A Definitive Guide to High End Matte Sleeves
Hello everyone! Sorry about the lack of content recently, but I thought I’d make it up with an extensive review of the best matte sleeves money can buy! The Professor has made quite a few products review, that I’d recommend you check out right here, but I though it would be nice to do a written rundown comparison of the 4 brands I feel are the best. For each of the brand I’ll be looking at a few criteria and note any positive or negative other aspects I can find. Hopefully this can be useful for anyone wondering which brand of sleeve to buy, and honestly doing this has been really helpful for myself since I wanted to know which sleeve was right for me. In any case, lets get right into it with the first sleeve!
Dragon Shield has been around for a very long time as a sleeve provider, and has been my go-to sleeves for a few years now so I felt obligated to include them in this analysis. So lets start with the set criteria:
Aspect - The sleeve as a very pronounced matte texture with a front that sadly glares easily with light. The front is fairly clear though so the art/reading is not affected, unless you’re affected by the said glare. Even when double-sleeving the picture is very clear, which is nice. The back is not fully opaque, I have a very dark-colored sleeve and with the sunlight I can see the outline of my cards, so I’d be very cautious buying light-colored sleeves.
Fit - It’s honestly pretty loose-fitted, the sleeve is slightly longer than most brands and if you’re single-sleeving there will be some breathing room. It makes it good for double-sleeving, but even then there’s some room to give. Honestly you can easily triple-sleeve if you’re into that.
Shuffle Feel - Even though the matte texture is very pronounced, the shuffling has some resistance to it, which is odd. It’s nothing too intense, but it’s not something you’d expect from such a matte finish. At least this makes sure your EDH deck will not fall over when newly sleeved, but personally I feel like the resistance is a tad too much, and sleeves sometimes kind of catches corners
KMC is one of the other big names of sleeve makers, especially since they were the one that pioneered the matte style, so hopefully the quality is good. So lets look at the different elements:
Aspect - The matte finish texture is not quite as pronounced at Dragon Shield but it’s pretty nice. You don’t get as much of a glare from the light and the card is just as clear as DS, and just as clear when double-sleeved. To be noted that the sleeve is VERY straight, with the sides bending ever-so-slightly backwards, which will keep your deck extremely straight, if you’re into that. It’s fully opaque, only showing a very tiny amount of card edge when shun into direct sunlight, but not enough to mark cards or has a judge called on you, it’s safe (haven’t tried very light colors though so don’t quote me on that).
Fit - It’s really more well-fitted than Dragon Shield, and you can still double-sleeve very easily. I don’t recommend triple-sleeving them, though I honestly don’t recommend triple-sleeving in general but whatever floats your boat. The fit is perfect imo it really protects the whole card without having too much room left.
Shuffle Feel - It feels pretty smooth, there’s just little resistance but overall I’d call it a great feel. The only issue is that the ever-so-slightly backward bend of the sides tend to catch together while shuffling, which is not ideal, especially over time it might damage the sides, it’s hard to know what the effect is over time though so it might not be a big deal either way.
Ultra-Pro has long been know as the “cheap draft sleeves” but recently they’ve been trying to up their game to get into the high end draft scene. I’ve been excited to try them out since so far my experience with Ultra-Pro has been sub-par and hopefully this one is different!
Aspect - Not a huge fan of the matte texture, it’s very slight it’s kind of in between matte & regular. It’s double coated though with the inside being black so it’s COMPLETELY opaque, there’s absolutely 0% chances you can see though it and that’s real good; although, you won’t see your sleeve color by looking at the front, which can be a plus or minus depending on your preferences. I’m not sure what they use for the front but it doesn’t glare, like you can shine a light straight at it and you won’t get a reflection like the other sleeves, instead it just seems…misty? Also, when you double sleeve it really amps up the mistiness, it’s kind of weird, the cards look slightly foggy.
Fit - The fit is just as perfect as the KMC ones, just enough room for a good protection while not being too tight. It’s easy to double-sleeve and still retains a very nice fit. But again, if you double-sleeve you get a very slight misty/foggy aspect of the card. On a side not, the sleeve seems thinner than the other ones, but just so slightly, like it’s even hard to tell.
Shuffle Feel - I’ll be honest the shuffle feels really fucking great. I was a bit scared since the matte texture was not all there, but I think what they did to the front that gives that little misty look made so that the shuffle feel is incredible. You get basically no resistance, the cards don’t catch edges or anything, it’s just really really fucking smooth I love it I could shuffle these all day.
I’ve been using Ultimate Guard’s binders/deck boxes for a while now since I think they’re the best on the market, so I was pretty hyped to try out their sleeve to see if the quality is the same, and if they can keep up with the big names of the sleeve industry.
Aspect - The matte texture is almost exactly the same as the KMC ones, very nice finish as well as really clear view of the card from the front. Very little glare from the light, though Eclipse still takes the cake on that one. Just like KMC the back is fully opaque, I’d even say they are safer than KMC on that part. One difference from KMC to be noted is that the sides point ever-so-slightly forward instead of backwards. It won’t affect deck structure, but it might affect shuffle feel. But yeah, aspect-wise they’re very similar to KMC.
Fit - Just like the previous 2, the fit is perfect, just enough room to protect snuggly the card, while still being able to double-sleeve with ease. They seem to be a tiny bit thicker than KMC and about the same size as the Eclipse ones. I’ll be honest the double-sleeving feels maybe the most well-fit from the gang, but it’s a very little difference from the past 2, they mostly have the same fit.
Shuffle Feel - Oh this one feels pretty fucking good too. Kind of in between Eclipe & KMC, but closer to Eclipse. The shuffling is really smooth with little-to-no resistance, and since the side bends ever-so-slightly forward the cards edges don’t catch when shuffling. It might not be QUITE as cushion-y as the Eclipse but it’s a really good shuffle feel, I like it a lot.
Aspect - Katana > Hypermatte > Eclipse > Dragon Shield
Fit - Katana = Hypermatte = Eclipse > Dragon Shield
Shuffle Feel - Eclipse > Katana > Hypermatte > Dragon Shield
Price (not noted previously) - Eclipse (10$) = Hypermatte (10$) > Dragon Shield (11$) > Katana (12$)
Stress Test (not noted previously) - Eclipse = Katana (couldn’t break both of them, at all)> Hypermatte (broke with fair amount of pulling) > Dragon Shield (broke with very little pulling)
With all that being said, here is my final ranking:
I’m going with Katana as the best one since it comes ahead in most category, except being 2$ more expensive/100 sleeves, and has a slightly less amazing shuffle feel than the Eclipse ones, but it’s still really fucking great. The Eclipse ones are honestly really good sleeves, the only downside is the slight foggy aspect they can have, ESPECIALLY if you double sleeve them. I’ll be honest, I mostly single-sleeve my decks and I have no problem with the Eclipse ones so far, but if I was double-sleeving, it might bug me a little bit. Hypermatte are great, but the fact that Katana just seem like a better version of them in every aspect just feels like…why should I buy them if I get the exact same thing from Katana, but just slightly better? And lastly Dragon Shield are kind of disappointing compared to the rest, the only reason I’d recommend going to Dragon Shield is if you want to triple-sleeve your deck, since they have the more room to give, but do you really want to do that?
I’ll have to see how they fare over time, but I’m most likely going to switch all my sleeves to Ultimate Guard Katana as time goes on. Unless the Eclipse ones prove to be more sturdy/resistant, then I might switch to them, but upon first examination and feel of the sleeves, Katana has the slight edge. Oh, and something to point out again, the Eclipse sleeves have their inside layer black, so if you don’t like seeing your sleeve color when looking at the front of your cards that could be a big plus.
So yeah, if you’re looking for the best sleeves either go with the Ultimate Guard Katana or the Ultra-Pro Eclipse, the differences they have are mostly preferential. I hope this guide was useful for anyone wondering what good matte sleeves to get. If I missed anything please let me know. If you enjoyed this guide also let me know, if I see that there’s demand for more of them I could do some more articles like these. And if there’s any other mtg-related content you’d like to see from me don’t hesitate to send me a message! :)
dailybridgerton
blakekathryn
gracieabrams
theartofmadeline
2087
