So my deck is still sleeved in my old DragonShields, which were considered the best sleeves at the time (2 yrs ago). Have better ones been released?
Nope, it's pretty much still DragonShields. The fact that you've been using the same sleeves for apparently 2 years should confirm their quality. I've never seen a DragonShield split, which is more than I can say for most sleeves.
It's true. I have one deck in the same set of Dragonshields from 2006 and not a single sleeve has split yet. A few of them are starting to get worn down to the point that you can distinguish the sleeves from each other, but that's from SIX YEARS of heavy play.
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Nope, it's pretty much still DragonShields. The fact that you've been using the same sleeves for apparently 2 years should confirm their quality. I've never seen a DragonShield split, which is more than I can say for most sleeves.
They're pretty worn, and a fair amount of white gunk and dirt are in/out of the sleeves. I've just been too lazy to replace them
I use both Ultra-Pro Sleeves and Dragonshields. I prefer the Ultra-Pro for the shuffling ability and the lack of dirt collection. Dragonshield are super durable as are Ultra-Pro. Either of those are worthy.
It's true. I have one deck in the same set of Dragonshields from 2006 and not a single sleeve has split yet. A few of them are starting to get worn down to the point that you can distinguish the sleeves from each other, but that's from SIX YEARS of heavy play.
I've had them split, but mine were over 10 years old.
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I concur with the majority of posters that Dragonshield is the best. My Ichorid deck was in the same sleeves for nearly 10 years and I split MAYBE 5 in the life of the deck. My experience with UltraPro has been bad, all of them have worn and/or split very fast. Kmc makes a damn fine product as well
I find Dragon Shields get sticky and hard to shuffle. I actually gave mine to a friend after upgrading to the Pro Mattes and he returned them to me for the same reason- couldn't shuffle them. So it's great that they're durable, but if you can't shuffle them what good are they? Doesn't anyone else have this problem with Dragon Shield sleeves? (I take care of my decks FWIW)
I find Dragon Shields get sticky and hard to shuffle. I actually gave mine to a friend after upgrading to the Pro Mattes and he returned them to me for the same reason- couldn't shuffle them. So it's great that they're durable, but if you can't shuffle them what good are they? Doesn't anyone else have this problem with Dragon Shield sleeves? (I take care of my decks FWIW)
I find they shuffle OK. I just dislike that they get so dirty so quickly. I do however think Ultra Pro shuffle infinitely better though.
I find Dragon Shields get sticky and hard to shuffle. I actually gave mine to a friend after upgrading to the Pro Mattes and he returned them to me for the same reason- couldn't shuffle them. So it's great that they're durable, but if you can't shuffle them what good are they? Doesn't anyone else have this problem with Dragon Shield sleeves? (I take care of my decks FWIW)
I don't know why you would have this issue. I generally use a playmat, but this doesn't happen to me. The one issue I have with DragonShields is that they have sharp edges - sharp enough that the bases of my fingers hurt after prolonged shuffling.
I actually find dragon shields a little thicker than I'd like. They're not bad and I like purple for DS sleeves.
Pro Mattes: I bought a hundred pack once and I'll never do so again because the pack was short 2 sleeves. As such, I have no actual play experience with them and I guess this part of my reply is largely irrelevant.
The sleeves I use for all my EDH decks are Japanese Ultra Pros. I've never had one split and the quality is pretty consistent with green and blue being the best ones I've used.
I personally haven't tried Dragonshield sleeves yet.
I usually have my cards in Perfect Fits sleeved inside of Ultra Pro's w/artwork on their backs. The ultra pro pro matte sleeves are nice and I use them for standard but they're too tight to have perfect fits inside of them so I feel like my expensive EDH deck is less protected in those.
I absolutely love Perfect Fit sleeves though. I have like 2000+ of them now. I use them on as many of my money rares as I can.
The sleeves that I've had the smoothest shuffle with that still fit around perfect fits is the MAX protection Tournament Sleeves (the plain color ones NOT the shiny blind yourself cheap artwork sleeves). The only issue I have with them is after prolonged use the back of the sleeves begin to have stretch marks around the edges of the card inside of them which in a tournament setting could be considered marking your cards. I'll try to add this to my thread about sleeves and deck boxes along with some photos of what I'm talking about.
I switched over from Ultrapro to Dragonshield last year. DS sleeves do make shuffling a bit more difficult, but I was sick of splitting sleeves every other ame with UP.
I'm a fan of KMC sleeves myself. Never tried Dragonshields but I'll pick up a pack sometime. Basically though, anything but UltraPro.
I won't pretend that I'm easy on sleeves. I've only been playing a couple years and my hands are clumsy at the best of times. However, UltraPro sleeves are downright awful. They crease really easily, and the welding on the seems is often quite bad. KMC sleeves are both better made and are incredibly easy to shuffle. The only downside is that, if you're using a brand new set, you can only have a stack about the size of a draft deck before cards start sliding all over the place. Those suckers sure are slippery out of the box.
Gives you a silky smooth shuffle. Kind of important for repeated use with a 99 card deck full of foily goodness.
Those sleeves are the best. I have dragon Shields, but I do not use them because it adds allot of extra thickness to the deck. I find them to be easier to knock over during play. The clear plastic part will become scratched, but mine have been in use for over two years.
I actually don't like the Ultra-Pro Matte sleeves. I've used them for about a year now because they come in packs of 50 which makes them convenient for drafting, my primary form of play. I've found that the Matte sleeves have a tendency to split at the top corners very easily... sometimes in the course of a single night of drafting.
As a result I've just bought my first pack of Dragon Shields ever for my EDH deck, and so far I am pretty happy with the results. They're standing up pretty well to consistent play without a mat and, although some people have said they have difficulty shuffling them, I've had no such problems beside the fact that my hands are too small to comfortable manipulate an entire 99 Dragon-Shielded deck at once, so I have to break it in half, shuffle each half then shuffle them together and do it again.
However, before I took my hiatus from Magic (right before 5th Dawn) I bought a set of sleeves that for the longest time I wish I had kept the packaging so I could find them again. They're were God-like. They were easy to shuffle and manipulate, sticking together when stacked into a deck but sliding apart very easily when you wanted to shuffle. They also withstood the wear and tear of being the only set of sleeves I owned for many years that saw any consistent play, having only minor bending around the top corners after years to abuse. Thanks to this thread, I found them again:
Next time I go to a shop I'll probably pick up a few packs for future EDH decks, as they're much less thick than Dragon Shields and fit more easily into the deck boxes I have. To me, these Japanese Ultra-Pro sleeves are the real deal.
Big fan of KMC. They practically glide, and I haven't had one split yet. KMC also has "character guard" sleeves on top of perfect fit sleeves and standard sleeves, which led me to triple-sleeving a deck for my own amusement. (Perfect fit inside standard inside character guard)
KMC perfect fits inside Dragonshields are my goto sleeves. I've seen my Elesh Norn have half a pint of CocaCola spilt over it and come out fine when double sleeved like that.
same thing with me
ive only recently sleeved my deck with these
i find that air fills in expanding the deck if you dont compress it every now and then
I hate the Dragonshield sleeves. They are dirt magnets even if I don't really get why that is. That's why I went back to KMC where I don't have this problem.
I only use dragon shields now a days, the only times I have problems shuffling is when I shuffle one of my EDH decks that I've had since before I'd gotten used to shuffling them so the corners are all bent. However, I kinda like how they build up dirt, I may be weird in this, but my Sharuum deck is double sleeved and I can pick it up by the top ten or so cards and the whole thing stays together as one solid block. Yet the thing still shuffles like butter, and its probably the easiest of my decks to shuffle, but it doesn't run away if I bump it wrong.
Nope, it's pretty much still DragonShields. The fact that you've been using the same sleeves for apparently 2 years should confirm their quality. I've never seen a DragonShield split, which is more than I can say for most sleeves.
GX Tron XG
UR Phoenix RU
GG Freyalise High Tide GG
UR Parun Counterspells RU
BB Yawgmoth Token Storm BB
WB Pestilence BW
They're pretty worn, and a fair amount of white gunk and dirt are in/out of the sleeves. I've just been too lazy to replace them
Gives you a silky smooth shuffle. Kind of important for repeated use with a 99 card deck full of foily goodness.
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I like the Ultra Pro Matte sleeves for their smooth shuffle as well.
Mad props to the Dragonshields for durability, though. It seems like these two are the most popular choices, so you really can't go wrong with either.
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I've had them split, but mine were over 10 years old.
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I find they shuffle OK. I just dislike that they get so dirty so quickly. I do however think Ultra Pro shuffle infinitely better though.
My Trade List: http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=449871
I don't know why you would have this issue. I generally use a playmat, but this doesn't happen to me. The one issue I have with DragonShields is that they have sharp edges - sharp enough that the bases of my fingers hurt after prolonged shuffling.
GX Tron XG
UR Phoenix RU
GG Freyalise High Tide GG
UR Parun Counterspells RU
BB Yawgmoth Token Storm BB
WB Pestilence BW
Pro Mattes: I bought a hundred pack once and I'll never do so again because the pack was short 2 sleeves. As such, I have no actual play experience with them and I guess this part of my reply is largely irrelevant.
The sleeves I use for all my EDH decks are Japanese Ultra Pros. I've never had one split and the quality is pretty consistent with green and blue being the best ones I've used.
See the Japanese Ultra Pros here.
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I usually have my cards in Perfect Fits sleeved inside of Ultra Pro's w/artwork on their backs. The ultra pro pro matte sleeves are nice and I use them for standard but they're too tight to have perfect fits inside of them so I feel like my expensive EDH deck is less protected in those.
I absolutely love Perfect Fit sleeves though. I have like 2000+ of them now. I use them on as many of my money rares as I can.
The sleeves that I've had the smoothest shuffle with that still fit around perfect fits is the MAX protection Tournament Sleeves (the plain color ones NOT the shiny blind yourself cheap artwork sleeves). The only issue I have with them is after prolonged use the back of the sleeves begin to have stretch marks around the edges of the card inside of them which in a tournament setting could be considered marking your cards. I'll try to add this to my thread about sleeves and deck boxes along with some photos of what I'm talking about.
I won't pretend that I'm easy on sleeves. I've only been playing a couple years and my hands are clumsy at the best of times. However, UltraPro sleeves are downright awful. They crease really easily, and the welding on the seems is often quite bad. KMC sleeves are both better made and are incredibly easy to shuffle. The only downside is that, if you're using a brand new set, you can only have a stack about the size of a draft deck before cards start sliding all over the place. Those suckers sure are slippery out of the box.
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Those sleeves are the best. I have dragon Shields, but I do not use them because it adds allot of extra thickness to the deck. I find them to be easier to knock over during play. The clear plastic part will become scratched, but mine have been in use for over two years.
As a result I've just bought my first pack of Dragon Shields ever for my EDH deck, and so far I am pretty happy with the results. They're standing up pretty well to consistent play without a mat and, although some people have said they have difficulty shuffling them, I've had no such problems beside the fact that my hands are too small to comfortable manipulate an entire 99 Dragon-Shielded deck at once, so I have to break it in half, shuffle each half then shuffle them together and do it again.
However, before I took my hiatus from Magic (right before 5th Dawn) I bought a set of sleeves that for the longest time I wish I had kept the packaging so I could find them again. They're were God-like. They were easy to shuffle and manipulate, sticking together when stacked into a deck but sliding apart very easily when you wanted to shuffle. They also withstood the wear and tear of being the only set of sleeves I owned for many years that saw any consistent play, having only minor bending around the top corners after years to abuse. Thanks to this thread, I found them again:
Next time I go to a shop I'll probably pick up a few packs for future EDH decks, as they're much less thick than Dragon Shields and fit more easily into the deck boxes I have. To me, these Japanese Ultra-Pro sleeves are the real deal.
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same thing with me
ive only recently sleeved my deck with these
i find that air fills in expanding the deck if you dont compress it every now and then
yeah that too
i got these speck buildups
UWRasputin DreamweaverUW
UWBSen TripletsUWB
Btw, there is an official thread on the same topic here.
EDH
U Azami, Lady of Scrolls
GBGlissa, the Traitor
Modern
X Affinity
EDH
BUGTasigur, the Golden Fang (French 1v1)
Modern
RWG Burn