Custom (Commander) Deck Box

I've looked all over the Internet for a deckbox that will actually work for Commander. I want a box that is stylish and function, that holds at least two decks, and that leaves room for accessories. I also want the box to offer some protection. Those cards are expensive!

Did I find such a box? No.

So, I did what anyone would do. I went to my local thrift shop and started putting my own custom deck box together. Check it out:

The box itself is aluminum and cost me $7 from the thrift shop. The two dealies on the sides of the handle flip down and keep the box securely closed. The outside corners are wrapped in metal, so it has a weighty feel to it. I feel like I'm carrying around a sweet briefcase, only it's smaller than a normal case so it makes me look like a giant.

The inside that the box came with looked like it was meant to hold media, like memory cards or hard drives. I ripped all that out. Then, I cut some sexy craft paper my wife had laying around into the inside dimensions of the box to give it a finished look and keep anything from getting on the cards. Next, I cut up some packing foam that I kept (like a pack-rat) for just such an occasion. I was butchering it (and not in a good way) until my wife suggested that I use the bread knife. That worked like a charm.

The cards sit against an angled piece of packing foam in the back to help them sit right in the container when it is closed, and to keep the cards from moving around. As you can see from the picture, there's room for two full size Commander decks, tokens galore, my abacus life counter, and plenty of six-siders.

I keep tokens of most of the common stuff I run into during games: myr, wolves, zombies, soldiers, etc, along with demons, emblems, oh, and Marit Lage. I also keep plenty of poison tokens on hand, just so I feel like I'm doing something as I get poisoned left and right. The Duelist life counter works well (and looks great), but it's difficult for other people to read from across the table. Still, I flick away at it with satisfaction to keep track.

As for the dice, I've tried lots of different things as counters. Flattened glass beads look cool. I have a small bag of them. But, they are difficult to count from across the table and, well, they aren't geometric. Personal preference on that one. The big, six-sided, Vegas (casino) dice not only look cool, but they are easy to read because the pips are big, white circles on a red background. Most of the time, two dice are enough to get the job done. Counting up to 12 cover most situations.

I keep the rest of my "go to" cards and decks in a Pelican case, like the kind people use to store electronic equipment and guns. They aren't cheap, but they are extremely sturdy, secure, and keep moisture from building up inside thanks to a special valve. I had to customize the interior of that case as well. I just created a grid to create compartments for the cards out of thin strips of cardboard.