Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

De-clumping

Yes, but it is better discussed in Judges Chambers since it is a tournament rule and not a card ruling. Moving.
 
"Pokémon TCG Tournament Rules
6. Shuffling
Each player’s deck is expected to be fully randomized at the start of each game and during the game, as card effects require. In order to achieve randomness, players are to riffle, pile, or otherwise shuffle their decks until they are satisfied that the deck is random. Randomization must be done in the presence of the player’s opponent and must be done in a reasonable amount of time. Care should be taken to ensure that the cards in the deck are not harmed or revealed during the shuffle.

After the shuffle, the deck must be offered to the player’s opponent to be cut once. Cutting the deck consists of creating two separate stacks of cards by removing a portion of the top of the deck, and then placing it under the remaining portion. Players should take care to not reveal any of their opponent’s cards while cutting. Cutting into more than two stacks is considered a shuffle.

Instead of cutting, the opponent may choose to shuffle the deck. This shuffle should be brief, and when it concludes, the deck’s owner is allowed to cut the deck once as described above. Players should take care when shuffling an opponent’s deck, as the cards in that deck are not the shuffling player’s property. At this point, the deck should be sufficiently randomized to both players’ satisfaction.

If either player still does not feel that either deck is sufficiently randomized, or if a player prefers not to offer his or her deck to an opponent for randomization, a judge must be called over to shuffle the deck(s) in question. No player is allowed to shuffle or cut after the judge’s shuffle.

Any action that places cards in a specific order or reveals the position of any specific card within the deck immediately negates any previous randomization. Players engaging in these or other questionable shuffling methods may be subject to the Unsporting Conduct section of the Penalty Guidelines. Players are strongly encouraged to shuffle their opponents’ decks at Premier Events."

In my opinion, as long as de-clumping is performed to remove cards from being in a specific order (i.e., being clumped together), rather than placing them in a specific order, and is followed up with good shuffling designed to randomize the deck, I think it should be legal. Again, the point is not to increase advantage by having cards be in a specific order, but to decrease the disadvantage of having them clumped together. This is followed by good shuffling where randomly the cards could return to being clumped or could more likely remain somewhat spread throughout the deck. De-clumping is a necessary evil because good random shuffling does not seem to do a good enough job of eliminating these clumps.

Now if you see someone grabbing specific cards to keep together in a particular clump in the deck, and then they perform only limited shuffling that obviously does not randomize the deck, a judge should be alerted at once. Grouping cards should not be allowed. Moving single cards to spread them out in the deck, to me, seems like it would be okay.
 
By definition, if you're shuffling adequately, declumping shouldn't actually accomplish anything at all.

And if you're shuffling inadequately, declumping is basically stacking. Even if it's to "decrease disadvantage", you're still adjusting the contents of the deck to achieve a more favourable result.
 
In terms of "what's allowed", as soon as you move any one specific card from one spot to another in the deck, or even looked at your cards, you have destroyed any and all shuffling that you have done and you must start shuffling again from scratch.
 
Are players allowed to declump between rounds?

If you see anyone "declumping" between rounds, I would consider that stacking and would alert any Judge and or TO and have them watch that player.

If they declump between rounds and shuffle well enough in front of their opponent., shuffling undos the declumping... this is not stacking....

If they declump between rounds and do not shuffle well enough in front of their opponent and/or doesn't offer to cut and/or finds a way to manipulate the opponents cut.... this is stacking, make a judge or the Head Judge aware.
 
If they declump between rounds and shuffle well enough in front of their opponent., shuffling undos the declumping... this is not stacking....

If they declump between rounds and do not shuffle well enough in front of their opponent and/or doesn't offer to cut and/or finds a way to manipulate the opponents cut.... this is stacking, make a judge or the Head Judge aware.

I see no reason to be reordering cards in a deck between rounds. If I see anyone doing this between rounds(and I'm in full support of declumping), I would report that action to a judge or TO and have them watch that player during their next round during setup. They may not be doing anything wrong but I take caution when I see a player changing the order of cards in their deck.

What I do after a game is 8 card shuffle the deck, put my deck up till the next game and reshuffle before my opponent for the next game.
 
Why should we dictate what players do with their decks between rounds? As long as they show up to the next round with a valid deck that they then properly randomise, it's their own business what they do with it in the meantime.
 
Why should we dictate what players do with their decks between rounds? As long as they show up to the next round with a valid deck that they then properly randomise, it's their own business what they do with it in the meantime.

That is true but if a player is seen changing the order of cards in their deck between rounds, I would at least be concerned as to what they are doing. I would watch that player and make sure their deck is randomized for the next round. If they fail to achieve my standards of shuffling, I would call a judge over and the judge shuffle their deck. I dont care what a player does with their deck between rounds but I see no reason to be moving cards around the deck when nothing is going on.

Like I said in my post above, I check for all this stuff after the game I played and shuffle there. To each their own on this but player do try to stack their decks between games so I would report that action if I were to see it.
 
I see no reason to be reordering cards in a deck between rounds. If I see anyone doing this between rounds(and I'm in full support of declumping), I would report that action to a judge or TO and have them watch that player during their next round during setup. They may not be doing anything wrong but I take caution when I see a player changing the order of cards in their deck.

What I do after a game is 8 card shuffle the deck, put my deck up till the next game and reshuffle before my opponent for the next game.

Yes, I agree players have no reason to be reordering their cards in-between round, doing so is a red flag. The point I was trying to make in my previous post was the the independent action of reordering cards in a deck between rounds is not enough action to penalize, both reordering cards in a deck between rounds and insufficient shuffle is what we are looking for. If the first action happens, you should tell a judge or the Head Judge to look for the second action.
 
Yes, I agree players have no reason to be reordering their cards in-between round, doing so is a red flag. The point I was trying to make in my previous post was the the independent action of reordering cards in a deck between rounds is not enough action to penalize, both reordering cards in a deck between rounds and insufficient shuffle is what we are looking for. If the first action happens, you should tell a judge or the Head Judge to look for the second action.

Okay, I see what you mean but I won't penalize the player for doing so unless it has been a problem in the past.
 
I would report that action to a judge or TO and have them watch that player during their next round during setup.

You're not going to "have" any judge do anything.
Lot's of players do things with their decks between rounds.
If we were to "have" to watch all of them, we couldn't.
It is not illegal.
As noted above, as long as they shuffle properly in front of their opponent, then they are fine.
 
Thank you all for your answers.

You're not going to "have" any judge do anything.
Lot's of players do things with their decks between rounds.
If we were to "have" to watch all of them, we couldn't.
It is not illegal.
As noted above, as long as they shuffle properly in front of their opponent, then they are fine.

That was indeed what I told the players that one time, but I wanted to make sure it was the correct ruling. Thanks :)
 
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