used to start the match—prevents you from feeling for a specific type of card. Foil cards are noticeably different. Even if you can’t feel for foils, just watching your opponent’s reaction as you hover your hand over each card can provide information. Either way, the randomness is decreased and invites other factors into the action that shouldn’t exist. The above practices are the fairest and safest way to produce a random discard for all parties involved. If someone has a problem with it, a judge will be called. It’s not that I don’t trust you; I just can’t afford to trust you. As Khaled Saad says, “If you give your trust to a person who does not deserve it, you actually give him the power to destroy you.”
Footnote:
**Drop Kicking is when a player sabotages his opponent by tricking the judge into thinking he never presented a legal deck. It starts with the player shuffling his opponent’s deck over his lap instead of the table. When his opponent isn’t paying attention, he purposely drops a card by his foot then kicks it over to his opponent. After this move is executed, he will pile shuffle his opponent’s deck and count how many cards it has (it will now count 39 instead of 40). The cheater then calls a judge. Eventually, the table will discover the missing card on the other player’s side, resulting in a game loss for that player for not presenting a legal deck.***
***Disclaimer:
In no way am I promoting the use of the drop kicking technique. It’s cheating. Period. In no way do I condone drop kicking, or any other method of cheating. The explanation is meant to serve to purposes.
- To define the term so the audience would not feel lost
- To protect honest players from cheaters
Brian Durkin
Jerah Doxtator
Rafael Taveras
ramboscoob333
Robby Stewart
Robert
Kaijudo 24/7 
i am glad you won a tournament somewhere. but you would never be welcomed in my store because you sound like a lawyer. try playing a stinking tcg game for fun. you may like it and when you beat someone who you think cheated you it will be all the better.
Im sorry you feel that way but these are the kinds of “guidelines” you need to keep the TOURNAMENT (I capitalize for emphasis and not yelling) setting successful. It keeps everyone at the table honest, trust me, there are plenty of people who go into a tournament and try and cheat. In a casual setting, just playing around at a card shop for instance, these rulers are unnecessary. However, for a newer player in a competitive setting, these rules help them know what they can and cant do. Trust me, when someone first explained to me how someone could stack my deck against me just by how I was pile shuffling it blew my mind. If you follow these rules you can worry less about your opponent cheating and more on winning the game.
On another topic. I noticed that you used the phrase “my store”. If you do own a store, people cheating is something that you MUST be out on the look for. There is nothing that gets people more sour than being cheated and then not having the store back you up or defend you. Again if you are trying just to have casual play then these rules dont really apply, but if you ever want to have even a sliver of competitive play then these rules and guidelines are essential. If you, as the store owner, do not enforce the rules and required etiquette your competitive player will leave.
Jon brings up a good point here. I have traveled to events and worked events where the TO’s and Head Judges were not vigilant about cheating, and it hurts the integrity of the event. Worst of all, it can some players are left with a very sour experience.
Luigi, please keep in mind that my advice here is for higher tournament level play as I suggested. Obviously if I came to your store for a Duel Day this level of intensity wouldn’t be necessary, and would be rude to enforce otherwise.
But at a KMC level, those are premier events and these practices are the appropriate way to keep a fair and honest game. And to enforce them you don’t have to be mean about it. When someone is being a little sloppy I politely remind them to do it a different way, and explain why if they have a problem. I’ve played in several KMCs and have yet to have a problem or negative experience with a player. Everyone is very friendly and understanding, which is awesome.
Jon,
I played in an invite only MtG tournament a long time ago. To get the invite, you had to win a event at a lgs, then go to the main sponsor’s store for a shot at $5k first prize. In the first round, I played an a-hole that didn’t say 2 words to me, pile shuffled and counted my deck and called the judge over. He said I only had 59 card in it and the Judge counted and agreed. Then as I was looking through my sideboard to see if it got stuck there, a-hole said “Is that it under your chair?” I got a game loss and was 99.836% certain I didn’t drop a card while shuffling.
In the finals a friend of mine was playing the a-hole I lost to in round 1. I said, before you play him, make sure you count his deck. He did, and there was only 59 cards in it. My friend called the Judge over and the a-hole said “I left the card with my sideboard stuff”. Same Judge said “That’s a warning.”
Afterwards, I found out, all the winners were locals from that store and any infractions they might have gotten were all warnings, where all the out-of-towners got game and match losses for minor crap.
Cheating happens everywhere and if a venue doesn’t do anything to discourage it, it will flourish there. To luigi: If I saw you take that attitude with Jon in your store, I would never go there again. Actually, if you feel like naming your store, I will be sure never to bother you with my ideals on fair play.
DaShizNit,
I’m sorry to hear about your MtG experience. That was quite scummy what that player was doing. I wasn’t at the event, so I can’t speak as to how the judges and TO were handling infractions; however, it is unfortunate that you left the event feeling cheated by more than just one player.