One of Magic: The Gathering’s most popular recurring product lines is preconstructed Commander decks. It is now commonplace for each set release to be accompanied by a few preconstructed decks for players to try. These decks are so common that players notice when they’re missing from the lineup.
While the preconstructed Commander deck formula has been largely successful, there is still room to improve. One of the much-maligned elements of the Commander precon experience is the paper deck boxes provided. While these are more than enough to fit the unsleeved contents of the product, it begins to struggle when players include all of the appropriate pieces of a Commander deck. This leaves players disappointed with what could be a home run with some small changes.
Just a Little Bigger
The paper deck boxes included in the Commander preconstructed decks are tragically underused. Don’t get us wrong; the deck boxes made with more substantial materials will offer your cards more protection. For storage, however, the paper deck boxes are so close to being perfect. Considering that these boxes intend to store your Commander precon, they really should be able to hold what is considered commonplace for Commander decks nowadays, and they almost do.
Almost everyone sleeves their MTG cards nowadays. Unlike 30 years ago, we know how valuable our cards are now, so protecting them makes sense. This means that fully Commander decks, preconstructed or not, will almost always be sleeved. Aside from protecting your cards, it also makes them much easier to shuffle.
With this expectation established, it makes sense that players would expect the paper deck boxes to hold a sleeved 100-card Commander deck. Technically, these paper boxes do accomplish that, but not without some issues.
While you can stuff a sleeved preconstructed Commander deck into its paper deck box, it is incredibly tight. Not only does this potentially damage the cards, but it makes it difficult to fit any tokens. While I have had multiple personal run-ins with this issue, it has now become a common complaint across the community.
Community Outcry
Reddit user Torchic_armada posted a request that many MTG players agree with: make these paper deck boxes just a little bit bigger.
In Torchic_Armada’s words, they point out that these boxes “were obviously made for sleeved cards, since they are way too big for an unsleeved deck, but it makes them so bloated and it feels they could rip at any moment.” This makes using for this intended purpose problematic at best.
Many players who resonated with this issue suggested letting Wizards of the Coast know on their official feedback page. Since these boxes are so close to being ideal, fixing this issue shouldn’t be too difficult. While the paper boxes may still be precarious for traveling purposes, they would allow players to store their preconstructed Commander decks with more confidence.
Another point made by commenters is that these boxes only fit single-sleeved Commander decks, something I am inclined to agree with from personal experience. On top of that, certain kinds of sleeves seem to fit better than others. One comment suggests that, while Ultra Pro sleeves seem to work ok with these boxes, Dragon Shields are too thick. Of course, this varies by experience. That said, if you want to build a Commander deck you feel should be double-sleeved, you’ll likely want a better deck box for it anyway.
All of this points to the same solution: make these preconstructed deck boxes just a bit bigger. This should allow the deck boxes to house a variety of different sleeves from different providers and should provide better room for additional cards, like tokens.
Delay on Improvement
Sadly, even if feedback about these preconstructed Commander paper deck boxes comes pouring into Wizards of the Coast, it will take some time to implement it. We know that Wizards of the Coast works years ahead of schedule with the contents of Magic set releases. Creating packaging is likely another element decided ahead of time. While the delay may not quite be two years for packaging decisions, it is likely to affect the speed at which the feedback could be implemented.
There’s also a very real chance that these boxes will remain the same. While the box barely fits a sleeved preconstructed Commander deck, it does fit one. This could be good enough in Wizards of the Coast’s opinion, even if players are dissatisfied with it.
Some players believe that improving the paper deck boxes would impact the sales of deck boxes made out of stronger materials negatively. While it could have an impact, these deck boxes would still be popular. Paper deck boxes, at the end of the day, are made out of paper. Players who want to protect their expensive cards will buy stronger boxes to do so.
As someone who has a lot of preconstructed Commander decks, I agree that these paper deck boxes are just a bit too small for their intended purpose. They do fit the sleeved contents of the product, but I commonly have to store tokens in a different location. Otherwise, the box is bursting apart at the seams. The volume of this feedback should, hopefully, help bring awareness of this issue to Wizards of the Coast.
