5 Best Yu-Gi-Oh Card Sleeves of 2023
It’s time to summon a Blue Eyes White Dragon as we check out the best Yu-Gi-Oh Card Sleeves!
Though it was popularised by the anime series, Yu-Gi-Oh originated from a popular Japanese manga that was first published in 1996.
It ran for eight years – and is collected in a frankly astonishing 38 volumes!
Given the fact that the story is centred around a card game in which monsters are summoned to battle each other, it’s no surprise that a real card game was created featuring the monsters and other characters from the manga (and anime, which did introduce new elements to the story).
The Yu-Gi-Oh Trading Card Game was launched in Japan in 1999 and headed West in 2002; it was a phenomenal success and is still going strong today (check out our best Yu-Gi-Oh games list for more on the video game adaptations of Yu-Gi-Oh!)
Naturally, players are keen to keep their Yu-Gi-Oh cards in great shape even after heavy use in games – but standard card sleeves won’t do, because Yu-Gi-Oh cards are a different size to the cards found in games such as Magic: The Gathering or Pokemon (so any sleeves you find on lists such as those on our best Magic: The Gathering sleeves list won’t be of any use).
Which means we need to take a look at various Yu-Gi-Oh-specific sleeves that are currently available.
Which are the best though?
Let’s find out, as we check out the best Yu-Gi-Oh card sleeves!
5. Yu-Gi-Oh Deluxe Card Sleeves
Do you have any rare Yu-Gi-Oh cards? You’ll definitely need sleeves!
Specifically made for Yu-Gi-Oh cards, these sleeves feature the design from the back of the game’s cards on the sleeve itself.
Given that some players may have aging collections of cards in less than perfect condition these days, it makes sense to conceal the condition of each card and therefore hide any tells as to what’s coming up next in your deck.
So having a sleeve that mimics the design of the actual card while protecting it and disguising any identifying marks is a great idea.
There are some reviews showing a sometimes inconsistent level of quality with these sleeves, but in our experience of using them, we’ve never had an issue.
They’re a clever, official design and more than deserving of a place on the best Yu-Gi-Oh card sleeves list, but there are definitely more reliable options for us to cover here!
4. Ultra Pro Deck Protector Sleeves – Small
You can’t have a best card sleeves list without including perhaps the best known brand in the world, right?
Ultra Pro have been at the forefront of quality and popularity for trading card and card game sleeves for decades.
They’re reliable, always available and genuinely good quality – even if you opt for their cheaper sleeves, they’ll get the job done.
We’ve chosen their small sized, clear sleeves here; a step up from their ‘penny sleeves’ options, these come with Ultra Pro’s hologram seal in the corner of each sleeve as an indicator of quality.
Though small, this hologram can sometimes obscure important – though not usually game relevant – information on a card, which is why we’ve not ranked these Ultra Pro sleeves higher on the best Yu-Gi-Oh card sleeves list.
These Ultra Pro sleeves are, however, excellent quality and in terms of price, they’re also superb considering how well made and reliable they are.
Always an excellent choice, but we do feel as if there are now better options on the market when it comes to Yu-Gi-Oh card sleeves!
3. Titanshield Small Japanese Sized Deck Protector Sleeves – Clear
We’ve mentioned how impressed we are with Titanshield sleeves in other articles – you’ll find them on our best trading card sleeves list, for example – and they really do prove themselves to be consistent and reliable in terms of their quality.
One thing I love about Titanshield sleeves is the number of sleeves you can get in a single pack too – with 150 sleeves included, you can be sure that you’ll be able to get a decent number of cards protected as you go about building your decks!
Like most brands, Titanshield also have a wide range of colourful backed sleeves on offer too.
With colours like Slime Green, Ember Orange, Bubblegum Pink and Bordeaux Red, you can express yourself in plenty of bright, bold, eye-catching ways when it comes to Titanshield sleeves.
Call us boring, but we’ve opted to showcase the clear sleeves here – we just love being able to see the iconic Yu-Gi-Oh card back design!
The matte finish and numerous thoughtful design touches make Titanshield sleeves an excellent choice for Yu-Gi-Oh players and collectors.
2. MintKeeper – Small Trading Card Sleeves – Matte
Most trading card sleeve options can be very unreliable to get hold of, particularly with supply chain issues hitting the production of countless products in the last few years.
Which can also affect the cost of card sleeves too; we’ve seen products jumping up and down like an Italian plumber when it comes to price!
With many card sleeve companies being based in different countries, it seems like this will generally be an issue that the industry has to live with.
Yet one UK-based company is quietly revolutionising the card sleeve market, with steady supply and consistent low prices for their sleeves.
MintKeeper haven’t been around for long, but they’ve quickly made a name for themselves with consistently available, very low priced and reliably made sleeves.
Their Yu-Gi-Oh sized sleeves are no different to the rest of their products in this regard, being an awful lot cheaper than the other brands on this list, yet just as good in terms of their quality.
We’ve opted for the Matte Yu-Gi-Oh card sleeves – we always prefer using non-shiny sleeves where possible – but the Gloss sleeves are also available in Japanese, small card size if that’s your preference.
Particularly if you’re based in the UK, MintKeeper represent phenomenal value for money – and we here at Retro Dodo can’t recommend them highly enough.
1. Dragon Shield – Japanese Matte Clear Sleeves
We’re big fans of Dragon Shield sleeves here at Retro Dodo, even if they are on the expensive side.
Each type and colour of sleeve is represented by a different dragon, each of which also follows the colour scheme of the sleeve itself.
So these clear sleeves feature an illustration of a translucent dragon on the cover!
Even better – and something which really speaks to the attention to detail that Dragon Shield apply to their products – is that the mythological creature depicted on the cover is drawn in an anime style, making it immediately apparent that yes, these are sleeves for Yu-Gi-Oh sized cards!
Though of course we love the idea of a card sleeve line that has its own lore (we’re pretty geeky that way!), it would be pretty meaningless and outright gimmicky if the cards themselves weren’t an excellent option for Yu-Gi-Oh players.
Thankfully, Dragon Shield cards are reliable, consistently sized and excellent quality; they’ll definitely protect your cards – and they’re even packaged in a box, rather than a plastic bag – which can be re-used to store sleeved cards.
In a game that prominently features ever elaborate, multi coloured, powerful dragons, they’re incredibly appropriate too!
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* This article was originally published here
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