Trading Card Games like Magic: The Gathering and Disney Lorcana are about collecting, playing, and expressing yourself through the cards you play. Another way to hit on that last point is through accessories, some of which will even have utility while looking great! This article will hit on what I see as the "essential" accessories for my TCG decks and collections. You can check out all the supplies CoolStuffInc has to offer here, or keep an eye out for specific products listed in the article.

Tokens

Magic: The Gathering especially will have cards that summon "token" variants of different creatures or resources, so how do you represent these game pieces? Wizards of the Coast offers token cards that cover a wide range of creatures, treasure, and more. You can find a version of a token you need in an art style you want straight from the source, or look for custom tokens from Magic: The Gathering alterists found on the wide world of the internet.

Tokens are a great way to stylize your deck to match the theme or art style of the major cards. For my Ovika, Enigma Goliath deck, I made sure that all the tokens were Phyrexian themed, even down to the elemental tokens for my Young Pyromancer. These usually end up being more costly as you pay artists for their time and can be found on Etsy or through their websites. When starting out with tokens, I recommend the 20 Assorted Magic the Gathering Token Pack to get a standard set of cards to work with.

Dice

The shiny click-clacks that TTRPG players envy are also useful to represent values in TCGs. You may have a hoard yourself and can put those dice to good use representing the various counters presented in Magic: The Gathering such as +1/+1, flying, and shield counters. Picking dice could have its own entire article, but I recommend for beginners grabbing a 12mm d6 Dice Block in the color of your choice!

Along with representing counters, dice are often used for Life Counters in MTG. The dice used for Life Counters are usually spin-downs, where the d20 (twenty-sided die) is labeled such that it starts at 1 and the connected sides count up to 20. Spin-downs are great for Standard or Modern formats where you start at 20 life, but for those of us that dabble in Commander with 40 life, we might want two spin-downs or pick up a dial-based life counter like Gamegenic's Double Dial Life Counter. You'll want a clear way to represent your life total and Commander damage, so I tend to stick to a dial for my life counter and use spin-downs whenever I need to represent Commander damage or Poison counters.

Sleeves

Dice and tokens tend to represent other game mechanics, but what about protecting your cards? Card sleeves provide protection from scratches and spills and come in an array of colors and styles. The first major difference you'll see is Standard vs. Japanese sleeves. Standard sleeves fit most TCGs, but may leave extra wiggle room for cards originating from Japan such as Yu-Gi-Oh! or Pokemon TCG. In those cases, we label them as Japanese sleeves to denote they won't fit Magic: The Gathering or Disney Lorcana cards. Matte vs. Gloss is the next thing players look at when considering sleeves. Gloss has a shinier effect on the cards, which can be fine for most players, but Matte is a flat color that shows up better on camera for games on Spelltable. Since I like the readability of a card on camera, I tend to stick to Matte sleeves.

The other major distinction to sleeves is their sizing. Most people just single-sleeve their deck using standard sleeves and leave it at that, but you can also get inner sleeves, some of which are sealable, and double the protection on your cards. You can go even further with outer sleeves, but I personally just double sleeve my expensive decks and single sleeve the rest. If you want to see it go to the extreme, you could check out this video from DMArmada. My personal recommendation is Dragon Shield sleeves for plenty of options and even a custom order process on their website.

Deck Boxes and Other Storage

We are protecting the cards, but what about the sleeves themselves? Well, for protection and carrying

purposes, a must-have accessory is a deck box of some kind. When I was a tween playing Yu-Gi-Oh!, it was a Zip-Lock bag or rubber bands, but now we have much better options. When choosing a deck box, you can look at color or specific art, including art of your favorite Commander or Planeswalkers from Magic: The Gathering. Keep in mind most deck boxes show card counts for double-sleeved decks, so cases like the Ultra Pro Alcove Edge boxes hold 100 double-sleeved cards or about 130 single-sleeved cards.

There are plenty of options for overall storage between bulk boxes, multi-deck deck boxes, binders, and more. Explore the options on CoolStuffInc and find the storage that works best for you! I usually keep my decks in different boxes and then have cardboard boxes for my bulk along with a binder for trades or more expensive cards.

Playmats

The final accessory I want to touch on is playmats. Playmats come in a wide range of colors and sizes, along with custom designs from artists who do official Magic: The Gathering art or alterists selling playmats on their personal stores. For new players, you can even get a mat that includes card zones to learn where to place your cards! I love getting different mats to represent my playstyle or theme for various decks, and they make great signature holders for cons like MagicCon or CommanderFest. Playmats are also good for keeping your play surface clean and level, avoiding scratching cards on crumbs or nicks in the play surface. You can see CoolStuffInc's full selection here and find the mat that is right for you!