Remember that in any of these situations, a player may not be cheating, and that honest mistakes do occur. It is a big misstep to accuse a player of blatantly cheating without them being able to defend themselves first, and remember that you may be incorrect. However, since the each game, and each decision is important to you, it is best to ask a judge for an immediate ruling if problems do occur, or ask them to watch a match for anything suspicious that they see. In each example I’ve listed some possible excuses for calling a judge to your table in each situation that you encounter, so that you can end the dispute without offending your opponent. Once you’re absolutely convinced that your opponent is a cheater, be sure to let as many people know as possible in order to prevent that kind of behavior in the future. Cheaters are tough to stop, but once it’s known that you are aware of many of their methods, they’ll think twice about cheating against you.
The most obvious forms of cheating include doing things which you cannot disprove should you notice and call a judge. Keep an eye on card counts, especially cards in your opponent’s hand, and lands they play. If you think their numbers are a bit suspicious, you can always call a judge, but be prepared with good reasoning as to why the totals are correct. Use your own card count as a balance, and remember if you, or your opponent has used any draw card effects which would throw off the ratio. Barring any of these, the person who played first should always have one less card in total (in hand, in play, and in the graveyard) than the person who drew first.
There are also those David Blaine type people who can shuffle their deck exactly so that they can ensure that they will draw the right cards all the time. This form of cheating is difficult to spot, and very simple to avoid, just thoroughly shuffle their deck when they present it for cutting. It may seem excessive, but explain to the player that DCI rules regulate that in any event, you may cut or shuffle your opponent’s deck when it is presented to you. Make sure that in shuffling, you always keep their cards face down. If you accidentally reveal any of their cards before the game starts, it can be grounds for anything from a warning to a game loss penalty. The best way to go about this is to shuffle their decks the same way that they did, either by using the “riffle shuffle” method, or by halving the deck and doing a “split shuffle.”
Many players use dice to keep track of life totals. If you do this, you’re setting yourself up for a major disappointment against anyone who tries to cheat you. If a discrepancy over life totals occurs, judges will always side with the player who has kept life totals with pen and paper, so if a cheater sees you using dice, he may attempt to manipulate their count on life totals while you aren’t watching, and then call a judge to get the life totals officially resolved in their favor. It’s a dirty trick, but because it’s written in DCI policy that life totals must be recorded with pen and paper in officially sanctioned events, judges have no choice but to rule in favor of the “official” count. This is one of the primary reasons why it’s important to always carry your own pen and paper with you in a tournament.
Another blatant form of cheating occurs whenever the cheater loses. Often they will fill out the round results form and sign, and even offer to bring it up for you. If you’ve won the match, don’t let them. As soon as that form leaves their hands, you have no control over it, and they can simply cross out the numbers and change them before turning in the slip. Judges will assume an error was made before the form was signed, and input the results as they see them. There is no way you can reverse this decision, so you must beware.
The less blatant forms of cheating are very difficult to check against, and can be hard to uncover if they use a well-designed trick. The following are some of the forms of cheating that I’ve seen or heard about, and hopefully you can use these examples to uncover more.
The easiest to do, and the hardest to uncover is if opponents are running more than 4 copies of a given card. Always check and see, especially in late game situations if this is the case, and use the guise of determining the likelihood of a counterspell. Random deck checks eliminate the possibility of this, but at smaller tournaments they’ll never occur, and at larger tournaments, the “random” deck checks are always done at tables one through four. If your opponent is doing that well late into the tournament, he probably went back to a correct version of his deck before the round began.
Another trick I’ve seen is people marking their cards, especially those using Clear-backed card sleeves. If they have the Ultrapro logo on them, ensure that the top card of their library has the logo on the same side. Also make sure that the cards in their deck are facing the same direction. Their cards could be marked on the back as well, possibly with a pink highlighter, or other small mark which is difficult to detect if you’re not looking for it. If they are marking all their lands one way, and their non-lands a different way, this is a powerful advantage against you, and a common way of trying to cheat.
When you’re playing, don’t allow players to stand behind you. When they do this, they may be communicating with your opponent about the cards that you’re drawing, using verbal or body language clues. By standing behind you, it prevents you from being able to tell if they are doing anything out of the ordinary. If they sit next to you, you can at least ensure that you can hide your cards from them if you believe they are a threat. The best way to make sure that nobody does this is to constantly adjust your chair and lean back into them. They’ll get the picture sooner or later.
One of the most sophisticated ways of cheating at Magic is through a player creating their own cards. This doesn’t mean by using proxy cards necessarily, but I have seen cheaters who will print out slightly incorrect versions of cards which are so well made, that it’s impossible to tell the difference unless you have a correct version of the card available to you. Often the changes will be minute, and only be taken advantage of in game-changing situations, such as making a Sorcery into an Instant, or changing the power/toughness ratio on a certain creature. The only way to prevent being taken advantage of in these situations is by knowing the cards really well. If you have a serious doubt, call a judge, and ask if you can have a one-on-one talk with them. Use the excuse with your opponent that you’ve just thought up a very unique play and would like to clarify if it is correct before acting. When you get a judge alone, ask him if he is sure of a card’s wording, and ask that he make sure of it before you return to the game. These one-on one consultations with judges are available in almost all levels of tournaments, and can be a good way of solving disputes before your opponent gets a chance to respond.
Overall, the keys to avoiding cheaters are to expect that everyone is cheating against you, while not making it obvious that you are doing so. Fortunately, the level of ability of these cheaters is usually very minimal (thus, they need to cheat to win), and is typically very easy to solve if you are prepared. If you do run into a world-class cheater, remember those one-on-one consultations with judges, and remember that you can ask a second opinion if you are doubtful of a judge’s experience or ability.
