In case you aren’t aware, Dragon Shield Matte Dual sleeves have a lightly colored matte texture back with a black interior that ensures they are perfectly opaque, regardless of lighting conditions. This opacity allows us to use a more delicate pastel pallet for the backs (the side that faces you while you play).
Take our new Peach sleeves for example. They have an exquisite, almost summery feel to them thanks to their lighter shade of pinkish orange. The new Crypt sleeves provide a light ashen gray that evokes the feeling of exploring deep dungeons with hidden secrets, whereas the chilly blue hue of our Glacier sleeves will make your playing experience comfortably frosty.
Even if your game of choice does not use double-sided cards, potentially seeing the condition of a card through the sleeve might be viewed as disqualifying knowledge by a judge. Any additional information that you have over an opponent during gameplay that did not arise as a result of the game could put your participation at risk in a tournament setting. As a result, honest card players would typically stick to dark colors like black, jet, purple, or non-glare silver.
While many of us love those darker shades, they can get a bit… tedious. How many packs of Matte Black does any one person need? Occasionally, it is nice to brighten up the room with a pop of color. With Matte Dual, those color restrictions are finally easing. And with the newest launch of Peach, Crypt, and Glacier, players have three new options. Like the previous Dual sleeves, Peach, Crypt, and Glacier are new colors to the Dragon Shield line, not repackaging of older colors. These are three brand new options that even the long-time Dragon Shield fan will love.
Besides the practical tournament benefits of black sleeve interiors outlined above, black interiors provide a better canvas for black-bordered cards. Whether you prefer to keep your cards stored safely in a binder or proudly play them, the black surrounding the card borders adds an extra cleanliness to the look and feel of handling your cards.
Dragon Shield sleeves would not be Dragon Shield quality if not for an emphasis on sublime shuffling. We spend countless hours tweaking our sleeves, testing different materials and finishes, to make sure that our sleeves always provide that smooth, silky shuffle our customers know and love. One of our company values is to protect what you love, and so we take the utmost care to make sure the material strength is best-in-class without losing the finer details, like the shuffle feel.
All our Matte Dual sleeves are designed to work flawlessly with double-sleeved cards. We recommend using our Perfect Fit Sealable Inner Sleeves for the most protection possible. The Perfect Fit Sealable Inner Sleeves come in clear and smoke with an extended, thin flap designed to slide harmlessly into the back of the main sleeve, thereby locking your card in place. Combine these sleeves with the Matte Dual sleeves and your card has four-corner protection. (For a more thorough examination, check out The Professor’s May 4, 2019, review of the Perfect Fit Sealable Sleeves, in which he dunks a sealed card in a fishbowl of water to see how "sealed" our sealable sleeves are. Spoiler alert: Pretty darn sealable in another A+ showing).
Our standard Matte Dual sleeves are available in one hundred count boxes, with standard being defined as 2.5" x 3.5", or a regular Magic: The Gathering or Poker card, as well as smaller-sized sleeves perfect for games with smaller cards, like Yu-Gi-Oh! Protection for smaller cards will release at the same time as our more traditional standard boxes and come in packs of sixty instead of a hundred.
We cannot wait for you to try out our newest entries to the Matte Dual sleeve line. Tag us on Twitter @dragonshield_ with pictures of you using these three new colors! We’d love to see what kinds of decks you’re using them with. Until next time, see you around the game shop.
- The Scriveners Guild of Arcania