Dragon Shields: quality problems?

[Shriekmaw]

Matrix Green Ultra Pros FTW. I've had them for about 7 months, not a single sleeve has torn. This is amazing, because I love to goldfish TES. This means those sleeves have been beaten and shuffled to hell. They still look decent too, no bent corners, no frayed edges, just like how they came out of the package. I have 500 of these.

Lately, I've kind of given up on Dragon Shields all together and went with Ultra Pros. I've been very happy with them, a lot better in quality then the Dragon Shields I've been using for a long time. Another nice fact about these sleeves are that they are a lot cheaper than Dragon Shields. I believe they are like 3 dollars for a 50 count and the quality is amazing at that price for them.

[APriestOfGix]

Best company is KMC hands down. The KMC's i have (found the packing the gold ones ARE KMC) have been played for 2 years on concrete, and grass (playing at school), and none have split, they are hardly scuffed (i know WTF) and look amazing still. They have picked up a little grit, about as much as my three year old Ultra Pro's but still look amazing. My only problem with them is i lost many of them a while ago, so i only have 60 left, and it makes it kinda hard to then have a side board, cause you have to switch covers, and that can be a bitch.

The KMC's see about 4 hours of play a day, on rought surfaces (i don't use a play mat) so i know they are solid.

My rating would have to go as follows:

Buy:
KMC (any)
Ultra-Pro (Black and Dark Blue)

If you want:
Dragon Shield (any but black, the black ones split like Nightmares hair when he uses the blowdryer on it)

DON'T BUY!:
Ultra-Pro (MtG)
Deck Guard (Cards are not all the same height, 100% chance you will not get a even cut pack)

[Brushwagg]

The thing I dislike about Ultra-Pro is the whole having to buy 2 packs to sleeve a deck. They use to sell 100 count count boxes back in the 90's and where alot thicker too. Anyone else notice that on certain colors you can make out the back of your card?

[APriestOfGix]

Thats the ONLY plus to the MtG Ultra-Pro's, that they come in packs of 80.

[Versus]

I forgot that the UP textured sleeves are pretty nice actually. The have an "alligator skin" type thing going on. The only issue I can see with DCI play would be a thin layer over the colored plastic that creates the hologramish effect you see below. Otherwise, they work great. Definately the best UP (other than Matrix Green) that I've played with.

[cdr]

There are several problems with textured sleeves and especially hologram sleeves as far as tournament play - there's usually cut lines on the back of at least some, and the pattern is usually not consistent at the borders.