Card Protectors

Hi,

Background: I’ve just started to pick Jyhad/VTES back up and I need to use card protectors to disguise which cards are Jyhad and which are VTES. I’ve never used these before, but I was hoping I could get some suggestions on which to use. I’m guessing some are better than others, and was hoping to get some opinions on which ones to get.

I've seen different colors, do people tend to use different colors to keep the Crypt and Library separate? Are there different textures to the surfaces? Any to avoid?

I will also need to keep different decks color coded since I am having to supply all the cards for my group, and I think I remember cards can travel around a little during the game. Different colors would make it easier to return them to the correct deck when play is finished.

How do you store them with the plastic on the cards? I guess you have to buy some of those deck boxes made for the sleeves.

Thanks for any help you can offer me and I'm sorry if this is a really basic question. I've never used them before, but with mixed card backs, I think I need to get a bunch and start using them.

I'm sure plenty of people can give you lots of good advice on what card sleeves are good and what aren't, but I'll just chime in and point out that you can play without sleeves if you want, and nothing bad will happen; don't feel that you *need* to use sleeves even with the different backs. I mean, if you want to, do so. But the rules let you play without sleeves as long as you keep the cards reasonably mixed.

minionhunter wrote:

How do you store them with the plastic on the cards? I guess you have to buy some of those deck boxes made for the sleeves.

Well, if you're feeling cheap and don't mind the way it looks you can cut off the upper half of a milk/juice carton. Just leave a flap that you can use as a lid. It's pretty much a perfect fit for 90+12 sleeved cards.

I swear by Ultra Pro or Dragonshield for the library cards. In my experience Ultra pro usually is slightly more expensive but are less "slippery" (although both can be somewhat slippery until "broken in").

For the crypt cards I usually spice it up a bit and go with the pretty expensive Fantasy Flight sleeves with nice looking images on (Chtulhu, Cersie Lannister etc) since even though they're expensive one pack usually sleeves about 3-4 crypts which is a lot. Otherwise I also use spare sleeves from the library cards for crypts.

As a rule I always sleeve the crypt and the library of the same deck in different sleeves (colour/type) so I can easily see where the library stops and the crypt begins. I also attempt to have different sleeve colours on all my decks so I can easily see which decks are which at a glance.

For transportation I have 3 Magic: The Gathering big sturdy cardboard boxes that fits about three fully sleeved decks each with crypt. It might not be optimal, but it works just fine for me. I don't really like deck boxes, although most players around here seems to use them...

wastaz wrote:

I swear by Ultra Pro or Dragonshield for the library cards. In my experience Ultra pro usually is slightly more expensive but are less "slippery" (although both can be somewhat slippery until "broken in").

I used to like Ultra Pro. They used to have a wide variety of sleeves and the quality was good. Nowadays, they have far less selection (just a lot of plain colors) and A LOT of their sleeves are way too slippery. They have fallen far, in my opinion.

The current trend nowadays (unfortunately) is a heavy emphasis on illustrated sleeves, which I'm not that big of a fan of. ::sighs::

I recommend not buying Ultra Pro with holographic backs (the ones with circles on it). After some (too short) time the layer at the back loosens and that looks awful and prevents shuffling. The newer Ultra Pros are very good. I have some Dragonshields I play since 2001 with and they are still good. I often use clear sleeves too just to protect the cards from tear and wear through shuffling. I take sleeves just for protection and don't mind the different backs.