I had an opponent present his deck and while he was shuffling a judge came over and gave him a card that an opponent had taken with a Nightveil Specter in his previous match. The judge said that because the clock had started that he’d “be nice and not award a game loss. I appealed, because presenting an illegal deck is worthy of a game loss- there is a lot of advantage that can be gained from something like this. Had he pile shuffled, I would be appealing for a lot more than a game loss. If you can’t keep track of your cards or count properly, then sure, you’re not a cheater. But why would you even get out of bed in the morning then?

Exactly. Even if you’re not counting counting, you’ll still be shy a card for the last iteration of your routine. He knowingly presented an illegal deck and he has a shady past.

This is one thing I was asking about when the issue broke – since we only now got confirmation that there was a pile shuffle before he presented.

We’ve talked forever about pile shuffling having no legitimate value in randomizing your deck and the largest justification the practice receives is being able to count your deck to make sure there are no missing or extra cards.

It’s hard to imagine playing at that level and not noticing a deck had a missing card after a pile shuffle… regardless of how fast your opponent may have been asking you to go.

Didn’t mean hidden zone, just meant like exile or similar.

As much as that is true, I am glad they made a ruling on the floor everyone could live with.

Colt Mitchell, that is a lie that is being spread by people like Patrick Chapin and Ari Lax. Some of the people acusing Márcio of being a long time cheater have never played or interacted with him.

The actual thruth is that Márcio was suspended a long time ago, for 6 months due to peeking at an opponent’s while drafting. It had nothing to do with concealing cards.

He has had a few run-ins with the DCI and that may have contributed to the DQ.