magic the gathering – What does it take to play a Battle of Wits deck efficiently at a match?

Three minutes is your time restrict for sideboarding, shuffling, and presentation.

2.3 Pregame Procedures

The next steps have to be carried out earlier than every recreation begins:

1. Gamers might trade playing cards of their decks for playing cards of their sideboards. Gamers might solely do that after the primary or subsequent
   recreation of the match and never for video games which can be restarted or video games that
   are drawn earlier than any recreation actions are taken.

2. Gamers shuffle their decks. Steps 1 and a pair of could also be repeated.

3. Gamers current their decks to their opponents for added shuffling. The sideboard (if any) can be offered at the moment.

Gamers might not use greater than three minutes to carry out steps 1 via
3.

Moreover, there’s a particular definition that’s used for “shuffling”…

3.9 Card Shuffling

Decks have to be randomized at first of each recreation and every time an
instruction requires it. Randomization is outlined as bringing the deck
to a state the place no participant can have any info relating to the
order or place of playing cards in any portion of the deck. Pile shuffling
alone just isn’t sufficiently random.

Taking the above two into consideration, the official guidelines state that you’ve got 3 minutes to fully randomize your deck. There isn’t a standing consensus for how you can obtain this with an enormous deck. Combining two strategies, comparable to a pile shuffle adopted by a fast riffle shuffle of ~80 card stacks is usually the accepted methodology. A 250-card pile shuffle ought to take a bit lower than 2 minutes for a dexterous participant, so time is admittedly tight when sideboarding.

One other approach I’ve seen for shuffling large decks is to do one thing just like the next:

1. Break up the deck into 4 piles (a,b,c,d).
2. Shuffle pairs of piles collectively (a+b, c+d)
3. Repeat 1-2, however shuffle the ensuing 4 piles in a special mixture to not arrive on the identical 2 piles once more.
4. Repeat 3 a number of instances, throwing an overhand shuffle or two in between.

The actual hazard turns into when you should shuffle throughout the recreation, since shortcuts comparable to solely shuffling the highest half usually are not acceptable for randomization. Presenting an non-randomized deck to your opponent to chop is a simple approach to rack up warnings.

There’ll at all times be instances when a very rules-lawyering opponent will try to name you on sluggish play at 181 seconds or for taking too lengthy to shuffle in-game, however such is the hazard of getting an enormous deck. Simply play your quickest and it’s best to have little hassle.