As some of you will now know, I am a huge fan of the collectable card game, (CCG), Magic the Gathering, (MTG). Basically MTG is a game that requires you to build a ‘deck’ of 60 cards to play against other people’s decks. The cards can be very expensive but they are easily damaged by shuffling and of course the dreaded ‘hand grease’. Once again though the great people at Ultra Pro have a product that is perfect for protecting your cards.
Now you may think card sleeves are a simple creature; made of plastic and big enough to fit a card in, job done, but in reality it’s not quite that simple. Cheap deck protectors, (they cost about £1.00 for a hundred), are often slightly too big and become oddly baggy with use. This is a problem as it makes it hard to hold the cards and especially hard to shuffle them. Ultra Pro solved this problem by using much sturdier plastic instead of the almost cling-film type plastic used on the cheaper ones, (Ultra Pro does also make the cheaper ones), which about doubles the size of your deck.
The plastic is very sturdy indeed and an added bonus is that the backs of them are opaque so if the back of a card gets damaged you can keep on it using it without being accused of ‘marking your cards’. They aren’t very reflective either which is a must for tournament play. I’m not particularly good at shuffling and drop the cards etc but these deck protectors actually make it easier for me which is great as opposed to the cheap ones that make the cards slippery.
The seams of the Deck Protectors are very strong, they seem to be bonded with heat and I have never had a seam split on me in over 5 years of use! The cheaper ones seem to fall apart quite readily however. For some reason the Ultra Pro Deck Protectors don’t create as much static as the cheaper options which is a good thing too, there’s nothing worse than accidentally drawing two cards because they have stuck together with static and having some nerdy rules-lawyer declare a forfeit and you lose the game! (Yes – some MTG players are *that* sad)!
The backs of the Deck Protectors come in a huge range of colours and designs by fantasy artists such as Easley, Caldwell and, (my favourite), Brom. They also match the other products in the Ultra Pro ranges which is good because then you can easily tell who’s cards are who’s when you are playing. Actual Ultra Pro Deck Protectors will have a little hologram on them to show that are not cheap imitations.
Your best bet in the UK for Ultra Pro stuff is games stores and eBay. You can get packs of 50 for around £2.60 on eBay. The fact that they are sold in packs of 50 is probably their biggest fault; the traditional size for a deck of MTG cards is 60 so you are forced to buy 100 making the cost over five pounds for a deck. It is handy to have a few spares but not 40!
All in all these are the best option, (in my opinion), available and I would definitely recommend them for MTG players and players of other games, (like Pokemon and World of Warcraft).
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