Gathers' Tavern's new DOMARU Regular Fit card sleeves are out now, but they are not as durable compared to Dragonshield and Ultimate Guard's Katana sleeves.
With the ever-increasing popularity of trading card games, the team at GosuGamers recently received a completely new brand of DOMARU card sleeves squarely aimed at protecting your favourite Magic: The Gathering or Pokémon cards.
These brand new DOMARU Regular Fit card sleeves are newcomers to what is arguably a saturated market of card sleeves, and they are made by the Singapore-based brand Gatherers’ Tavern.
In this article, the team at GosuGamers will do a simple review (read: test) of these new DOMARU card sleeves, and most importantly, put them up against some of the industry’s standards (i.e. Dragon Shield and Ultimate Guard’s Katana sleeves).
First Impression
The new DOMARU Regular Fit card sleeves come in a pack of 100, similar to other brands out there. The sleeves are all in the familiar Standard size, so players who dab in Magic: The Gathering, Pokémon TCG, or One Piece Card Game, will be able to sleeve their decks with these DOMARU sleeves.
Each of these sleeves have a textured coloured back, while featuring a clear (and glossy) front with a black interior. This is quite similar to Dragon Shield’s own Matte Dual sleeves, and the texture of the DOMARU card sleeves feel the most similar to Dragon Shield’s sleeves.
Water Test
We start the testing of DOMARU card sleeves with a plain old regular water test: can a card protected by DOMARU card sleeves survive dropping into a bowl of water for a short period of time?
We are testing how tight the seals of the DOMARU card sleeves are, but for the test to work as intended, the card has to be double sleeved. In other words, we will have to first insert the card into an inner sleeve, before putting the card into a DOMARU card sleeve or the card will just get wet, period.
Now, DOMARU actually do have their own inner sleeves, but since they did not send any over for review, we will just use our own KMC Perfect Fit inner sleeves. The card will also only be submerged in water for about 10 seconds to simulate an accident, because any longer and the card is bound to get some water damage.
Most card sleeves worth their salt will have to pass this test, and we are glad to report that the DOMARU card sleeves work as intended: the seals are good enough to temporarily protect your cards if they are accidentally dropped into water.
P.S. always remember to at least double sleeve your favourite or most valuable cards!
Shuffle Test
Next, we sleeved up 40 cards in DOMARU card sleeves to simulate a small deck, similar to what a player will experience if they played Sealed in Magic: The Gathering.
The aim of this test is to figure out if the DOMARU card sleeves can shuffle well together directly out of the box, and most importantly: is the shuffling experience smooth?
The sleeves to beat are the Katana sleeves because they, in our opinion, offer the most buttery experience when it comes to shuffling a deck of cards. The DOMARU card sleeves do not feel as smooth as the Katana. However, they actually feel very similar to Dragon Shield card sleeves; they are not the most buttery shuffling experience but they still shuffle well enough.
The Torture Test
Last, we subjected the DOMARU card sleeves to a rip test, while also attempting to rip apart Dragon Shield Matte (Blood Red) and Ultimate Guard's Katana (Red) card sleeves too in a direct comparison test.
This is to test the durability of the card sleeves, and how much torture they can take before the sleeves split apart. Some of the best indicators of the quality of a card sleeve is the strength of the bond between the sleeve back and the clear front, and card sleeves that usually are of a poorer quality tend to split apart a lot more easily.
Unfortunately, this is the test where the DOMARU card sleeves do not shine. The DOMARU sleeve was ripped apart quite easily, and surprisingly enough, the Dragon Shield sleeve also fared similarly (i.e. they were ripped apart almost as easily).
The Katana sleeve was the only one to survive the rip test, and it was impossible to rip them apart. With their proven durability and their buttery smooth shuffling experience, the Katana card sleeves are probably the golden standard now.
Now, this test is extreme, and it is unlikely a card sleeve will ever undergo such a scenario in real life, but this still does not look too good for the DOMARU card sleeves.
Final Verdict
At US$12 for the DOMARU Regular Fit on the Gatherers’ Tavern online shopfront, these card sleeves are at a price point that is very similar to Dragon Shield (i.e. the basic matte and matte duals) and Katana card sleeves which range from US$12-15.
This unfortunately means that the DOMARU Regular Fit card sleeves face stiff competition internationally, but Gatherers' Tavern has mentioned to us that these sleeves will be priced at SGD12 in Singapore. This makes the DOMARU sleeves a much more interesting prospect in Singapore, where the average prices of Dragon Shield and Katana are more expensive than SGD12.
However, it does not help that after we unsleeved the 40 card deck, we found a sleeve that was already splitting at its seams just after a few shuffles. This could either be teething problems for a new product in the market, or perhaps it was just the batch of products we have received on our end, but it is a little difficult to recommend the DOMARU card sleeves right now.
The Katana are now the sleeves to beat, but if you want a Dragon Shield alternative and you do not mind the potential quality issues with the DOMARU sleeves, feel free to try them out; just do not expect the DOMARU card sleeves to be like a Katana.
