Alter Sleeves MTG: An Attempt Was Made

I love altered MTG cards. Customizing Commander decks runs deep, I guess. And it runs in all different directions. In my Magic travels, I ran across this website:

https://www.altersleeves.com/

These alters look awesome. I haven't seen any in person, but at least on screen they look awesome. And the idea is simple and brilliant! Mass produced alters! By printing the alters on the inner sleeves, the player can swap the card in without any fuss.

So, I decided that a quick first draft was in order. I pulled a Worn Powerstone from my main Commander deck, grabbed a Sharpie marker, and started drawing on the inner sleeve. It looked like this.

The card on the right is untouched. The Sharpie is only marked up on the inner sleeve on the left. This is a low-risk way to alter a card. Don't like how it turned out? Replace the sleeve and start over. Want to try something new? Great! Grab a new sleeve and start drawing. Want to draw on an expensive card? Go for it. Well, go for it by drawing on the sleeve.

Here's what the card looks like inside the inner sleeve.

Does it look great? Heck no! But for a first try, this plan has promise. The stress level for doing an alter like this is low. 

Here it is in the outer sleeve.

Does it look like a Sharpie alter? Of course it does. That's what it is. The light/camera isn't doing it any favors either. I'm looking forward to trying this with some better markers. Colors! I'll bet even a thin layer of white paint with marker on top would work.

Ultimately, if you find a design you like at a website like Altered Sleeves, that might be the way to go. There are so many cool options. But if you want to try a low-risk, stress-free way to customize your deck, try altering your inner sleeves instead of the cards themselves.

Uncurl Foil MTG Cards For Real

5/16/2021 - Update - I left the cards double sleeved and packed tight in an enclosed space with dehumidifier packets. They warped again. The uncurling was not permanent.

I'm careful with my cards, always have been. I keep them in double sleeves. Temperature controlled. Low moisture. I store my cards in a Pelican case with desiccant packets and in a safe with desiccant packets.

I'm one of those people.

Over the years, I occasionally get a foil card that is already curled. The foils I've opened from packs or that are already flat when I get them stay flat. But the foils that are already curled, they are a different story.

I've tried everything to uncurl the foil cards. Pressing between stacks of books for weeks on end doesn't work, even when I use tissue paper to "draw in the moisture." Physically curling the cards the other way doesn't work, at least not for more than a few minutes. Double sleeving helps to physically hold the cards flatter, but it's still obvious that there's a curled foil in the deck. I've stored cards in sleeves and out of sleeves in sealed containers with desiccant packets. I've tried everything, that is, except putting them in the oven.

Guess what finally worked?

First, a couple of disclaimers. Don't do this to your cards. This worked for me, but maybe I got lucky. Maybe my set up is entirely different from yours. Maybe it's pure coincidence. You've been warned.

Here's the deal. I've had a few cards in one of my Commander decks that drive me crazy. The deck is for casual play, but it's still annoying to have a few cards that are obviously curled foils in the deck. If one gets shuffled to the top or shows up in a cut, it feels bad because everyone knows what it is. They know I'm not cheating, but it can still ruin the moment. I've stored these cards in a tight deck box for years and the curl has never come out.

In other words, these cards were technically unplayable. I had nothing to lose.

My assumption is that the foil layer of the card on the face is plastic or something similar that doesn't absorb moisture. The cardboard layer is paper and does absorb moisture. Too much moisture and the paper layer expands. Since the plastic layer cannot expand, the card curls "up" toward the face. Presumably the opposite happens if the card is too dry.

Like I said, I've tried other methods to remove moisture from the cards with no success. This time, I decided to try putting the cards in the oven.

I started by heating the toaster oven to 150 degrees. Then I turned it off. I only used the residual heat on the cards.

The first plate I put the cards on didn't allow them to lay flat, so I switched to a bigger plate.

I took them out of the oven, then pressed them in a big book between sheets of tissue paper as they cooled.

Nope. Still curled. I decided that I had everything out already, so I might as well give it another try. This time I turned the oven up to 175 degrees and left it on with the door open.

I also put the cards on the edges of the plate so that I could see clearly if they started to bend. The card on the left is starting to bend slightly across the back. I didn't take my eyes off the cards. Once I saw the bend forming the other way, I took the cards out and pressed them in the big book again between sheets of tissue paper.

Success. It's difficult to see in this picture, but the cards are completely flat. I put them back in double sleeves, back in the tight deck box, and left them overnight. When I took them out the next day and shuffled the deck, I could not tell which cards they were in the stack. These cards are as flat as any of the other cards.

All told, this process took about 20 minutes. Now that I know what I'm doing, I could flatten dozens of cards using the same process in less time. The biggest thing is to watch the cards in the oven closely and pull them as soon as you see the curl flatten. You can always put the cards back in if you need to.

Old School MTG: OS Battle Bots!

Are you ready?!

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. This Sunday, get ready to rumble... with the rough and ready Battle Bots!

Watch as these metal machines smash, grab, rip, tear, and grind through the competition. Marvel as steel and rust monsters shift gears and crash for cash. It's dirty, rusty, and brutal.

We'll sell you the whole seat, but you're only going to need the edge.

Bat-bat-battle bots!

Do you want to see robots and rocket launchers? Do you want to see flying machines and battering rams? Join us this Sunday for Old School Battle Bots!

Who will be able to defeat the unstoppable Juggernaut? Will Urza's Avenger come out on top? Don't miss a second of the action when the Clockwork Beast winds up to drop a hammer on the fire-breathing Dragon Engine. Be there when the Yotian Soldier takes on the Brass Man in the Arena.

You're favorite artificers are all in on the action. Battle Gear, Weaponry, and Grenades. It. will. be. explosive!

Battle Bot fans unite. This Sunday.

Two-for-one coupons available at your local Urza's Mine, Tower, or Power Plant location. Visit any Mishra's Factory or Workshop for a free official Battle Bots! hat or t-shirt. Piston punch your way to a good time for the whole family.

Old School MTG: Old School 40 - Singleton

I've organized a 40 card Old School format tournament for a small group of friends a few times over the past few years, mostly to make the entry into Old School more forgiving and accessible. We change the rules up a bit each time, but basically it's 40 card decks using OS cards.

Earlier this year, I started thinking about building a 40 card singleton OS deck for each color with the intention of playing the decks against each other. Of course, there's still a global pandemic so this is all theoretical. I built decks for Red, Blue, and Black. Keep scrolling for deck selfies.

I played a few "games" of one deck vs. the other. They games play out a lot like the Alpha 40 games, which isn't too surprising. There is almost no deck manipulation or draw, so top decks matter a lot! Drawing lands for a few turns in a row when you need action is a problem if the other deck has pressure on the board. Classic stuff.

Getting the chance to test these decks out enough to tune them will be challenging until we can get together in person again, but it was still fun to put these decks together. I'm always struck by how darkly colorful and saturated the Alpha/Beta cards are compared to other prints/sets. It really jumps out in a side-by-side comparison with a set like Legends. Arabian Nights is in the ballpark, too.

Right now, I'm running Alpha - Fallen Empires. FE could be easily cut. The decks might work better as Alpha/Beta/Unlimited. Since the decks are so small, even with the singleton deck construction limit, it turns into running most of the most obvious cards for each color/slot with a few surprises.

The goal was to have something "ready to play" and simple enough for quick games. After putting these together, the better approach might be a mini-Battle Box designed for 2 players using OS cards. There's a great example of this using Revised cards at MTGBattleBox. We have a Battle Box using bulk cards that is a crowd favorite, so an OS Battle Box could be a good entry point for the OS format. The best part about Battle Box is that card combinations you wouldn't otherwise see come up all the time. It's a way to get surprising mileage out of the cards you've been playing for 25+ years.

Red

Blue

Black