Inconsistant Shuffling on PTCGO

Electricbluewolf

Ditto Hoarder
Member
So as we all know one of the key elements to a good deck is the constancy. Your opening hand should be varied and supportive of first or second turn and try to include the set up, or various cards that lead to the set up, in your hand.

The problem I have faced many time online is the shuffling constancy. I play exactly the same deck online as I do in real life (A Manectric/Regice). It has 11 Basic Pokemon, 35 Trainers and the rest energy. Many many times I have draw my hand to have one trainer and 6 energy. Or one basic and the rest trainers. Or at one time all basic energies.

I tried Manectric/Bats one time my starting hand was one zubat, 2 trainers (supporters) and all 4 crobats.

The worst case I have played today were I mulligan 7 times in a row! That has never happened to me ever with my hand in real life.

Has anyone else had "problems" with the shuffling. I do realise it sounds like I'm blaming the system for my deck being rubbish, but it makes testing very hard as how do I know it isn't down to shuffling? Obviously they can't create something that power shuffles but still to have 6 basic energies in your hand on the first turn must be very low statistics.

Has anyone else had any problems with it?
 
The problem with the PTCGO is that in computers there's no reliable way to randomise (without having massive spaces between each random element at least) as far as I'm aware because it's based on time and when everything is done together you often end with the same "random" result, which I believe is why often when we play we can end up drawing the same card several times in a row (I've noticed mulliganing a few times I can end up with the same card ie Professor Sycamore in 3 or 4 copies a few times).

Also I believe this is why sometimes both players can mulligan 5 times then both get a basic on the same try.
 
I have run into randomization issues at times as well. Generally I think it's pretty realistic, but sometimes it's just outright mind-boggling.

Coin flips used to seem heavily favored towards Tails a few years ago, and there were a lot of people complaining about it on the forums. They denied any issue, and said that it was true 50-50 odds, only to admit a few patches later that they found an error that indeed favored Tails. :p Coins seem fine now though.

My most outrageous experience on PTCGO happened just a few months ago: I had a horrible hand after top-decking 4 Vs. Seekers in a row, with no Supporters in my Discard. On the fifth turn, I thankfully drew a Judge, played it... and it gave me 4 Vs. Seekers again. I virtually never ragequit on PTCGO, but I'll admit I clicked the [X] button on that one. I immediately went to the forums to see if anyone else had similar experiences with that particular patch, and there were a few people complaining that they'd top-deck 4 of the same Pokemon in a row and such.

It seems to have gotten better, at least. But yeah, I still occasionally get "this can't be a coincidence" moments too.
 
I actually noticed this recently. I got draws that were very near the same as the previous, and I continuously get about three consecutive mulligans in decks with 8 to 16 basics, and then when I don't get a mulligan, it's my only Shaymin-EX. X____x
 
I've had full sessions of games where I've gotten nothing but Tails on coin flips. I've also experienced multiple mulligans before with multiple decks (my record so far is 7 like yours and I like to build my decks rather basic heavy). The RNG in PTCGO in general is not well programmed, which, while it is a program and there is only so many way to fix a problem as this...

...I find it extremely frustrating that I rarely get heads. .-.
 
Though one does need to be careful not to think that a sufficiently randomized deck will eliminate the risk of bad multiple card draws, as a sufficiently randomized deck should mean you can get bad results, and even unusual things like getting the same four cards over again is possible, the PTCGO may have some bugs where it isn't properly shuffling. Learn to distinguish such things: shuffling away four VS seeker with Judge and getting them all back is unusual. Shuffling away four cards you cannot use and getting four cards you still cannot use, especially if they are not the same four and/or consist of cards you're running in multiples is probably just bad luck.
 
My personal opinion is that this issue must be discussed seriously and people should n´t let it end without some reasonable answer. I get really uncomfortable when i see my first hand consists of 3 sycamore or 3 spirit link and so on. I guess situations like these are happening at a higher frequency ( i don´t play that much anyway).
At least Prof. Birch saves me when it happens ahahhaa.

I am not full aware of how the shuffling system works but in the most recent updates I am getting some awkward first-hands and thanks god i´m not alone...
Some might think i just have to rebuild my deck (blah blah blah) or I should be more "optimistic"(?) when playing pokemon tcgo. Meanwhile these same guys says things like "TCG is not about luck, it´s much more about Consistency" (kinda controversial isn´t it?).

I am not judging neither Pokemon TCGO system neither its Staff, but something should be clarified and reported to community.

Well, i´m done here. Hope we have a nice and healthy chat.
Bye.
 
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