Do you like sleeving decks?
General forum
Posted on July 26, 2021, 8:54 a.m. by Argy
Most of the time I love putting my cards into sleeves, ready to play for the first time.
Every now and then I find it a hassle, particularly if it's for a deck I built on this site. I feel like I've already been playing it, and just want to keep doing so, without all the hassle.
If a deck is larger than 60 cards + a 15 card Sideboard, I enjoy it even less. Feels as though it takes forever.
Do you enjoy sleeving your decks, or not?
RaidenShogun69 says... #3
i don't think anyone "enjoys" the act of putting sleeves on cards, but im sure most players want their cards to be sleeved.
July 26, 2021 11:46 a.m.
EDH player here. Yeah. Sleeving a deck is like finishing a project. I can let my brain rest for a bit (a few minutes) before going through the tuning process.
July 26, 2021 12:07 p.m.
filiusromanus357 says... #5
I enjoy it. It's nice and meditative, and I can just sit and do something with my hands while I watch a video or something in the background.
July 26, 2021 12:18 p.m.
filiusromanus357 I usually listen to podcasts, or Big Finish audios, while sleeving.
July 26, 2021 12:26 p.m.
Until the inner sleeve gets caught and I have to wrestle it down. Sometimes I think I should've just picked one color of Dragon Shields and bought a case and all my Modern decks use the same sleeves so I never have to move cards.
July 26, 2021 12:29 p.m.
Omniscience_is_life says... #8
As someone who owns a surprisingly low amount of decks (three atm), I’ve only ever really sleeved a few. The process is mildly annoying but gives me a good stretch of time to excuse putting off other things ;)
July 26, 2021 1:13 p.m.
Omniscience_is_life we all started with a small number of decks. I worked on just one for about a year.
How long have you been playing?
July 26, 2021 1:43 p.m.
@Omniscience_is_life: Having three decks is much better than having like 20 assembled ones. You can pay attention to 3 decks easily enough and keep tweaking them. At 20, half the decks don't see play or modification. No point having them assembled.
@All: That being said, you should always sleeve your decks. The first time you play a game of commander where some random is playing a "steal/copy" deck, you'll know why. As for if it's fun? It's a necessary process. Enough said.
July 26, 2021 3:04 p.m.
I'd say I have over 50 decks sleeved, and I play them all.
I use different ones in different situations, and I like a lot of variety in my decks.
I do play a lot of Magic.
July 26, 2021 3:33 p.m.
I've got 50 commander decks all double sleeved. The worst is when you get a pack of sleeves with slightly tighter margins then normal so double sleeving becomes horribly painful. I recently gave up on UltraPro sleeves because of this.
For the real grind, sleeve some cubes. I've recently sleeved up a 24 pack Commander Legends cube and 45 pack Jumpstart cube. Each with 20 card packs, though I didn't double sleeve because then they wouldn't fit in Cubeamajigs.
July 26, 2021 4:37 p.m.
Hats off to you, Abaques
That sounds like some mighty sleeving efforts.
I've got two mini Cubes that I sleeved and yes, they weren't pleasant.
Luckily I share the land station between them, so that cut down on some of the work.
I also have a Jumpstart set of, let's see if I can remember, 29 packs. I think.
They are in some battle boxes, with the whole lot kept in a small backpack, that also has dice and life counters.
Easy to just grab and go for a weekend away with StuBi
I used to play EDH against some fellahs who triple sleeved all their decks.
It was amusing to watch them be shuffled face down, like dominoes.
July 26, 2021 5:01 p.m. Edited.
Omniscience_is_life says... #14
Argy only about 5 years—not nearly as much as a lot of the veterans on this site!
July 26, 2021 6:19 p.m.
I had a commander deck in toploaders once...Jund Birthing Pod .
Shuffling was an interesting experience.
July 26, 2021 7:17 p.m.
RaidenShogun69 says... #16
Whenever i see an unsleeved deck i wonder “do they also keep all their spares in a ziploc bag?” Lol
July 26, 2021 7:23 p.m.
RaidenShogun69 I have two friends I play casually with, who NEVER sleeve any of their decks.
It drives me insane. Especially when they want to trade cards with me.
We usually eat pizza when we play, and they don't wash their hands, either. Even after going to the toilet.
I'm like, "yay give me your greasy cards as a swap".
Omniscience_is_life you can fit a lot of Magic playing into five years.
We all had to start playing some time.
July 27, 2021 9:03 a.m. Edited.
RaidenShogun69 I haven't seen that for ages, thank goodness.
One thing about my LGS is that most people have playmats, sleeved cards, and other equipment they need.
The only thing they forget is Tokens.
July 27, 2021 12:17 p.m.
RaidenShogun69 says... #20
Argy: i always have my playmat and a pair of spin counter die that go up to 99. i bought 2 so i have one for my opponent, cuz people will do somethin weird like try to use 4 d6 for life, or they'll just straight up not move their own life die when they take damage and i have to move it for them.
July 27, 2021 12:19 p.m.
People usually use spin downs, a notepad, or a phone app for their life where I play.
I use two spin downs for my life, and two spins down for theirs.
That way, if there is a discrepancy, we can go back and work out why we have different life totals.
July 27, 2021 12:23 p.m.
RaidenShogun69 says... #22
Argy i'd rather keep it updated as we go rather than "go back" lol. i once had to tell a dude "you're at 14". and he's like "im at 16". i said "you fetched twice, shocked once, and i hit you with Galerider Sliver twice. you're at 14" (this was before MH1 when i removed galerider for Cloudshredder Sliver ). gives me another blank look and says "im at 16". i wordlessly moved his die to 14 and we continued lol.
July 27, 2021 12:31 p.m.
Well, I already confessed to playing unsleeved on occasion.
Argy "We usually eat pizza when we play, and they don't wash their hands, either. Even after going to the toilet." That's disgusting. Tell them to knock it off, especially if they're going to be handling other people's cards.
RaidenShogun69 "Whenever i see an unsleeved deck i wonder “do they also keep all their spares in a ziploc bag?” Lol" Nope, I keep spares in a binder or Deckbuilder Toolkit box, depending on quality, value, and trade likelihood.
July 27, 2021 1:23 p.m.
Sleeving is what it is, kind of a chore, but worth it. Especially when you get to do that first shuffle. That first shuffle with some good new sleeves is the BEST feeling. chef's kiss
July 28, 2021 11:43 a.m.
Ah yes. You are correct.
I did shuffled a deck for the first time, just today.
Delicious.
July 28, 2021 11:54 a.m.
Its certainly a tedious activity but THE BRAND SLEEVE MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE imo.
I double sleeve my decks and started out with Dragon Shields because the internet led me to believe anything else was just wrong/inferior.... no complaints about the look/feel/durability but the process of sleeving up a deck with dragon shiel perfect fits and matt sleeves is a form of torture... difficult to get cards in and not have the perfect fit slip and omg its just agony.
I switched to KMC and although its still tedious... the cards just fit better and there is no issues i can complain about and i suppose yeah its almost cathartic to sleeve up a deck while watching youtube or whatever.
July 28, 2021 1:39 p.m.
I switch which brand of sleeves I use all the time.
I started with UP Pro Matte. I can't ever see going back to these, and I tend to resleeve old decks that are still in them.
I was all about KMC at one stage, but I didn't like the colour selection.
These days I use Dragon Shield Matte. I rarely double sleeve, though.
The other nice ones I've found are Katana. They kind of remind me of Dragon Shield. Beautiful shuffle feel.
July 28, 2021 2:04 p.m.
I started double sleeving with UltraPro Matte's and KMC perfect fit inners. Every once in a while I'd get a pack of UP's that would just be slightly tighter and it was agony trying to double sleeve. Things got worse when the glossy's came out and I've basically abandoned UltraPro because of it. I tried Dragon Shield matte's but it was worse. My last deck I sleeved in Ultimate Guard Katana's and it was great so I'm going to switch to those going forward.
July 28, 2021 4:28 p.m.
Abaques I find the Katanas to be a REALLY nice sleeve.
I discovered them due to the Tolarian Community College YouTube channel.
July 29, 2021 3 a.m.
jethstriker says... #31
I'd like to share what I do in regards to double sleeving in tight outer sleeves.
What I do is first insert around 3 or 4 unsleeved cards in the said tight outer sleeve. Wait for around half to a minute, remove the cards, then insert your inner sleeved cards. To remove the waiting time, pre-emptively do this to around 4 or 5 tight outer sleeves and repeat the procedure.
Granted it adds an additional step to your double sleeving procedure, it sure lessens the insanity that you may have when your cards slips off of you inner sleeve because of that tight outer sleeve.
July 29, 2021 6:20 a.m.
That's good to know Argy! I just have the one deck sleeved in Katana's right now and I haven't been able to actually play with it yet.
Thanks for the tip jethstriker. I'm totally going to give that a shot.
July 29, 2021 3:29 p.m.
DontMindTheFilthyCasual says... #33
I'm very casual and play mostly unsleeved, so putting sleeves on my decks gives me such a rush, like a status symbol! Putting sleeves on a well-worn deck cements that deck as a main and ensures we don't scrap it for our latest dumb idea.
We use Dragon Shield (I just bought sleeves for my sister and she insisted, but just because of the lore on the boxes) and my sleeves are those slippery classic atrocities. I don't suppose y'all have advice for using smooth sleeves?
August 15, 2021 11:20 a.m.
Whoa whoa whoa Don't go badmouthing dragon shield glossy sleeves! They are the best, you gotta flick your cards around more to break em in
August 15, 2021 12:02 p.m.
DontMindTheFilthyCasual says... #35
I didn't think glossy sleeves were the type to break in. I'll give them another chance and get back to you because I do like the look, just not the sliding!
legendofa says... #2
I don't really like sleeves, personally. Only one of my casual decks is sleeved, and that's because of noticeable damage. My competitive decks and most of my big-dollar cards are sleeved, but only out of caution and necessity.
July 26, 2021 10:34 a.m.