Playtester does poor job of shuffling deck
TappedOut forum
Posted on July 25, 2013, 8:47 p.m. by cotner11
I also submitted a "bug report" using the "Feedback" button on the Playtester menu. Thought it would be a good idea to post here as well.
Overall description: Playtester does a very poor job of shuffling the deck. Here's an example that just occurred:
- Entered Playtest mode. System displayed my opening hand along with play area.
- Clicked "Shuffle" seven times.
- Proceeded to play Magic as normal until turn 8. I ended up drawing 3 Wall Of Omens. There are only 4 in the deck. Drew all 4 Glacial Fortress. Drew 2 out of 3 Vendilion Clique and 2 out of 3 Path to Exile. Even after accounting for the Wall of Omens draw triggers, I still only drew 1 card that had not already been drawn (Bonesplitter).I would be more than happy to share a screen shot of the end result as well as my decklist upon request. This particular incident is not the first time I've had problems with the shuffle feature.
The playtester does a poor job period. You should take advantage of the fact that you can download your deck as a .dec file and solitaire it on a program that doesn't suck like Cockatrice or Magic Workstation.
July 25, 2013 9:03 p.m.
I thought I noticed something similar once but then I thought about it more.
The playtester here allows me to shuffle and keep track of life totals so fast that I can do like 3-10 playtests in the time I might otherwise need to do just 1 (depending on the decks: 10 for token, counter, or shuffle heavy decks - 3 for simpler decks).
So that means that with more actual tests, it becomes more likely that I will run into that pretty rare situation.
July 25, 2013 9:44 p.m.
@r3v13w, @KevinBasham Yeah after posting this I tried playtesting again, around 6 times, and only ran into the issue once. So, for the most part, the shuffler worked 5/7 times, or ~71%. So perhaps there is some sort of mathematical explanation for the occasional awful shuffle. I suppose the example I posted seemed so strange that I figured there MUST have been something wrong. I mean, how many times have you played a real game of Magic and drawn 4 copies of the same nonbasic land, plus 2/3 copies of one card, 2/3 copies of another, and 3/4 copies of yet another over 8 turns, even while playing three cantrips? After that I felt compelled to post.
July 25, 2013 9:58 p.m.
vampirelazarus says... #7
I've had this happen IRL about as often as I have it happen on here.
Which is fairly frequently, for some reason. Maybe we both (me and tappedout playtester) both suck at shuffling, or we are both statistical anomalies.
July 25, 2013 10:04 p.m.
I think the playtester is pretty sweet, the fact that you can playtest against any deck posted on tappedout is extremely helpful. But I definitely get that occasional hand where im thinking "come on, this would never happen."
July 25, 2013 10:19 p.m.
vampirelazarus says... #9
I once started a game at an FNM with three Cavern of Souls and drew a fourth on the next turn. It really sucked. Not really, I run a humans deck, so it worked really well.
July 25, 2013 10:25 p.m.
@8vomit Are you saying you simply open another browser window and then choose a deck from the site? Wow I feel stupid for not thinking of that. I've just been goldfishing the whole time.
July 25, 2013 10:28 p.m.
Yeah, you just play like your trying to win with both decks, and pretend you dont know your "opponents" hand. Its excellent for figuring out weaknesses in your deck and develop strategies to combat that. then when FNM comes, your less unprepared than you were before
July 25, 2013 10:41 p.m.
Statistical anomalies like this one are actually more possible in any playtester, because they make the decks very random, as opposed to the mere semi-randomness of ordinary shuffling. for true randomness, approximately 8 riffle shuffles are necessary. Most players do not use this many shuffles, and as also use slightly less random methods of shuffling.
This doesn't really matter that much for play, but it can make true randomness appear non-random (although it is already hard for us to recognize randomness).
KBash says... #2
The thing is random. It isn't like real life because clumps happen in real life.
July 25, 2013 9:02 p.m.