Sleeving up your Commander deck

Collectable cards games (CCG) as a whole have taken over for the last 20-25 years or so now. With games like Magic, Pokemon and many more. Before that though, for 50+ years there was sports cards and other collectable cards that have come and gone known as Trading card games (TCG). We all have heard the story of that there could be a super hard to find and ultra-rare baseball card, lost in someone’s collection, that made someone super rich from holding on to it for all those years in such great condition. But if the card is damaged then is worth next to nothing, and over time handling cards so much does have wear and tear on them. The mid 90’s is when the 9-Pocket Pages really took off and because the way to store your cards other than jamming the all in a 800 count card storage box, which overtime can wear on the edges of your cards, was to just have them lying around. Now Collectors have a way to display and protect their collections.

Well that was and still is great for the Trading Card Games (TCG), but since the invention of Magic the Gathering, Pokemon and many others Collectable card games (CCG). There has been a need for something a lot more than just for showing off what you have. CCG shuffle, build a playable deck, hand out, hold, play, drop, grab their cards more than the TCG of their day ever did. This has led to a number or new ideas and products to come out and single sleeves have been around for a long time, but aren’t good for playing with your cards and break down easily. Individual high quality card sleeves have become the item to get when you are gamming. Even if you don’t like spending a lot of money, they are reasonable enough and most players see the value in protecting your cards or collection.

Magic being the biggest player in this world past, present and probably the future has formats where you need 40-60 or 100 card decks, now for this article, we will be looking at the 100 card deck format known as Commander. This is because of the value of not just the cards, but the value for what you get out of the game for whatever reason you play. Players comes together and use the best cards though out the history of the game to be able to see how the old works with the new and how far the game has come. Some play this because they want to compete and win prizes, some for like to collect them just like the TCG of years  past, some for a social interaction and  others because it more of a relaxed setting where you just play for fun and interact with your friends.

So no matter how or why you play or collect cards you are going to want to protect your cards, and Magic’s Commander is known for having a lot of those great older cards, that are worth a lot of money and or are faded and you don’t want it to be damaged or any more than it already is. It is known for players getting custom version of their favorite cards and using all of those foils we all love so much. Now in a 100 card format Dragon Shield is great because they come with 100 or really like 105 in every box, but I always tell people “ You know you will replace them because they get dirty, before the break on you” and it’s true. You want to protect your investment and these decks are investments of not just your money but of your time.  The time spend, building, planning and putting together your deck of cards plus all the time spend playing it with friends and enjoying the game and times it creates while you play is why it is a protection of your time.

But as more and more people play these card games for fun or for competitiveness, you will always want to at some point play with your friends or playgroup. When you play a game with a table of friend, chances are there will be drinks and snack and dirty hands and table ( especially at local game stores sometimes) and other will be touching your cards and shuffling and not only does sleeving your cards help from this. But some go as far as to double sleeve them like myself, it helps make sure that a spilled drink doesn’t get in there and damage your cards and makes sure they are protected from the elements around them. One big thing people don’t always know is that double sleeving helps from the precious foil cards from bending as they naturally do in humid temperatures. The foil cards in Magic the Gathering are some of the most expensive and most sort out cards in the game and people go crazy for them. They will want to “foil out” their deck as much as they can and in the format we are talking about you only need 1 of any giver card, but the other way to play the game you can have up to 4 of any card and some players will want 4 copies of it in foil. Players want the cards with the best art, the ones that are the strongest and rarest and some just want them to hold their value as they get older, but want to be able to use them and have them apart of their collection.

So if you are going to spend so much time and be this vested into the game, which you more than likely are going to be if this is what you like to do then. The cards, sleeves, the people and everything that goes with it. Double sleeving is just as important as anything else. Like I have said though out this these are just some of the reasons why people not only sleeve but double sleeve. We love to show off what we have and now we have a way to do that and not worry about it being taken away from us.I hope this has helped you and thank you for reading.

-Andrew Webber