alol @ these kind of remarks. Let me make this perfectly clear: When you are "declumping" a deck you are doing one of two things:
1) Cheating
2) Wasting time
Whether or not you are cheating or wasting time depends on your shuffle afterwards. If it isn't thorough, you're a cheater. If it is thorough, rearranging the order of cards was pointless, and a waste of time. (Note: I have never played against someone who rearranged cards in their deck and then performed what I would call an adequate shuffle.)
The purpose of a shuffle is to randomize a deck. What does randomize mean? It means that every single card in your deck is equally likely to be in any place as any other card. You couldn't have any reason to think one card would be more likely to be next to any one other particular card than another.
Whether you are flat out stacking your deck by putting desirable cards together (such as moving a Gastly next to a Haunter), or separating cards you prefer not to have together (such as energy cards), both are cheating. The bottom line is that sometimes energy cards (or other undesirable pairs of cards) do stick together. That is part of the game. You simply need to shuffle your deck thoroughly and accept this as part of the game - not try to remove it.
I can't even tell you how many people in the Pokémon TCG stack their deck. The worst part of it is some of them don't even realize they are cheating. If you're rearranging your deck against me, you can be sure a judge is coming to issue a time extension for the 10 minutes I am forced to spend shuffling your deck.
lol @ the World Champion trolling me.
lol @ the World Champion telling me that I'm cheating when I can cite official rulings in my favor.
lol @ the World Champion telling me that I'm wasting time when he's the one who wants a 10 minute time extension.
Now, I totally understand where you're coming from. Clumps of cards DO naturally occur. But let's back this up a second. If I see a clump of 5 Energy Cards in my deck, I can A) take 3 seconds to fan them out in my hand and shove them back into my deck separated at random intervals, or B) spend twice as long shuffling because I'm trying to break up the clump of cards. And you're going to argue that
I'm wasting time?
Please.
Secondly, what do you consider an adequate shuffle? If I shuffle my deck a few times and offer it to you to shuffle a few times, that would be plenty, in my opinion.
Thirdly, let's take a look at this:
The purpose of a shuffle is to randomize a deck. What does randomize mean? It means that every single card in your deck is equally likely to be in any place as any other card. You couldn't have any reason to think one card would be more likely to be next to any one other particular card than another.
Actually, the word for that would be equality. Any given card has an equal chance of being in any particular spot as any other given card. The definition of random would be, in a word, "unpredictable." So, when I'm searching through my deck and see 5+ Energy Cards clumped together, after my shuffle, I know there is going to be a good chance that there will still be smaller clumps of cards present. Knowing this, when I draw 1 Energy Card, I'll know that I might be seeing another pretty soon. Would you like to explain how that is unpredictable? It's not, because I would have a reason to think one card would be more likely to be next to one other particular card than another, to use your own words.
Come at me, bro. =\
EDIT: I intentionally clumped 6 cards together and shuffled my deck for 10 minutes (I know I'm being trolled, but I just wanted to test it for my own reference), using various shuffling techniques, including topping it off with a single cut at the end. Results: Near the bottom of my deck, there was a clump consisting of 2 copies of the card, followed by 1 copy only 7 cards away from it. As I went deeper in my deck, there was a another clump of 2 copies at about the top half point. The fact of the matter is, while you can break up a big clump of cards from physically touching each other, it's going to be hard to get those cards far apart from each other, and even harder to separate 2 individual copies of a card from touching each other.
Speaking of opponents shuffling decks, can I refuse to allow my opponent to shuffle, or request that a judge shuffle in their place if felt that they either were trying to peek at my deck (yes, I have seen people do this, not to me, but to others), or were just really bad at shuffling and might damage my cards?
Yes, you can.
20. 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 allowed 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 assure that the cards in the deck are not harmed or revealed during the shuffle.
20
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 wishes to not 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.
Players engaging in questionable shuffling methods may be subject to the Unsporting Conduct section of the Penalty Guidelines. Players are strongly encouraged to shuffle their opponent’s deck at Premier Events.
