FUNK, NE — Robbert Murdock and his playgroup sat down for an afternoon game of Commander. The banter between them was the usual catch-up of everyone’s week as they shuffled. As Robbert made up some story about a finding a mouse in his drive-thru order, he paid close attention to the dark secret he kept at the top of his deck, his Sol Ring.
“It wasn’t easy,” Robbert mentioned with a smirk, “I’ve been practicing sleight of hand by watching videos on YouTube. I felt kind of bad for doing it, but the only way to see if I’m doing it correctly was to see if anyone caught me in the act.”
Robbert presented his “shuffled” deck for a cut, and was elated to see his friend, James Burse, tap the top card with his knuckle. The next phase of the plan was in motion.
“I played an Island and slammed down the Sol Ring,” Robbert said, chest inflating, “while laughing saying, ‘I swear guys, I shuffled’ before anyone said anything. Little did they know… Some people might say I’m cheating, though it’s not my fault no one cut my deck.”
“Oh we all knew,” James told us later. “He’s fairly obvious about it, but the rest of us don’t care too much. Frankly he’s a lot more tolerable than the other jerks we’ve kicked out of the pod. In fact, we think it’s funny that he doesn’t pick up on our overtly sarcastic remarks about it. I think he too distracted by his ego to actually hear us. It’s not a big deal. He’s never won a game anyway. His decks are fine, he’s just not a very good player.”