Accessory Guide

This Disney Lorcana Accessory Guide provides tips and tricks for useful accessories for enjoying your Disney Lorcana experience. All of this is evidently subject to personal preference, but we hope that these pointers will help you with the practicalities of a Trading Card Game like Disney Lorcana.

This guide covers:

• Card sleeves
• Deck boxes
• Play accessories
• Storing your collection of spare cards
• Displaying your collection

Why you should use card sleeves

Card sleeves are plastic … sleeves … in which you put your cards to protect them from wear and tear. But why should you use card sleeves for a trading card game like Disney Lorcana and not necessarily for regular card games like poker or bridge or action cards in board games like Monopoly? We see two main reasons for it. The first is the number of times you will shuffle your Disney Lorcana deck. The second reason is the blunt fact that Disney Lorcana cards are worth something – they’re “trading” cards after all. In regular card games, the ace of spades is as expensive as the joker card that is rarely used. And go have a look at your deck of regular cards: it’s likely obvious it’s been used several times. There’s a reason why casinos switch card decks after x times. In Disney Lorcana, you’ll be playing cards you want to keep in good/near mint condition because replacing them isn’t easy and will cost quite a dime. Especially if you like playing with Enchanted cards! Even if you’re a careful and gentle soul, we can guarantee your cards will have to withstand regular shuffling and the edges will take hits which may cause tearing, splitting, bending, crumpling, etc. During play, you’ll also smack them down while you chant Be Prepaaaared (impact), you’ll exert them (friction), you’ll spill a drink, sneeze, sweat and all other imaginable things that you swear you’ll watch out for. Even if it’s not you, there’s always that one friend… you know who I’m talking about... Sleeves also protect cards from dust and a bit against sunlight damage by the way.

In addition to protecting your cards, card sleeves will make it much easier to shuffle your deck. I’m terrible at shuffling a regular card decks (I’m afraid of bending the cards), but I can manage ok with a sleeved deck.

One thing to keep in mind: all cards in your deck must use the same type of card sleeve, because all cards must look the same face-down in your deck, in your hand and in your inkwell. Therefore, don’t put your Ruby cards in a red sleeve and your Sapphire cards in a blue sleeve. Pick one color per deck. Period.

Cards in your collection (not in a deck) shouldn’t be in sleeves, EXCEPT if the card is expensive or highly sought-after. That is just to ensure that they don’t get damaged in storage, while you move them or browse through your cards. You may want to use a different type of sleeve though. More on that below.

Card sleeve types

When you visit your local game store, you’ll be confronted with a wall of card sleeves of various types. Some pointers:

• “Standard” sleeves are the go-to for protecting cards in your deck. One single card fits tight (doesn’t fall out) and it protects them as explained above. They come in a variety of colors and designs. Disney Lorcana uses the same size as most Trading Card Games, so you can pick as you please. They come at a price, so we don’t recommend them for cards in storage.
  • One watch-out: don’t buy Japanese or Japanese-sized sleeves. They are too small for Disney Lorcana cards. Stick to Standard size.
  • Some brands sell their card sleeves in boxes that can be used as a deck box. They are usually made of simple cardboard and are ok for keeping casual decks, like starter decks. A (competitive) deck with expensive cards should go into a sturdier deck box (see below).
  • Standard card sleeves are usually sold in packages of 50 or 100. As our decks contain at least 60 cards, you’ll have many spare sleeves. Occasionally you’ll need to replace a ripped card sleeve, but keeping 40 as spares is way too much. The sleeves in standard colors without a design stay available in the market for a long time, so if needed, you should be able to buy more later on. We see two schools of thought: some players only buy 1 type of card sleeve so they don’t need to worry about spares – the downside is that all their decks look the same. On the positive side, your opponent will have to guess which deck you picked, but on the other hand, it’s not obvious when a card ends up in the wrong deck. The other school of though is to pick a card sleeve design that fits the theme of the deck. Looks cooler, but your opponents may infer what you’re bringing to the table, and you’ll have to handle spare sleeves and likely buy more sleeves.
  • There’s variety in the texture of standard sleeves. Some are smooth while others have a bit of a grain. It really makes a difference, for shuffling, stacking them and just the feel in your hands. Do ask your local game store to have a feel.
  • In official tournaments, players are allowed to use plastic card sleeves on their cards. These must be free of markings and wear. For official event and tournament play, sleeves must allow satisfy the following conditions:
    • They must enclose one single card entirely.
    • All sleeves must be identical.
    • All sleeves must have fully opaque backs.
    • Sleeves that feature suggestive, indecent, and/or offensive imagery or words are strictly prohibited.

• “Outer” sleeves are a variant to inner sleeves but they go “over” standard sleeves instead of in them. You can use them for double-sleeving or even triple-sleeving, but I personally don’t see much use for them. If you want to take this option, do watch out for their size, because standard sleeves have the same inner size, not necessarily the same outer size, especially in the corners.
  • In official tournaments, outer sleeves are allowed, provided that all other rules for sleeves are followed, with the exception of a fully opaque back. Tournament officials are the final arbiters on whether a particular sleeve is allowed.
• “Penny” sleeves are the thinnest sleeves and are NOT meant for playing. They’re really flimsy and don’t fit tightly. Cards in penny sleeves don’t stack nicely as a deck pile. So why do they exist? Well, they’re called penny sleeves because they are really cheap, and they do have a protective card wrapper function. They’re used for non-bulk cards in your collection in storage or when you’re trading (or shipping) not-so-expensive cards. You can fit a few together in one sleeve, so if you have a couple of Dalmatian Puppies for your friend who wants to have 99 of them, put them in a penny sleeve instead of dropping them loosely in your backpack. Always good to have a few with you when cracking packs or meeting friends – ideally expensive cards go directly from booster to sleeve, and you may not have “hard” sleeves at hand.
• “Toploaders” are a category on their own. Toploader is a type of card container solely used for secure storage and display. They come in hard plastic or semi-bendy-plastic. Some can store 1 card, some multiple. Intended for expensive cards you want to protect so they keep their quality grading and value.

A deck box is a box for storing your deck. It’s a mobile container as you’ll take your deck on the go. It’s not a storage box due to its size. The key reason for using a deck box is to protect your box during transport. They’re also convenient at home as you’re sure your deck will stay together and won’t be flicked by your cat/dog/kid/mom/… . Don’t use a rubber elastic band to wrap your deck because that will crumple the cards in your deck, even when it’s sleeved. The box will also protect your cards in your bag, just like a lunch box protects our precious sandwiches from being sandwiched (I know, it’s weird we don’t like our sandwich to be sandwiched…).

Deck boxes also come in great variety. We’ve grouped them by type:

• Cardboard deck boxes usually aren’t sold as deck boxes but are the packaging of other products, and then repurposed as a deck box. A typical example is the box of standard sleeves of certain brands. These deck boxes are fine for casual decks and will last for a decent amount of time. They however don’t protect against big hits or liquids, and they will lose their firmness over time.

• One-deck standard deck boxes are sold as a standalone product, are usually empty (no sleeves inside), and they come in varying quality levels. They come in many designs. The Ravensburger’s Disney Lorcana deck boxes are nice entry level as they are sturdy, in a thin plastic and have a closing mechanism that ensures your cards won’t fall out even when you throw the deck to a friend. The box however doesn’t protect against liquids and the opening mechanism is quite tight so it doesn't open fully without risking you ripping the back of the box. When you’re looking for higher quality alternatives (with a higher price tag), consider the following:
  • The opening mechanism: Does it open fully? Does it close tightly? Does it rely on Velcro that will only last a limited time? Or a durable magnetic closing mechanism?
  • The materials used and how it protects against hits and crushing: cardboard – thin plastic – hard plastic – metal - …
  • The protection against liquids: are there (tiny) openings in the corners? Does the top close tightly or does the top clasp over the bottom?
  • Is there additional storage space for play accessories?

We’ve called this type “standard deck box”, for a standard 60 card deck. Make sure to pick a deck box that can fit all the cards in your deck sleeved! “80 card” deck boxes (like Ravensburger’s) are perfect for 60 sleeved cards, with some room to spare for extra cards or flat play accessories (like the punch-out counters from the starter decks). Deck boxes built for 100 sleeved cards are usually for Magic the Gathering commander decks and will be too big for a 60 card deck. You can use them, but they’ll take more space than needed.

• Multi-deck (standard) boxes are similar to the one-deck boxes. The main difference is that they’re bigger and can hold 2-3-4 decks, usually with built-in separators. Some are big enough to fit your one-deck standard deck boxes. Great to keep decks of similar power level together. They’re usually quite sturdy, but rarely protect against liquids.

Play accessories are objects that you can (not must) use to facilitate playing a game of Disney Lorcana. They come in third place in our article, because we consider that sleeves and deck boxes should get a bit more attention than play accessories, as the official starter decks come with a few entry level play accessories. And… if you have a great memory, you could play without them… but why make things more difficult? The minimum play accessories we recommend bringing are a lore counter and damage counters.

Lore counters

We use a lore counter to keep track of how much lore we have during a game. The starter decks come with a printed lore counter and a cardboard lore tracker, which are fine to get started. However, you’ll likely won’t be using that printout after your first few games. We only use the version of Illumineer’s Quest: Deep Trouble to track Ursula’s boss lore. For our counting our own lore, the usual options are:

• Pen and paper: typically, a paper note pad is used at tournaments as you can track the changes in lore throughout a game.
• A mobile app lore counter like the official Disney Lorcana app.

Damage Counters

We use damage counters to remember how much remaining Willpower a character or location has. The starter decks come with a cardboard damage counters in the form of -1, -3 and -5, and are fine to start with. It’s nice that they’re flat and can be easily added to a deck box. The downside is that looking for the right combination can take some time, like looking for correct change at a cash register.

For keeping track of damage on characters and locations, the usual options are:

Playmats

The many cards of a Trading Card Game like Disney Lorcana provides a brewer’s heaven, but it comes with a challenge: how do you store your cards efficiently and securely? Beginning players tend to start with using shoeboxes or other boxes they have lying around for card storage. The downside is that those boxes usually don’t have the correct size and don’t have dividers to keep rows of cards separated. The Ravensburger product that leans closest to a storage box is the nice box of an Illumineer’s Trove.

They’re beautiful, have the perfect size for Lorcana cards, have good dividers and card separator inserts, and are branded by set so you can use it to store your cards of a particular set. The only downside is that they are rather small (about 800 unsleeved cards) for players who buy one or more booster boxes. They’re an excellent starting point, but when you start collecting seriously, you’ll look for another solution because buying Illumineer’s Troves just for the box doesn’t add up. There are many products on the market in a variety of designs and materials. Usually, the designs come with a price tag, as well as the materials.

Uncolored cardboard mass storage boxes are the best bang for your bucks as they are sturdy and can contain many cards. Their storage size ranges from about 800 and go up to 5000 cards. They come in two variants: card are stored on their long side (sideways) or their short side (upright). Storing sideways should be better for maintaining the quality of the card as their weight is divided over a longer space. Storing upright is however much easier for browsing through your cards. One watch-out: don’t forget about the wait of big boxes. A box of 1600 cards is doable, but you won’t like to move a box of 5000 cards a lot. Generic card storage boxes usually don’t come with card dividers like those that come in Illumineer’s Troves. You’ll have to buy them separately, or use anything else as a card divider, like a marketing or puzzle Lorcana card with a sticky note. Cardboard also doesn’t protect against water damage, but we hope you won’t have water in the room that you use to store your collection.

You may want to display a selection of precious cards in your collection, to brag, to admire them, to trade them, etc. We’ll only discuss your “on the go” needs, as the options for displaying a collection are infinite.

On the go, a TCG binder or card portfolio is the recommended solution. There are branded products on the market with a variety of design, but also generic ones. They usually come in varieties of 4 or 9 card pockets per page for the standard size of Lorcana cards. One watch-out is not to put too many cards in the same pocket. It will stretch the pocket and could cause your cards to fall out. 2 cards (front and back) is fine.

You can buy albums / binders with loose album pages, or you can get an all-in-one product such as Ravensburger's official 9-Pocket Portfolios: