Yooo, waddup fellas. Today, I’ll be yapping about sleeves in the context of the Pokémon trading card game. Sleeves are a very important part of playing any trading card game, and everyone has differing opinions about them.
There are unlimited brands, colors, sizes, and textures you can look for when picking out sleeves. The well-known brand when it comes to tabletop gaming sleeves is Dragon Shield. There are hundreds of competitors, but Dragon Shield reigns supreme. Other popular brands include Ultra Pro and Katana. There are also cheaper alternatives that are very similar but come with less than 100. Every brand will have some differences that you may or may not like. Dragon Shield’s sleeves have extra room on the top of the sleeve, but most other brands have much less room on the top of the sleeve. Many people, including me, like the extra room on top so that if the cards slide, you won't be able to see the top of the card outside the sleeve.
There are several different textures of sleeves you can get, such as matte, dual matte, and classic. Most players opt for the matte sleeves as they have a very smooth shuffle feel, and compared to the classic sleeves, they get less dirty over time. Dual matte sleeves offer a black lining on the inside and colored backs of sleeves, which some people prefer. To me, the dual matte sleeves do not shuffle as nicely as the matte or classic, and I like to see the fun color of the sleeve framing the cards.
By far, my favorite aspect of choosing sleeves is the color. Sleeves offer players the chance to add some more flair to their decks or pick a color that complements their deck well. For example, when I played Raging Bolt in Atlanta, I chose to use Dragon Shield Matte Yellow sleeves as I thought they complemented my deck very well. I thoroughly enjoy playing with fun colored sleeves, and there’s nothing wrong with black, but it’s just not for me.
Players may also get sleeves from the Pokémon Center, which often features popular Pokémon in fun brushed art. These sleeves look amazing, but there’s one issue. There’s no texture on the back at all. What sets brands like Dragon Shield apart from Pokémon Center sleeves is that they have texture built into the back of the sleeves. This drastically improves shuffle feel and generally makes the cards easier to maneuver. Almost all players who use Brushed Art sleeves opt to use Over-Sleeves made by Dragon Shield or another popular brand. These are clear outer sleeves that are big enough to fit around the art sleeves and restore the deck to being maneuverable. Some players like to use very expensive cards and double-sleeve their cards using perfect-fit sleeves. These go around the raw card first and then go into the branded sleeves. I would like to do this, but it makes the deck too big for my hands to handle. Super unfortunate because they made N & Zoroark sleeves that FUCK! But I can’t use them. There are also a few freaks at my locals who do ALL THREE! They have triple-sleeved their decks, and each card is about as thick as two of mine. It’s a brick, and I find it disgusting.
The final aspect of sleeves I would like to touch on is cleanliness. After every round I play, I like to wash my hands as a common courtesy to myself and others. However, I am the exception here. Nobody else gives a shit about how dirty their hands are and you can tell when you look at their sleeves. Over time, the oil from your hands will build up on the sleeves and rub off from sleeve to sleeve. This builds up and creates little dots of grime that can be easily removed. There is one motherfucker at my locals who has the absolute nastiest sleeves ever. It’s fuckin disgusting and every time I play against him I don’t cut his deck because it’s that gross. You can barely even read most of the text on the card because the front is that dirty. Everyone has told him this, but he always says they aren’t ready to be replaced. Several people have even offered to buy the sleeves for him, and he just refused. His name is Andres, and he’s a generally unpleasant person to be around. He cheats, he tried to scam a kid for a $100 card before, and worst of all, his sleeves are disgusting. Nobody likes this guy, but thankfully, I haven’t seen him in a couple of weeks. (he also used to always shit on my ancient box deck that I consistently beat him with and always got better finishes than him)
Finally, I would like to ask for a bit of audience participation. The yellow sleeves I have been using since ATL have gotten a bit grimy, and the plastic is becoming very wavy from using them so much. It’s time for me to think about a new set of sleeves. Below I will link a few colors , and I’d appreciate everyone who reads this (Lucas, Ked, Q) to drop your vote in the discord (actually Mir Boys is prob just good)
Also I went 4-1 last night :))))
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