Dragon Shields Splitting
General forum
Posted on Oct. 29, 2012, 12:21 a.m. by Tradeylouish
I am new to Magic and have recently built an EDH deck. I was told by my friends to sleeve my deck, so I went to the store a couple of days ago planning to buy 120 Fantasy Flight sleeves. When I got there, I was convinced that Dragon Shields were a better choice, being unlikely to split and easy to shuffle. So I got 100 of those, despite them being more expensive, and sleeved my EDH. Now, two days and two games later, two of them have split. I am pretty disappointed, having spent more than I expected and now requiring replacements - the whole reason I got the more expensive ones was so I wouldn't have to get any more. Does this happen often? Is there anything I can do to prevent it? It is possible I have been unknowingly mistreating the sleeves while shuffling or putting cards in.
ravengamer93 says... #3
the way i shuffle is [split-the horizontal side of a half mixing into a bottom corner of the second pile-push in and repeat.
theres also the slow safe way which gives you better randomization which is place 1 card at a time into 6 different piles.
October 29, 2012 12:37 a.m.
If I'm imagining it right, neither of those two should split your sleeves, unless you really, really, for half the deck into the other half.
October 29, 2012 12:38 a.m.
ravengamer93 says... #5
Sometimes I throw a few razor blades in just to made things more risky xP
October 29, 2012 12:45 a.m.
ravengamer93 says... #6
Sometimes I throw a few razor blades in just to make things more risky xP
October 29, 2012 12:45 a.m.
MindAblaze says... #7
Are they the red ones? Both my cousin and I have had an issue with red sleeves splitting.
October 29, 2012 12:57 a.m.
I've had pink ones on my EDH since i got them 5 months ago, Ive never has one split and I've never heard of DS splittingI play every thursday and friday so they get used a lot
October 29, 2012 1:02 a.m.
Ohthenoises says... #9
red green white and clear haven't split on me in 5-6 months worth of play.
October 29, 2012 1:08 a.m.
All my Dragonshields I've owned have only ever been replaced due to being crushed by the dumb way the fat pack boxes close sometimes, though I have seen some people rip them on edh decks simply because their hands weren't big enough to easily hold the whole deck which caused them to improperly shuffle, this may be the case for you and as such I'd recommend shuffling the deck in easier to shuffle portions.
On another note for dragonshields anyone notice that early on they seem to have imperfections at the edges which seem to slowly smooth out? I have two edh decks in brown dragonshields, one of those sets are over a year old while the other I got a few months ago, the new ones I feel the occasional snag from those imperfections while the old ones feel like I sleeved my cards in silk.
October 29, 2012 1:44 a.m.
Just pull the cardboard out of the fat pack lid to prevent it from crushing sleeves
October 29, 2012 2:49 a.m.
Sidneyious says... #12
Or cardboard pieces taller than the item in the box.
October 29, 2012 3:06 a.m.
Tradeylouish says... #13
Thanks for the replies. My friend also said that he'd never had a Dragon Shield split. I am using black Dragon Shields. I'm pretty sure I'm using a shuffling technique similar to the one ravengamer93 described first.I do have some trouble holding my whole deck at once, so I will take your advice Demarge. I might try to get some replacements, keep using these ones for a while with this advice in mind, and then see if any more break. As an experiment, I pulled the other corner of a sleeve that had already split on one side to see how easy it was to split it. It certainly didn't require much force. Is this normal (although I doubt many of you will have tried splitting a sleeve intentionally)?Although it is quite possible I have been shuffling poorly, I would still expect them to last for more than just a couple of games (and some idle shuffling to reduce slipperiness).
funkalunk says... #2
I'm very curious about how you're shuffling your deck. I've had dragon shields last a while, and I know people who have had the same set for years.
October 29, 2012 12:23 a.m.