Can You Double Sleeve Yu-Gi-Oh Cards?

can you double sleeve yugioh cards

For a long while, YuGiOh didn’t allow you to double-sleeve your cards while playing the game in official tournaments. This was supposedly meant to prevent cheating. The rules have now changed a little bit. So, can you double-sleeve your cards in YuGiOh? Let’s take a look.

You can double-sleeve your cards in YuGiOh. However, Yu-Gi-Oh tournaments have rather strict requirements in place on how you can sleeve your cards. This means that you cannot expect to be able to sleeve them as freely as you would be able to in a game like The Pokemon Trading Card Game or Magic the Gathering.

We do want to expand on this a little bit, though. This includes giving you a bit of information on how you can sleeve up your cards while you are playing the game.

Is Double Sleeving Legal in Yu-Gi-Oh

Yes. Although, double sleeving has only recently become legal in the game. In fact, it happened at the tail end of 2020. Up until that point, YuGiOh was pretty much the only trading card game where you were not allowed to double-sleeve your cards. This actually caused a huge number of issues if you had some expensive cards that you wanted to play with.

You do, however, need to bear in mind that there are going to be some pretty strict rules in place when it comes to double-sleeving. These are rules that you may not actually find in other trading card games. We will talk about that in a short while.

Do bear in mind that the double-sleeving rules have only just started to be introduced in the world of YuGiOh. This means that the rules may change on occasion. We suggest that you keep an eye on the official YuGiOh website to see whether there are any major changes to the rules. They will always be posted there. 

Why Was Double Sleeving in Yu-Gi-Oh Illegal?

It is unknown why double sleeving in YuGiOh was illegal. It seems as if double sleeving has always been allowed in Japanese tournaments. It was just never allowed in the North American tournaments. This is somewhat odd because almost every other trading card game actually allowed you to double-sleeve your cards for officially sanctioned tournaments.

It does seem as if YuGiOh tournaments were dealing with a  lot of cheating due to double sleeving. It seems that many people were using various methods to identify their cards once they had been double-sleeved. We are unsure as to how this happened as many other trading card games do not suffer from the same issue.

It is highly likely that some of the issues were related to people using different sleeves to sleeve up their cards. This meant that certain cards could be identified by various markings or even the thickness of the card. Many of the rules regarding the use of double-sleeving in YuGiOh nowadays are there to stop cards from becoming easy to identify when you are using them. 

Is It Worth Double Sleeving Your Cards in Yu-Gi-Oh?

Absolutely.

Double sleeving your YuGiOh cards is going to give them a bit of extra protection. This means that you do not end up with tatty cards while playing the game. This will ruin the value of the game and, because many people simply collect YuGiOh cards, it is also going to ruin the actual collection aspect of the game.

How Do You Double Sleeve a Yu-Gi-Oh Card?

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Because the team at YuGiOh are somewhat cautious about the whole idea of double sleeving your YuGiOh cards, there are a few rules that you will need to abide by:

  • All card sleeves should be exactly the same brand. You should not be able to tell what card is what based upon the sleeves.
  • No card sleeve should obstruct any part of the front of the card.
  • The inner card sleeve must be completely clear.
  • The inner card sleeve should not have any holographic marking on the front e.g. the way in which Ultra-Pro has a slightly raised logo on their cards.
  • The inner card sleeve must be placed around the YuGiOh card in a certain way. We will detail that in a short while. 
  • No sleeve should be marked in any way. They need to be replaced if the card becomes identifiable.

For the main card sleeve, you will need to purchase perfect fit sleeves designed for YuGiOh cards. These will have to be placed over the top of the card.

The second sleeve can be any sleeve that you want, as long as it conforms to the rules above. Your trading card sleeve will slide into the top of this sleeve. When the cards are sleeved up, the trading card should be completely surrounded by a sleeve i.e. if you turned the main card sleeve upside down, a sleeved card would fall out, not the bare card.

How Often Should You Replace Your YuGiOh Card Sleeves?

It depends on how frequently you are playing the game.

In most cases, you should be fine replacing your YuGiOh card sleeves every couple of months. You will know when they need to be replaced. One of the following will happen:

  • Your cards will become more difficult to shuffle.
  • The card sleeve may become marked. For example, certain colors may start to wear off of the card sleeve. This can make the card identifiable.
  • The card sleeve becomes creased.

The better quality your card sleeves are, the less often you will need to replace them. However, all card sleeves will need to be replaced eventually if they are actively being played with. No company has invented a card sleeve that can be used forever, sadly. 

We recommend using Perfect FIT sleeves by Pro Support if you are looking to double sleeve your Yu-Gi-Oh cards. Click our link here to check the current price on Amazon.

Final Thoughts

YuGiOh has recently allowed you to start playing with double-sleeved cards in their official tournaments.

YuGiOh is a lot harsher when it comes to how cards are sleeved up for their events. This means that you will need to pay attention to the latest rules to ensure that your cards conform to them.

If your cards break the YuGiOh rules, you will not be allowed to play with your deck in the tournament. 

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