Emily Parker

If you have spent real money on trading cards, you already know that a single sleeve is not enough. I learned this the hard way after a soda splash ruined three foils at a Friday Night Magic event years ago, which is exactly why I started testing the best inner sleeves for double sleeving you … Read more

A deck box is a protective storage case designed to hold sleeved trading card game decks during transport and play, using materials like microfiber lining and magnetic or friction-lock closures. After watching too many friends fish bent Charizards out of crushed cardboard holders at Friday Night Magic, our team spent 90 days testing 14 different … Read more

I learned this lesson the hard way three years ago when I pulled a $180 Tarmogoyf from my Commander deck and noticed a corner crease. The card had bounced around in a flimsy plastic box for months. That single crease cost me real money. Ever since, I’ve been obsessed with finding the best deck boxes … Read more

I tested the best leather deck boxes for six weeks, shuffling through Commander decks at kitchen tables and Friday Night Magic events to find out which ones actually hold up. The short answer: a leather deck box protects your cards, looks great on a shelf, and feels better than plastic when you slam it shut … Read more

Three years ago I owned two Commander decks and a stack of bulk rares. Today my collection has outgrown three shoeboxes, two binders, and a kitchen drawer I was told never to touch. I have tested 14 deck storage boxes since then, watched five of them crack their hinges within six months, and finally landed … Read more

I’ve been playing Magic: The Gathering for over fifteen years, and the single upgrade that changed my kitchen-table sessions the most wasn’t a better deck. It was a real playmat. After testing more than thirty mats at home and at Friday Night Magic, I can tell you that the best playmats for MTG are the … Read more

If you’ve ever watched your favorite holo slide off a flimsy desk surface mid-match, you already know why a quality playmat matters. I’ve spent the last three months testing ten of the best playmats for Pokemon, from officially licensed premium collections to tournament-grade two-player stadiums, and the differences in feel, durability, and card protection are … Read more

If you’ve ever sat down for a Commander game and watched players fumble through piles of cards trying to remember where their library, graveyard, or command zone lives, you already know why I started hunting for the best playmats with zones for Commander. I run a weekly EDH pod at my local game store, and … Read more

I learned the hard way why a quality binder matters. Two years ago, I pulled a stack of vintage holos from a cheap ring binder, and three cards had edge dings from the metal rings. That was the day I started hunting for the best trading card binders instead of grabbing whatever sat on the … Read more

I learned this the hard way after a Charizard from my childhood collection slipped out of a cheap ring binder and got bent beyond saving. That moment pushed our team to test every serious zipper binder for trading cards we could find, and this guide is the result of months of use across Pokemon TCG, … Read more