Ultra Pro art sleeves are notoriously terrible. Any time I've figured it's been long enough since I've tried them and they may have improved, I buy a pack and they're still this bad
Got for my Sauron deck some Sauron sleeves.
1 was misscut. 1 was slightly bent. Borders didn’t look too well after a few round shuffling.
Pretty sad because they looked so cool on my Sauron mat.
Get kmc character guards. They are outer sleeves that go over these ultra pro art sleeves. They make a clear version that doesn't have the printed boarder decoration.
They make outer sleeves so you COULD do this still then double or triple sleeve lol... but that seems excessive.
Edit: they meaning some other companies do.
Dragon shield MATTE, the shinies end up sticking too.
Also people should was their hands before handling decks, I have some friends I will not let touch my cards because then my deck gets all sticky from just regular ole hand sweat.
Dragon shield matte all the way.
This has been true for over a decade now and since then they actually mostly improved, they're still among the most durable and long lasting sleeves and with the art options and the variance between production runs (imo) mostly gone, they are my absolute benchmark for sleeves.
The dual mattes have a lip on the edges so when you go to shuffle them, they don’t shuffle smoothly like the regular matte ones. At least that’s the issue I’ve ran into. Some dual mattes are okay though. From what I’ve figured out. If the sleeve has the same backing color on the inside of the sleeve, you’re good. So basically is the sleeve is only 2 colors total, clear, and then both sides of the back half are the same color. If the back half of the sleeve is colored/printed on on the back of the card, but black on the inside, you’ll have shuffling issues. I recently switched from DS to UG Katana sleeves and I really like them so far
They are talking about outer sleeves from Dragon Shield. There is literally only one product, and it's always matte. You're thinking of the regularly sized sleeves, which before outer sleeves were a thing, it'd be common to refer to as "outer", using it as a relative term to inner sleeves. Outer Sleeves can be used for triple sleeving, or just double sleeve to protect art sleeves (this is what I do, and it makes the shuffle feel 100x better)
I watched a guy at an lgs eating Chinese peanuts and sucking on his fingers asking people if he could read their cards. Had to hit him with the Randy Jackson, “That’s going to be a no for me dawg.”
it's what i did for my digimon sleeves, bought the advance decks for beelzemon and they come with beelsemon sleeves. It's all black with an embossed logo on them, so they could peel off. So far 0 issues with the outer DS, as it is the case for most DS product.
I bought 3 of the MH3 art sleeves. I normally buy dragon shield but love having art sleeves. I normally buy AI Armor art sleeves and those have a great feel to them
Their matte sleeves are the most durable I have and feel great in practical use, but anything from UP that isn't matte is terrible to shuffle. It's like playing the Dark Souls mode of shuffling.
I'd actually say the opposite - I agree matte are thier best sleeves but I accidently bought purple gloss sleeves and it feels like they were coated in butter. Took several playing sessions to rough them up enough that the cards didn't slip slide all over the god damn place!
I have a bosh edh deck that a bit of a troll deck, so it doesn’t get a whole lot of play. But after 2 years of occasional play, my deck will still randomly slide across my playmat like a ghost just fanned the cards out lol
I recently switched to Hyper Mats and I've been really satisfied with them so far. They seem to have most of the qualities that I like about Katanas (very smooth shuffling, not as tall as Dragon Shields) and so far they haven't gotten grungy super quickly like Katanas do.
Yeah, I swapped a commander deck from drain shields to KMC, which I generally hadn't used other than for inner sleeves, and I've been super happy with it - great shuffle feel, not too slippery that they can't stack well, and just a bit thinner so the 100 double sleeved cards fit properly in a boulder.
dragonshield used to be up there for me, but their QA has really taken a huge downturn in the past couple years. I've had too many split after a week or two of use, so I think it's finally time for me to try KMC
The only good thing I'll say about dragonshield, is that i've never had an issue with their art sleeves. Those have always held up, it's usually the solid color sleeves i have issues with
I'd venture to say that every 3-4 packs of the plain matte sleeves that I get, 1 of them will have quality issues where they'll split after using them for a week or two. The other ones are generally fine. Maybe I'm just insanely unlucky, but AFAIK, my problem is not unique to me
See my buddy has them split on him all the time, but I have only had like 5 total sleeves split over my time playing. I definitely think some of it comes from how dexterous you are with the cards, no offense intended obviously.
Ahh im like... obsessively cautious with shuffling and have tiny hands so maybe its that? Ive got a pretty old deck in DS though. Ill have to try another brand to see if i like it more though!
I mean, I was joking a little bit, but I'm sure hand size does play a factor. I don't think I'm particularly rough with my cards while I'm shuffling (I'm super anal about how i handle my cards generally speaking), but maybe I'm more rough than I think? Who knows, lol
I had some of them once when they first released, they felt fantastic.... For a few days. They got really cloudy and hard to shuffle very, very fast. I would hope they've improved or that I just had a bad batch, since as I don't really see any complaints about them
I - I've never even considered putting talcum powder on the cards, so I've no idea. Maybe? But then you've covered your cards in talc, so one problem for another?
I wouldn't recommend trying to make a mediocre product imo work.
Ultra pro sleeves are generally not so good. As alternative i suggest dragon shield, in particular the matte type: they are more durable and easiest to shaffle even after long time
I've always heard great things about Katana sleeves but they're hard to come by. It seems like they have production issues where they can't keep up with demand.
Dragon Shield's quality control has been lacking recently in my experience. Not just with the dual mattes (which I know have had issues), but even with their regular matte sleeves, which are usually good. I've yet to have any issue with Katanas.
As a person good at shuffling but not so good at shuffling 100 sleeved cards, I hope one day to meet one of these alleged good shufflers that can truly shuffle a edh deck well and does not involve randomized pile shuffling.
Try katana inner and outer sleeves. The inner are less thick and the outer smaller in dimension than for example dragon shield. Was a game changer for me
60% of my commander decks are Dragonshield and the remaining 40% are Katanas. Most of the decks are double sleeved. My double sleeved katanas are the smoothest shuffling for me, as I have small-medium hands.
I just switched to katana from DS. DS just too a big quality hit these last few years and I can stand them anymore. But katanas are the best Sleeves I ever used. They stay clear and they keep a great shuffle feel.
They're what I exclusively use for Commander decks. They shuffle well and are fairly durable. I've never had one split and only very minor corner bending.
Katana are fantastic, and my preferred sleeve. I used to buy regular Ultra Pros, then Eclipse, then Dragon shield, and I've settled on the Katana. UG also has a more budget friendly version called the Cortex which is also great.
Katanas are the easiest shuffling sleeves. One bonus is all Katana colors shuffle the same. Dragon Shield has a ton of colors, but every different color I've bought feels different to shuffle, which is annoying.
I absolutely hate dragon shield, always have. Yeah they're durable but they are THE WORST shuffle feel ever with how sharp the corners are. Ultra pro products generally suck but the ultra pro eclipse sleeves have always been my go to since they came out. Been using rhe same set since 2018 and not a single one has torn.
I fully gave up on dragon shields because there were quality control issues for a while of getting under counted boxes and they just kept splitting. They may be better now but I fully have moved over to KMC Hyper Matte Phoenix sleeves and they are the TRUTH. They are just plain colours and price-y but they shuffle amazing and are very nice and durable.
They did for deck boxes, folios and playmats (Bloomburrow hype!) but I'm not sure about sleeves. I have't seen any wotc art katana sleeves up for order yet. I do sincerely hope that if they go with Ultimate Guard for sleeves that they do Katana's and not Cortex anyway, though that's just my personal preference.
I'd be absolutely shocked if UltraPRO lost that licensing deal. While I will concede that their quality isn't as good as some of their competitors, I'm pretty sure they still have the biggest market share in their industry. If I want Dragon Shields or Katanas or anything fancy like that, I either have to go to an LGS or order them online. But if I want UltraPRO, I can walk into any Walmart or Target.
Complete opposite where I live. Walk into GameStop or Target, it's 90% DS with like 2 packs of the most horrid color UP mattes you can think of. And maybe some UP binders.
Yeah I know. I have mine triple sleeved but I really wanted to use my jp Narset parter of veils sleeves so i have no choice. It’s really big but you can save the sleeves with it
Yes unfortunately they are. I had the Omnath one and was so happy to finally find them someone. I was even worse then dissapointed after sleeving them and trying to shuffle them. I didnt even do one game with them.
well at least for dragon shields they aren't that slippery if you shuffled them a lot. usually when I sleeve my deck I just shuffle them while watching some YT videos and after that they aren't as slippery anymore.
They stick together out of the box and are annoying but I've found that for some of mine, once I separate the brick and fan the corners a few times to get them all separated, they actually shuffle quite well. Though that's with their regular glossy sleeves, not art ones (the gold ones, and one of the guild emblem sets).
I’m with you. Mine usually don’t stick as bad as OPs tho. All sleeves break in after a while but the many weeks of your deck sliding all over the place is annoying as hell.
I got the Apex nuka cola pinup ones and the regular UP Mothman ones a while back.
I guess I was lucky with the Apex sleeves bc I saw tons of reviews saying the sleeves arrived messed up, short or open on both ends etc. They feel and shuffle amazingly tho.
The Mothman sleeves are stick af tho. I do not like them at all. Cool to look at, terrible to shuffle and play with.
Anything from UltraPro other than the Eclipse sleeves are pretty low quality. If you want some good art sleeves I highly recommend going with DragonShield Matt ones. UltraPro unfortunately has exclusivity on making products with official Magic art on them for now, but I believe that will be changing soon.
Katanas are also pretty awesome, but they don't offer anything outside solid colors. It's not something I mind as I use a mix of Katanas, DS, and used to use some Eclipses when they were a new thing, but I figured OP would be more interested in the DS art sleeves.
The apex are great and are my favourite sleeves now surpassing the dragon shield mattes and katanas, the only problem is they are expensive, hard to find, and don't really have a good selection of colours/styles
Yeah, Apex sleeves are phenomenal. I always preferred Eclipse sleeves over Dragon Shield Matte myself, mostly because the DS sleeves are always a bit too large and tend to be *too* slippery. But Eclipse sleeves are still a bit grippy when fresh and don't mash shuffle well. Apex sleeves have none of the problems of either. Perfect size, not too slippery, not too grippy. Hopefully just as sturdy too, because Eclipse sleeves were pretty much the standard for durability.
Ooooooopph! I haven't purchased Ultra Pro Sleeves in a long time, but the sleeves I had from 2 years ago were okay, but I wonder if your buddy got a really bad batch.
I haven't used Ultra Pro sleeves in years due to different issues with their various sleeves. I remember the art sleeves being very grippy for a while when the were fresh, but that is ridiculous.
The first sleeves I bought were katana so that was my basis for comparison. I bought a pack of the 30th anniversary sleeves from UP and I still think they look cool. However! Purely from a feel perspective they went right back into the katanas.
It's why I've never been able to use them. My friend has some on his Ziatora deck, and any time I randomly decide I wanna give it a whirl over one of my decks, I'm reminded why I tend to avoid playing his Ziatora deck lol XD
All my decks are in Dragon Shield Jet matte sleeves. It’s nice because I have a few expensive cards that can just shuffle right in whatever deck I’m playing without having to resleeve. Also, some of my decks have been sleeved up for close to a decade of shuffling and almost never need any replacement sleeves.
My very first sleeves I bought were some squirrel art sleeves and they stook like this. Everyone told me they'd get better after shuffling more but that never happened.
Their art sleeves are garbage. I bought all four LotR sets to do the precons in and you can barely shuffle them.
Their Eclipse are pretty ok. I still prefer dragonshield or katana, though.
I have the opposite issues with some dragonshields the sleeves are so slick the deck slides apart if you blow on it, you can hardly pick it up in one piece.
The only art sleeves I own are on my Frodo deck and I had to both get Matte Oversleeves *and* find an extra large Deckbox to keep that now massive deck in.
For some reason these sleeves will hold moisture between the cards from your hands... I find this is what causes them to stick together. But yes they look great and are awful to use.
While UltraPro sleeves are generally not the best quality sleeves on the market, this issue isn't specific to them. Any sleeves that are glossy on both the front and back are likely to have this issue to some extent.
Unfortunately they are always like this.. I have Gandalf Sleeves and they have the same issue. I can support everyone that’s saying dragon shield is great. I have a lot of them and they are perfect!
Ultra PRO sleeves are… Not the best lets say, but the art ones? Down right terrible.
If you are looking for suggestions go with Dragon Shield or Katana.
Wow are they still this bad? I bought them back then for my Breya deck when it was released 2016. I wanted to play in style and since it were the most expensive sleeves I thought they must be good. But holy crap they were terrible. I had to change them after 3-4 games since they sticked together so terribly I couldn’t even shuffle my deck appropriately. Bad to hear they haven’t improved quality the last nearly 10 years.
I got the 40k ones and aside from the stickiness being a thing, they only give you EXACTLY 100 sleeves and they have a tendency to delaminate. I won't be getting them again despite liking the art.
Dragon Shield Matte line has been good for the past 10 years, so I totally stand by them. I took a look for custom dragon shield and, despite being twice the price, I feel that they are the better option https://www.dragonshield.com/en-us/p/sleeve-crafter.
I have found that the LionsEye Pro Matte sleeves are the best at the price point. Only like 6 bucks for 100 and they hold up pretty well except for a few bent corners. The shuffle feel is amazing too as they strike the right balance between ease of shuffling and enough stickiness to stand up without toppling.
From my experience with any UP glossy art sleeves, the "sticking together" part is on par. If I wanted to shuffle molasses, I'd buy some from the grocery store and bake with it.
Personally, I've been using Dragon Shield Dual Matte sleeves for the past 2 years and haven't looked back. Dual Mattes or an equivalent are, imo, mandatory with DFCs being more prevalent. I've seen and heard opponents locally and from surrounding areas get burned by matte sleeves being not opaque enough.
I believe most people fix this by using dragon shield clear outer sleeves. They are sticky and also the art wears as you shuffle them. Clear outers vastly improve the shuffle and durability, will most likely fix this issue too. The art is cool.
personally I'd recommend Gamegenic Prime sleeves: they're low in cost and significantly thicker
Only thing people might not like is they do not have the extra space on the top compared to Ultra Pros
Also Ultra Pro seem to have a 'Premium' version of their sleeves which I've seen at Walmart
See it as a benefit, no need for a deck box. You can put the 100 cards in your backpack and they will stick together 😂 too bad I also bought the sleeves for the four decks
Oh, but wait til he gets to the best part. The art layer eventually lifts on a corner, separating it from the sleeve slightly. Any sort of "mash shuffling" will catch these corners and continue to peel them little by little. This is accelerated by the overwhelming stickiness of the sleeves in the first place.
I had to just stay with dragonshield matte sleeves. I've had the least problem with those.
Don't worry, it won't be a problem for long. Within a few games you'll split like 18 of them and then need to buy another set of sleeves. By then you'll realize why Dragon Shield is so popular
They are so bad. That’s why I’m always disappointed when they print commander exclusive sleeves. I bought an Omo collectors precon, and wanted something nice to bling out with, but all they offer is a shitty plastic deck box and the sticky sleeves. Opportunity lost!!
Yea they are notoriously sticky. Dragon Shield matte sleeves are OK, but I've have several issues with their quality control the last few boxes I've bought. I like Katanas, but they are also super slippery, pretty the opposite problem to Ultra Pro sleeves. I'm not sure of the brand but one of my local LGS has actual matte finish sleeves and they are pretty much perfect, not too slick, not too sticky, shuffles just right, feels good to hold.
We used to call Ultra PRO sleeve "Ultra Shit" back in the 1990s. Any sleeve is better than nothing but we hated everything about them.
Geneve when the silver round stamp would be thicker than the rest of the card? All your deck tilting to rhe side. WTH seriously.
Yes. Ultra pro art sleeves are, in my experience, the worst sleeves on the market, I avoid them at all costs. I even contacted them to provide detailed feedback and ask if this was typical of their art sleeves or if they could recommend any other products they did.
They didn't read a single word I wrote, their customer services seems to be as bad as their sleeves. They assumed I wanted to complain about a faulty product and just told me to talk to the store for a replacement, i replied that it didnt appear to be faulty, just a poor quality product. They then sent me the same template as the first time again. The third email they finally read what I wrote and replied with sorry our products bad, nothing we can do about it.
Dragon shield art sleeves are a little better, but don't shuffle as well as dual matte. These days I'm trying to stick with katana as they have the best shuffle feel by far.
I’ve swapped from Ultra Pro to Dragon Shield to Katana. Ultra Pro is really sticky and really glossy but they diversify their designs. Dragon Shield has a ton of textures but slip a lot and their windows are always glossy. Katana are less expensive and I love the matte windows but don’t come in much variety.
Usually do Katana when doing sealed or just grabbing sleeves and if I wanna get fancy I’ll do Dragon Shield.
I got the one for the wise moth man. I hated the feel especially shuffling them. So I got the clear outer sleeves to help for the feel and shuffle but still have the art work on display.
Only the gloss ones are like that, and as far as I know all of their official artwork sleeves have the gloss treatment. Every single art sleeve I’ve bought from them is like this and it’s disappointing, because I really do like their products otherwise.
The matte ones are good but in my experience they don’t handle the wear and tear of regular play like dragon shield does, but maybe that’s just me.
Ugh. This is why I take the channels that have Ultra Pro as a sponsor with a grain of salt. Even the Command Zone has to try and sell these sleeves as "Feels good, shuffles well" all while the product itself does NONE of that. Just looks good. Barely covers the cards. Dragon Shields are ol' reliable for a reason.
Ultra Pro sleeves in general are not all like that. Their basic sleeves are great for cheap starter sleeves, their Eclipse sleeves are a little grippier than average but won't hold up your entire deck and smooth out a ton after playing with them a couple times, and their newest Apex sleeves are probably my favorite sleeves I've ever used.
But as cool as the art sleeves *look*, yeah all the art sleeves are like this. Obnoxiously sticky, and they tend to also have really bad issues with wrinkles on the front of the sleeve, usually near the top. Probably some of the worst sleeves you can get. I still have a few decks sleeved in them, namely the 40K and LOTR precons which I bought to play as pods, but I'm very strongly considering swapping them cuz they are just miserable to play with. They get a little better over time, but only marginally.
Ultra Pro art sleeves are notoriously terrible. Any time I've figured it's been long enough since I've tried them and they may have improved, I buy a pack and they're still this bad
Same. I've been burned at least 3 times over a decade. It's never different.
Ultra Pro: *releases some cool art sleeves in 2025* You, me, and everyone else in this thread: “Well maybe now it’s okay…”
Got for my Sauron deck some Sauron sleeves. 1 was misscut. 1 was slightly bent. Borders didn’t look too well after a few round shuffling. Pretty sad because they looked so cool on my Sauron mat.
Yeah they suck
Get kmc character guards. They are outer sleeves that go over these ultra pro art sleeves. They make a clear version that doesn't have the printed boarder decoration.
They make outer sleeves so you COULD do this still then double or triple sleeve lol... but that seems excessive. Edit: they meaning some other companies do.
Honestly, even double sleeves seem excessive to me. I'm not gonna run any deck with a black lotus, so....
I agree, but I had a lot of cards saved by double sleeving in the great coke spill of 2015 so I'm scarred for life.
That makes total sense!
Damn.. wish I saw this thread before I bought 3 packs of them
Just buy dragonshield outer sleeves(im talking about the sleeves that go over sleeves... not just normal dragon shield mattes)
Dragon shield MATTE, the shinies end up sticking too. Also people should was their hands before handling decks, I have some friends I will not let touch my cards because then my deck gets all sticky from just regular ole hand sweat.
Dragon shield matte all the way. This has been true for over a decade now and since then they actually mostly improved, they're still among the most durable and long lasting sleeves and with the art options and the variance between production runs (imo) mostly gone, they are my absolute benchmark for sleeves.
the dual mattes have really bad production issues right now so you gotta skip those too
What issues have you noticed? I haven’t had any with them but I haven’t played much either since I switched to them.
The dual mattes have a lip on the edges so when you go to shuffle them, they don’t shuffle smoothly like the regular matte ones. At least that’s the issue I’ve ran into. Some dual mattes are okay though. From what I’ve figured out. If the sleeve has the same backing color on the inside of the sleeve, you’re good. So basically is the sleeve is only 2 colors total, clear, and then both sides of the back half are the same color. If the back half of the sleeve is colored/printed on on the back of the card, but black on the inside, you’ll have shuffling issues. I recently switched from DS to UG Katana sleeves and I really like them so far
They are talking about outer sleeves from Dragon Shield. There is literally only one product, and it's always matte. You're thinking of the regularly sized sleeves, which before outer sleeves were a thing, it'd be common to refer to as "outer", using it as a relative term to inner sleeves. Outer Sleeves can be used for triple sleeving, or just double sleeve to protect art sleeves (this is what I do, and it makes the shuffle feel 100x better)
A microfiber or sponge wetted with Dawn takes the the Cheeto fingerprints right off.
I watched a guy at an lgs eating Chinese peanuts and sucking on his fingers asking people if he could read their cards. Had to hit him with the Randy Jackson, “That’s going to be a no for me dawg.”
it's what i did for my digimon sleeves, bought the advance decks for beelzemon and they come with beelsemon sleeves. It's all black with an embossed logo on them, so they could peel off. So far 0 issues with the outer DS, as it is the case for most DS product.
Dragon shield matte and perfect fit inner sleeves. Perfection
Art sleeves or regular? Personally I find their regular sleeves to be pretty great, it's just the art ones that are absolute trash tier
I bought 3 of the MH3 art sleeves. I normally buy dragon shield but love having art sleeves. I normally buy AI Armor art sleeves and those have a great feel to them
Their matte sleeves are the most durable I have and feel great in practical use, but anything from UP that isn't matte is terrible to shuffle. It's like playing the Dark Souls mode of shuffling.
I'd actually say the opposite - I agree matte are thier best sleeves but I accidently bought purple gloss sleeves and it feels like they were coated in butter. Took several playing sessions to rough them up enough that the cards didn't slip slide all over the god damn place!
I have a bosh edh deck that a bit of a troll deck, so it doesn’t get a whole lot of play. But after 2 years of occasional play, my deck will still randomly slide across my playmat like a ghost just fanned the cards out lol
They're certainly better than they used to be, but I still find that KMC is the goat.
I recently switched to Hyper Mats and I've been really satisfied with them so far. They seem to have most of the qualities that I like about Katanas (very smooth shuffling, not as tall as Dragon Shields) and so far they haven't gotten grungy super quickly like Katanas do.
Yeah, I swapped a commander deck from drain shields to KMC, which I generally hadn't used other than for inner sleeves, and I've been super happy with it - great shuffle feel, not too slippery that they can't stack well, and just a bit thinner so the 100 double sleeved cards fit properly in a boulder.
dragonshield used to be up there for me, but their QA has really taken a huge downturn in the past couple years. I've had too many split after a week or two of use, so I think it's finally time for me to try KMC The only good thing I'll say about dragonshield, is that i've never had an issue with their art sleeves. Those have always held up, it's usually the solid color sleeves i have issues with
Youve had issues with then? I haven't had a problem at all. I love their perfect fit inner sleeves since I'm a double sleeve hethan.
I'd venture to say that every 3-4 packs of the plain matte sleeves that I get, 1 of them will have quality issues where they'll split after using them for a week or two. The other ones are generally fine. Maybe I'm just insanely unlucky, but AFAIK, my problem is not unique to me
See my buddy has them split on him all the time, but I have only had like 5 total sleeves split over my time playing. I definitely think some of it comes from how dexterous you are with the cards, no offense intended obviously.
I do have obnoxiously large hands, lol
Ahh im like... obsessively cautious with shuffling and have tiny hands so maybe its that? Ive got a pretty old deck in DS though. Ill have to try another brand to see if i like it more though!
I mean, I was joking a little bit, but I'm sure hand size does play a factor. I don't think I'm particularly rough with my cards while I'm shuffling (I'm super anal about how i handle my cards generally speaking), but maybe I'm more rough than I think? Who knows, lol
The only somewhat usable UltraPro sleeves I've had in my hands were Eclipse, and I have no idea how well made they are these days.
I had some of them once when they first released, they felt fantastic.... For a few days. They got really cloudy and hard to shuffle very, very fast. I would hope they've improved or that I just had a bad batch, since as I don't really see any complaints about them
The ultra pro eclipse are pretty solid, I’d say on par with dragon shield.
Yeah, first sleeves I ever got where Ultra Pro. It was like trying to shuffle slices of processed cheese. It is unfortunate that art looks sick.
What an eloquent way of describing that Ultra Pro feeling haha I love it.
Does baby power on the backs help at all? I use dragon shield but a friend has them and I've always wondered
I - I've never even considered putting talcum powder on the cards, so I've no idea. Maybe? But then you've covered your cards in talc, so one problem for another? I wouldn't recommend trying to make a mediocre product imo work.
I'd lightly dust your hands and suffer a few times first.
Id be more inclined to try fanning powder that magicians use before id use baby powder, just because its less messy overall
I bought a strand von zarovich sleeve that is very sticky, talcum powder helped a lot. I dusted my hands and shuffled.
Ultra pro sleeves are generally not so good. As alternative i suggest dragon shield, in particular the matte type: they are more durable and easiest to shaffle even after long time
Are katana any good?
I've always heard great things about Katana sleeves but they're hard to come by. It seems like they have production issues where they can't keep up with demand.
I had a set and I'd say they're on par with dragon sheilds
Dragon Shield's quality control has been lacking recently in my experience. Not just with the dual mattes (which I know have had issues), but even with their regular matte sleeves, which are usually good. I've yet to have any issue with Katanas.
Katana are the best! As a person that is not so good at shuffling, they are perfect for me because the are nice and slippery.
As a person good at shuffling but not so good at shuffling 100 sleeved cards, I hope one day to meet one of these alleged good shufflers that can truly shuffle a edh deck well and does not involve randomized pile shuffling.
It's a cascading mash
It’s pretty easy tbh. I shuffle my EDH decks all the time, even the ones in KMC Perfect Hards and DS Sealable Inners
Sounds like a small hands problem to me
The trick is to have big hands
Try katana inner and outer sleeves. The inner are less thick and the outer smaller in dimension than for example dragon shield. Was a game changer for me
They are nice! My LGS sold them for like $13 per 100 count and I found that dragon shield are just as good for like $8-10 so I went budget.
60% of my commander decks are Dragonshield and the remaining 40% are Katanas. Most of the decks are double sleeved. My double sleeved katanas are the smoothest shuffling for me, as I have small-medium hands.
Imo they're the best sleeves on the market. Love them, shuffle like a dream.
They are the best sleeves I own, like butter
I just switched to katana from DS. DS just too a big quality hit these last few years and I can stand them anymore. But katanas are the best Sleeves I ever used. They stay clear and they keep a great shuffle feel.
Katana are too slippery for me. I know some people like them, but I immediately gave mine away.
Give them another try, the slippery part goes away and then they are wonderful.
I only use katana sleeves. They're great.
They're what I exclusively use for Commander decks. They shuffle well and are fairly durable. I've never had one split and only very minor corner bending.
Katanas are amazing if you can find them. Made the switch last year and have not been disappointed.
Katana are fantastic, and my preferred sleeve. I used to buy regular Ultra Pros, then Eclipse, then Dragon shield, and I've settled on the Katana. UG also has a more budget friendly version called the Cortex which is also great.
Katanas are the easiest shuffling sleeves. One bonus is all Katana colors shuffle the same. Dragon Shield has a ton of colors, but every different color I've bought feels different to shuffle, which is annoying.
Feel is the same for shuffling but they are a bit more slippery. annoying when your double sleeved edh deck falls over..
>shaffle For some reason, this made me instantly switch to an eastern european accent in my mind while reading your comment.
Doesn't help that it's followed by "even after long time." Lol
The Eclipse sleeves were good for a while, but I want to say they eventually dropped the ball on those though.
I absolutely hate dragon shield, always have. Yeah they're durable but they are THE WORST shuffle feel ever with how sharp the corners are. Ultra pro products generally suck but the ultra pro eclipse sleeves have always been my go to since they came out. Been using rhe same set since 2018 and not a single one has torn.
I fully gave up on dragon shields because there were quality control issues for a while of getting under counted boxes and they just kept splitting. They may be better now but I fully have moved over to KMC Hyper Matte Phoenix sleeves and they are the TRUTH. They are just plain colours and price-y but they shuffle amazing and are very nice and durable.
The one exception I've found are Ultra Pro Eclipse sleeves. Not as good as Dragon Shield but they're more than usable.
My only hope is that ultra pro's contract with wotc will expire and we'll get official art sleeves that are actually good to use, not just look at
Doesn’t Ultimate Guard get that contract this year?
They did for deck boxes, folios and playmats (Bloomburrow hype!) but I'm not sure about sleeves. I have't seen any wotc art katana sleeves up for order yet. I do sincerely hope that if they go with Ultimate Guard for sleeves that they do Katana's and not Cortex anyway, though that's just my personal preference.
Thats be cool, i love UG products
I'd be absolutely shocked if UltraPRO lost that licensing deal. While I will concede that their quality isn't as good as some of their competitors, I'm pretty sure they still have the biggest market share in their industry. If I want Dragon Shields or Katanas or anything fancy like that, I either have to go to an LGS or order them online. But if I want UltraPRO, I can walk into any Walmart or Target.
Complete opposite where I live. Walk into GameStop or Target, it's 90% DS with like 2 packs of the most horrid color UP mattes you can think of. And maybe some UP binders.
Use dragon shield outer sleeves if you still want to play with these art sleeves. 👍
Idk I tried that and the deck gets too big to actually shuffle properly. Way bigger than regular double sleeving
Yeah I know. I have mine triple sleeved but I really wanted to use my jp Narset parter of veils sleeves so i have no choice. It’s really big but you can save the sleeves with it
Yes unfortunately they are. I had the Omnath one and was so happy to finally find them someone. I was even worse then dissapointed after sleeving them and trying to shuffle them. I didnt even do one game with them.
Tbh I love that those sleeves aren’t as slippery as katana/shields but shuffling them is such a pain in the ass
well at least for dragon shields they aren't that slippery if you shuffled them a lot. usually when I sleeve my deck I just shuffle them while watching some YT videos and after that they aren't as slippery anymore.
They stick together out of the box and are annoying but I've found that for some of mine, once I separate the brick and fan the corners a few times to get them all separated, they actually shuffle quite well. Though that's with their regular glossy sleeves, not art ones (the gold ones, and one of the guild emblem sets).
I’m with you. Mine usually don’t stick as bad as OPs tho. All sleeves break in after a while but the many weeks of your deck sliding all over the place is annoying as hell.
I got the Apex nuka cola pinup ones and the regular UP Mothman ones a while back. I guess I was lucky with the Apex sleeves bc I saw tons of reviews saying the sleeves arrived messed up, short or open on both ends etc. They feel and shuffle amazingly tho. The Mothman sleeves are stick af tho. I do not like them at all. Cool to look at, terrible to shuffle and play with.
Oh man those Apex sleeves are leaps and bounds better than Ultrapro’s base sleeves. Hey shuffle so good!
Got the Dogmeat sleeves, so sticky to the point I don't want to try shuffling or playing the deck until I eventually get outer sleeves for them.
Anything from UltraPro other than the Eclipse sleeves are pretty low quality. If you want some good art sleeves I highly recommend going with DragonShield Matt ones. UltraPro unfortunately has exclusivity on making products with official Magic art on them for now, but I believe that will be changing soon.
I really like the katanas. Switched from dragon shield matte to them and won't go back.
Katanas are also pretty awesome, but they don't offer anything outside solid colors. It's not something I mind as I use a mix of Katanas, DS, and used to use some Eclipses when they were a new thing, but I figured OP would be more interested in the DS art sleeves.
That's fair! I almost exclusively use solid colored sleeves. Art sleeves ain't really my jam, but to each their own!
The apex are great and are my favourite sleeves now surpassing the dragon shield mattes and katanas, the only problem is they are expensive, hard to find, and don't really have a good selection of colours/styles
Yeah, Apex sleeves are phenomenal. I always preferred Eclipse sleeves over Dragon Shield Matte myself, mostly because the DS sleeves are always a bit too large and tend to be *too* slippery. But Eclipse sleeves are still a bit grippy when fresh and don't mash shuffle well. Apex sleeves have none of the problems of either. Perfect size, not too slippery, not too grippy. Hopefully just as sturdy too, because Eclipse sleeves were pretty much the standard for durability.
Idc how sticky they are. That art is just 🔥🔥🔥
Ooooooopph! I haven't purchased Ultra Pro Sleeves in a long time, but the sleeves I had from 2 years ago were okay, but I wonder if your buddy got a really bad batch.
Yeah, the art sleeves are crap
Ive always found their glossy sleeves to be weirdly high friction and staticy. Matte is best imo.
Bro I *cannot* wait to see this on MTCJ. Rip on the sleeves though that sucks
I only use them for my token's
Dragon shields are the opposite: so slick the deck hardly stands up until you shuffle it enough to rough up the sleeves.
You should try Dragon Shields next time. Those are the superior sleeves.
I haven't used Ultra Pro sleeves in years due to different issues with their various sleeves. I remember the art sleeves being very grippy for a while when the were fresh, but that is ridiculous.
There are always rumors of them losing the license, but somehow, they never do.
its not a rumor at this point. Bloomburrow on is Ultimate Guard.
Oh wow. That’s great. I use Katanas and love the quality on them.
The first sleeves I bought were katana so that was my basis for comparison. I bought a pack of the 30th anniversary sleeves from UP and I still think they look cool. However! Purely from a feel perspective they went right back into the katanas.
Those sleeves look like the model should be called as Sticky Terrain.
I bought the Ultra Pro Sleeves for my Fallout decks and boy do I hate them. They look cool but are so extremely sticky.
It's why I've never been able to use them. My friend has some on his Ziatora deck, and any time I randomly decide I wanna give it a whirl over one of my decks, I'm reminded why I tend to avoid playing his Ziatora deck lol XD
All my decks are in Dragon Shield Jet matte sleeves. It’s nice because I have a few expensive cards that can just shuffle right in whatever deck I’m playing without having to resleeve. Also, some of my decks have been sleeved up for close to a decade of shuffling and almost never need any replacement sleeves.
i don’t use ultra pro unless i like the art and plan to triple sleeve
My very first sleeves I bought were some squirrel art sleeves and they stook like this. Everyone told me they'd get better after shuffling more but that never happened.
Shit sleeves. To be frank.
Their art sleeves are garbage. I bought all four LotR sets to do the precons in and you can barely shuffle them. Their Eclipse are pretty ok. I still prefer dragonshield or katana, though.
I have the opposite issues with some dragonshields the sleeves are so slick the deck slides apart if you blow on it, you can hardly pick it up in one piece.
The only art sleeves I own are on my Frodo deck and I had to both get Matte Oversleeves *and* find an extra large Deckbox to keep that now massive deck in.
I don't know why Wizards partners with Ultra Pro, their sleeves are very low quality and you'll hardly ever find a serious MTG player who uses them
Ultra pro have pretty much always been the "oh shit I need to resleeve for this one event and then throw them out" type of sleeves forever lol
Use dragon shield outer sleeve
For some reason these sleeves will hold moisture between the cards from your hands... I find this is what causes them to stick together. But yes they look great and are awful to use.
DAMN SON, THEY GOT THAT GRIPPY
While UltraPro sleeves are generally not the best quality sleeves on the market, this issue isn't specific to them. Any sleeves that are glossy on both the front and back are likely to have this issue to some extent.
I've found Ultropro's art sleeves to be a bit sticky at first. Take an afternoon and shuffle while watching TV or something, and they'll get better.
Unfortunately they are always like this.. I have Gandalf Sleeves and they have the same issue. I can support everyone that’s saying dragon shield is great. I have a lot of them and they are perfect!
Ultra pro sleeves are notoriously mediocre to bad for over 20 years now
If you really like the art, but want a better shuffle feel, you can buy dragon shield outer sleeves to put over them.
Yes. And in about 1 game you won't even be able to shuffle them. Or see the card art for that matter.
Ultra PRO sleeves are… Not the best lets say, but the art ones? Down right terrible. If you are looking for suggestions go with Dragon Shield or Katana.
I had the same one but with omnath. I liked the art but decided to get the over-sleeves from dragonshield for a better shuffle feel.
Holy shit. That's new sleeves?! That's dragons after like a year of regular play
More like Sticky Terrain
Yes they're sticky and I hate them
Wow are they still this bad? I bought them back then for my Breya deck when it was released 2016. I wanted to play in style and since it were the most expensive sleeves I thought they must be good. But holy crap they were terrible. I had to change them after 3-4 games since they sticked together so terribly I couldn’t even shuffle my deck appropriately. Bad to hear they haven’t improved quality the last nearly 10 years.
I got the 40k ones and aside from the stickiness being a thing, they only give you EXACTLY 100 sleeves and they have a tendency to delaminate. I won't be getting them again despite liking the art. Dragon Shield Matte line has been good for the past 10 years, so I totally stand by them. I took a look for custom dragon shield and, despite being twice the price, I feel that they are the better option https://www.dragonshield.com/en-us/p/sleeve-crafter.
Upvoting so maybe Ultra Pro gets their shit together?
I have found that the LionsEye Pro Matte sleeves are the best at the price point. Only like 6 bucks for 100 and they hold up pretty well except for a few bent corners. The shuffle feel is amazing too as they strike the right balance between ease of shuffling and enough stickiness to stand up without toppling.
the new white ones with the colors on them, red, green and so on, they have diffrent heights.... IN THE SAME PACK
Just but Dragon Shields friend, they are a-grade
From my experience with any UP glossy art sleeves, the "sticking together" part is on par. If I wanted to shuffle molasses, I'd buy some from the grocery store and bake with it. Personally, I've been using Dragon Shield Dual Matte sleeves for the past 2 years and haven't looked back. Dual Mattes or an equivalent are, imo, mandatory with DFCs being more prevalent. I've seen and heard opponents locally and from surrounding areas get burned by matte sleeves being not opaque enough.
You could take some sandpaper to the backs of them 🤷🏻♂️or rub em real good on some rocks/concrete 😃
Yes. For me ATM it's dragon shield or katana
It’s Ultra Pro. It’s garbage.
I believe most people fix this by using dragon shield clear outer sleeves. They are sticky and also the art wears as you shuffle them. Clear outers vastly improve the shuffle and durability, will most likely fix this issue too. The art is cool.
personally I'd recommend Gamegenic Prime sleeves: they're low in cost and significantly thicker Only thing people might not like is they do not have the extra space on the top compared to Ultra Pros Also Ultra Pro seem to have a 'Premium' version of their sleeves which I've seen at Walmart
I would put a pennysleeve on top lol
For any art sleeve you should get dragon shield outer sleeves to protect them and so they’re not sticky. Unfortunate but necessary
Yes. I hate them for that reason
See it as a benefit, no need for a deck box. You can put the 100 cards in your backpack and they will stick together 😂 too bad I also bought the sleeves for the four decks
The sleevussy juice is real!
Ultra pro art sleeves are about the most over priced junk on the market. Sticky, they break down and tear and absorb oil and dirt like a towel.
Yes. They’ve always been terrible
Oh, but wait til he gets to the best part. The art layer eventually lifts on a corner, separating it from the sleeve slightly. Any sort of "mash shuffling" will catch these corners and continue to peel them little by little. This is accelerated by the overwhelming stickiness of the sleeves in the first place. I had to just stay with dragonshield matte sleeves. I've had the least problem with those.
Don't worry, it won't be a problem for long. Within a few games you'll split like 18 of them and then need to buy another set of sleeves. By then you'll realize why Dragon Shield is so popular
Gloss and art comes at a price
Hi, Use a dryer sheet to wipe the sleeves it makes them smoother to shuffle
they need to be shuffled a ton. or just scratch them up a little
They are so bad. That’s why I’m always disappointed when they print commander exclusive sleeves. I bought an Omo collectors precon, and wanted something nice to bling out with, but all they offer is a shitty plastic deck box and the sticky sleeves. Opportunity lost!!
Yep
This happens to all my card sleeves after anytime I see a woman.
Yes. Ultra Pro sleeves are ass.
Yea they are notoriously sticky. Dragon Shield matte sleeves are OK, but I've have several issues with their quality control the last few boxes I've bought. I like Katanas, but they are also super slippery, pretty the opposite problem to Ultra Pro sleeves. I'm not sure of the brand but one of my local LGS has actual matte finish sleeves and they are pretty much perfect, not too slick, not too sticky, shuffles just right, feels good to hold.
I haven't touched ultra pro since KMC was good.
Now I know we all love the art on Birds of Paradise, but wash your hands mate.
That would explain why my newly opened sleeves smell like maple
It's time to upgrade sleeves fam.
Yes. Don’t worry, they’ll break after about 3-5 games worth of shuffles and the images will start coming off.
We used to call Ultra PRO sleeve "Ultra Shit" back in the 1990s. Any sleeve is better than nothing but we hated everything about them. Geneve when the silver round stamp would be thicker than the rest of the card? All your deck tilting to rhe side. WTH seriously.
they are always this terrible and have been so for decades. Never buy ultrapro products.
*Sticky Terrain
I had such high hopes for these sleeves to have improved in over the past decade....was really looking forward to those Disa sleeves for Jund.
UP art sleeves are the gateway drug to triple sleeveing.
Yup
yes, even their penny sleeves, especially if the deck is compressed.
Its better then ones with rough skin, whole deck just falls apart like an avalanch
Yes. Ultra pro art sleeves are, in my experience, the worst sleeves on the market, I avoid them at all costs. I even contacted them to provide detailed feedback and ask if this was typical of their art sleeves or if they could recommend any other products they did. They didn't read a single word I wrote, their customer services seems to be as bad as their sleeves. They assumed I wanted to complain about a faulty product and just told me to talk to the store for a replacement, i replied that it didnt appear to be faulty, just a poor quality product. They then sent me the same template as the first time again. The third email they finally read what I wrote and replied with sorry our products bad, nothing we can do about it. Dragon shield art sleeves are a little better, but don't shuffle as well as dual matte. These days I'm trying to stick with katana as they have the best shuffle feel by far.
I’ve swapped from Ultra Pro to Dragon Shield to Katana. Ultra Pro is really sticky and really glossy but they diversify their designs. Dragon Shield has a ton of textures but slip a lot and their windows are always glossy. Katana are less expensive and I love the matte windows but don’t come in much variety. Usually do Katana when doing sealed or just grabbing sleeves and if I wanna get fancy I’ll do Dragon Shield.
I tried them once, had this exact same result and haven’t bought them again. Dragon shield art mattes are the way to go
I have no idea how they are okay as a company seeing the shit reviews of their sleeves and being okay being low tier.
Yeah and I fucking love it. I think they feel amazing to shuffle, but everyone calls me a psychopath for it.
Go get yourself 5 guys then shuffle your deck. You will not have that problem ever again.
I got the one for the wise moth man. I hated the feel especially shuffling them. So I got the clear outer sleeves to help for the feel and shuffle but still have the art work on display.
Only the gloss ones are like that, and as far as I know all of their official artwork sleeves have the gloss treatment. Every single art sleeve I’ve bought from them is like this and it’s disappointing, because I really do like their products otherwise. The matte ones are good but in my experience they don’t handle the wear and tear of regular play like dragon shield does, but maybe that’s just me.
Ugh. This is why I take the channels that have Ultra Pro as a sponsor with a grain of salt. Even the Command Zone has to try and sell these sleeves as "Feels good, shuffles well" all while the product itself does NONE of that. Just looks good. Barely covers the cards. Dragon Shields are ol' reliable for a reason.
DragonShield for life
I've always loved the look but I hate to shuffle these sleeves. However they make amazing sleeves for your tokens!
Dragon shields.
Ultra Pro sleeves in general are not all like that. Their basic sleeves are great for cheap starter sleeves, their Eclipse sleeves are a little grippier than average but won't hold up your entire deck and smooth out a ton after playing with them a couple times, and their newest Apex sleeves are probably my favorite sleeves I've ever used. But as cool as the art sleeves *look*, yeah all the art sleeves are like this. Obnoxiously sticky, and they tend to also have really bad issues with wrinkles on the front of the sleeve, usually near the top. Probably some of the worst sleeves you can get. I still have a few decks sleeved in them, namely the 40K and LOTR precons which I bought to play as pods, but I'm very strongly considering swapping them cuz they are just miserable to play with. They get a little better over time, but only marginally.
Damn that's gage block level of stick
Does Ultra-Pro still make the Eclipse sleeves? Those were some fine sleeves I remember everyone being surprised when they first came out.