Hey all, I wanted to share some thoughts with you all about mid-round deck-checks. Not sure if this is the right place to post this, moderators please move it if necessary.

I have always found mid-round deck-checks a bit awkward and clunky, especially when you are trying to perform it within a limited time frame while players are waiting for you eagerly to finish. Thats why I was delighted when I was introduced to a new method by a level 1 candidate I was mentoring (and a very good friend of mine) Theodoros Millidonis. Theo just became level 1 this weekend by the way, so well done to him! He came up with this on the spot with his first deckcheck, which was very innovative of him.

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The Method:

I laid out the cards in front of me, sorted roughly by mana cost as usual. I did the same for the sideboard, keeping it clearly seperate from the maindeck piles of course.

I read down the decklist and picked up the cards as I usually would. If I found a card(s) that was sideboarded out, I turned it face down in the sideboard pile. If I found a card that was sideboarded in, I would pick it up and check the decklist sideboard section to see that it was there.

Following this procedure, by the end of it, it would mean that the maindeck would all go back to my hand and every card in the sideboard pile would be facedown. If this is not true, or if you read something in the list that you couldnt pick up or turn face down, it means something is obviously wrong.

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I found this method very time-saving and eliminated the need to make notes on the decklist or notepad to keep track of what was sideboarded in and out.

I dont know if anyone has used this system before but I thought it prudent to share it just in case, for it made my life a lot easier. I hope others are willing to give it a go and find it useful too. Thank you Theo for whipping it up… If it is indeed original, we shall come up with a cool name for it! ;)

Cheers!
Rami

Hello
Very interesting, I will try for sure.
Just a suggestion: u could post this in the international forum so more people read it (maybe you already have done).
Is this material for an article?

I sort as normal, and when I find a card on the list that is not in the main, I check the side and turn it face down. Any cards left over in the main that are from the side, I check at the very end when I go through the side.

Thanks Javier. Do you mean another section of this forum or a different one entirely?

I havent thought about making this into an article. perhaps when I get some more experience I could put something together about the intricacies and efficiencies of deck checking. That would be interesting enough to read I believe.

Edited Rami Abdo (March 16, 2015 01:10:31 AM)

Thanks for the post!

I do something similar with a slight twist. I have two sets of cards: the deck which is sorted and the cards in the sideboard. I create a facedown pile in each for the cards I've checked.

First I go through the cards listed on the player's main deck. I put them in the checked pile in wherever they are. So the 3 of Card A that they have in their deck goes in the main deck pile. And the 1 they sided out goes in the sideboard checked pile.

After I go through the main deck, I should have 15 cards leftover, some in their deck and some in their sideboard. Any cards leftover means something was wrong.

I like this approach because it means if they have 4 of a card in their sideboard deck and they sided one in, I know for a fact what happened. (I don't have to remember when I check the sideboard that I already saw one when I checked the main deck).

Kevin Binswanger

Hi Kevin, yep I found it so easy this way. Previously I would make little marks on the decklist to keep track of sideboarded in and out cards and it was very clunky to do so. This way is pretty much automated.

The method I prefer to use for midrounders is to start with the presented sideboard and identify which cards are boarded out, and set those aside from the rest of the sideboard. Then I take the deck and sort out the sideboard cards boarded in. Lastly I check the rest of the deck.

Rami, my system is very similar. I sort the deck, then sort the
sideboard but place those cards tapped. Then I pick everything up in
order on the decklist, keeping the currently sideboard cards tapped.

Very nice….Its actually quite interesting that we have utilized the game rules themselves to help us out with a practical problem. eg. tapped or face down status.