You at the barricade listen to this! No one is coming to help you to fight. You’re on your own; you have no friends. Give up your guns or die!
Damn their warnings damn their lies. They will see the people rise. Damn their warnings damn their lies. They will see the people rise! Listen my friends; this is Ask Ken. I’m your host Ken Krouner. I want to talk to you today about protecting yourself and your cards.
Today’s question comes to us from Chris Hill. Chris writes:
Dear KK,
How often do you buy new deck protectors? Do you use new ones before every tournament and do you sleeve your sealed/draft decks?
Thanks
T-Bone
Well Mr. Steak, this is an interesting question. I don’t get to give this answer very often but, it depends on how much you sweat. The shape of sleeves in general as well as the speed at which they deteriorate is directly proportional to the amount of salty, dirty, water oozing out of your pores.
Players like Matt Rubin and myself may have to replace them as often as twice a tournament. While a rock steady player like Jon Finkel or Kai Budde they can probably wait until a new tournament.
When I play in Constructed Pro Tours I generally put on new sleeves at the start of each day. In Limited, I do it at the start of each draft. In PTQs I am less worried about it and more apt to re-use sleeves, though I still generally buy new sleeves at the start of every event.
I do sleeve all decks, Limited or Constructed. I do this for three reasons. First of all, you never know if there was a printing error on the back of a card you may have overlooked. Second, the land available for Limited decks is occasionally used and therefore marked. Finally, I have grown so accustomed to using sleeves that it is uncomfortable for me to play without them.
The source of protecting your deck,
KK
In Magic we are all artists and craftsmen, so protect your tool. Tomorrow we have a guest star who you may or may not have heard of yet, but unless I miss my guess, you will. G’night everybody!