Took me 2 hours to realize I was shuffling Scythe wrong

I kept wondering why my games of Scythe felt so lopsided. Turns out I was only shuffling the encounter cards once and they clumped up bad. After I started doing a proper 7 shuffle each time, the game got way more balanced. Anyone else discover a simple rule fix way later than you should have?

2 comments

2 Comments

olivere301mo ago

Ha! @ben436 probably looked like a magician with that "workers trapped in the mine" hat trick. I get roasted for my 10 shuffle ritual too but hey, at least we're not stacking the deck against ourselves anymore. Small price to pay for not having the game decide everyone's fate by round three.

ben4361mo ago

The encounter cards thing got me too, I was doing like two lazy overhand shuffles and calling it good. Then I played a game where I got the same "workers trapped in the mine" card three times in a row and my friend accused me of stacking the deck. Another buddy told me about the 7 shuffle rule for 52-card decks and I felt like an absolute goof for never thinking about it with the encounter cards. Now I do this whole ritual where I riffle shuffle them like 10 times and my group makes fun of me for being extra. But honestly the game plays way smoother now and nobody gets stuck with a bad draw five turns in a row.