Experiences with Dragon Shield Matte sleeves

[Scott]

I'm traditionally a Dragon Shield Classic double sleever, with KMC Perfect Size sleeves on the inside. They've been good to me and take a while to split. I've been on Turquoise and they seem to get grimy less than another color or two I tried.

It's been a while since I've bought sleeves, but I'm hearing that people like the new Dragon Shield Matte sleeves, in black. When I started years ago, I bought matte sleeves of other brands because I'm not a talented shuffler, and they're super easy to mash together. I stopped because the corners bent so quickly.

Anyone have experience with Dragon Shield Mattes, especially in black, as I hear they're the best? If people can tell me that they're easy to mash shuffle like other matte sleeves, and also are durable (especially on the corners and w/ splitting after mash shuffling) like Dragon Shield Classics, that would be kind of exciting.

[Hopo]

They are easily my favorite sleeves nowadays. Durable, large enough to easily double-sleeve and easy to shuffle. At least with double-sleeves the corner bending hasn't been an issue.

They seem as robust as the original Dragon sleeves but eventually time will tell.

[Echelon]

The Tolarian Community College channel on YouTube has multiple vids about sleeves and their comparative quality.

The host sorta annoys me, but I'm the one watching YouTube videos about TCG card sleeves so I guess I only have myself to blame.

[NilsH]

I've tried 2 packs of Dragon Shield Matte Black.

I used to use KMC for both inner and outer sleeving, but with the recent fall in quality i deceided to buy the Dragon Shields from my local gaming store. Overall the quality is good. The sleeves are flat from the pack and they're all the same height (which wasn't the case the last time I tried Dragon Shields). They're thick and seems durable. They doesn't stick together and are very easy to shuffle. The only issue I have had so far is the edges where a bit rough from one of the two packs.

[H]

I too switched to the Matte's over the Classics, basically right off the bat, as it always did annoy me how scuffed up the back of the classics would get. The Mattes are as durable really, overall, as the Classics but with more upsides really. Unfortunately, only the Black one's are really 100% opaque though.

An interesting development recently though is that Ultra Pro has actually remembered how to make a non-shit sleeve. I didn't believe it at first, but the new Ultra Pro Eclipse sleeves are actually very, very good, in fact, the shuffle feel (to me) is actually slightly better than the DS Mattes. Another plus for these new Eclipse sleeves is that they are all 100% opaque, regardless of color, because the inside of the sleeve is black, regardless of what color the back actually is. So, yes, you can run Yellow and have it be opaque, which is pretty neat. It's pretty insane that it took them over 10 years to recall how to make a sleeve that wasn't complete garbage, but I guess better late than never.

My suggestion would be to buy yourself a box of the DS Mattes and a pack of the Ultra Pro Eclipse and try them out for yourself to see which you would like better.

[Ace/Homebrew]

I have only ever really used Dragon Shield sleeves. I tried the Commander's Arsenal sleeves but immediately stopped the first time I mashed my deck together and 50% of the sleeves split.
My cards in Dragon Shields are always in perfect fits and I re-sleeve fairly regularly (at least once a year for my most-used decks). It is unusual for my sleeved cards to touch any surface other than a playmat.

My experience is only with Black Matte, although it appears they have expanded their Matte offerings to include most colors. Confirming what was mentioned earlier, all the sleeves in the box are now evenly cut which was never the case when I bought classic Dragon Shield sleeves. They shuffle well and don't 'slide' like most new sleeves (where either the entire pile does the leaning-tower-of-Pisa, or just the top few make a break for it).

I also have noticed a severe drop in boogers getting stuck to the sleeves. With classic DS, both the front and back of the sleeve had a texture that seemed to promote gunk accumulating on the surface. Now that the back is resistant to this accumulation I have not noticed as much on the fronts either.

It is unusual that any of my sleeved cards see heavy shuffling for more than 1 day a week. Friends who use their cards much harder than myself have complained that the corners of DS Mattes bend on them. I have not experienced this.

[Undomian]

I shuffle pretty roughly sometimes, and I have yet to have the same corner-bending issues with these that I had with KMC Hyper Matte even before the quality dropoff on those.

[H]

I also have noticed a severe drop in boogers getting stuck to the sleeves. With classic DS, both the front and back of the sleeve had a texture that seemed to promote gunk accumulating on the surface. Now that the back is resistant to this accumulation I have not noticed as much on the fronts either.

It is unusual that any of my sleeved cards see heavy shuffling for more than 1 day a week. Friends who use their cards much harder than myself have complained that the corners of DS Mattes bend on them. I have not experienced this.

Two good points there. They certainly do not get "dirty" like the classics did, which is a definite upside to the Mattes. Time will tell if the Ultra Pro Eclipse will too, but I haven't been playing enough recently to know.


It is unusual that any of my sleeved cards see heavy shuffling for more than 1 day a week. Friends who use their cards much harder than myself have complained that the corners of DS Mattes bend on them. I have not experienced this.

This also speaks to why I said it is probably best to try them out yourself. While I have never split a DS Matte, someone told me they split several. Another person told me they were very hard to double sleeve, but when I saw them actually doing it their technique was awkward to say the least. I was able to quickly and easily double sleeve with them myself. For all I know, I might be some double sleeving genius though, but I really doubt that.

The key is the results my vary. There are several good options out there, I'd implore people to rely less on anecdotal evidence and more on actually trying them.

[supremePINEAPPLE]

I switched over to Dragon Shield Matte Black and KMC perfect fits and they've been really nice for shuffling and my 2 times or so a month playing at the shop.

Really the only thing I don't like about them is that I have to sleeve using an unsleeved card on top of the card in the perfect fit to prevent the perfect fit from sliding up off of the card being sleeved.

[Ace/Homebrew]

I guess this is as good a place as any to discuss double sleeving...

Starting with a Magic card in a perfect fit and an empty sleeve, I insert the Magic card into the sleeve until I feel the slightest resistance. I take my index (or middle) finger and place it about halfway down the back side of the card, between the card and the sleeve. I then position the thumb of the same hand as an anchor point dead center on the front of the sleeve. My index/middle finger then naturally carries the Magic card to the bottom of the sleeve as I slide it past my thumb.

Is this mostly how people do it?

[supremePINEAPPLE]

I used to mess around with trying to use the right pressure and all of that stuff until someone showed me the unsleeved card trick. It's really easy, in your example you would start with your perfect fit sleeved card and another unsleeved card stacked on top of it, slide them into the normal sleeve together (the unsleeved card holds the perfect fit in place while it's going in) and then just pull out the unsleeved card once the sleeved one is nice and snug. This method also doesn't require you to open the sleeve wide to dig in there with your fingers which is nice for my larger hands.

[Ace/Homebrew]

This method also doesn't require you to open the sleeve wide to dig in there with your fingers which is nice for my larger hands.
What exactly are you saying about my hands? :eyebrow:

"Look at those hands. Are they small hands? And he referred to my hands if they’re small, something else must be small. I guarantee you there’s no problem. I guarantee you.” - The 45th President of the United States of America

[supremePINEAPPLE]

I did word that weirdly haha! I always feel like I'm going to rip sleeves open when I have to stick my finger in them and try and manipulate a perfect fit.

[H]

Is this mostly how people do it?

Something like that. I don't really think about it any more, I just do it. After double sleeving a whole 720 card Cube plus all the basics, it's all just muscle memory for me now. Using another card to get things double sleeved takes a lot longer isn't really needed in 99% of the cases where the sleeves are the proper dimensions. At least, in my experience.

[icedagger]

+1 vote for Dragon Shields. I prefer the shuffle feel of KMCs but Dragon Shields aren't bad in that department, and are much more durable.

[Claymore]

KMC hyper mattes used to be great, but Tolarian academy had a recent video (past month) where they showed how the quality has taken a huge hit. I think the video showed that dragon shields were also very improved from the past...but I can't remember.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XWIBDVkGUY

[Scott]

You guys are the best. Taking all of it into account.

[mistercakes]

i used to use kmc hyper mats, but now i'm back to dragonshield mattes for about 6 months now. i originally gave up on dragonshield about 5 years ago when they weren't cutting their sleeves consistently between boxes. it seems to be okay now.

[Kanti]

I used to own these maroon metallic-matte Ultra Pro sleeves when I was little, but can't find them anywhere. Actually can't find any metallic matte sleeves anywhere.

Somebody, helppppp. I just want maroon metallic sleeves.

[jandax]

I fart in the general direction of anything other than dranonshield.

[Plague Sliver]

I hate to be the hipster, but having used all kinds of brands including Dragon Shield / KMC / etc, my highest recommendation right now is for the Ultra Pro Matte sleeves. They don't break very easily, last long, and work beautifully with perfect fits. Having tried all kinds of sleeves in the past, this is the only sleeve now that lasts me more than 1 long tournament without splitting.

[H]

I hate to be the hipster, but having used all kinds of brands including Dragon Shield / KMC / etc, my highest recommendation right now is for the Ultra Pro Matte sleeves. They don't break very easily, last long, and work beautifully with perfect fits. Having tried all kinds of sleeves in the past, this is the only sleeve now that lasts me more than 1 long tournament without splitting.

Do you mean the Eclipse ones? Because if not, I strongly recommend those over the regular Pro Matte's. They are better in basically every way I can measure.