Opinion - Optimal Shuffling Techniques Pokemon TCG

Andrew Mahone discusses optimal shuffling techniques for the Pokemon Trading Card Game. Then, Andrew Mahone shows how to perform a riffle and a bridge shuffle maneuver with sleeved Pokemon Cards.

Welcome to our Pokemon Competitive Channel! We will be covering Pokemon Deck Profiles, Pokemon Trading Card Game Online (PTCGO) game plays, Pokemon event coverage and much more that the Pokemon competitive scene has to offer!

[IlluminatedGame]

24 full minutes of watching someone shuffle

Just like my oppenents at tournaments..

[m.greenfield]

this style is optimal because your opponent will be on tilt whenever you shuffle

[jefelofton]

In favor of the mash shuffling technique, as a commander/EDH Magic: the Gathering player, trying to ruffle a 100 card deck is quite painful and slow. As well as it's an unspoken rule to, while mash shuffling, to look away from the decks while shuffling

[aberomoa]

I've been exclusively Mash Shuffling for well over a decade. As some people have already pointed out, it's an unspoken rule to just look away while mash shuffling.
Also, to avoid 1 card over another situation, allow the bottom pile to spread out a bit before mashing in the upper half. This should make it so that some cards stick together, adding to the randomness of the technique. Doing this 7-8 times should be enough to give you a good randomized deck.
As for when it seems like your opponent didn't shuffle well enough, I always ask for me to do a final cut, where I divide the deck into 3-4 piles before putting it back together.
I do not claim by any means that these steps will guarantee a fully randomized deck, but they're what I do to avoid riffle Shuffling and damaging my cards or my opponent's.

[mindustrial]

You should've sleeved half the deck in different colored sleeves to give a better example.
Besides that, awesome video and awesome hints to spot those fake cheat shuffles.

[noahtetreault]

I'd call myself a casual player, I do sell cards that I'm not currently using in my deck. So condition is kind of a priority for me. What I do, is I put my thumbs on the top corners of the sleeves and riffle shuffle, and I haven't had any problems with damaging my cards since! The only thing to be careful of, is at longer tournaments, and doing that over and over, I usually leave with scratched up thumbs.

[SatanicWren]

As a semi-competitive Yugioh player who is looking at videos from other Tcgs it’s actually very interesting to watch this. In Yugioh Riffle shuffles are frowned upon and are the sign of the heavy casual. Pile Shuffling is the only competitive form of shuffling. No one wants to bend their 60$ Ash Blossoms or their 80$ Infinite Impermanences. Also you mash shuffle upside down, that’s why you can see the whole deck, if you shuffle Sleeve-Side up you can’t actually see your cards

[RonniTsunamiYGO]

If anyone ever riffle shuffles my deck I'm charging them 20$

[Juhheli]

I believe that the study was made on a 52 card deck

[alexcorona]

As a collector this video breaks my heart.

[ThisOldSkater]

So I was watching how my cards slipped together during a mash shuffle and the interleave seemed to vary. Sometimes 1-1, 1-2 or even 1-3 interleave. I'm at a loss as to how this is different from riffling since that seems to be the main thing riffling has going for it. I keep my cards fairly loose when I do it, so that's probably why I was seeing such variety in interleave.

[Sindragozer]

5:27 With that extended "Sooome" my head instantly filled in "body once told me the world was gonna roll me"
Now I have that meme of a song stuck in my head.

[Sindragozer]

7:51 when that happens, what you do is take the group of cards that didn't get mixed in, and push/shuffle that pack down into push them into the main chunk the same way. If you do that, it becomes more random even faster than riffle shuffling.

[ConnorKrohnicles]

The paper you cited did not have 7 riffles as the “magic number” but 8 and a half, or 9 rounded up. However, in interest of time and pace of play, 7 would still probably be considered sufficiently random.

[jeremysfiregym]

12:55... My heart broke.


My Opponent:
"You should really riffle shuffle... Its the best way to get proper randomization"


Me:
"You should eat a hot plate of shut the hell up"

[Grimmbaessu]

I've just started the game and I mash shuffle. I shuffle big piles, smaller piles, and half piles. I try to keep it as random as possible and I always look away from my deck. If someone riffled my deck I think I would cry.

[AdzPower]

The riffle looks great and is the best for randomizing but I will never do it, I want to protect my sleeves and cards. I didn't invest in a deck of cards only to have them destroyed. Especially when some of them cost so much.

[marcelindupraz]

If I may allow myself, it is 7 shuffles for a normal deck of 52 cards. So 7 kind of makes sense when you have 60 cards at the beginning of the game, less when you reach the end

[BevLord]

Ripple shuffling is so painful to watch 😂

[ThisOldSkater]

YAY! THE SHUFFLE VIDEO! What a great birthday present!