SoldierHawk wrote:

Syd Lexia wrote: I would like to reiterate one this more time, because it bears repeating. So Magic players everywhere, take notice: NOT EVERY FUCKING TOURNAMENT IS A FUCKING PTQ. When you're at a small, sanctioned tournament at a local comic book shop and you fucking sit there and watch your opponent pile shuffle and present his deck, there is only one acceptable response: YOU FUCKING CUT THE DECK AND SEND IT BACK. Any other reponse to pile/present is INCREDIBLY fucking rude. What, the pile shuffle isn't random enough for you? You think I'm fucking cheating? FUCK YOU. When I present my deck, I always wait to see what my opponent does before I take his deck. If he decides to be a fucking douchebag and shuffle it, I will take his deck and pile shuffle it as slowly as I can get away with. This rant goes DOUBLE for retards who show up at a store they've never drafted at before and shuffle one of the store's regular customer's decks after a pile/present. This is supposed to be a friendly community. If you can't play nice, go choke on a dick. Would you care to elaborate on exactly what this is, and why its so insulting, for us non-Magic players? Just curious.

It's a respect/trust thing.

Tournament protocol is this:

1. Each player shuffles his or her own deck.
2. When they are done, they must present their deck to their opponent, who may then either shuffle or cut. You can also tap the deck, signifying that you do not wish to shuffle or cut; in many high level events, this is not allowed.

Now, if after the pairings are announced, I find my opponent, sit down across from him, and immediately present my deck, I can understand that he'll want to shuffle my deck. He didn't see me shuffle, so I could have stacked it. That's completely reasonable. But if my opponent watches me shuffle, especially if it's a pile shuffle followed by a few quick shotgun shuffles, he has absolutely no legitimate reason to shuffle my deck. Doing so is a direct insult. It a tacit accusation that I have not randomized my deck to the point where my opponent feels that a basic cut will be sufficient. In short, by shuffling my deck, my opponent is accusing me of cheating. And that fucking pisses me off.

Actually, there is a second option as to why an opponent would choose to shuffle: HE is cheating. By choosing to shuffle my deck, my opponent might catch a quick glimpse of some of the cards in my deck. This isn't a huge deal in constructed formats, since there are only 6-10 different decks that competitive players are playing in constructed formats at any given time and a good player already knows what's in all of them and how to deal with them. But in limited formats like draft/sealed, this is a huge advantage. If you shuffle my deck and "accidentally happen to see" that I got a Planeswalker in my sealed packs, then you'll be prepared for it when I cast it, when you should have no idea that it's even in my deck.