Most Infamous MTG Cheater Caught on Camera 

the Exodia bit has me rolling

Hahahahaha that's hilarious, holy crap. I've known a few judges in my life.. they're often some really weird people. The fun kind of weird though! Eccentric, even! (that's what you call rich weird people) Sometimes my friend and I play card games (or MTG or Pokemon) against each other, but with the added rule that cheating IS explicitly allowed, but only if you don't get caught. If you do get caught, you lose (or for some games, we'd change the punishment to something less extreme but game appropriate, depending on balance). It's a lot of fun and you end up learning about a lot of novel cheating techniques to watch out for! And it's great for people like me that love the planning and crazy techniques behind the cheating but could never bring themselves to cheat against people who are playing the game seriously (ruining somebody else's day would ruin my day too, because i'm... not a monster, i guess?)

@@idontwantahandlethough yeah all tricks allowed can make games fun

ok that would be funny. i cast pikachu...

Could this be a video?

Twisted fate 😄

TF???

TOBIAS?

How is he not banned from competing?

Get that reference 😂

In large tourneys decklist typically have to be registered ahead of time if I'm not mistaken. So in that case officials and commentators could have actually knows his list...

Noticed this too. Funniest moment of the video :)

His GF was/is? Rachel Agnes, a quasi famous MTG player/model person... how she was able to be with him through all this bullshit says something

@@breakingboxesmtg1585 Likes attract likes ! :P

*What night was it?*

😀

@@breakingboxesmtg1585 yeah he's not dating Rachel anymore he's with some other chick now

Great story!

id just shrug it off and laugh lmfao. x'D !

I wouldve deadass looked at him and said "two explores"

Cheats for me and not for thee

I mean, he would know. LOL

YOOOOO LMFAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

lol good one x'DD !

LOOOOL

🤣

amazing comment lol

I see what u did there 👌

@@JoeyjojoShabadoo7 but Alex’s opponents didn’t :’(

Exodia?

It’s not even really slight of hand he played the lands on turn three played an explore then tried to play a land then immediately ends I was expecting the opponent to be distracted or him to play two lands on top of each other something a stage magician might do, not him lying and his opponent being too stupid to follow his opponent’s actions. How either of these idiots got on a feature match is beyond me.

Sleight of hand is the strongest card in any card game and it can still be unbeatable in other games.

Spectator: Alex, your nose is bleeding... Alex: t̶̢̢̲͌͌͐ ̴̭̩͍̃̈́̚w̴͕̳͐̐̓ ̷̭̦̇ͅo̶̰͊̀ ̶̱̼̙̐ ̸̱̈́ ̵͖̮̓́ ̵̖̍̒̚ḛ̶̢̍́̉ ̷͙̤̱̍̑̆x̸̡̜̀̚ ̵̛̠̗͆ṗ̵̋̓ͅ ̴̤̽͛͝l̵͓͑ ̴̘̭͕͌͂o̷͕̟͊ ̴̮̈́͘r̵͍̻͆ ̴͉̯̉̚e̷͖͕̅̆͘ ̵̖̦̳̌̈́͝ș̶̹̟͆͝

My opinion - Well if it is the opponent's responsibility to make sure you aren't cheating than when I say you cheated you can't dispute it and you must concede without arguing. Meaning I will win every time by turn 2 thanks cheaters for making me the best Magic player.

he is lucky that nobody there in the US does planeswalker jumping..cheaters in my country got beaten up outside post tourney

Gaslighting goes hand in hand with cheating.

That's the kind of animal that will cut you off in traffic even though the light ahead is already red

After he plays the extra land he clearly makes a gigantic nervous swallow, look at his neck :) Just like he he got away with something.

I would LOVE to play a game against this guy. What a tool.

@@GraemeGunn :dont talk about nickachu like that!....oh, i get ya, you meant the other guy.. apologies..:)

I don't think he has an issue with the cheating. I think the fidgeting and other "tells" or from his pathological need to win the game. The anxiety from that is what causes him to start bugging out. His cheating is very smooth and I don't think he has any guilt about cheating at all especially when you look at his comments about his behavior. Plus, look at the sly eye contact he makes in this video. He does that after cheating when his nerves start to calm because he can see his path to victory if his cheat continues unchallenged.

Captain Hindsight striking again.

100%. I deliberately put my deck down and to the side, take the cards separately and either add to my hand if drawing them from there, or do what I need and replace. Anything more than 2 gets dealt onto the table first then picked up from there.

You're absolutely right. I would sometimes cheat with my friends, just for fun, by grabbing two cards at a time instead of one during my draw. I could do it in one motion, very, very slyly. It was ridiculously easy.

Magic needs to bring back some old school poker rules. You have to be very clear and precise with your card movements. If you don't, you get taken out back and shown a thing or too. Obviously I don't condone violence, but these tricks need to stop. Draw cards one at a time adding each to you hand or a new pile in front of you separately. Failure to do so could result in a forfeit of the match. It's way too easy to manipulate cards.

I want to say that you're only allowed to draw one card at a time in the comprehensive rules, but this was years ago that I may have heard this so I'm not sure. Probably in there for this reason specifically because it's such an easy way to cheat.

And the Plot Twist there is that the deck he is playing is Illusion tribal 😂😂😂😂

At my games, we have a table rule, when you draw, you draw one at a time, from the deck, and while you dont have to reveal, you do need to set them down, so everyone can count them. We used to have a chronic cheater, and until we found someone to take his spot (we did games in groups of 4, or 2, and without him, we only had 5) we chose to just mitigate his cheaty bastard tactics. He was also fond of things like, slipping cards from his graveyard, into the bottom of the deck, if you werent paying attention, leading to the now defunct table rule of your graveyard being on the opposite side of your field, from your deck. Oh, and he was a card thief, so we had to keep our books, boxes, and bulk crates of card in a locked room or footlocker. claiming you didnt steal someone's mythic foil, and then using that exact foil in the next game session, including the same damage to the same corner...not smart.

@@dreamwolf7302 The fact that you put up with someone like that so that someone wouldn’t be left out is a testament to your group’s patience, but good lord next time just do multiplayer matches lol.

@@RanOutOfSpac at the time, we ran tournament style, either a 4 way match, or a series of 1v1 matches. We were trying to get into the habits we needed for running tournaments, and participating in them. Honestly, we saw it as good practice for dealing with cheaters, as well as spotting them.

@@dreamwolf7302 Ah, I see. Fair enough!

Unfortunately, his build was flawed as he ignored illusion and got caught.

"Two Explores" must have Foretell b/c he split them up over 2 turns...

He has everybody shook at sleight of hand lol

I would have refused to play against him. Store owner knows who he is and what his deal is, then im sure they would understand. Once a cheater always a cheater and they should have that follow them

He has no shame lol

@@killroy458 I'd have to refuse too. I have know my own temperament well enough to know if I caught him cheating things wouldn't end well for him or myself. At best I would expand his vocabulary politely and at the worst I would be asking him to step outside not so politely. Lol.

@@killroy458 if your opponent is not DCI suspended anymore though, you would forfeit the match with that though. Even FNM is DCI regulated, and refusing to play your opponent counts as an immediate concede, same as not showing up. 'He's a shitty person' is, sadly, no valid rule violation. So until he is caught again and suspended/banned for repeated infractions, there is little you can do, and least of all take a lose for petty principles. Til the rule change at least. Praise the stormcrow :D

What....what does this comment mean? Does anyone have a _non-zero tolerance_ for cheating?! I think anyone who is cool with cheating _might_ be cheating themselves 0_o

@@idontwantahandlethough it means he has zero tolerance...

LOL@@swy334

So he's the Tom Brady of MTG by the sound of it

He cheated on his wife with her twin sister.

Sounds like Donald Trump. The SOB doesn't care that he got caught and keeps on cheating.

there is a name for this behavior....its called a Sociopath

I don't play magic but other tcg's and the rule a lot of the times is that judges don't take third parties story into account. So it really wouldn't have mattered what he thought? I don't know if it's the same in magic though.

Interfering with a match is a no-no, however a spectator is well within their rights to report suspicion of foul play to a judge who will then monitor a match to determine whether not someone who is suspected of cheating is actually cheating. If the judge finds that the suspected cheater is in fact making rules violations in their favor, an investigation will be launched. The downside to this is there's a ton of players and only so many judges, which can stretch resources by a lot. It's been a few years since I've played competitive Magic, so some things may have changed, but that was always the concept when I played.

L2 judge here. When spectators expect a mistake has happened, they should ask the players to stop, call a judge, then explain the situation to the judge away from the table. Most people don’t have that confidence, but at the very least, don’t confront the players during the match about what is wrong. Get a judge, either by telling the players to pause or just leaving the match to find one (for obvious reasons, depending on the circumstances, pause the players)

When I okayed competitively (over ten years now) new rules came into effect that meant If there was a game violation a spectator could call halt the game and call a judge. Assume this wasn’t in place during the first clip but with video evidence I reckon the guy filming it would have be justified in doing this.

@@MirroredJigsaw Hey, I'm a casual player. What's the difference between the levels of judges?

There should be a rule draw one at a time, AND count out loud while you draw. Problem solved.

@@JoeyjojoShabadoo7 watching the video showed at least Vidianto did it the way you mentioned, he took one card at a time 3 times, unlike Alex that just grabbed a handful and went "yeah this seems right"

@@JoeyjojoShabadoo7 that's exactly how it should be. All draws should be done one at a time. I'm a little more lenient on putting cards back or discarding, but you should fan out the cards so your opponent can see how many, then stack them and put them where they go. If there's any question, ask them to count the cards being moved for you.

I counted minimum four, but in two frames it looked like 5

There's at least 4 cards drawn off of Brainstorm

@@williamlawton3630 indeed

4 clear as day...wut a loser

@@SpiceWeazel 3 cards, 2 explores... :)

I can empathize with this sentiment. How shitty would it be if you were all excited about a tournament and you instead had to laser focused on some douche to make sure he wasn't cheating instead of living the moment

This is really nice insight, thanks for sharing!

I call bullshit on this the entire chat which you guys can see at all times was screaming it out over and over

@@ziegfeld4131 LMAO and you would know because you were there huh?

@@JoeyPasco i was watching it live on stream lmao everybody saw the shit live

@@JoeyPasco i also worked for and live in the fucking town of the store that runs the series so gtfoh with that shit

The funny thing is, the guy didn't even accuse him of playing a second land. All he said was "What turn is it?" And the cheater, immediately aware that he was under the microscope for cheating, answers "two explores" to justify an accusation that was never made. He is guilty as they come. He actually sucks at manipulation and deception. He is nervous as fuck in all these videos. He constantly fidgets, plays with cards, looks around. He's as guilty looking as they come and his response to "What turn is it?" is a dead give away of guilt. He's basically saying out loud "I CHEATED." It only works because many magic players are either A: too in the tank to notice and not paying attention to their opponent (this is bad play, but in no way justifies cheating) or B: A lot of MtG players are extremely shy, introverted, nonconfrontational people. These are the types of people that are extremely easy to manipulate because they dislike confrontation and conflict that much. Sometimes they may even know they are being had, but the social stress of having to openly disagree and then confront someone about issue, potentially call over a judge and have a whole scene is too much. As for the scrying thing he did, I would have called judge. He basically puts the scryed cards into his hand with the other cards before putting them back/bottoming them. It's basically impossible for the opponent to verify he was bottoming the scryed cards and not different cards from his hand, and picking up his deck and looking at the bottom is also blatant cheating. Cheating is rampant in this card game, if Wizard's won't implement strict gameplay conduct/standards as rules (i.e. you may never hold both your hand and cards currently scryed/played at the same time. A deck never fully leaves the table unless it is being shuffled, etc), then players must police each other. It's sad that's it like this, but if they implemented some draconian rules with even harsher enforcement for a few years, they could purge a lot of cheaters from the community and then relax those kinds of standards slightly over time.

@@LC-wv7tz While the answer of 2 explores looks bad, if I'd been asked that question with the legal, 5 lands in play on turn 3, I might have answered the same thing. I know the spectator is wondering about the number of lands in play so early in the game and 2 explores would explain the situation.

@@LC-wv7tz well said

@@jaywinner328 but if you played legally, and you wouldn’t know why the turn clock was being asked. It wouldn’t be on the forefront of your mind for someone to ask what turn it was. If you’re just playing the game normally you wouldn’t really know if something is out of place for them to be inquiring about. Me I’d have called a judge immediately after he said “two explores” because that would tell me it’s intentional. Forgetting whether you’ve made a land drop happens, so the catching the extra land drop in a deck that drops a bunch of lands is easy to miss. But the moment he tried to defend it, I’d have called a judge and showed them the recording. I’ve caught my opponents misresolving triggers or other things that were genuine mistakes. That’s what makes it easy to know this one was on purpose

@@jordanharrison8769 Nothing wrong with calling a judge in such a situation. But if I'd ramped out that fast and some casual onlooker asked the turn, I'd know exactly why. The board has nothing else to even consider.

No explores- Pepsi!

His wife: Who the hell is this woman?! Alex: 2 explorers

Hey Christmas 0/

Who are you talking to at 3 in the morning?

yo whats good Christmas

EFro called him that too.

I knocked him out of a open in a win an in that he asked me to scoop to him and he threw a massive hissy fit dude was a scumbag

He figures...."Why not do both?"

Also, as he picks it up off the table, you can see the edges more clearly. It's four cards.

@@RajaniIsa I'm actually fairly sure it's 3. I thought "Definitely 4" at first, but looking at the slow motion, I'm actually more convinced that it's a sleeve getting bunched up. I would've sworn 4 when I first saw it, but looking at it over and over, I'm more inclined to say 3.

@@Ashfold_Eberesche it's 4

He's right though. Midrange decks are the most balanced decks because they generally win via combat beat down and minor control. Like death and taxes

I have a mono blue flying storm crow... it's pisses people off

well i fidget like a madman and i would never cheat.. couldn't if i even wanted to i just have overwhelming anxiety >_

On my days playing mtg physical format, when my oponent was taking too long to think i would start shuffling my hand or just continuosly changing the order of the cards, was just bored and it was my way of not just screaming to their face that they were on turn 1 with a tapped freaking land so they had not that many options xD

I roll my cards all game keeps my opponents guessing, I beat people that don't fidget lol

@@icebergslim1872 Guessing at what though? Nobody knows whats in your hand in the first place. Fidget players just give me bad vibes. I've had more fidget players try card tricks/sleight of hand on me than any other type of player. All that extra movement gives a person a lot of room too screw around.

@@ErokLobotomist at what card is where in my hand is all, plus it just rolls smoothly. Idk. I've had more cheaters try to cheat with me so i can't relate to your experience I suppose

On top of this if you have any doubts of their shuffling or their card drawing, Tell them to slow down in the case of card draw (or any action really) and call a judge to watch them if you need to.

Crazy Hands means you keep watching

I always take note of the number of lands and cards in hand/graveyard. Too many sleight of hand tricks. Caught 2 people putting killed creatures back into their hand, thinking their sleight of hand was good enough. Judges like logic, thankfully.

I do this anyway. But it's more of an intimidation tactic. My memory of cards is... unusually good. I know what's in my hand. I can often figure out what my opponent has through context clues.

Tournament play will never go back to paper magic.

clear sleeves are generally banned because of marking, lol

Just getting into MTG. I'm a fan of real life close up magic. After seeing how busy the back of some cards sleeves are. There's no way those aren't marked. Like even with clear sleeve or solid one color you could still mark them. But it's significantly easier, any moron could mark the backs of those busy cards and you wouldn't be able to spot the difference without staring at each card side to side.

You stole my reply, that is the first thing that popped in my head. With those sleeves it's nigh impossible to tell.:D

@@AkumaDaste well actually, to me, it legit looks like 5 cards, but it's at least 4.

I'd be "slow the F down d-bag".

Also did anyone noticed the difference between how the cheater drew off brainstorm and how his opponent did, when the opponent did he picked up one card at a time 3 times as to show he only took 3, where the cheater just reached into his deck like a kid reaching into the candy bowl trying to take it all

it looked like 5 to 6 cards right when he picked it up, unless that was just the light reflection @10:06.

My first LGS years ago there was a guy in his late 20s who'd come in with a deck where every card was in a language other than English, and he'd just "tell" the newer players what the cards did as he played them. Young kids in particular were always too shy to call the judge/LGS owner over to question anything, and high speed mobile internet wasn't a thing to look cards up online on your phone at the time.

@@ChillyJack guy sounds like an omega loser to be cheating when playing against children. hope he got caught and banned from your lgs

It's fun when you catch a bad cheater and you just stomp the shit out of them anyway

@@jesselukes3956 The LGS owner honestly wasn't great anyway. Made rules calls I knew were wrong, sometimes ordered the wrong products for people and then refused to give them a cash refund. I wasn't particularly distraught when he eventually went out of business.

In yugioh, if you wanted to play other language cards, you have to have some sort of way to prove that’s what the card does in English. Whether it’s a print off on paper from a computer or the English card itself.

I was just thinking the same. AND what a great thread of comments. ❤️ glad I stopped by and caught this video

Or start blaming WOTC or it's judges there like SOMEbody used to.

@@michellecrist8399 I meeeeaaan who cares what the other comments say? The whole thread could be siding with Alex and that would matter to you? Could you be a little more insecure in your own convictions?

This guy Alex must have played thousands of games. No matter what video I see him mentioned in, I always get to read a new story about him cheating somebody else.

@@Chance57 everyone who lost to him will claim they got cheated, even if the opponent just was awful.

Well, except with your lag switch

you cant, but wotc can

@@dogdriver70 ooo we got a conspiracy theorist?

@@lakingpaul Well if you believe they would cheat to help their paper pros get bomb sealed pools and gravy pairings, why wouldn't they cheat to help their digital pros?

@@dogdriver70 because it makes zero sense is why...

For me it's the guy trying to kill one of my creatures in my turn with a sorcery hahaha.

If the other player owns up to it immediately, I’d just have him shuffle his deck and keep playing.

Accidents happen. If a guy admits it, and I'd count that response as admitting it, then it's not always worth calling a ref or making him forfeit. I hate winning on technicalities like that when it's clearly an accident. We've all been there and the best thing to do is try not to let it influence the game.

Experience builds confidence, even with cheating

Don’t quote me on this, but I think he was into Yu Gi Yoh competitively at one point, and apparently cheating was rampant in that game.

It’s rampant in any game with high competition. That said, one high ranking judge once did an AMA and when asked what the worst part of the job was, she said (paraphrasing here): “seeing how often people tried to get away with stuff. Not necessarily cheating but doing all they could just short of cheating.”

He was just too smooth for his time, no one was as bold as this dude

@@tgholness If you weren't cheating at your local tournament in yu gi oh you weren't likely to climb. The odds for some powerful opening hands in yugioh are less then 3% yet I would see them in every ladder match, no one was ever sus... We perfected slight of hand tricks, cheat shuffling the art of suggestions and all sorts of David Blain inspired tricks to help secure those tournament booster packs. Just for context I was young, very poor, living in a ghetto. TCG's in my childhood was a living, not just a game for kids. I would buy groceries for my family when I was just 12 off my yugioh winnings twice a month, so needless to say the stakes were high. I eventually retired out of guilt and gave away all of my cards.

Bertoncini: "Dammit! I couldn't catch THEM cheating!!"

🤯

You’re the reason we give 2nd chances.

You mean competitive have judges just not paying attention or enforcing anything? Wtf is the point then

Or clearly announce your plays. Like the kira in the hand

Wait.... can't people learn to count?

12 bolts, 5 chalices

I noticed the jump in micro-cheating at the same time. Actually left the game for 12 years before coming back recently. I still avoid FNM events and most things organized by WOTC. If you're not playing against an OP Net-Decker, you're up against a micro-cheater. To tiring to bother with. Arena was really cool at first because it auto-enforced the rules. Anybody who fiddles with their hand that much and twitches around in general can't be trusted in my eyes.

@@ErokLobotomist so like, I absolutely agree that micro cheats suck, but I gotta say that there is absolutely nothing wrong with netdecking. and a lot of people (myself included) can't help the constant hand shuffling and nervous ticks, it's just part of how I ease my anxiety of playing, and on a secondary note, hand shuffling is vital to high level play, if someone rips a card and they know what you have in hand if you dont shuffle they can track what cards are being played and which are not

@@cyclone8411 Shuffling your hand can be VERY annoying for your opponent, and distract them from their plays. That's what happens to me, anyways. Shuffling your hand here and there is okay, but when people go overboard and do it quickly and constantly, it really irritates me.

@@TehSeksyManz I mean, sure you're allowed to feel that way, and I hate that it can be distracting to you and I'm sure some people probably do it with the intent of distracting the opponent. In my case specifically, and several people I know for that matter, shuffling my hand isn't a choice, it's a form of stimming that eases anxiety and allows for clear thought. I'm personally of the opinion that you shouldn't let your opponent distract you, whether with habits they have or with conversation, or whatever else. Now of course I understand that it isn't as simple as "just don't get distracted" but you see where I'm coming from hopfully. sorry this is probably pretty rambly, I have a communication disorder so organizing my thoughts isn't all that easy for me

@@cyclone8411 MTG is like music to me. Sure you can get by just fine being a cover band, but that's all you'll ever be unless you make your own music. All the power to net-deckers, I just have no respect for it, it takes no effort or skill to play someone else's game in my opinion. It's like playing on auto-pilot. High level play and all anxiety aside, I've always found I've had to keep a closer eye on players that fidget and adjust their hand constantly. Those players also tend to constantly touch their decks, which I also have a personal thing about. It's always easier to pulla slight of hand if your hands are already always moving and the opponent has to watch you. Not accusing you of anything or ripping on anyone, just presenting my side of the coin.

This would be amusing lol

Gold content

This is the best comment on the video, no contest

This!!!

I mean most are banned for practically the same things

I think it’s a common thing for people who are inherently good or successful at something to cheat more often. Like once you’ve tasted success the correct way, getting more success via cheating is more enticing

If somebody says they LIKE Ben Shapiro, it's a red flag.

Thanks!

Anchorman ftw! #Ron Burgundy

Thanks, will do!

He's doing the wrong kind of magic

Check out Shin Lim, a Magician who is amazing at it. This cheater could be a good magician. I don't understand why he would use the time, skills, and practice to cheat at a game instead.

@@RandomPerson-nd2ey I don't understand why he wouldn't bother learning blinds. Do some reverse laser shit on the top of the deck and even cameras can't catch it.

Mike Long infamously had a Cadaverous Bloom in his lap. On camera.

Lmao

Only ONE explore? Lame

Makes you wonder if he ever used his sleight of hand tactics to pocket someone else's card even in big events

@@zaclindemann9978 Then, after stealing a card, call a judge because the opponent plays an illegal deck. xD Because you always run 60, grabbing any card will work to get your opponent below the minimum deck size and submitted deck list…

It really does, my uncle used to work casions in vegas, they teach them a lot of crazy stuff that takes months or even years to master. Basically, the house always wins.

it likely also involves help from other players giving you feedback until you can perfect the cheat

This seems to be a common confusion, in fact.

I defeated StarCity pro, Edgar Flores once in a GPT semis. I cast a Path to Exile, he Cryptic Commanded it, then I Pathed the same creature again in response. He asked me if he could fetch 2 lands... Dude was stone cold serious our entire match. Onlookers were practically applauding when I beat him!

Yeah Edgar Flores was awful, IIRC he was banned in yugioh for cheating then switched over to magic to cheat some more.

Nice double entendre 😁

All these cheaters are magic players trying to get away with things; I've always wondered what would happen if a true sleight of hand master were to pick up MTG and ruthlessly manipulate the cards to win.

Definitely

I didn’t know there was a video

@@NikachuMTG If I'm not mistaken, "the Bloom in lap" incident happened in the US Nats '97 VHS tape, I believe.