How To Shuffle MTG Cards Sleeved (And Catch Cheating!)

[@Nytequiller]

"There's only two ways to shuffle your deck, holding it to the right and holding it to the left." *me checking the time remaining in the video and there's 16 minutes left*

[@CraftingOnCommand]

Wow, there are no comments! Let me change that for you 🤓

[@AschKris]

@@CraftingOnCommand Another one just for good measure

[@kennethdixoniii4113]

This video made me want some Wu-tang themed “Protect ya deck” card sleeves.

[@FalconStrikeGames]

Long live wu-tang clan!

[@Migueldofly]

They exist!?

[@briandiadem]

WU-BRG IS FOREVER!

[@earlferguson3736]

Odb color

[@thatoneguyshawn]

Could be paired with a "this mat ain't nothing to f with" playmat lol

[@FSTL0613]

Worth noting that this video is relevant for either card games or threeways.

[@Kylora2112]

"Practice at home by yourself!"

[@TopLevelJiuJitsu]

😂

[@smore8566]

"Turn your head AWAY from the deck. Don't look at it."

[@breeze7464]

Giggity

[@zaddyxyborg9873]

3:38 "This is a once, rare time where you can look at your opponents d**k your opponent can look at your d**k and it's not weird it's OK!" If this ain't the truth IDK

[@brunopintaric8997]

How do I shuffle a 99 card EDH deck properly? Asking for a friend, I definitely don't struggle, no sir.

[@Krunschy]

Pretty this shuffle too, if you can handle it, but when it's too many cards just do it in steps: Cut the deck in half and put them side by side. Riffle shuffle the top half of both stacks and then the bottom halfs, just like he showed in the video. It's a bit lengthy, but in terms of randomization and card lifespan, you can't do much better.

[@espeon200]

Separate the deck into two separate piles. Shuffle each individual pile a couple of time. Then take half from each of those piles and shuffle them together a couple times. Shuffle the remaining halves together a few times. Then shuffle the two large piles into each other a few times. At this point your deck should be random. Hope that helps your “friend.”

[@brunopintaric8997]

@@Krunschy Ah so I've been doing it "right" this whole time. Like I literally just cut the deck, shuffle both halves and then do what you described. Makes life painful when you're playing basic land fetch cards every turn though.

[@kurtreznor]

Don't sleeve it :-P

[@theguidingstone]

I would love a video on edh deck shuffle :))

[@SirJamesIGamerfuzion]

I don’t even play Magic but been enjoying the videos I’ve seen from you

[@NikachuMTG]

Haha thanks!

[@m.blotzkrieg1615]

I still play yugioh and I feel like a lot of these cheats work across any card game, so these have been helpful to learn to watch for cheating.

[@fishpodpizza544]

@@m.blotzkrieg1615 I could copy and paste a single Yu-Gi-Oh card and hit my essay word count, used to play but it is so beginner unfriendly

[@m.blotzkrieg1615]

@@fishpodpizza544 unfortunately we don't have any one word effects like mtg. Instead of shroud or hexproof we have "this card cannot be targeted by card effects". The effects could be shorter if we had keyword effects for common effects.

[@dancing_odie]

i used to play magic. all my cards got stolen years ago and didnt feel like buying hundreds of dollars of cards again so never got back into it

[@N7xVoss]

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 video 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 video.

[@NikachuMTG]

Glad I could help!

[@adonoghuea02]

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.

[@Sayimasu]

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. "

[@ryanprov]

Yeah this is it. Anyone who says they stack their deck but then shuffle it is kidding themselves. It's either pointless or cheating.

[@RENEG4DE4NGEL]

Disagree. If at any time you separate your deck into lands and non-lands, simply placing 43 lands in a clump on top of 56 spells and then doing a few shuffles isn't going to reliably randomize the deck; there are still going to be potential clumps. Now, if someone wants to mana weave every time, obviously that's a problem, but especially when you first put a deck together a mana weave is just the right thing to do to get it ready for shuffling.

[@Sayimasu]

@@RENEG4DE4NGEL "and doing a few shuffles" is not considered sufficient shuffling. So again... Either you are sufficiently shuffling, in which case the weaving did nothing to the end result because the deck is as close to "randomized" as you can realistically make it.... OR you are not sufficiently shuffling, in which case weaving DID affect the end result, in which case you CHEATED.

[@S0ftSurv]

@@RENEG4DE4NGEL I agree with this, I understand the whole loop but if you play a game where you have 15 lands out and then you scoop them all together, there is going to be a 15 card land clump. I at the bare minimum disperse my lands randomly throughout the deck after each game.

[@Gobboleone]

@@S0ftSurv I feel like it depends a lot on the situation you are in while doing so. If you are in a competitive evironment and start to mana weave I would agree with @WitchPHD. If you are sitting in a friendly game of casual commander and spread your lands out by a quick "lands right hand, spells left hand, shuffle in" pseudo weave after having a game with 32 lands on the table, I am fine with it. I would consider that a shuffling shortcut to get to another game faster instead of cheating.

[@darthstigater6642]

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

[@vikmoj2426]

I'm not a tournament guy so no real harm done but I had no idea mana weaving is cheating, thank you Nikachu!

[@duane_313]

I still don't see the problem with it....if it's being shuffled throughly, what does it matter what order it was placed in the first place?

[@IceTemple13]

@@duane_313 As nother comment points out. "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. "

[@SingeScorcher]

@@IceTemple13 Which is why whenever I play any game with resources, the only time I "Manaweave" is right after building the deck to get a jumpstart on making sure stuff's all over the place. Never grabbing in exact amounts, just randomly grabbing from each pile to jumpstart the blend. After that, the deck never gets that treatment again till its dismantled and rebuilt.

[@silverrenard]

@@IceTemple13 see, I disagree with this logic, because it fails to hold any water against cards that search the entirety of the deck for whatever you want. And most people that are playing any level of speed drops have most of their spells doing this very thing. Search for land, search for creature, scry, etc - all of these things allow you to place the desired items either directly into play, into your hand, or on the top (or bottom) of your library. This affects the way your draws are done. There are also cards that do the same to your opponent, effectively allowing you to stack their deck. Even cards that force your opponent to play with the top card of their library or even their hand revealed so you know every move they can make. As long as the shuffles are made afterward, and an opponent gets to shuffle/cut afterward, I see no issue with the practice. Also, if it was done prior to your match ever getting to the table, you couldn't even know that it had been done. But, if it is against the rules at an MTG hosted event, the that is the rule. Can't really argue against it when it is their rules. As I said in my own comment though, I really feel that it is more of a time thing (like pile shuffling, which according to another video and stated by a level 2 judge to be an acceptable thing once per match in the opening hand to count out your cards) - it just drags out the match to take that time. But again, if your match finishes to the point that others in the round are still going, it would be a better practice to do either PRIOR to starting the next match, so as to not waste time during the match.

[@cancelcable7508]

@@IceTemple13 If it's pointless, then I can do it if I want to. Therefore it's not cheating.

[@repreach9668]

My friend needed a video like this. He can just barely shuffle sleeved cards.

[@WonderlandSnack]

I can barely hold a sleeved deck, mostly because I play commander and 99 sleeved cards are too big for my small hands

[@tiramin]

I have a really bad grip, mainly because of my medication, so I can relate to. I can barely hold my deck to begin with.

[@repreach9668]

@@tiramin my uncle decided he will always toss the deck on the table and make large circular motions with his cards for this reason. The problem is straightening the deck

[@repreach9668]

@@vincentcircharo8259 it has history

[@jacktorborg9862]

This was a fantastic idea for a video - I'm TERRIBLE at shuffling in paper and if you're super slow and clunky it can makes games (especially in Modern) a real drag to play out! There is some great stuff in here.

[@SirStickBug]

Nikachu i can’t thank you enough for making this video. No other mtg channel even talks about shuffling, yet it is crucial to your gameplay. I went 3-0 at a tournament once because one of my friends i went against didn’t shuffle very well and had to mulligan down to four. So thank you very much.

[@dylanmtg]

Imagine if the deck he had sleeved up wasn't Merfolk.

[@mikotagayuna8494]

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.

[@mrosskne]

that's why you shuffle their deck 20 times.

[@bradr2567]

Probably why the rule is you are only allowed to pile shuffle once before the match.

[@technole]

Love dragon shield purple matte the most. I feel the more expensive "no glare" ones they came out with more recently are too slippery for a 99-card deck though, and to be honest the slight glare on basic dragon shield is hardly an issue even with webcams.

[@twitchster77]

Have you tried Ultra Pro Eclipses? I've been very happy with the mattes. There for a while they felt too sticky for my tastes, but after hundreds of shuffles they started to really loosen up and are now a real pleasure to use. I've now shuffled the deck lord only knows how many times and have yet to split a sleeve!

[@DeeperWithDiego]

Over a decade ago when I played in tourneys, I used Mana weaving, for years. I knew it was cheating. Any adult who understand the simple concept of shuffling and randomization knows that Mana weaving in a deck is cheating. Never let them fool you.

[@fabulous_finn7810]

I don't mana weave, what I do to ensure my deck is more random is I shuffle my lands into library, and then make 6 stacks of 10, shuffle them back in, and then shuffle again. It's kept my deck from being stacked or mana weaved.

[@Earthboundmike]

Mana weaving can screw you pretty hard if you shuffle wrong.

[@Earthboundmike]

IE - Shuffle at all. It's still random.

[@Earthboundmike]

I tend to just deal into stacks randomly then move them around then shuffle, then give for a cut.

[@Earthboundmike]

I also have to work to not do a riffle shuffle.

[@masaufuku1735]

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.

[@royce9018]

Except you offer the cut, if your opponent declines then you just gave him what he needs, lol.

[@AlexOvTheAbyss]

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.

[@necrocorey6408]

Man, I quit going to my old LGS due to shit like this. The store owner didn't know anything about MTG and let the one judge there run everything. That judge won *every* event, and was blatantly cheating in every game. I originally chalked it up to him being really good. "He's a judge, duh". But once I got better at MTG, and started playing against him myself, it was super obvious. But he was the one and only judge, who can you complain to? The owner (who was cool no shade on him) was friends with him and didn't know shit about MTG. It would just look like salty nerds whining. The last straw for me was in a....... Theros prerelease I believe. He literally picked up my deck and looked through it just like you said happened to you. I just grabbed my shit and left. Never went back.

[@mitsune13]

"when it comes to your DECK, *double protection*" ... yes *nodding* "your eyes should be looking at your opponent OR! your opponent's DECK!!" ... yes *reluctant nodding*

[@NbNgMOD]

Yes with a minor (?) while nodding

[@clementgambier2182]

I used to mana weaving. Just like you said, it was only a proof of amateurism. But hey, I swear to God I never meant to cheat. I was just like "There is no other way, the game would be screwed". Now I improve my shuffle skills, and in the end it's a way better way to shuffle your deck.

[@meekelmendoza]

Great vid man! I once had an opponent during a FNM who cheated by drawing 2 cards instead of 1 during his draw phase. It was because his sleeves were sweaty and sticking to each other. I noticed it late on game 2 and it was such a bummer to check his hand size regularly after that.

[@GeekandGlory]

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.

[@NikachuMTG]

I never heard of this. Just sounds like maybe some inner sleeves aren't compatible with outer sleeves.

[@nunyadambidniss]

Nooo... You're mistaken. They weren't "cheats:. They made no secret of it & advised that you do so yourself TO HELP YOU FFS !! How's that cheating ???

[@Arrowed_Sparrow]

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.

[@NikachuMTG]

one day your deck will be better

[@Arrowed_Sparrow]

You just made my day.

[@daviddolan8247]

It's always good to see indepth instructions on how to properly handle a deck.

[@MaavBR]

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).

[@kenmax8615]

ya nothing wrong with weaving mana in properly as long as you shuffle the deck afterwards, and especially if you let your opponent shuffle/cut it to end. Just to help prevent clumping and foster better gameplay for all. I mean I know its the mentality now a days to drool over such situations but for people actually have a competitive spirit not much fun in winning cos opponent's mana was clumped together obviously.

[@MaavBR]

@@kenmax8615 You know, weaving is effective if and only if you ineffectively shuffle your deck. Hence it’s considered as cheating.

[@camglennie]

Great video as always, I was half expecting you to go into the "Double Nickle" cheat when you were talking about pile shuffling.

[@florianmuller4419]

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!

[@NikachuMTG]

You’re welcome!

[@sundaygravy2401]

Bro, you know Nikachu is a real one with the Dragonshield sleeves. Mint matte all day baby!

[@nicholasfarrell5981]

When will you mortals learn that all other sleeves are equally inferior to Matte Pink Dragon Shields?

[@Tsuchigumo880]

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.

[@Tavoshel]

Against mana-weavers, you could just make 6 piles once, that will give 2 land piles and 4 spell piles. It's not tournament-legal either, but they'll get mana-screwed or mana-flooded, that will teach them a lesson (just for mtg educational purposes then)

[@froiDchaT]

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.

[@RubenSmithZempel]

For some folks with mobility issues, holding cards off to the side is difficult. Which is why holding it in front of you with your eyes closed can also work.

[@mwilke07]

19 minutes of shuffling. Not the content that we wanted, but the content we needed.

[@tgworks5791]

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.

[@TheLuminousCleric]

What is DRC?

[@TehSeksyManz]

@@TheLuminousCleric dragon's rage chaneller

[@PM-ut6sy]

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.

[@elhoim_3]

3:55 you're wrong, a 52 cards deck is sufficiently randomised if shuffled 7¹ times ¹ the rule is (3/2)log2(n) which is 8.55 for a 52 cards deck and 8.86 for a 60 cars one, which must be rounded up. p.s. for an edh deck is 9.94 so 10

[@nathreetimesnineequalstwen7172]

This is going under the assumption that every single card group is the exact same size when shuffled in, etc. It's not as simple as: just math.

[@elhoim_3]

@@nathreetimesnineequalstwen7172 I tried to keep it as simple as possible just to say that the magic 7 is not so accurate as anyone thinks. Because you can't introduce things as Mahalanobis distance (used in a paper on this topic as the similarity measure) in a YT video about magic pretending other people know what it is

[@nathreetimesnineequalstwen7172]

@@elhoim_3 fair enough, I'd just always expect in irl to up the count by at least 2-3 due to multiple additional variables that I touched on previously. Helps neuter the variation.*

[@purklefluff]

by definition a 'shuffled' deck is one where it has been randomised enough that you can't know the order of the cards. That's it. It doesn't require the deck to be actually fully randomised (that would take more than 8 shuffles). You're correct that mash shuffling or riffle shuffling 8 times would prevent you from knowing the order, but you're not addressing card distribution. Let's imagine you have a deck entirely in playsets, with everything grouped together. The deck starts with a specific structure. you riffle eight times and are no longer able to know the order of the deck - it's now technically shuffled according to the rules. However, there would still be low dispersion within the deck, and remnants of that initial structure would present themselves (for instance, the playsets of cards might be poorly distributed and 'near' each other in the deck). - shuffling is a manual dexterity skill and as such you'd expect most people to shuffle imperfectly, so the mathematical minimum number of shuffles is kind of irrelevant here. Certainly i've seen some awful shuffling technique and most people i've played against just kind of mash their cards together awkwardly and haven't specifically practiced it as a skill. the aim for a game like Magic, in terms of avoiding distribution issues in your decks, is to go further than the absolute minimum of just 'not knowing the order' and shuffle enough times that any initial structure in the deck of cards is dispersed and randomised. 8 imperfect shuffles by a human is not enough for that.

[@jez2718]

What he says is actually way more wrong. 7 *riffle* shuffles randomise a 52 card deck (and as you say, a couple more for a 60 card deck). But the shuffle being demonstrated is an overhand shuffle not a riffle shuffle, which according to the guy in this Numberphile video requires 10,000s of shuffle to randomise the deck kzbin.info/www/bejne/d6mtppWXns-EmKs

[@Hurbob14]

This video should be showed to every single mtg player outthere. this is the holy grail of good manners in a tournament when shuffling. i always try to tell people about the possibility of cheating while shuffling. even most of my friends do so much wrong and i hate it. thank you for this video!!!!!

[@NikachuMTG]

You're welcome!

[@anescapepat]

Watched a grown man shuffle cards for 20 minutes and it wasn't about a casino or beating the house. #mtgaddiction

[@katurday1817]

I was invested in learning how to shuffle, but then i got lost in your beautiful eyes.

[@SpazzyJester]

This actually helped me out if I ever decide to join at a local tournament 😁 and thanks again for the recommendation for sleeves and deck boxes awesome video as always 😎👍

[@edoardospagnolo6252]

Watching this video while doing a 20-minute shuffle at home before an afternoon at the LGS: pretty great stuff! (I'm still going to shuffle again when I get there, but laying down a deck on a table to check everything in place always makes me tense afterwards)

[@ServoToken]

Nikachu should offer choaching services, I feel like I just got home from little league practice. He's got all the mannerisms and everything on lock

[@sputnikdx]

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.

[@NikachuMTG]

It's normal for cards to clump up, trying to remove or reduce clumps is basically mana weaving; hence cheating. You're not alone and I can tell based on this comment section that I'll have to make a follow up video specifically on mana weaving.

[@AFailedTuringTest]

@@NikachuMTG ??? If you do a random pile shuffle, it will statistically cause as many clumps as it breaks. It however breaks artificial clumps that can be most easily seen in greed decks that can pull most lands out of the deck.

[@russwaddel08]

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.

[@tiagodagostini]

By the rules you CAN do it just before each match to prove the card count, but you need to properly shuffle later

[@OrbGoblin]

"Say hello to the plants... I never say hello to them" lmao, what a transition, you are a king!

[@tales9476]

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).

[@targetdreamer257]

I pile shuffle in piles that ARE NOT divisible by the amount of card. If that is a 60 card deck that 3-6 piles are out but 7 breaks up clumps. Then the shuffle he demonstrated. I even go a bit further, (though I don't know the math and probabilities but it sees like it should work) I put half of the amount I pulled for the shuffle in front and half in back. Then I do just a middle. I alternate between the half in front and back then all in the middle.

[@silentstriker97]

Watching a 20 minute video of a man shuffling, love it

[@Alster26]

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.

[@TheGoldenHorncall]

As someone who’s had trouble with shuffling this video is so needed

[@pangeaforever]

When my friends and I first got into the game I was suggesting we do something like mana weaving so we can have a more consistent play experience overall. I was talked out of it and I'm glad I was

[@JJ03330]

Man, you are born with a skill to shuffle the deck… If someone’s messing about, you know something’s dodgy 😅

[@captianbacon]

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

[@clarkkent4385]

Found the cheater

[@captianbacon]

​@clarkkent4385 it's not cheating its litterly a rule where you can weave once per round if you shuffle afterwards.

[@Ashe1001]

I don't play magic but wanted to know a basic shuffle and looking at how you did it got me set right, much appreciated

[@blaze556922]

Love your content and this was something a lot of people need to hear. The only thing I disagree with is that mana weaving in paper magic is cheating. As long as you shuffle after and cut, it's normal in fact in my 25 years of playing.

[@NikachuMTG]

If you think it helps you (reducing clumps), then it's cheating. If it doesn't help you, why do it?

[@lastofusclips5291]

at best, mana weaving is a waste of time if you just shuffle normally afterwards. just skip the mana weaving step and shuffle.

[@stilts121]

This video and the one about randomization are my absolute favorites. You are doing God's work, my friend!

[@NikachuMTG]

Thanks!

[@chestercs111]

The only problem I've noticed with the way you cut the deck is that the bottom card stays the same. So if you wanted your opponent to not start with a certain card you could control it to the bottom and then cut the deck like you did at 10:34

[@NikachuMTG]

This is true, but won't it will be true of every cut?

[@chestercs111]

@@NikachuMTG well if you do the normal cut that most people do where you put the top half of the deck on the bottom, then the bottom and top cards will meet eachother in the middle

[@NikachuMTG]

and how is that so advantageous? Like maybe there is some smidge of an edge, but it would require looking at the deck a lot.

[@chestercs111]

@@NikachuMTG yeah you're right, it probably doesn't give much of advantage. I just thought I'd make you aware that it is something people could do if they wanted

[@NHTYSYX]

This is what I was going to go search for but forgot. It popped up on my feed. Thank you, man! Helped out a lot

[@NikachuMTG]

the algorithm read your mind

[@NHTYSYX]

@@NikachuMTG haa! 💯

[@SamHurt]

I love Dragon Shield for their color range and durability but their size feels more inconsistent to me than Katanas. Every now and again the Dragon Shields will feel like they're a couple millimeters too wide or tall and the Katanas fit my inner sleeves snug every time.

[@TehSeksyManz]

Ive had inconsistent sized sleeves all in the same box. Really grinds my gears. Still love them, tho.

[@PM-ut6sy]

I love your look at 0:46 when you check if your wife is around to hear that.

[@Anonymizur]

Where are Top 10 decks of August or September or October Videos? Lol I miss them.

[@NikachuMTG]

I need to create my 3rd channel for this

[@mtg_shaggy]

18:10 “the surface can get really dirty on the inside, because of dirt” quote of the year

[@ashhorrocks7990]

Genuine question, is mana weaving still cheating if I shuffle extensively after doing so? Like every time I put my deck away I make sure to do land spell spell, but that’s just so all my lands aren’t clumped together, I still shuffle properly before every game

[@BelowTheBridgeTCG]

Yep. Have a think about it. Does doing it influence the randomness of the deck at all (as you said so they aren’t clumped)? If yes, then it’s cheating. If no, then why bother

[@warhhamer40k]

This

[@NikachuMTG]

If you think it helps your draws, then yes it's cheating. If you shuffle enough (and it has to be a lot) that you are certain you have undone your mana weaving, then it's fine. But at that point there was no point to your mana weaving in the first place.

[@SamuraiMotoko]

@@NikachuMTG but if I pile all my lands, and then do the shuffling, and know they are probably all together, then is not suicide cheating?

[@Aaron-wv5si]

If you properly shuffled your deck, then it doesn't matter whether it was mana-weaved to start with. If you think it does, then that means that it either makes you feel better and is all in your head (which is fine) or that you aren't shuffling enough.

[@WiiTara]

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.

[@varmituofm]

I'll add to this thought. A really good cheater doesn't really need to be good at the game at all. I spent half of this video expecting a reveal at the end where his deck is in alphabetical order or something, just because I know it's possible.

[@stonex55]

I mana weave when building my decks and usually I pick a face card like platinum angel for the first card you see when you open the box, I always let my opponent shuffle it's just good sportsmanship

[@Sirmaadman24]

Man this video was so funny. I also really dislike mana weaving. If I saw my opponent doing that crap I'll immediately shuffle all of the luck draws out of that deck.. This is a great video. Very informative.

[@BAFLOD]

I find watching my deck shuffle into place satisfying, and its really nice to focus on something when its moving.

[@Yanleii]

After he explained how to shuffle, I spent the rest of the video shuffling until the end. Confirmed, you can shuffle while not looking at your deck.

[@christophemichel6312]

Excellent video I recommended to a friend of mine that started recently. Great advice across the board. Thanks!

[@TheAnonSamurai]

Pile shuffle is the best after you organized it. Helps spread the lands all out then shuffle up and play. 😁

[@michalsalzman9605]

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 :D 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)

[@tarastargaze3833]

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.

[@ozfan6]

I swear by the ultra pro towers. Those things could be run over by a god damn tank and no damage would occur

[@wizardmagizard5444]

when you cut the deck in 3 ways and leave the bottom, you could potentially put all the bad cards on the bottom of your opponent's deck and then swap the middle and top. My prefered cut is splitting it into 4 and putting the two top halfs at the bottom reversed, and same for the top.

[@NikachuMTG]

In theory, the player cutting could shuffle the bad cards anywhere they want and then cut them wherever they want. The most vulnerable spot is the top card because that's what the opponent is definitely drawing.

[@wizardmagizard5444]

@@NikachuMTG That's a fair point

[@Audaxmyr]

the wii music in the mana weaving section is too much, it made me laugh! love your videos!

[@NikachuMTG]

Thanks!

[@DevilishGuts]

Sup, Nika! This video here is highly appreciated, I always wanted content teaching how to properly shuffle and such.

[@Dyllon2012]

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.

[@benjaminkaye5119]

Another great video from nikachu. Thanks as always and thoroughly enjoy the content. Keep up the great work and catch ya on the flippity!!!

[@NikachuMTG]

Much appreciated!

[@MTG69]

That Force of Negation went from NM to LP because of this video. We appreciate your sacrifice.

[@bribri234]

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!

[@NikachuMTG]

You can make notes on people’s decks when scouting (observing other people’s games) but you aren’t allowed to read those notes anytime during a match vs those players. You are allowed to consult a sideboard guide, but that’s different. Now I haven’t done this before, but some pro at a Grand Prix wrote down generic decklists from online results. He consulted those decklists when facing against that archetype (but it wasn’t the opponent’s exact list). The judges seemed to be fine with it but I would double check with the head judge if I went down that route.

[@bribri234]

@@NikachuMTG Thank you! That's exactly what I thought. I really appreciate it as this solves a two week long headache

[@tweet3247]

i can tell you really enjoyed filming this video 😂😂😂 also thanks this was very helpful!!

[@NikachuMTG]

You’re welcome!

[@pandasinspace3560]

By far the most entertaining and helpful how to shuffle video, now do it with a double sleeved commander deck

[@NikachuMTG]

I'll work on it because I've been playing more and more commander and I do double sleeve that deck.

[@flameofmage1099]

I've only played kitchen Magic so I know none of this etiquette. The people I play with we just cut. Thanks for this, informative.

[@rapid0wn]

I love Rules Videos, more content on the competitive REL would be much appreciated

[@MrAtlas914]

just seeing this video. 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.

[@LeCanardBelge]

mana weaving is fine in order to even out the starting point of you shuffling, of course it's only something you do BEFORE giving it a PROPER shuffle. This is especially true for when you sort out your deck for deckbuilding and gotta shuffle it for the few first times

[@Eiyaa90]

Literally was talking about shuffling in my lgs Discord this morning and then I see this video.. I shared it in there too

[@kallmannkallmann]

Dam, havent played MTG sience the kitchen table at my mums house (like 15y ago), great vid!

[@Pneubeteube]

This may be one of the most important youtube videos in MTG history

[@adamlosee8061]

Wonderful video. This isn't something I often think about, but I definitely have bad habits when it comes to shuffling.

[@evang7954]

the music makes this almost sarcastic and I'm here for it

[@benpfab5056]

Thank you so much for this! Shuffling finally clicked for me!

[@michaeladams1124]

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?

[@Naturessightsandsounds7040]

Chunky dice and sweaty decks this video is way more entertaining than I thought it was going to be.

[@thomascombs7159]

I mostly play landfall edh, so I find mana weaving helpful every dozen or so games, just to get rid of clumps due to how large the deck is. Even after shuffling like a dozen times, I'd still wind up drawing like 5 lands in a row or something.

[@NikachuMTG]

If you get clumps, I think it's a sign you shuffled well. Random means you can draw anything. Most people perceive "random" as "evenly distributed" which is why you mana weave.

[@thomascombs7159]

@@NikachuMTG True. I only really do it since we play more casual multiplayer than anything, and nothing is more unfun then one player sitting around doing nothing because they got screwed/flooded (at least, in my group's opinion). I wouldn't do it at a more competitive type thing.

[@MTGMOXMAN]

Great Video! loved the shuffle I drop mine all the time, DOUBLE SLEEVE

[@sasorispupet]

i actually fuck up my shuffling all the time. if i'm not eye's on my deck while im shuffling i usually drop my cards like a klutz. Good call out for something i need to work on. Thanks for the video.

[@m.blotzkrieg1615]

Haven't play magic in a few years, but the only time I would "mana weave" was after deck building (where the deck was sorted) before shuffling. Then I would shuffle a couple times before a tournament. Then ofcourse before each game I would shuffle.

[@novamackenzie72]

I recall being a complete n00b to MTG and right in front of you, starting to pile shuffle FACE UP and then proceeding to mana weave and make sure the cards were nice and evenly spread out. Pretty sure you still won lol. Definitely didn't see it as cheating then but it makes total sense now.

[@NikachuMTG]

lmao. Level -2 shuffling

[@cavanaughh1490]

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.