Choosing the Right Deck Box for Your Yu-Gi-Oh! Collection

Choosing the Right Deck Box for Your Yu-Gi-Oh! Collection

Collecting Yu-Gi-Oh! cards and playing with a deck you built is an amazing hobby and it is not just “opening” some packs. Surely, it can start that way and there are a lot of casual collectors that only purchase what they like. However, Yu-Gi-Oh! players know very well the heart of the cards is not always enough to win and that they may have to spend time and effort in order to hunt all the rare cards they need to fine tune their deck. Most important, all the cards in your deck will need to be cared and protected to avoid damages during the play.

In fact, a massive part of the TCG hobby is devoted to find the right accessories to ensure your cards will not be damaged during play. Card sleeves and a Playing mat are must-have as all players learn very early in their gaming life. Another key accessory for all players to have is a Deck box as it helps bringing all your cards around. In fact, there are a lot of different Yu-Gi-Oh deck box options on the market ranging from very simple-low budget ones to more sophisticated and expensive models. Personally, I had a bit of trouble finding my way through all the options when I first started playing Yu-Gi-Oh thus I thought of sharing my experience and some guidance to help get you to the best deck box options for your cards. I hope you will find the guide enjoyable so without further ado, let's unbox it!

When a Box is not just a box

For all TCG players, Deck boxes are a key part of the hobby as they help to keep your deck secure both at home and at different venues, when you attend an event. In some cases, these boxes can be real pieces of art and an opportunity to add flavour to your game in a similar way the artwork on your gaming mat does. Of course, the better the box, the higher the price thus it is important to consider a few factors when purchasing it.

The first factor you want to take into consideration is the size of the box and its capacity. Yu-Gi-Oh! cards are smaller then the standard format used by other TCG like Disney Lorcana, Magic and Pokemon. While the size of the cards is smaller (59 x 86 mm to be precise), a standard Yu-Gi-Oh! deck will have 40 cards plus a maximum of 15 in the Extra deck leading to almost the size of a 60 card deck that is the average size used in other TCG games. As a result, it is important to be aware that the depth of a Yu-Gi-Oh deck box should similar to the ones used in other games. Basing on the above, players can rightly choose any box commonly designed for standard size card paying a bit of attention to pick those that can hold 80+ sleeved cards. This size is more than enough for a double-sleeved Yu-Gi-Oh deck plus extra deck thus there is no need for larger size boxes.

The next very important factor to consider is the durability of the Deck Box. Personally, I really don't like cardboard boxes as they tend to suffer a lot of wear after just a few uses. Deck boxes made by acid-free, non-PVC materials are the most common modern option and they are quite resistant and durable. If you are looking for more protection, you can also consider the models that offer both protection from external damages and a velvety soft interior that protects the cards from frictional wear. These models are definitely on the better end of the range and a lot of them have very affordable prices in particular when bought on Magic Madhouse.

Finally, you should always consider if you want any additional functionality for your boxes. The most common one is to decide if you want a mono-colour box or if the artwork on it is very important to you. I love the official ones created by Konami as they are pretty affordable and of very good quality. They are also perfect to store deck at home as they are not too large and they can easily be stacked together.

The other option you want to consider is if the box comes with a card divider to ensure your Extra Deck will be kept separated from the main deck. It's true that you can always purchase a few spare ones directly from Magic Madhouse but if it comes with the box it may also share the same art that is usually quite nice.

Basing on my personal experience, magnetic closures and double wall boxes are also very good upgrades you want to have. They can make a big difference when you bring your deck to an event as they provide the maximum protection and they are usually quite stylish.

On the other end, I would not bother to pick a box with a mobile drawer as you don't really use dice or acrylic tokens in Yu-Gi-Oh! The drawer can be a nice to have if you are planning to use the same box for other TCGs but otherwise is quite a waste if you are looking to just fit your Yu-Gi-Oh! Cards. Also and just to be clear, most of the drawers will not be large enough to store your “Token cards” unless you have some custom ones designed to fit your drawer.

Deck Box shopping list

Basing on the factors mentioned above, I would personally recommend three options depending on your budget and on the intended use.

The first option is to pick a number of budget plastic boxes. Ultra-Pro Plain boxes as well as the Yu-Gi-Oh! official boxes are robust enough to provide protection to your deck and they are quite cheap to obtain. The price of Ultra-Pro boxes in particular is quite low on Magic Madhouse while the Yu-Gi-Oh! ones tends to go on sale routinely making them quite attractive options.

The main advantage of having a lot of boxes is the possibility to stack them together at home so you can have a number of different decks ready to be picked for a game or an event. This option is also quite useful if you are testing different decks or strategies so you can swap decks and cards easily.

A nice alternative option is also to go for the Mana boxes designed for Magic: The Gathering. They are a bot on the large size and they can store 100+ cards but they come with two card dividers for just below £4 on Magic Madhouse thus can be pretty good option and you can use the additional space and dividers for tokens or a dice to decide who goes first.

The next option is to invest on a more structured Deck box that will provide extreme protection. From personal experience, the Nest Boxes from Dragon shield are one of the best product you can purchase on the market and I strongly recommend them for bringing your deck around. Made by two halves that can interlock together with a magnetic lock, this box costs slightly more than the budget options but can last you forever. Due to price, however, you will hardly be able to have many of them so you can have multiple decks ready to play at once. Nothing however stops you from having multiple boxes for various scope. In this case, you can have a few budget boxes to store all your decks at home and then use one or two Nest boxes to carry them with you.

Some Nest Boxes also come with a drawer and it is up to you to decide if you may need it or not.

The Ultimate Guard Flip'N'Tray are similar to the Nest Boxes although they have the drawer on top of the deck and a magnetic flap to close the box itself. The two models are very similar with the Ultimate Guard additional closure being the main difference. Some players find this a better option than the interlocking halves of the Next Boxes and the choice is very much down to personal preference.  

Last but not least, you may want to consider larger boxes like the Arkhive 800+ from Ultimate Guard. These boxes are so large that can be either used to store a large collection of cards or multiple small deck boxes. In essence they are Boxes for Deck boxes that can be used to keep your budget Deck boxes organized and safe during transport. The price of this solution can be quite significant as a single Arkhive is usually around £40 but it can provide you a lot of flexibility and make the budget boxes much more appealing. If you are considering this option, you should read carefully the description and specifications provided by Magic Madhouse to double check you are happy with the number of single boxes that fits inside the huge one.

Finding the Right Yu-Gi-Oh! Deck Box

After discussing what to look for in a Deck box and which type are available, I would like to spend a few world on how to look for a deck on Magic Madhouse in case you are interested in exploring more options that those linked above. First thing first, using “Yu-Gi-Oh! Deck box” as search keyword will only show the official ones. “Deck Box” is a better keyword but you will get so many hits that browsing through them can be tricky. Personally, I recommend to organize the research by price and once you find a model you like, to also use the name of that model for a targeted search. Magic Madhouse often discounts some particular colours among those available for the same model thus double checking before buying can save some buck.

Last but not least, I always recommend to ensure you reach the “no shipping cost” threshold which is a very good deal. If you are going for the more standard boxes, you may need to buy them together with something else unless you are planning to stock-up on them.