Subject: Cheating: It's your responsibility
Date: Wed, 15 Jul 1998 19:29:42 -0700 (PDT)
From: "T. Holcomb" <tholcomb@u.washington.edu>
To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com

        I have read a lot of posts recently about cheating.  As a veteran
of four Pro Tours I have one thing to say about cheating:  it's your
responsibility as a player to insure your opponent doesn't cheat.
Imposing harsher penalties and lots of long-winded talk doesn't stop your
opponent from cheating.  Judges watching your match doesn't stop cheating.
Spectators watching doesn't stop cheating.  In Hammer's post he gave an
example where Justin shuffled his opponents millstone to the bottom of the
deck. Hundreds of people were watching this match.  Sure Justin was wrong
for putting the millstone at the bottom, but this could have been
prevented by something as elementary as cutting your deck. Not cutting
your deck is practically inviting your opponent
to cheat.  Not keeping track of your life, not watching what went to the
graveyard, simply not paying attention leaves the door wide open.  The
best players know deck construction, what to draft, timing rules, and how
to prevent cheating.
        As another example Mike Long was caught with a Cadaverous bloom in
his lap.  Did he purposefully drop the card there, to be retrieved later?
Or was it an innocent mistake?  I have seen plenty of instances where
people accidentally dropped cards.  As a judge I would have waited to see
if he retreived the card at a convenient time (but thats another issue).
I would never have let Mike Long or anyone put their cards below the plane
of the table.  I believe this is the only way he could have dropped the
card or retreived it (barring magician-like skills).
        The simple fact is that there are too many ways to cheat that are
subtle or could be construed as accidents.  "Have I played a land yet?"
I'm sure you've heard this. People make mistakes or forget.  It's too
difficult for a judge to rule harshly on many issues of cheating.  I have
known players to mana-stack or carefully separate key cards between
matches, then take three light riffle shuffles at the beginning of the
next match. There is no way to enforce against this. You must take
precautions by shuffling their deck. The DCI could take a
harsh guilty before innocent approach as some people have suggested to
eliminate cheating.  There is only one way to effectively stop cheating:
it's your responsibility.