Some games come with gigantic stacks of cards that I find hard to mix with card-friendly methods. Games like Ark Nova, Clank, Hogwarts Battle have unmanageable decks but I hate bending the cards.
Whats the best way?
For Ark Nova before we place the board we do something like this
We did two games with a new ark nova and the cards were not random enough. We reshuffled again and are on a third game and it appears a bit better. I guess with time it will improve.
I usually “deal” the cards face down in 6 different piles and then stack them together again, and repeat the process two or three times
In TCG tournaments you usually do this with 5 or 7 stacks of cards to shuffle your cards.
I can’t comment on TCGs outside of MtG, but this is not considered sufficient shuffling in Magic tournaments (you may pile shuffle to count the cards in your deck, but it is not enough on its own). I would be surprised to find out that it’s not also considered cheating in other games as well, since it is extremely easy to manipulate the location of cards while seeming to randomize your deck using this method, if you know what you’re doing.
That said, in casual board game play, I don’t see the issue with doing it.
Interesting, the page you linked, does it explain anywhere what is the recommended shuffle style? It just says not to pile shuffle (only once), but maybe I missed it.
Table-riffle, split into smaller decks if needed. Easy to learn and not too bad on the cards since you bend them much less than you’d with a regular riffle.
I enjoyed watching this video about how the pros do it.
Thanks for the vid, where does he speak about the shuffle? I tried to skip through but he was only talking about how to open in Ark nova. Do you have a timestamp
I had a major shuffling speed boost with the No bend riffle shuffle , but a little modified, I hold the cards of one hand rotated 90 degrees.
This is after the full deck is broken down into manageable size chunks.
I highly recommend everyone try this style of riffle. It took one day to have a decent speedy riffle.
Probably still explain or ask permission before doing it with other peoples cards too.
Much appreciated! This is what I was hoping for. I will have to practice a bit :)
