Yu-Gi-Oh! Catching Cheaters Guide

Yu-Gi-Oh! Catching Cheaters Guide by planetcookieguy

Hey! So I figured it would be helpful to everyone to know the various ways of cheating there is in Yu-Gi-Oh! I am not proud of knowing how to do these, but I am proud that I would catch anyone trying to cheat me around 95% of the time. THIS IS ONLY TO PROMOTE SELF-HELP IN CATCHING CHEATING, I DO NOT ADVOCATE USING THESE TACTICS.

Before I start the list I guess you guys are wondering what qualifies me to even make this post. Well a bit about myself: I am from Arizona, have 10 regional Top 8s (9 Arizona, 1 Texas) and 4 YCS Top 32 finishes (1 was top 8). I picked a lot of these tricks up from a lot of other top players who perform much better than I do (may or may not be because of the contents of this post haha). Anyway, enough about me, I hope this list is helpful to you guys and I hope I help you guys prevent these from happening :)

• The 5 x 8 pile shuffle. Joe Giorlando made a youtube video about this one I believe. This one is usually really obvious. They pre-sorted their deck and are pile shuffling in 5 piles of 8 (40 cards) followed by 8 piles of 5 or vice-versa. It’s basically card-counting. If they make 5 piles of 8, followed by 8 piles of 5, just do the exact opposite to their deck: 8 piles of 5 then 5 piles of 8. This will give them an awful assortment.

• During 3v3 side events (where coaching is allowed) a team shuffles their opponents deck with the bottom of the deck showing off to the side, then their teammate looks at the bottom of the deck his friend is shuffling then proceeds to whisper to him what his opponent is playing. It’s a really sly trick which is why you always ask your opponents to look at your team in the eyes while shuffling.

• Wearing and tearing your own cards so you can feel for them in the deck is probably the most common trick. Whenever you shuffle an opponents deck make sure to not only count it, but after you’re done shuffling it, place it on the table, look at it from the side. If they are doing the wear-and-tear cheat it will be obvious which cards they are going to feel for.

• If you’re shuffling your opponents deck and you see a bad card on the bottom while you’re shuffling, you can “pull it” to the top while making it seem like you’re shuffling so they draw it. Quite easy to do, very hard to catch.

• The old “pro storm” cheat. You always need to have your hand near your backrow for this trick. I will give an example: You have Mirror Force and Heavy Storm in your hand. You think your opponent has an MST so you don’t want to set the mirror force. You set the Heavy Storm instead. This cheat goes 1 of 2 ways. Your opponent goes all out and spits out their hand. The mirror force in your hand would be very useful right? It’s easy to “switch” the heavy storm and the mirror force if your hand is close enough and you’re fast enough. If you end up not needing the mirror force your opponent could set a few cards and then you flip the heavy on your turn. This was a really popular trick back in the 2009 era. Cards aren’t as absolute now so it’s tricky to try now.

• Using a search effect to search a good card since you already have a card in your hand for the searcher. Example: Hand is ROTA, Deneb. Use ROTA, add a Nova to hand, show the Deneb that was already in your hand. (Yes you should always verify before it’s added, but it’s easier said than done especially at a tournament where everyone is tense.)

• Keeping extra side cards behind sleeved tokens in your deckbox. This is why all 70 cards should be on the mat at all times (not in the deckbox) , and tokens only pulled out when necessary.

• Keeping copies of cards like Raigeki, Soul Charge, etc (good 1 ofs) in your extra deck then “looking” at your extra deck for a while then dropping the card onto your lap. I saw this on the bubble of a Texas YCS. Always keep count of your opponents hand.

• Signaling friends. A lot of people have codes. “It’s hot in here” could mean “Go off” or “My mom just called” could mean “He has Veiler.’ This one is hard to catch, so never let your opponents friends stand behind you. Or anyone for that matter.

• Getting info before the match starts. Do you ever think it’s weird that a lot of top players are never early to their seats? It’s because a lot of the time they will wait for their opponent to get there first and hope they start bringing out their cards so they could walk behind them and see what they are playing. NEVER look through your deck, side or extra until your opponent is sitting in front of you. Just set up your mat, calc and deckbox, but do nothing beyond that until there is a body in front of you.

• Following that, a lot of players will sit in the seat next to the one they are supposed to be at then ask their opponent what they are playing. As soon as that information is received they check the table number and “oops I was supposed to sit at table 11, not 12! My bad man, hey goodluck in our match ok?” This is takes a special type of slimy to use, but it does happen.

• Scratching the back of your opponents sleeves while looking through their graveyard so when you pile shuffle them the next game you can tell which cards would make bad hands together. For example, you check your opponents grave, and scratch the backs of stuff like all the Shaddoll monsters. You pile shuffle, then put all the ones with a mark together and then just block shuffle so they open a hand of Shaddoll monsters. It’s actually a lot easier to do than it sounds and is how Simon He was so consistent before getting banned.

• Picking up 2 cards during the draw phase. Not sliding off the table or anything. Just literally picking up 2 cards so it only looks like 1. People say this one is really easy to catch but it isn’t imo. It isn’t because: it’s easy to say “yeah I’m 100% focused on my opponent nothing would ever get past me” but anyone who has had to grind through a 9+ round tournament knows it’s a lot harder to keep an eye on everything as the day progresses. A way to counteract this is to just keep track of the number of cards in their hand using a die. Every turn just move it accordingly.

• Rigged dice. 6-sided die with 5s on each side is the most common I’ve seen. The chance that you’re opponent rolls a 6 with their fair dice is way lower than you being guaranteed a 5 every time. It’s not hard to catch unless the person using the dice is very quick to pick it up after the roll. If your opponent is quick to pick up their die after they roll, ask to see the die. If they refuse that’s when you call judge.

• TI-89s and such are used to cheat as well. When they are at an angle, you can see the reflection of the bottom of your opponents deck on the screen with the right angling. This coupled with a trick I said earlier (putting bad cards on top from the bottom) is fairly common. It’s a big reason why the top players started using these big calculators in the first place.

• Getting shafted in time has seen an increase because a lot of people are too scared to rush their opponent. If game 1 ends during time, then no further games are played. The winner of game 1 wins the match and a lot of people take advantage of this by slow-playing. Always rush your opponent people, don’t be ridiculous but be stern.

That’s all I have in regards to non-gameplay things. There is obviously stuff like omitting information, incorrect rulings etc but this covers mostly everything.

Hope this is helpful and feel free to inform me of any I may have missed, I will add it to the OP!